Briefly

SOUTH AFRICA

'Blade Runner' freed after 9 years in prison

Former Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius was released on parole on Friday, nearly 11 years after murdering his girlfriend in a crime that shocked the whole world. Pistorius — dubbed "Blade Runner" for his carbon-fiber prosthetic legs — shot 29-year-old model Reeva Steenkamp dead through a locked bathroom door on Valentine's Day in 2013. Pistorius, now 37, has spent about 8.5 years in jail as well as seven months under home arrest before he was sentenced for murder. A parole board in November decided he could be freed after completing more than half his sentence.

GERMANY

4 patients die after fire breaks out at hospital

Four people died after a fire broke out at a hospital in northern Germany and spread to several patients' rooms, police said on Friday. Police said that three patients died at the scene and a fourth after being taken to another hospital, German news agency dpa reported. It wasn't immediately clear how many people were injured or what caused the fire.

UNITED STATES

Teen kills 6th grader, wounds 5 at Iowa school

A teen armed with a shotgun and a handgun unleashed terror at an Iowa high school on the first day of classes in the new year, authorities said, killing a sixth grader and wounding five others as people hunkered down in classrooms, barricaded offices and fled the barrage of bullets. The suspect, a 17-year-old student at the school in Perry, died of what investigators believe was a self-inflicted gunshot wound, an official said. An administrator, later identified by his alma mater as Perry High School principal Dan Marburger, was among the five wounded on Thursday as students returned from winter break.

Agencies - Xinhua