you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." our top stories. oscar pistorius gets five years in prison for killing his girlfriend. the paralympic athlete could serve as little as ten months behind bars. his victim's family say it's the right sentence. >> he could be out after just a year or so. >> doesn't matter, he's going to pay something. >> do you think justice has been served? >> yes. >> reporter: i'm karin giannone live in pretoria. what will conditions be like for

oscar pistorius as he spends his first night in jail? also ahead, how cells from paralyzed man's nose helped him to walk again. it's pioneering surgery the bbc had exclusive access. we'll show it to you. also in the program, aaron is here. and he's looking at the tragic death of the captain of industry. >> christoph dimajri, last night he was killed in a plane crash at this moscow airport. he was the man credited for turning total into the world's third largest oil company. we're going to go live to moscow to find out about this huge loss to industry and about total's total focus. hello, it's 1:00 in pretoria, where oscar pistorius has been sentenced to five years

in prison for killing his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. let's go live to the courtroom in pretoria where the drama unfolded and my colleague karin giannone. >> reporter: after seven and a half months of this trial, 49 days of legal proceedings, we have it. the verdict and the fate of oscar pistorius is known, and a short while ago, the athlete left the court in an armored car amid a huge clamor of people and police on his way to prison. pretoria central prison very close to here, just a few minutes drive, where he will spend tonight, his first night behind bars as a convicted killer. paul adams has this report. >> reporter: the final moments of a trial that's gripped the world for the past seven months.

oscar pistorius, already convicted of negligent killing, in court once more to learn his fate. >> count one, culpable homicide. the sentence imposed is the maximum imprisonment of five years. >> reporter: and then with reeva steenkamp's parents listening intently, the second charge, unlawfully firing a gun in a restaurant. >> the sentence imposes three years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years. >> reporter: oscar pistorius and reeva steenkamp were a high-profile couple, but he shot her on valentine's day last year. in his trial, he said he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder, shooting her through a toilet door. as he arrived at court in pretoria, he knew the judge faced competing claims. the prosecution arguing for a tough sentence. the defense saying he's full of remorse and shouldn't go to jail. in her lengthy preamble, judge

masipa seemed to acknowledge that not everyone would be satisfied. >> society cannot always get what they want. as courts do not exist to win popularity contests, but exist solely to dispense justice. >> reporter: as the courted a journd, legal experts said oscar pistorius may be eligible for house arrest in just six months, but his victim's parents seem satisfied. >> do you think justice has been served? >> yes. >> reporter: acceptance too from the pistorius family, albeit with a note of defiance. >> one of the most distressed parts for me of this whole trial, was how the truth became totally irrelevant with the state's attempt to make the premeditated murder stick.

the court has now handed down judgment and sentence, and we accept the judgment. >> reporter: and so oscar pistorius left court to a mixture of jeers and cheers. this dramatic trial is over, leaving debate, unanswered questions and a tragedy in its wake. paul adams, bbc news. >> reporter: although the trial is over, one of those unanswered questions is whether the state, the prosecution is going to appeal the conviction itself. you remember they were pursuing premeditated murder charge for the killing of reeva steenkamp. they did not succeed in securing that. oscar pistorius was convicted of the lesser charge of culpable homicide. but they've been revealing their plans, and in the last few hours, i've been speaking to the spokesman for the national prosecuting authority. >> we believe that as npa, we have done all we could to get to

where we are. but of course, we are already stated before that we were not entirely satisfied with the outcome of the case in as far as the judgment is concerned. it was not what we had set out to achieve for that purpose. so now that the sentence has been delivered, we are going to have to go and study the judgment, study the part of the sentence that was imposed today, but also go and study the case load that is relevant to see if it would support us in the event that we take the matter forward. >> reporter: well, with me is one of south africa's leading experts in sentencing of the university of south africa. professor, you were actually quoted several times in this trial, including today, the judge used one of your quotes from your book as an example to say there was no perfect sentence that many could actually be appropriate in a judgment. just how do you view what's

happened today? >> well, i thought that the judge had quite a balanced judgment. there are very few things that one can say that she left out of her judgment. she considered just about everything. she considered the seriousness of the crime. she had a good look at the personal circumstances of the offender. and she considered the interests of society. distinguishing what the views of society would be and the interests of society. so really, in the end, as a judgment on sentencing, there is very little to criticize about her judgment, and therefore one has to conclude that her outcome, the outcome of her sentence is, you know, is a really considered one. >> reporter: how is it that a judge hands down a five-year sentence, and in reality, only 1/6 of that sentence could actually be served? >> the reality is that the judge knew full well that if she imposes imprisonment in terms of

that particular section of the criminal procedure act, that is the outcome. or the likely or possible outcome of that sentence. so that was her choice. she could have selected just an ordinary sentence of five years imprisonment, which would then have resulted in at least two and a half years in terms of our current correctional services act having to be served, but she served this mitigated form of imprisonment to ensure also that he will still be under correctional supervision for the rest of the five years after release. >> reporter: that's house arrest, effectively? >> that is house arrest and any other conditions, like there could be community service, all of that could be part of that sentence. it's unlikely only to be house arrest. >> do stay with us, we'll come back to more of those aspects in a second. all last week during the sentencing hearing, the issue of the suitability of south african prisons to accommodate a person with disabilities like oscar pistorius has been the main

argument. we heard from one witness who categorically said that they were not equipped. another witness, the head of the acting head of the prison service argued they were, and that was the version that judge masipa chose to believe. but my colleague has been speaking to a paraplegic former prisoner, about his experience in prison and the conditions that he encountered. >> my name is ronny. the higher, the less mobility. i'm better off because i can use my upper body. i was in a cell where there were 87 to 92 inmates, using one toilet, one bath.

and the conditions in the cell were not conducive to my disability. i got sick. there was no movement. in a cell where there are 87, the best way for me to be there is to be on my bed and sleep. it's torture when you ask for something you don't get. when you ask for a tablet. told that they are finished. it's torture. i have the right to medical attention, according to the constitution. i have the right to accommodation. i have the right to food. i find that there's nothing you can do, because of the overcrowding, we cannot manage

to enforce law. >> you spoke about rape and sodomy within the cells that were overcrowded. did you witness any of that? >> a lot. a lot. even those that stay there as wives. you have to experience the kind of husband and wife that they do here. i don't know. >> that's ronnie talking about the conditions he faced as a disabled prisoner. with me still, professor of law, and how does what we hear there from that prisoner, very negative experience, with what we've heard from the boss of the

prisons on the stand last week in court, which was pretty rosy? >> indeed. if there was one point of criticism against judge masipa's judgment, i thought that she too easily accepted his evidence in aggravation of sentence, because the picture he painted was i think a little rosy about conditions in south african prisons. we are obviously not a first world country. there is not that much money spent on our prisons as they would be in a typically first world country. and therefore, obviously he has a vested interest in painting that rosy picture. obviously he's the boss of that entity. but yeah, we also hear stories like this, which is also part of the truth. and there's ongoing litigation by various people against the department of correctional services, and that might have improved in recent years. but it's still not as rosy as he

said. >> reporter: we've just learned that oscar pistorius has in fact now arrived at the place he will be spending at least the next ten months at, pretoria central prison. can you tell us what the procedure is now? what sort of controls will there be? how many people will be overseeing him? and where does it go from here? >> well, there are various procedures, which are prescribed both in the legislation and in the orders of the department. he has to go through a sentencing plan very shortly. they will be assessing him. he will be held in a fairly controlled circumstances. but he will still have much more contact with other prisoners than he would have with any prison officials. it's just the numbers tell you that. exactly what will happen, that is determined by the management of the prison and one can't really speculate about that. >> reporter: okay, thank you very much for giving us your perspective on all the aspects

that we're looking at today as we learn that oscar pistorius for at least the next ten months will be inside pretoria central prison as a convicted killer on a five-year sentence, far short of the ten years that the state had been calling for. but still, far higher than the defense's view that he shouldn't receive a custodial sentence, but he should be under house arrest with community service only. so somewhat in the middle, judge masipa has chosen to rule. but for now, from pretoria, it's back to you in london. >> thanks, karin. more from you later. and also later in the program, we'll be looking at oscar pistorius's sporting career and how his glittering reputation on the track has been affected by this trial. so stay with us on "bbc world news" for that and more on today's sentencing and reaction by legal experts and our reporters in pretoria. you can get more on that also by

going to our website, bbc.com/news. let me bring you some of the other day's news now. authorities and pro-democracy leaders in hong kong are meeting for talks and ending weeks of protests there. the authorities say they're listening to the demonstrators, that their goals must be achieved by reasonable and lawful means. the student leaders want hong kong to be able to hold fully free elections. the former australian prime minister whitlam has died. he was credited with recognizing aboriginal land rights, but he was sacked after three years. the current prime minister tony abbott has described him as a giant of his time. a canadian soldier who was hit by a man in a car has died of his injuries. he was one of two soldiers to be struck by a driver in a city near montreal. the suspect has been satisfied in local media as a 25-year-old. he was later shot dead by officers after a car chase and the canadian government now says

he had become radicalized. stay with us here on "bbc world news." still plenty more to come, including this. how do you build an ebola treatment center? we'll find out from someone who's just returned from doing exactly that in sierra leone. give you 37-thousand to replace it. "depreciation" they claim. "how can my car depreciate before it's first oil change?" you ask. maybe the better question is, why do you have that insurance company? with liberty mutual new car replacement, we'll replace the full value of your car. see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.

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hello. thanks for joining us. this is "gmt" on "bbc world news." now, let's bring you more on the fight against ebola in west africa. vital supplies are finally beginning to arrive into the countries worst hit by the virus. the outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people, most in guinea, liberia, and sierra leone. along with supplies and expertise, one of the things most needed are ebola treatment centers, where patients can get adequate care and avoid infecting others.

with me in the studio, andy has just returned from sierra leone where he has been helping to build new ebola treatment centers. great to see you. thanks so much for coming in. first of all, you've just returned. how is it going on there? >> well, honestly, it's a virus raging out of control. as you said, there's 10,000 cases across the region. 5,000 deaths. as quickly as we're putting in treatment centers, and other steps to try and contain the virus. we need much more international investment. much more direct support to the organizations trying to deal with this on the ground. and if we don't get to grips with it in the next couple of months, we're facing a huge global public health issue. >> i want to talk to you more later on about the international response, but i want to talk specifically and learn from you about how you go about building an ebola treatment center. we have a graphic that we can show audiences that sort of shows the different areas. it's not as simple as putting up a tent. you've got to be very, very specific about the parts of the treatment center that different

people in different stages of the disease, or suspected of having it, will go. so just talk us through some of the different parts of the treatment center. >> you can see the entirety of the treatment center. the key issue as patients arrive, they get screened and then separated between those that we suspect are infected and those that may not be infected. and it's a very carefully planned through-put through the facility so that both staff and patients remain safe. >> so you have the low probability ward, then the kind of medium area where people are kind of suspected of being ill, and then you have the kind of red zone where they have ebola. what about people who present, who come to the treatment center already symptomatic and already have ebola? they must go in a separate entrance? >> they get initially screened. if someone is referred as a suspected case, either because they've been in close proximity to someone that has been

infected, or they've had a laboratory test, and we can give them a laboratory test at the facility to determine with certainty whether they have ebola or not. the cases that are proven and definite go into a separate part of the unit, because obviously we don't want them mixing with patients that may only be probable or likely. >> and also, it's really important that the staff there have a separate area where they get their kind of protective gear on and off. they've got to be very, very careful. >> yes. this is a big threat to our staff. so they must receive very specialist training on how to cope with ebola in the treatment units themselves. and they need training specifically on how to take on and take off the personal protective equipment that you're seeing in the graphics there. it's a completely all-encompassing suit made of rubber and there's other protective items like goggles and aprons, with a view to preventing them from having direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people. >> we have some interesting pictures taken by drone of

medical centers in monrovia, i think. in liberia. these are the kind of things that we need many, many more of, that you've been trying to build. we can see those pictures now. they're complicated structures. what do you make of the international response now, the eu yesterday meeting to say they're going to have a more coordinated response. what do you make of that? are you confident of the ability to contain this? >> i think if the international community steps up, if there's less talk and more action, i think if resources are mobilized around the world from the european union and other governments, then we do still have a chance of containing it. but it needs massive investment and it needs it now. the international response has been incredibly slow and it's only now that we're ramping up our capability on the ground. but it's not just about receiving resources. they need to be coordinated very carefully at the local level, and to ensure that we do the most that we can and take the most effective response and the time available. we've got a window probably through to about the end of december to contain this.

if we don't achieve that, it's going to be out of control. >> okay. i know you're heading out there to the region again. we'll thank you for your service and we thank you for coming to speak with us. >> thank you. now, a paralyzed man can walk again after a pioneering therapy which involved transplanting specialist cells from his nose into his damaged spinal cord. fergus welsh has this exclusive report. >> reporter: these remarkable images show derek after a pioneering cell transplant. he'd been paralyzed from the >> translator: when there is nothing, you can't feel almost half of your body. you're very helpless, lost. but when it begins to come back,

it's like starting afresh, as if you were born again. >> we can think of the final cord as a motorway. >> this is a combination of 40 years research by london neuroscientist jeff raisman, and his belief that our sense of smell held the key to reversing paralysis. the olfactory bulbs shown in green transmit odor information to the brain and are the only part of the nervous system where nerve fibers constantly regenerate. surgeons in poland removed one of derek's olfactory bulbs and then injected cells from it around the 8 millimeter gap in derek's spinal cord, with the help that these would provide a pathway to enable the spinal cord to repair itself. >> what we've done is established a principle, that is nerve fibers can grow back and restore function, provided we give them a bridge.

i believe this is the moment when paralysis can be reversed. >> he's saying that i am moving the foot to his side. that's the correct answer. >> reporter: after the transplant, derek has recovered some feeling and sensation below his injury. in his legs, his bladder, and bowel. so what could this mean for other paralyzed patients? everyone is anxious to avoid false hopes. that's why it's crucial that derek's treatment is repeated in other patients in a carefully controlled clinical trial to show definitively whether it can help to reverse paralysis. >> i'm going to stop you arching your back. >> reporter: this spinal injuries expert said although derek's recovery was modest, the findings published in the journal cell transplantation are of compelling scientific

significance. >> fergus walsh reporting on that pioneering surgery. stay with us, if you can. plenty more to come on the sentencing of oscar pistorius. given five years in prison. will probably serve maybe ten months or more. his victim's family said it was the right sentence. thanks very much for watching. (vo) you are a business pro. maestro of project management. baron of the build-out. you need a permit... to be this awesome. and you...rent from national.

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non-hormonal option. brisdelle. welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." ahead in this half-hour, as oscar pistorius starts a five-year sentence for killing his girlfriend, we look back at his glittering athletics career and ask, is it now in ruins? and tributes are paid to fashion designer oscar de la renta. we'll be speaking with a friend of his about what made his clothes so special that u.s. first ladies and hollywood stars were among those who loved to be seen in his glamorous gowns. also in the program, aaron is here. the powerhouse of the world is

slowing again. >> absolutely. china has expanded at its slowest pace in nearly six years, but here is the twist. because markets reacted positively as they prepare for a new round of stimulus from beijing. so gentlemen, we're going to ask whether a slowdown in the world's second biggest economy really is actually good news for global investors. hello. welcome back to "gmt." the south african athlete oscar pistorius has been jailed for five years for killing his girlfriend reeva steenkamp last year. throughout his trial, pistorius maintained that he shot ms. steenkamp by accident, thinking she was an intruder. the judge clearly agreed, but in sentencing, she said she wanted to strike a balance between retributi retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation. the drama has been playing out in the courtroom in pretoria. outside of it, as she has been

for many days, is my colleague karin giannone. i will go live to her now. karin, over to you. >> reporter: thanks very much. over the last seven and a half months of this trial, as you say, we've got used the seeing oscar pistorius, the south african sporting superstar, the defendant. but cast your mind back before, what a shock it was when that news broke that oscar pistorius had shot his girlfriend. he has achieved such great sporting heights, and become such a revered personality in the world of sport and beyond. it was simply incredible news that hit south africa and the world that day. sports writer dan rowan takes a look back at his sporting glory. >> reporter: oscar pistorius did more than win races. he changed the way the world viewed disability. but long before he became extraordinary, ordinary was all he wanted to be.

>> they may call me the blade runner, but i'm just oscar. when i was born with missing calf bones, the parents made the very difficult decision of getting my legs amputated. but today i can look back and say that they definitely made the right decision. >> destined to be one of the great paralympic athletes of all time. >> reporter: few know pistorius as well as this olympian, his long-term training partner here in pretoria. >> i can't count how many times he hugged me. i can say oscar is a gentleman. he's somebody who will stick to his ways. chasing a dream. a big dream. >> reporter: that dream began when at school, pistorius was given carbon fiber prosthetics and began to run. it was here in pretoria in march 2004 when a teenage pistorius, after just two months of training with blades, showed just how good he was, running the 100 meters in just 11.51

seconds. a new world record. >> oscar pistorius is flying away from all of them! 21.99. my goodness. >> reporter: paralympic golds followed in athens and beijing. by now, pistorius had become a brand. >> they told me that i'd never walk. and a man with no legs can't run. anything else you want to tell me? >> reporter: at london, he became the first amputee to run at the olympics, but by now stories are also emerges of another side to his character. >> a roommate with oscar pistorius told me that he had to move out of their room because oscar had gone hysterical on the phone, was shouting and screaming on the phone. in fact, i heard the story confirmed by so many other athletes who said it was terrible to witness this incredible meltdown. >> reporter: he later said he'd left the room on medical advice before a big race, but there was a growing sense that fame and fortune had gone to his teammate's head. but the man who's become the new

poster boy of paralympic sport told me that pistorius was also capable of surprising generosity. >> in the final in london, he said just before, do you mind if i pray for you? he was a nice person to be there. but it's a crazy situation, but i think in terms of what he did for paralympic sport, i think says in itself he made that breakthrough. >> reporter: pistorius will now be defined by tragic events away from sport. one of sports' biggest falls from grace is complete. >> reporter: for taking a life, is oscar pistorius's own sporting life effectively over? with me, someone who followed oscar pistorius's career right from the beginning, local journalist jean-jacque cornish. you've been involved in every twist of this trial. this is incredible to see how south africa has lost this hero.

and now watch him going in an armored car to a jail as a convicted killer. >> what an icon. affable, self-afacing, triumph of the human spirit. it just seemed that success upon success, triumph on triumph and suddenly this came through. everybody remembers the moment when they heard that this had happened. one of those things, absolutely iconic moment. but very, very quickly, south africans turned against this hero. and i've said many times when he walked into the dock for the first time, he was already guilty in the court of public opinion. and south africans have really, really were gutted by their hero falling so low. the way he wept, the way he vomited, that didn't help at all. but the point is when he was

found not guilty of murder, people still talk about him as a murderer. they were wanting him to go away for a long time. so now when you say what about his athletic career, they'll say what about reeva steenkamp? who's giving a fig about her? it's all about that now. there's bitterness where there was once unbridled love for the man. he was going to retire, according to his manager. he was going to retire in 2017. that's three years hence. he's got at least ten months, close to a year that he will serve in prison. then the house arrest. it's not going to allow him to move around. and with the visa restrictions that will be imposed on him having a prison sentence, he won't be able to move around. but i don't think it's in his heart, in his stomach to get back on the track and train hard. he hasn't been doing it in the

two years since the killing. as a sporting hero, he certainly is finished. what he might do, though, as coach or as a counsel to young athletes and to other disabled athletes, that remains to be seen. he could do himself a power of good in that regard. >> reporter: thank you very much. we heard from the international paralympic committee that oscar pistorius would be banned from competing for five years, further cementing this as being effectively the end of his sporting career. it has been an extraordinary few hours here in pretoria. the end of seven and a half months of not knowing oscar pistorius's fate. but tonight he'll be spending his first night behind bars. >> great to see you there after that dramatic trial. thanks very much. karin giannone in pretoria, south africa. you can get more on the oscar pistorius on "bbc world news," of course, including today's sentencing and reaction by legal experts. also our reporters in pretoria.

just go to our website, bbc.com/news. you can navigate your way through all the links there. now aaron is here. the man with all the business. what have you got for us today? >> starting with a tragic accident. the loss of a captain of industry, many have described him. good to see you, rajesh. christophe de margerie, he died in a plane crash last night. his corporate jet collided with a snowplow and then was engulfed in flames. the three crew members onboard that aircraft also died. the 63-year-old, though, he became head of europe's third largest oil company back in 2007. french president francois hollande has issued a statement commending mr. de margerie's dedication to total, and his independent character. in december, mr. de margerie spoke to the bbc about running

the company and adapting to a changing energy market. have a listen to this. >> the market, which is changing. and the market is changing because the world is changing. and what we are doing is just not adapting ourselves to these changes, but to try to preempt it seems to be a little bit arrogant, but it's not. when you're investing, so huge an amount of money, may be too much. it's what our investors are saying. you cannot do it by just saying i will adapt myself. you need to take a position. it may be wrong, so you need to keep flexibility. need to understand what the energy world is going to be and how the world is changing.

>> sarah, great to have you with us on the program. what more do we know about the plane crash? >> well, the investigation is still under way, of course. but this took place just before midnight here in moscow last night, when mr. de margerie's plane, his private jet, a corporate jet was just about to take off. it collided with a snowplow on the runway the investigation company has said the man driving that snowplow was drunk. he's been detained and is being questioned. they're also saying the air traffic controllers responsible at the time are also being questioned and that they're also having alcohol tests to rule out any responsibility of alcohol where those people are concerned in terms of this crash. i should say that the man, the driver of the snowplow, his family and his lawyer have both said that he doesn't drink, so they're contesting that version of events, but it's certainly

the operating theory at the moment of the investigation committee who have also been looking at the video recordings and audio recordings. they've taken the black box flight recorders and are looking at exactly what is happened. the focus is on the driver of that snowplow, who for some reason was on the runway just as mr. de margerie's plane was taking off. >> many are saying this is a great loss to industry. we photos tall has huge investments in russia and we're hearing the total border are trying to get together as quickly as possible for a board meeting. at a time which is pretty crucial for oil companies, because oil prices are very low at the moment. for total, i guess it's about finding, well, the next person to step in. >> it is. and this is a huge gap to cover. christophe de margerie had worked his way up for over 40

years. his entire career was with this company. he was the ceo. he was also the chairman. and as you say this is a difficult time for oil companies with the price being so low now. of course, here in russia as well, it's important. total is a big investor in russia. and it's involved in several major projects here. it was planning, it is planning to increase its output from here in russia very significantly over the next few years. so again, concerns, of course, going forward about the position, the future of total here in russia itself. >> okay, we're going to leave it there. thanks for the update. we'll talk to you very soon, i'm sure. oh, let's talk about china. china's economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly six years. in the three-month period which ended in september. growth in the world's second largest economy, it cooled to this, to 7.3% year on year. that is the weakest expansion since the global financial crisis, and certainly reinforces the expectations that beijing will -- it will kind of need to roll out more stimulus to

prevent a sharper slowdown. it was, however, slightly better than economists were expecting, and the market reaction, it's been positive, huh? let's find out. joey, great to have you on the program. before we talk about markets, can you explain to viewers watching this all around the world what's leading or causing or driving this slower growth in china? >> probably the primary factor is property slowing down quite dramatically, and that's leading to a fall in transactions and peel spending less money. also there's a switch from china being the massive producer of the world, into being a couple. as factories stop exporting and producing, the gdp is slowing down. so it's concerning particularly in light of the world economy looking like it's slowing down as well. so i think the market's worried about chinese data. >> yeah. it is an interesting picture,

because at the moment, we've got, for example, the u.s. economy that's kind of really betting in, quite solidly, i guess. and you've got the u.s. federal reserve, america's central bank pretty much going to wind that stimulus up. all that cheap money it's been pumping into the system. now is the expectation that beijing will start up the stimulus machine? >> yeah, i think so. i think why the figure beats slightly is they have been doing some sort of direct stimulus. i think because of this weaker number now, they will roll out stimulus. i mean, the chinese economy is certainly less developed than the u.s. economy in terms of banking and lending. so it is going through an evolution. i'm in shanghai next week and i was there four weeks ago. it's certainly a developing economy, but there is transaction going on. but it does need some form of government intervention to free the reins and probably get some form of easier direct foreign investment into china. >> okay, joe, short and sweet, but we'll leave it there. we'll talk to you soon, i'm

sure. joey rundle joining us. lots going on. tweet me, i'll tweet you back. you can get me @bbcaaron. that is it with the business. >> aaron, always a pleasure to see you, my friend. >> god seeing you. stay with us here on "bbc world news." still plenty more to come, including this. kidnapped by rebels, beaten and paraded as traitor on the streets of donetsk. now she's running for ukraine's parliament. we'll meet her. left twix® is extra crisp so it stays crunchy when we apply caramel and chocolate.

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applebee's. where fans know best. hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." these are our top stories. oscar pistorius is sentenced to five years jail for killing his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. the judge said a noncustodial

sentence would send the wrong message to the community. his athletic career may be over after the international paralympic committee said they'll ban pistorius from competing for five years. now let's take you to ukraine, because people there go to the polls this weekend in a key parliamentary election. it's dominated, of course, by the ongoing military conflict in the east. this week our correspondent steve rosenberg will be reporting from across the country. today he's in the east where separatist rebels control some territory. however, the ukrainian army has pushed the rebels out of their former stronghold, and that's where steve's journey began. >> this is the town of sloviansk, which a few months ago was the stronghold of the rebels, and this is the election headquarters of one of the independent candidates here. irina dovgren. irena is from a village 100 kilometers from here. she said when the pro-russian rebels took over there, she was

determined to do what she could to help the ukrainian army. irena is showing me photographs of food and clothes which she helped to collect for ukrainian soldiers. and these are tomatoes which she grew in her own garden. and the cucumbers, too. so in this photo you can see that the soldiers are putting on the uniforms, which irena helps to buy for them. soon after, the militants came to irena's home. she was kidnapped and take on the the city of donetsk.

>> reporter: like these captured ukrainian soldiers paraded through donetsk, irena was made to stand outside with a sign saying she was a ukrainian agent and a child killer. >> reporter: today irena is free and running for parliament, but she's not finding much support in this part of eastern ukraine.

>> an amazing story of bravery and determination there. now one last story for you this half an hour. news reached today that the fashion designer oscar de la renta has died, aged 82. he designed for among others the u.s. first lady jacqueline kennedy in the 1960s and more recently michelle obama as well. george clooney's bride amal also wore his design at their recent wedding in venice. let's go to bristol and speak to plum sykes, a personal friend of oscar de la renta while she was living in new york and working as a contributing editor on fashion for american "vogue" magazine. what was he like, the man behind the legend? >> he was a living legend.

he was extremely charming, always very dapper in the way that he dressed. and of course, he was this incredible fashion designer, but he just had so much style about him in the way that he lived and the way that he talked, and he was a great person with a great spirit. >> he actually really helped also professionally to put u.s. designers on the global map in the 1960s and 1970s, because they'd been living in europe's shadow before that. >> yes, he did. and he actually trained in spain under the famous designer and moved to new york on the advice of a very famous editor then in the '60s, set up his own label in america. so he became, you know, one of the most glamorous american designers, but interestingly, he trained in europe and had this couture spirit, which is what all these chic american ladies absolutely loved about his clothes. >> and talking of chic american ladies, i remember a scene from

the series "sex & the city" where the protagonist carrie is looking at a picture of an oscar de la renta dress and she was talking about art, and she says this is poetry to me. was it? >> yes. i think sarah jessica parker, "sex & the city," wearing all those clothes in the early 2000s, that was when he designed this very distinctive party dress and everyone had to have it and it was absolutely beautiful and whoever wore it looked leak they had the tiniest waist in the world. very, very flattering clothes. >> but do you think he made clothes that women wanted to wear, or that men wanted women to be seen in? >> i think he made clothes that women wanted to wear and men loved to look at their women wearing. so he was one of the few designers that, you know, designed for women as much as for men, because the clothes were so feminine and beautiful,

and they weren't hard-edged or scary or too avant-garde or too challenging. they were easy for people to wear. you didn't have to be a super cool 23-year-old supermodel to actually pull them off. you can be a woman in your 30s or 40s, a first lady, an actress, you could wear them to the oscars, they were fabulous for everyone. >> is that why he was the go-to designer for, you know, first ladies and also recently george clooney's wife amal at their recent wedding in venice? she wore an oscar pistorius outfit as well. >> yes. i think that wearing an oscar de la renta gown either to the oscars or for your wedding almost gives you the pedigree, the stamp of authority. you knew if you were in an oscar de la renta gown, you were never going to look wrong. you were always going to look chic, and you were never, ever going to look tacky or inappropriate. >> okay. that is a perfect place to end it. thank you so much for giving us that tribute to oscar de la

renta. >> thank you. just time to bring you a reminder of our top story on "gmt." the south african athlete oscar pistorius has been sentenced to five years in prison for killing his girlfriend reeva steenkamp. a high profile seven-month-long trial came to its dramatic conclusion a few hours ago. thanks very much for watching. ♪ (man) some things are worth holding onto. they're hugging the tree. (man) that's why we got a subaru. or was it that tree? (man) introducing the all-new subaru outback. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. (receptionist) gunderman group is growing. getting in a groove. growth is gratifying. goal is to grow. gotta get greater growth. i just talked to ups. they got expert advise, special discounts, new technologies.

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