Nic Bothma / EPA

South African Matt Silver-Vallance floats through the mist across the Atlantic ocean in False Bay between Robben Island and the mainland during his crossing flying beneath a cluster of helium filled party balloons in Cape Town, South Africa, April 6. This is the first Helium Balloon cluster flight in Africa crossing the distance between the former prison Island and the mainland approximately eight kilometers suspended beneath a cluster of 157 party balloons.

Matt Silver-Vallance, 37, took around an hour to float across the Atlantic Ocean from Robben Island, home of the prison where Nelson Mandela was confined, while harnessed to a mass of multi-colored balloons in grey, drizzly conditions with low visibility. It was the first stunt of its kind from the site.

The goal of the 3.7-mile crossing was to raise $1 million to help build a children's hospital named after 94-year-old Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in democratic elections in 1994 after negotiating an end to white racist rule.

Mandela was released from the hospital on Saturday after more than a week of treatment for pneumonia that raised global concern about the health of the 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader.

Related stories:

South Africa's Mandela leaves hospital after pneumonia

Balloonist to fly from old Mandela jail

Mark Wessels / Reuters

South Africa's Matt Silver-Vallance floats above the sea.

Rodger Bosch / AFP - Getty Images

Matt Silver-Vallance reacts after he flew across the sea from Nelson Mandela's apartheid island prison using helium-filled giant party balloons.

Nic Bothma / EPA

Balloons are released into the sky after South African Matt Silver-Vallance completed his crossing.

Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters

Oscar Pistorius awaits the start of court proceedings in the Pretoria Magistrates court on Feb. 19, 2013.

By Rohit Kachroo, Michelle Kosinski and Tracy Connor, NBC News

Prosecutors told a court Tuesday that there was nothing to support Oscar Pistorius’ claim that he thought his girlfriend was an intruder when he fatally shot her through a locked bathroom door at his home in South Africa.

A bail hearing, described as a “little trial” by one expert, was being held to determine whether the double-amputee athlete known as "Blade Runner" should be freed pending trial.

At the start of the hearing, Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair asked Pistorius "are you well?" to which the athlete shrugged and said "I guess." His eyes welled with tears. Read the full story.

Related:

'A space missing inside': Family of Pistorius' partner Reeva Steenkamp hold funeral

Nic Bothma / EPA

A model waits backstage prior to the Bodyspectra body painting event in Cape Town, South Africa, on October 26, 2012.

Nic Bothma / EPA

A general view of the backstage area prior to the Bodyspectra body painting event.

Nic Bothma / EPA

Models mingle at the bar prior to the Bodyspectra body painting event.

Students at Cape Town's City Varsity School of Media and Creative Arts take part in Bodyspectra, South Africa's premier body painting event.

Artists and models prepared for up to fourteen hours before showcasing their creations at a gala show. The event forms the final practical evaluation for motion picture make-up and production design students. The brief is simple: create a human canvas using body paint, prosthetics and props.

-- European Pressphoto Agency

Editor's note: Pictures taken in October but made available to NBC News on November 20.

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AP

Farmers spray water as they try and save around 18,000 empty fruit containers from burning after being set alight by farm workers in Wolseley, South Africa, on Nov. 14. Violent protests by farm workers have erupted in South Africa after weeks of unrest in the country's mining industry. The workers have been protesting their wages, saying they want a minimum wage of $17 a day. Currently, workers make about half that amount a day.

AP

South African Police arrest farm workers after they went on a rampage in Wolseley, South Africa,on Nov. 14.

AP reports -- Down a two-lane road, where slag heaps tower and miners' shack homes crowd against each other, the labor unrest now gripping South Africa first caught fire.

Mining companies here outside of Rustenburg, a city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Johannesburg, saw workers walk off the job and continue to demand higher wages, even after violence during six weeks of strikes and a mass police shooting at one mine killed 46 people. The strikes recently spread to agriculture, South Africa's other major economic engine, as day laborers burned farms and fought with police Wednesday in violence that left at least one person dead and five others injured.

The unrest has shaken South Africa, a nation now free from apartheid-era laws, but not of its legacy of economic disparities between whites and blacks. And though the grip of the strikes appear to have loosened, the damage done to South Africa's anemic economy could last even longer.

Wednesday, their protest turned violent as workers set fire to some farms, overturned a police truck and confronted officers in riot gear in the country's Western Cape. The police fired tear gas to drive away protesters, as the sounds of gunshots could be heard in local television footage.

One man was killed in the violence "as a result of police action," police Lt. Col. Andre Traut told the South African Press Association. At least five other people were injured.

Read the full story.

Rodger Bosch / AFP - Getty Images

Members of the South African Police Services run after some people, during a farmworkers strike, on Nov. 14, in Wolesley, about north of Cape Town, South Africa. South African police on Wednesday said one person was killed and five others injured as protests by farm workers demanding higher pay descended into violence, prompting calls for the military to be deployed. A week-long protest by farm workers spilled over into bloodshed with chilling echoes of recent mining unrest that has claimed more than 50 lives. "We can confirm the death of a 28-year-old man in Wolseley and five others wounded," Lybey Swartz of the Western Cape police told AFP.

AP

The remainder of 18,000 empty fruit containers after they were set alight by farm workers in Wolseley, South Africa, on Nov. 14.

AP

A South African Police truck that was overturned by farm workers after they went on a rampage in Wolseley, South Africa, on Nov. 14.

Rodger Bosch / AFP - Getty Images

Fruit bins burn at a packing store on Nov. 14, in Wolesley, South Africa. The fire, which burnt more than 15,000 wooden bins is thought to be connected to the farm workers strike.

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Nic Bothma / EPA

Kagiso Plaaitjie, 12, one of six friends sharing a single skateboard, poses for a photograph with the shared board in Kimberley, South Africa.

Nic Bothma / EPA

A crowd of mostly local spectators watch Paul Ronchetti from Great Britain competing on the mega ramp during the 2012 Skateboarding World Championships Maloof Money Cup.

As the full moon sets over the vast dry plains of South Africa's Northern Cape, the world's best skateboarders depart having competed in their sport's world championships and a group of local kids prepare to take their place on a gleaming new skate park. 

The glamorous Maloof Money Cup was held this year in the town of Kimberley, best known as the location of several diamond mines but also home to impoverished communities who share little in the wealth the mines create.

The Maloof Skateboarding Global Initiative says it aims to inspire a new generation of skateboarders and provide youths in places like Kimberley with a positive activity that keeps them out of trouble.

-- Nic Bothma, European Pressphoto Agency

Editor's note: These images were taken in September 2012 but made available to NBC News today.

Nic Bothma / EPA

A boy looks towards the crowds in the purpose-built Maloof Skate Plaza during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Skateboarding World Championships.

Nic Bothma / EPA

Six friends sharing one skateboard: (L-R) Gladwin Louw, Tsepho Tsea, Tsepho Deolo, Katlego Deolo, Letego Mothelesi and Kagiso Plaaitjie.

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Schalk Van Zuydam / AP

Tourists Alexandre Casias, center back, and Emilie Vachon, not in photo, from Montreal in Canada, have their car raided by Baboons, at Millers Point on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Oct 24.

Two baboons raided a car belonging to two Canadian tourists at Millers Point on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press. Monitors with paintball guns track baboon troops to keep them from getting into trouble, but that does not always keep them from mischief.

Schalk Van Zuydam / AP

Baboons raid a car belonging to tourists Alexandre Casias, partially seen in background, and Emilie Vachon, right, from Montreal in Canada at Millers Point on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 24.

Schalk Van Zuydam / AP

A close up of a baboon with a tracking collar at Millers Point on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, Oct 24. Baboon monitors armed with Paintball Guns attempt to prevent baboons raiding cars, houses, dust bin's. The baboon monitors spend their days following baboon troops across the cape peninsula to ensure they do not misbehave.

Related content:

• Oil-soaked penguins rescued in South Africa
• Offerings made to elephant killed by train in India
• Moviegoers (and their pets) flock to Internet cat video film festival

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Schalk van Zuydam / AP

A police officer reacts as flames and smoke emerge from a truck after it was set alight by striking truck drivers, on a slipway off a main highway leading out of the city of Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 3. South African truck workers have been on strike for the past two week with sporadic violence reported.

Schalk van Zuydam / AP

A car drives by a truck on fire on a slipway off a main highway leading out of the city of Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 3.

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