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Tension is growing in South Africa after the killing of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, with President Jacob Zuma calling for national unity.

Mr Zuma called on political leaders to think before making public statements.

The remnants of Mr Terreblanche’s AWB party said the killing was a "declaration of war" and vowed revenge.

It blames Julius Malema, head of the ruling ANC’s Youth League, for inflammatory actions, including singing a song about killing white farmers.

Mr Terreblanche, 69, was attacked on Saturday evening at home on his farm near the town of Ventersdorp, North West province.

‘Sad moments’

Mr Zuma knows that such a prominent killing could rapidly trigger racial violence, if not handled sensitively, says the BBC’s Karen Allen in Johannesburg.

He was quick to condemn the attack amid criticism that he had failed to rein in the ANC Youth League.

The president went on television on Sunday to condemn what he said was a "cowardly" murder.

He said he had spoken to Mr Terreblanche’s daughter and hoped to speak to the leader’s wife in order to convey his condolences.

"This is one of the sad moments for our country that a leader of his standing should be murdered," said Mr Zuma.

He said South Africans must not let anyone take advantage of the "terrible deed" by inciting racial hatred.

The AWB (Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, or Afrikaner Resistance Movement) echoed Mr Zuma’s call for calm as relatives and friends of Mr Terreblanche gathered near his home to pay their respects on Sunday.

But the far-right movement’s secretary general, Andre Visagie, said Mr Terreblanche’s killing had political overtones.

"The next step for the AWB will be to bury their leader in peace, but thereafter we shall avenge the death of our leader," he said.

"Of course we do blame Julius Malema," Mr Visagie told the BBC.

"The death of Mr Terreblanche is a declaration of war by the black community of South Africa to the white community that has been killed for 10 years on end."

He said there was "fierce anger" among AWB members. "They all call for revenge for Eugene Terreblanche’s death," he said.

He said some some members advocated violent retribution, but he encouraged them to wait until actions could be co-ordinated "right across the country".

More than 3,000 white farmers are estimated to have been murdered since the end of apartheid in 1994.

A committee of inquiry found in 2003 only 2% of farm attacks had a political or racial motive, although critics said this figure was far too low.

Last week, South Africa’s High Court banned Mr Malema from singing the racially charged apartheid-era song with the words "kill the Boer". It ruled the song was hate speech, although the ANC is appealing.

Boer is Afrikaans for a farmer, but is sometimes used as a disparaging term for any white in South Africa.

Mr Malema denied responsibility during his official visit to Zimbabwe.

"The ANC will respond to that issue. On a personal capacity, I’m not going to respond to what people are saying. I’m in Zimbabwe now, I’m not linked to this."

South Africa is a nation still nursing racial wounds from the past, our correspondent says, and in some quarters there is nervousness about the future.

Ventersdorp has already seen some heated racial exchanges since the killing.

"A black guy killed a white guy. Obviously it’s going to stir a lot of trouble," said Kgomotso Kgamanyane, a cashier at a local petrol station.

"Just earlier a customer came in, a white guy, and he told us to go to hell," he told AFP news agency. "It could get violent, because whites in their minds they think that we did it because of hate."

‘Sad day’

Police have arrested and charged two male farm workers - aged 21 and 15 - who they say beat Mr Terreblanche to death in a dispute over wages.

Mr Terreblanche had founded the white supremacist AWB in 1973, to oppose what he regarded as the liberal policies of the then-South African government.

His party tried terrorist tactics and threatened civil war in the run-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections, before sliding into relative obscurity.

Mr Terreblanche served three years in jail after being convicted in 2001 of the attempted murder of a farm worker.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Tough choices on whether to protect school funding in England will be at the heart of the general election, says Children’s Secretary Ed Balls.

In a speech to a teachers’ conference, Mr Balls will say his Tory opponents must decide whether they want to fund schools or "pay for tax cuts".

Mr Balls accuses the Tories of playing "Santa Claus" with funding promises.

The Conservatives have promised extra cash for poorer pupils and funds to allow parents to set up schools.

With the election campaign drawing closer, Mr Balls is set to deliver a strong attack on the credibility of the school funding plans of his political opponents.

‘Big choice’

His speech to the NASUWT teachers’ conference will also acknowledge that whoever is next in office, there will be "tougher times ahead".

Mr Balls will tell teachers in Birmingham that voters face a "big choice" on how schools should be supported when public spending is being reduced.

"Do we keep funding per pupil rising despite tougher times or do we cut school budgets and see class sizes rise to pay for tax cuts?" he will ask.

Mr Balls will claim that the Conservatives will need to cut school funding to pay for other promises, such as the freezing of national insurance.

"The Tories are being completely dishonest with the British people," Mr Balls will tell the conference.

"The shadow schools secretary Michael Gove is like Santa Claus. He’s going round the country promising any group of parents who want a new school, even where there are already surplus places, that they can have one whatever the cost.

"But he isn’t telling parents that the only way he can pay for this is by cutting the budgets of all the other schools in the area."

"And now, Michael Gove also has to find billions of pounds from the schools budget to pay for George Osborne’s national insurance freeze. But he won’t explain where the cuts would fall."

Spending pressures

Mr Balls will set out his own party’s promises to protect pupil funding, provide one-to-one catch-up lessons and to guarantee a sixth form or training place for school leavers.

But he will also warn that schools will no longer be able to expect the increase in per pupil funding that they have had in recent years.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families is already set to lose £1.1bn in "efficiency savings" by 2012-13, as part of a funding plan which will also provide a 0.7% annual increase for "front line" school budgets.

Mr Balls will be the last of three education spokesmen to have addressed the NASUWT conference, an event which could be the last major education forum before the election is called.

Conservative schools spokesman Michael Gove set out the case for his free schools policy, which would allow parents or other groups to receive funding to set up their own schools.

Mr Gove said there was evidence from other countries that introducing a wider range of providers could invigorate the schools system and give parents more choice.

David Laws, schools spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said that his party’s plan for a "pupil premium", targeting cash at disadvantaged pupils, was the only proposal that would guarantee extra funds for schools.

Mr Laws claimed that the Conservative pupil premium policy would depend on taking money from other school budgets and the Labour pupil premium announcement was a "repackaging exercise" using existing funding.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Former England fast bowler Sir Alec Bedser has died at the age of 91.

Bedser, knighted in 1997, passed away on Sunday evening at a hospital in Woking after falling ill last month.

He took 236 wickets for England in 51 Test matches in a 10-year period before serving a record 23 years as a selector and managing two overseas tours.

Along with twin brother Eric, Bedser was an integral part of the Surrey team that won seven consecutive county championships between 1952 and 1958.

Besder remains one of England’s greatest bowlers having taken 100 or more wickets in a county season 11 times during his career.

He had been, until his death, the last man alive to have taken the wicket of Sir Donald Bradman - dismissing the legendary Australian batsman six times in Test cricket.

Bradman famously finished Test cricket with an average of 99.94 having been bowled for a duck by leg-spinner Eric Hollies in his final match against England at The Oval in 1948.

Our absolute and complete affinity is hard to explain

But Bedser told BBC Sport in an exclusive interview last year that, had he been bowling at the time, he would have served up a boundary ball for Bradman to dispatch for four.

"We had lost the series hopelessly already, what did it matter? It matters a lot now though, no-one else will do it [finish with a 100 average]," he said.

He excelled in Ashes series, making his highest Test score of 79 as a nightwatchman in the 1948 series, and five years later recorded his best international bowling figures of 7-44 against Australia.

In the Coronation summer of 1953, Bedser also beat Maurice Tate’s record of 39 Australian wickets in an Ashes series.

Bedser played his first Test in 1946 for England in a home series against India, having made just 12 previous first-class appearances for Surrey.

The 28-year-old immediately impressed, taking 11 wickets in a remarkable debut with his accurate medium-fast seam bowling, swiftly becoming the first Englishman to take 200 Test wickets.

He remains seventh on England’s all-time leading wicket-taker list topped by Sir Ian Botham with 383 and was inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame, along with 21 compatriots in January 2009.

Following his retirement, Bedser remained a central figure in English cricket, serving as a selector over three decades, as well as presiding as chairman between 1969 and 1981.

Alec and twin Eric, who were both inseparable, continued to be familiar faces at the Oval, attending at least one day of every county match at Surrey’s home ground during an English summer.

"Our absolute and complete affinity is hard to explain," said Alec. "But it is true and very real to us - so much so that as long as I can remember we have never been happy apart."

Eric passed away in May 2006, but before he died the twins were often mistaken for each other by friends, colleagues and team-mates.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.