BBC News with Marion Marshall.

Police in South Africa say they’ve arrested eight of their own officers on suspicion of murdering a taxi driver from Mozambique. Mobile phone video later shown on South African television shows the man tying to the back of a police van and dragged through the street. Peter Biles reports

In the township of Daveyton an hour’s drive east of Johannesburg crowds maintain at presence all day outside the police station where 27-year-old Mido Macia died in police custody on Tuesday. His sister-in-law Lindiwe Ngwenya condemned what she said was police brutality.

“I’m really shocked and really disappointed. What they did to my in-law I love I don’t up such a thing. I thought they were people to help us, to protect us, but now are the people who are killing us.”

Earlier South Africa’s National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega told reporters that all eight policemen responsible for tethering Mr. Macia to a police vehicle and dragging him along the street were been suspended and disarmed.

President Obama has described a raft of government spending reductions as ‘dumb and arbitrary cuts to things people depend on.’ The cuts are due to start taking effect later today after his latest talks with Congressional Republicans on reducing the deficit broke up without any sign of a deal. Mark Mardell reports from Washington.

The meeting at the White House lasted less than an hour and solved nothing. It was largely theater with the president determined to blame this latest crisis on Republicans who control the House of Representatives. These automatic cuts were designed two years ago to be so harsh that the politicians will be forced to do a deal but they are as far apart as ever. The president said the pain of the 85 billion dollars worth of cuts wouldn’t be felt right away, it will be a slow grind costing 750,000 jobs, damaging growth and making the economy weaker.