Agencies Johanessburg

A South African court has ruled that Nobel laureate Albert Luthuli's 1967 death was the result of an "assault" by apartheid police, overturning decades of claims that it was an accident. An inquest held under the apartheid government concluded that Luthuli, the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died after being struck by a freight train while walking along a railway line.

But activists and his family had long cast doubt on the findings, and South Africa's government reopened the case this year. A judge on Thursday ruled that the anti-apartheid hero died as a result of a fractured skull and a cerebral haemorrhage associated with an assault. His family has welcomed the judgement, reported the BBC.