Frennie Shivambu / JustusMedia via Reuters

South African "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius, right, smiles with his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, at an awards ceremony in Johannesburg on Nov. 4. Steenkamp is dead, Pistorius is being charged with her murder and the woman's mother wants answers.

The mother of Reeva Steenkamp, who was shot to death Thursday in the home of Olympic and Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius, vented her grief and frustration to a South African newspaper.

The interview, conducted by telephone Sunday and reported Monday by The Times of Johannesburg, appears to be June Steenkamp's first since her daughter's death at Pistorius' home in the gated Silver Woods Luxury Estate outside Pretoria.

"Why? Why my little girl?" she asked. "Why did this happen? Why did he do this? What for?"

Pistorius, 26, has been in custody since the shooting and is to be formally charged in a court appearance Tuesday with the murder of Steenkamp, a 29-year-old law graduate, model and actress who had gained global attention with her blond good looks and bubbly personality.

He has strongly denied allegations that he murdered his girlfriend.

NBC News' full coverage of the Oscar Pistorius case

June Steenkamp told The Times that she and her family are left searching for logic in a time of grief and shock.

"All we have is this horrendous death to deal with ... to get to grips with," she said. "All we want are answers ... answers as to why this had to happen, why our beautiful daughter had to die like this."

Reeva Steenkamp was recently featured in the new season of a reality show, "Tropika Island of Treasure"; had done promotional work for international brands including Toyota; and was on the December 2011 cover of FHM magazine, which named her one of the "100 Sexiest Women in the World" two years in a row.

"She had so much of herself to give and now all of it is gone," June Steenkamp said. "Just like that, she is gone. … In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here."

Mike Steenkamp, whom The Times identified as a family spokesman, said the Steenkamps were trying to simply make it through the funeral, which like Pistorius' court appearance is scheduled for Tuesday.

"For now, we are just focusing on … getting this part of the difficult journey behind us," he told The Times.

"We're trying not to think about Oscar or the court appearance," he added. "We have deliberately not watched TV or listened to the radio. We just don't want to think about it. We want to blank it all out and focus for now on the here and now."

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TUNIS, Tunisia -- The mother of the Tunisian peddler whose suicide sparked the Arab Spring was arrested after getting into a scuffle with a court official, a family member said on Friday.

Salem Bouazizi, brother of Mohammed Bouazizi, whose death made him a symbol for the frustrations of many, said their mother was arrested for allegedly attacking the official in Sidi Bouzid, the central town where Tunisia's revolution began.

Bouazizi said his mother, Manoubia Bouazizi, 60, returned an insult after the court employee insulted her, pushed her and slammed a door in her face, refusing to assist her application for documents.

According to the AFP news agency, Salem Bouazizi said the documents she was there to sign would have allowed her to receive compensation from the government given to "martyrs of the revolution."

Tunisia declares curfew after riots

"This is an insult to the mother of a martyr," he said, demanding her immediate release.

"My mother was humiliated. The authorities must learn to respect people. We're not going to let this go," Bouazizi told AFP.

The prosecutor opened an investigation and interviewed witnesses for hours following the incident, AFP reported. One witness said Manoubia Bouazizi had "threatened to set fire to the court," according to testimony obtained by AFP.

Tunisia Live, which describes itself as the first English-language Tunisian news website, reported that Manoubia Bouazizi could face a fine and up to a month in jail; this could not be independently verified.

There was no immediate comment from the justice ministry.

Self immolation
Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire on a street on December 17, 2010, infuriated after a policewoman confiscated his goods, and died the following month.

His act sparked a wave of protests that spread through Tunisia's neglected hinterlands to the capital, forcing veteran dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee on January 14, 2011.

Ben Ali's departure sent shockwaves around the Arab world and sparked uprisings that ultimately overthrew leaders in Egypt and Libya last year.

The families of those killed in the Tunisian revolution have complained that the government has done little compensate them or to improve the position of the country's worst off.

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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BEIJING – On Monday, a Chinese boy took the ride of his very young life. The 3-year-old was in the care of his grandfather when he decided that he wanted to see his mother, who works at a local KFC restaurant.

The kindergartener, from the city of Wenzhou in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang, waited until his grandfather had gone to the bathroom, then set off through the streets on a toy motorcycle.

The bike had been a gift of a relative who had left the battery out of the bike. But the boy’s grandfather, surnamed Peng, had decided to install the battery.

The child rode about 1.3 miles before arriving at a major Wenzhou traffic intersection.

Without pausing, the boy zipped right into the middle of the intersection, avoiding buses and other vehicles.

Boy shrugs off talk of fear
At that point, a traffic policeman named Zhang spotted the boy weaving through the cars and gestured toward him to stop the bike, then escorted him to the side of the road.

The boy didn’t know his family’s phone number, but his anxious grandfather – who takes care of his grandson while the parents work – was frantically looking for him on the streets and eventually came across them.

Asked later by Zhang whether he was scared at any point, the boy merely shrugged and said he had already learned how to cross a street.

No word yet whether Zhang cited the boy for traffic violations or let him off with just a warning and a little traffic school.

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