To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; to President Zuma and members of the government; to heads of state and government, past and present; distinguished guests - it is a singular honour to be with you today, to celebrate a life unlike any...
More than 70 heads of state and government are expected to attend the events. US President Barack Obama will attend Tuesday's memorial service at the Soweto stadium, while others will arrive later in the week for Mandela's burial on December 15 in...
The American writer Maya Angelou has written and recited a poem in honour of Nelson Mandela, whom she met in the 1960s when she lived in Cairo. In the poem, His Day is Done, Angelou mourns Mandela's death, praises him...
US President Barack Obama, Francois Hollande of France and UK PM David Cameron will be among those attending Tuesday's memorial at a Soweto stadium. South Africa's first black president died on Thursday and the nation has held a day of prayer and...
The bill, which was adopted by a vote of 268 to 138, with 79 abstentions, establishes a fine of at least 1,500 euros ($2,030) for buying sexual acts. Under the new bill, prostitution will remain legal and the act of soliciting will now not be...
The Nonhuman Rights Project wants a chimp named Tommy to be granted "legal personhood" and thus entitled to the "fundamental right of bodily liberty". The group is planning to file the same lawsuit on behalf of three other chimps across New York...
Citing South Korea's intelligence agency, they say Chang Song-thaek, 67, lost his position as vice-chairman of the North's top military body. Two close aides were also executed for corruption, according to the reports. If confirmed, Mr Chang's...
It is the first time the UN's human rights office has so directly implicated Mr Assad. Commissioner Navi Pillay said her office held a list of others implicated by the inquiry. The UN estimates more than 100,000 people have died in the...
Japanese aircraft had conducted routine "surveillance activity" over the East China Sea zone, the top government spokesman said. South Korea had also conducted a flight, its defence ministry said. China says planes transiting the zone, which covers...
He made the announcement at a meeting with President Andris Berzins, Latvian and other media reported. "The country needs a government which is capable of resolving the situation which has emerged," he was quoted as saying by the Baltic news agency...
The protesters, who began their action over the weekend, want the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down. After a huge rally on Sunday, crowds marched on Monday to several different locations in the city. The protests have...
The court said on its official microblog that using "freezing, starving, extreme heat, fire branding or extreme exhaustion" to extract confessions was also illegal. It is the latest in a series of moves aimed at reforming the Chinese police and...
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he would not intervene directly in the negotiations, but that he had set "red lines" for Iran's representatives. President Barack Obama meanwhile urged US senators not to impose new sanctions on Iran to allow time for...
There are conflicting reports as to whether the Iranian cultural attache survived the attack or was killed. Iran is a major backer of the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah, which has sent fighters to Syria to back the government of Bashar...
Bernard Randall, originally from Faversham, Kent, denies a charge of trafficking obscene publications. Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda and Mr Randall faces a possible two-year prison sentence if found guilty. The 65-year-old is charged...
In future, families will be allowed two children if one parent is an only child, says the Xinhua news agency. The one-child policy already exempts rural dwellers and ethnic minorities. The move comes after this week's meeting of a key...
At the centre of the inquiry was a Toronto-based firm that allegedly sold DVDs and streamed videos of naked boys in Germany, Romania and Ukraine. Azov Films marketed the footage as "naturist" and claimed they were legal in Canada and the US. The...
At least 10,000 people are feared to have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the central Philippines on Friday. The UN says more than 11 million people are believed to have been affected by the storm and some 673,000 displaced. Several...
The problem occurred during a manoeuvre designed to boost the craft's maximum distance from 71,623km to 100,000km. A problem with the liquid fuel thruster caused the 1,350kg vehicle to fall short of the mark. But the head of the Indian Space...
Among the worst hit areas were the eastern island of Leyte and the coastal city of Tacloban, which has seen buildings flattened and trees uprooted. First reports said 100 bodies had been found but the Red Cross later said the figure could be more...
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