Mandela's body arrives at Union Buildings, Pretoria

The coffin of Nelson Mandela has arrived at Pretoria’s Union Buildings to allow members of the public to pay their last respects.

Mandela’s body will lie in state for three days where he was inaugurated as president in 1994 after the first all-race elections that ended decades of white-minority apartheid rule. Mandela’s body will then be taken to Pretoria’s Eastern Cape on Saturday.... where South Africa’s ruling African National Congress will bid farewell to him ... and then finally on Sunday, a funeral service and interment ceremony will take place at Mandela’s final resting place, his home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape.

Times Magazine names Pope Francis Person of the Year

Pope Francis has been selected by Time magazine as the Person of the Year.

In only his first year, the pope was selected by the magazine's editor as the person who had the greatest impact on the world, for good or bad, during 2013.

Time managing editor Nancy Gibbs said Pope Francis had changed the tone, the perception and focus of one of the world's largest institutions in an extraordinary way.

Q and A: South Africa's Julius Malema on Mandela

 From Al-jazeera:

Al Jazeera interviews the populist politician about his thoughts on Mandela's life and death.

Julius Sello Malema is a South African politician, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters. He also is a former president of the African National Congress Youth League and was a member of the ANC until his expulsion in 2012. Described as a "fascist" and a "demagogue" by his critics, he has always been able to hold a wide approval rating among some black South Africans. He has been convicted twice of hate speech. Al Jazeera's Azad Essa sat down with the controversial figure to get his thoughts about Nelson Mandela and South Africa. Read the details after the cut:

Indian Top Court says Gay sex is an Offence

India's Supreme Court has upheld a law criminalising gay sex, setting aside a landmark lower court decision in 2009 which had overturned the colonial-era ban on homosexuality.

The court on Wednesday held that an homosexual act was punishable under Section 377 of the Indian penal code, reports quoting the judgement said.

Cuban - American Lawmakers unhappy with Obama's handshake with Castro at Mandela's memorial service

Cuban-American lawmakers voiced disappointment Tuesday over President Obama shaking the hand of Raul Castro during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, calling it a "propaganda coup" for the Cuban government.

"It is nauseating," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., who fled Cuba with her family when she was a child, told Fox News.

Death Penalty: Oklahoma executes man convicted of killing two elderly women in the 1980s

 Credit to Foxnews:
Oklahoma on Tuesday executed a man who was convicted of killing two women - one 83, the other 93.
Ronald Clinton Lott, 53, was pronounced dead at 6:06 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. Lott was the fifth Oklahoma death row inmate to be executed this year.

As the curtains opened, Lott looked over at his brother, who raised his fist and nodded. Lott made no final statement. He again looked at his brother in the first row of the viewing room as the drugs were pumped into his body, then Lott's eyes closed. He started breathing heavily and gasped for air three times.

Photos: South Africa and the World mourn Mandela

South Africans have gathered in Johannesburg and Soweto to mourn their former leader, Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday aged 95.

Crowds have been paying tribute, dancing and singing in front of Mr Mandela's former home in Soweto.

He is to be accorded a state funeral on Sunday 15 December, President Jacob Zuma announced.

Mr Mandela spent 27 years in jail before becoming South Africa's first black president in 1994.

His administration replaced the racist white-minority regime that had enforced segregation of black and white people in a policy known as apartheid. Read more after the cut.