Nelson Mandela's Body Flown Home For Funeral

Nelson Mandela's body has arrived in South Africa's Eastern Cape ahead of a funeral service for the former president.

His coffin, draped in the country's national flag, was carried from a farewell service in Pretoria and onto a military plane, accompanied in clear blue skies by two fighter jets.

Less than two hours later, the plane landed in Mthatha, where huge crowds lined the streets to watch the anti-apartheid hero's final journey.

Officers carrying Mr Mandela's coffin march slowly towards the plane

Thousands of people, many waving flags and carrying posters of Mr Mandela, gathered to see his coffin taken towards his childhood home of Qunu, where he will be given a state funeral.

It comes after Desmond Tutu, the former archbishop, revealed he will miss his close friend's burial after receiving "no indication" he had been invited.

President Jacob Zuma claimed the 82-year-old, who also missed a memorial service in Sowetto earlier this week, was "definitely" on the guest list.

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu said he 'loved and treasured' Mr Mandela

However, there is speculation he was excluded from the event for political reasons, following his open criticism of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party.

In a statement, Mr Tutu said: "Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral.

"Had I or my office been informed that I would be be welcome, there is no way on earth that I would have missed it."

The mostly sombre event in Pretoria was punctuated by song and dance, as the ANC paid tribute to its former leader.

Mr Zuma recalled the political achievements of his predecessor, saying he brought discipline and vision to the anti-apartheid movement.

"He did something that is not easy to do," he said.

Mr Mandela's grandson Mandla, who sat with his grandfather for three days while he lay in state in Pretoria, also attended the service.

South African President Jacob Zuma pays tribute to his predecessor

He told the audience: "I have witnessed his army, I have witnessed his people, I have witnessed ordinary South Africans who walked this long walk to freedom with him.

"I can assure the ANC that today, the future of this country looks bright."

Mr Mandela's state funeral is a first for South Africa and means full military ceremonial honours will be laid on, led by the armed forces.

Mr Mandela's coffin is surrounded by well-wishers at a farewell ceremony

A 21-gun salute will ring out and the South African Air Force will perform a fly pass.

The centuries-old traditions of the Xhosa tribe will also be observed, with a ritual slaughtering of an ox before Mr Mandela's body arrives at Mthatha airport.

A group of traditional leaders and Mandela elders, led by Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, the AbaThembu king, will welcome him home to Qunu.

Crowds have gathered in Mthatha ahead of the arrival of Mr Mandela's coffin

According to his memoirs, the village, with its rolling hills and dusty tracks, was where he spent "the happiest days" of his childhood.

Zwelonke Sigcau, the Xhosa king, told Sky News: "The Xhosa people believe Nelson Mandela is not leaving us. It is just his body which is going into the ground. His spirit will remain."

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Shooting At Denver School Near Columbine

A gunman has killed himself after opening fire at a Denver high school near to the site of the Columbine High School massacre.

One 15-year-old student was injured at the Arapahoe High School in Centennial and is in a critical condition, according to authorities.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson identified the shooter as 18-year-old Karl Halverson Pierson.

Pierson entered the school with a shotgun and was looking for an individual teacher who he identified by name, said Mr Robinson.

Armed police at the school

He added: "The teacher began to understand that he was being looked at and exited the school. One student confronted the armed student and was shot."

Mr Robinson did not elaborate on any possible motive except to say Pierson had had a "confrontation or disagreement" with the teacher.

The teenager was later found with fatal self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Mr Robinson said a possible Molotov cocktail was also found at the scene.

Pupils were led out of the building with their hands in the air by police officers after the shooting, which began at 12.30pm local time. All the schools in the area are on lockdown as a result. 

One student told the Denver Post: "I was scared and shaking." She added that she heard, "bang, bang, bang" and by the third shot was on the ground.

Youngsters told the newspaper they hid in the corners of dark classrooms until police SWAT teams arrived.  

A student is reunited with her father after the shooting

The school is about eight miles (13km) east of Columbine High School in Littleton, where two teenage shooters killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in 1999.

Tracy Monroe, who had step-siblings who attended Columbine, was standing outside the high school looking at her phone, reading text messages from her 15-year-old daughter inside.

She said she got the first text from her daughter, Jade Stanton, at 12.41pm. The text read: "There's sirens. It's real. I love you."

A few minutes later, Jade texted "shots were fired in our school".

Ms Monroe rushed to the school and was relieved when Jade texted that a police officer entered her classroom and that she was safe.

Ms Monroe was friends with a teacher killed in the Columbine shooting, Dave Carpenter.

"We didn't think it could happen in Colorado then, either," she said.

Some 2,141 students attend the school, which has 70 classrooms.

The attack comes almost one year after 20 children and six adults were killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown.

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Mandela To Return To Homeland For Funeral

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, in Qunu

He is Qunu's most famous son and the return of Nelson Mandela's body to his ancestral homeland is not just for sentimental reasons - it is part of Xhosa tradition that those who pass away are returned to the soil from where they came.

This weekend sees a stark shift in tempo, organisation and ceremony as the state funeral meshes with the centuries-old traditions of Mr Mandela's countrymen and women in the rural Eastern Cape.

"We feel very represented by Nelson Mandela," Mandisi Tshaka, a young Xhosa man, resplendent in his traditional robes and big beaded necklace, told me.

"Everyone in the world knows the Xhosa tribe because of him and we're saluting him."

The South African government has announced the former president's state funeral is a "first for the country" and means full military ceremonial honours will be laid on and led by the armed forces.

There will be 21-gun salutes and a fly-over by the South African Air Force.

But there is a strong importance being put on performing the Xhosa rites as Mr Mandela is laid to rest.

There will be a ritual slaughtering of an ox in the early hours before receiving his body at Mthatha airport in the Eastern Cape.

The AbaThembu king, Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo, is expected to lead a group of traditional leaders as well as Mandela elders in welcoming him home to the village of Qunu, where he spent much of his childhood.

Xhosa custom dictates a welcome ritual is performed to ensure the ancestors are informed of the arrival of Mr Mandela's remains.

Mr Mandela will be called on by his praise name Dlibhunga and the AbaThembu king will shout this three times as he greets the body when he arrives home.

Despite the pomp and ceremony of the state funeral, there will be equal, if not more, importance put on the traditional Xhosa burial rituals to ensure the man they call Madiba has an easy transition into the afterworld.

The Xhosa king, Zwelonke Sigcau, told Sky News: "The Xhosa people believe Nelson Mandela is not leaving us. It is just his body which is going into the ground. His spirit will remain."

Mr Mandela's body lay in state for three days

In the African culture many believe a dead person's spirit lives on beyond death and joins other ancestors who guide, help and protect the living.

It is a belief which greatly helps alleviate the pain felt by the loss of a loved one - and Mr Mandela may assume even greater importance amongst his people because of his exalted status as a spiritual ancestor now.

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Space Monkey: Iran Claims Second Success

Iran claims a second monkey it has sent into space has survived - nearly a year after questions were asked over an earlier attempt.

State TV said the monkey had travelled in a rocket dubbed Pajohesh, or Research in Farsi, which was the country's first craft to use liquid fuel.

It said the monkey, named Fargam or Auspicious, reached a height of 72 miles (120km) before being returned to Earth safely.

President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the scientists involved in the mission, in a message carried by Iran's official IRNA news agency.

"The launch of Pajohesh is another long step getting the Islamic Republic of Iran closer to sending a man into space," the official IRNA news agency said.

Pre-recorded footage, shown on state TV, showed the rocket blasting off and then showed the monkey, strapped snugly into a seat, staring at people clapping to celebrate its safe return.

The report said Fargam's capsule parachuted safely to Earth after detaching from the rocket in a mission that lasted 15 minutes.

In January, Iran said it had successfully brought a live monkey back to Earth from orbit.

But the experiment's success was disputed, when a different monkey was presented to the media after the landing.

An earlier attempt had failed in September 2011.

Doubts were cast on Iran's last claim after it presented a different monkey

Iran's space programme has prompted concern among Western governments which fear Tehran is experimenting in an attempt to master the technology required to deliver a nuclear warhead.

But for Iranians, the country's aerospace programme is a source of national pride.

Iran is keen to show itself as a technological hub for Islamic and developing countries.

In the January mission, one of two official packages of photos depicted the wrong monkey, causing some international observers to wonder whether the monkey had died in space or that the space flight had in fact failed.

But Iranian officials later said one set of pictures showed an archive photo of an alternative monkey, which was not used.

They said three to five monkeys are simultaneously trained for such a flight but only one is chosen.

The Islamic Republic has not revealed where the rocket launch took place, but it has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, about 125 miles (200km) east of Tehran.

Analysts say putting a monkey into space without putting it into orbit is similar to the achievements of the superpowers during the late 1950s.

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North Korea Purge Sparks China And US Concern

The Rise Of Jang Song-Thaek

Updated: 10:52am UK, Friday 13 December 2013

While hereditary leader Kim Jong-Un is the unquestioned ruler of North Korea, his uncle Jang Song-Thaek was thought to be the country's second most powerful figure.

The 67-year-old had occupied a privileged and yet precarious spot within the inner circle, and his ties to Mr Kim were more than political.

He was the son-in-law of the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, and was married to Mr Kim's aunt, Kim Kyong-Hui, the younger sister of the former leader, Kim Jong-Il.

A native of the far northeastern border city of Chongjin who hailed from humble roots but was sharp enough to gain entry to prestigious Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, he rose from municipal bureaucrat to vice chairman of the National Defence Commission and member of the Political Bureau.

These posts put him second in power only to Mr Kim.

He started his career as instructor for the Pyongyang City Committee of the Workers' Party, and rose post-by-post reaching the top ranks.

Despite not being a career military man, he was made a four-star general, and helped engineer a campaign to bring the once-powerful military into the party's fold.

He was purged and sent to a labour camp for two years in the mid-2000s, according to Kim Young-soo, a North Korea expert at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. That purge was widely seen as a move to clip his wings.

It was after Kim Jong-Il's stroke in 2008 that he was assumed to be serving in a regency role while the young heir Mr Kim, then in his late 20s, was being groomed to succeed his father.

Gen Jang would accompany Mr Kim on guidance trips, often dressed in a trim white general's uniform and standing within arm's length of the young heir on field visits and at state events.

That rise to the inner circle gained speed after Kim Jong Il's death from a heart attack in December 2011.

A well-travelled diplomat with a network that spread to China, Gen Jang was considered the chief architect of economic policy that focused on partnering with the neighbour and ally.

He had recently added a new title to his portfolio - chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission - one of Mr Kim's pet projects. Mr Kim is a basketball fan and famously invited US basketball star Dennis Rodman for a rare official visit to the country.

Last seen publicly in early November meeting a sports delegation from Japan, rumours of Gen Jang's dismissal began surfacing in Seoul last week.

On Sunday, he was fired from all posts at a special party meeting and dragged away by the arms by soldiers - his ordeal broadcast on North Korean television.

Four days after his dramatic public arrest, Gen Jang was tried for treason by a special military tribunal.

On Friday, North Korea's official news agency KCNA announced he had been executed. He confessed, according to state media.

He was described as "a traitor to the nation" and "worse than a dog".

The list of crimes against Gen Jang was long, with plotting to overthrow the leadership the most serious of the allegations.

Subsequently, pictures showing both Mr Kim and Gen Jang were doctored to remove the uncle - a technique notoriously used by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1930s.

Gen Jang's demise offers an intriguing and revealing glimpse into the murky, feudalistic world of politics in the secretive country.

The fall from grace, accompanied by allegations from corruption to womanising and capped by his arrest at the party meeting on Sunday, has suggested to some analysts that Mr Kim is still trying to consolidate the power he inherited from his father two years ago.

For North Koreans, the shocking public humiliation of a man seen as a father figure to Mr Kim was designed to send a clear message about the intolerance of opposition in a totalitarian state that demands absolute loyalty to the leader.

It was a humiliating end to a complicated career.

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North Korea Executes Leader's 'Traitor' Uncle

The Rise Of Jang Song-Thaek

Updated: 10:52am UK, Friday 13 December 2013

While hereditary leader Kim Jong-Un is the unquestioned ruler of North Korea, his uncle Jang Song-Thaek was thought to be the country's second most powerful figure.

The 67-year-old had occupied a privileged and yet precarious spot within the inner circle, and his ties to Mr Kim were more than political.

He was the son-in-law of the founder of North Korea, Kim Il-Sung, and was married to Mr Kim's aunt, Kim Kyong-Hui, the younger sister of the former leader, Kim Jong-Il.

A native of the far northeastern border city of Chongjin who hailed from humble roots but was sharp enough to gain entry to prestigious Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, he rose from municipal bureaucrat to vice chairman of the National Defence Commission and member of the Political Bureau.

These posts put him second in power only to Mr Kim.

He started his career as instructor for the Pyongyang City Committee of the Workers' Party, and rose post-by-post reaching the top ranks.

Despite not being a career military man, he was made a four-star general, and helped engineer a campaign to bring the once-powerful military into the party's fold.

He was purged and sent to a labour camp for two years in the mid-2000s, according to Kim Young-soo, a North Korea expert at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. That purge was widely seen as a move to clip his wings.

It was after Kim Jong-Il's stroke in 2008 that he was assumed to be serving in a regency role while the young heir Mr Kim, then in his late 20s, was being groomed to succeed his father.

Gen Jang would accompany Mr Kim on guidance trips, often dressed in a trim white general's uniform and standing within arm's length of the young heir on field visits and at state events.

That rise to the inner circle gained speed after Kim Jong Il's death from a heart attack in December 2011.

A well-travelled diplomat with a network that spread to China, Gen Jang was considered the chief architect of economic policy that focused on partnering with the neighbour and ally.

He had recently added a new title to his portfolio - chairman of the State Physical Culture and Sports Guidance Commission - one of Mr Kim's pet projects. Mr Kim is a basketball fan and famously invited US basketball star Dennis Rodman for a rare official visit to the country.

Last seen publicly in early November meeting a sports delegation from Japan, rumours of Gen Jang's dismissal began surfacing in Seoul last week.

On Sunday, he was fired from all posts at a special party meeting and dragged away by the arms by soldiers - his ordeal broadcast on North Korean television.

Four days after his dramatic public arrest, Gen Jang was tried for treason by a special military tribunal.

On Friday, North Korea's official news agency KCNA announced he had been executed. He confessed, according to state media.

He was described as "a traitor to the nation" and "worse than a dog".

The list of crimes against Gen Jang was long, with plotting to overthrow the leadership the most serious of the allegations.

Subsequently, pictures showing both Mr Kim and Gen Jang were doctored to remove the uncle - a technique notoriously used by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1930s.

Gen Jang's demise offers an intriguing and revealing glimpse into the murky, feudalistic world of politics in the secretive country.

The fall from grace, accompanied by allegations from corruption to womanising and capped by his arrest at the party meeting on Sunday, has suggested to some analysts that Mr Kim is still trying to consolidate the power he inherited from his father two years ago.

For North Koreans, the shocking public humiliation of a man seen as a father figure to Mr Kim was designed to send a clear message about the intolerance of opposition in a totalitarian state that demands absolute loyalty to the leader.

It was a humiliating end to a complicated career.

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

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Klitschko Agrees To Talks On Ukraine Crisis

Ukrainian opposition leader Vitali Klitschko is attending talks with President Viktor Yanukovych.

The move from the former boxing champion's party has raised hopes of an end to the crisis gripping the eastern European country.

Mr Klitschko has been a visible presence at protests in Kiev in recent weeks which has seen clashes between thousands of demonstrators and riot police over Ukraine's possible closer links with the EU, which the opposition wants but the government has been resisting.

Police have become more violent towards protesters

He earlier told protesters on Independence Square that he, nationalist leader Oleg Tyagnybok and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the head of the party of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, would be attending the talks.

"We have the impression that he (Yanukovych) is not listening to us, maybe his television is not working, maybe he is not being given the information," Mr Klitschko said.

"We want to look him in the eye and say our main demands and hear the answer."

There have been angry scenes in Independence Square

Mr Yanukovych's refusal to sign the agreement for closer ties set off the protests - his deputy said the government intended to sign it but there were issues that still needed to be worked out.

"Today we're renewing preparations for the signing of an agreement," deputy PM Sergiy Arbuzov said on Thursday after talks with EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fuele.

Opposition parties accuse the government of bowing to pressure from Russia's President Vladimir Putin who, they say, is against Ukraine getting close to the EU.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian court has released all those arrested during a violent police dispersal of demonstrators near the presidential administration building, one of the demands of the opposition.

The US has threatened sanctions unless police stop their actions

An appeals court spokeswoman, Olga Chaplya, said the last of nine people arrested in the December 1 clash has been released, although the criminal cases against them continue.

The opposition had set the releases as a condition for entering talks with the government and President Yanukovych has now proposed an amnesty for the protesters.

A pro-EU protester walks a fine line near riot police earlier in the week

"My point of view is that we have to turn this page, announce an amnesty," he was quoted by his office as telling students.

"People who were arrested now, they should be freed. Some of them have even been convicted - they should be freed too."

Experts had earlier said time was running out for Mr Yanukovych to make a decision on a future direction for his politically volatile nation, which is split between a Ukrainian-speaking, pro-EU west and a Russian-speaking, Moscow-leaning east.

His choices are to either sign a deal with the EU that would put his ex-Soviet nation on track to eventually joining the bloc, or join a Moscow-led Customs Union, which Russia sees as a future alternative to the EU.

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Bangladesh Execution Leads To Violent Clashes

At least four people have been killed in violent clashes following the execution of Islamist leader Abdul Quader Mollah for war crimes committed more than four decades ago.

The decision to hang Mollah, dubbed the 'Butcher of Mirpur' in Bangladesh for his part in hundreds of killings during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, drew widespread condemnation from political allies and international human rights groups.

But many people celebrated the first ever execution of a Bangladesh war criminal, which took place at the Dhaka Central Jail in the capital late on Thursday.

Mollah, a senior figure in the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, was buried in the early hours of Friday in his home village in the southern district of Faridpur.

In the latest violence, his supporters set fire to vehicles and houses, looted shops, set off crude bombs and blocked roads in several parts of the country.

Describing the violence in Dhaka, resident Mohammad Khokon said: "They (the protesters) came with boxes full of bombs and they wore helmets and started throwing many handmade bombs on the street and ran away."

Police said two people were hacked to death in Satkhira, in the southwest, early on Friday.

One person died in clashes with police in the southern district of Noakhali, and a driver was killed after being chased down by protesters.

Mollah's execution has added to tensions that were already running high, threatening to cripple Bangladesh's economy, most notably its £13.5bn clothing industry.

There has been almost daily unrest in the poverty-stricken country of 160 million people since last month's announcement of parliamentary elections on January 5.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ruling Awami League are determined to go ahead with the vote, but the opposition says it will not participate unless an interim government is installed and she steps down.

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Govt Admits Mistake Over Mandela Signer

Hiring a sign language interpreter who claims to have had a schizophrenic episode while translating at the Mandela memorial was a mistake, the government has said.

Thamsanqa Jantjie, who was criticised for apparently making "meaningless gestures" while interpreting the speeches of world leaders on stage, said he takes medication for the condition.

Mr Jantjie says he started hearing voices and hallucinating

He said he did not know whether it was the scale of the event or the happiness he felt about being involved that triggered the episode.

The 34-year-old, who was pictured signing next to the likes of US President Barack Obama, claimed he suddenly lost concentration and started hearing voices and hallucinating.

He also had visions of angels coming into the stadium and was trying not to panic because there were "armed policemen around me".

Mr Jantjie said the episode impaired his ability to hear things properly and interpret what was being said, but he did not feel able to leave so continued to sign words and phrases that did not make sense.

He apologised and was quoted by South Africa's Star newspaper as saying: "There was nothing I could do. I was alone in a very dangerous situation.

"I tried to control myself and not show the world what was going on. I am very sorry, it's the situation I found myself in.

"Life is unfair. This illness is unfair. Anyone who doesn't understand this illness will think that I'm just making this up."

The interpreter pictured next to President Barack Obama

Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, deputy minister of women, children and people with disabilities, accepted the government had made a mistake and apologised to deaf people around the world.

She said an investigation into how Mr Jantjie came to be hired was under way - but said the owners of the company which provided his services had "vanished into thin air".

Concerns over the interpreter had been raised by deaf people watching the service at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium.

Bruno Druchen, the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa, said he "was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for".

South African parliament member Wilma Newhoudt, a member of the ruling party, also said the interpreter communicated nothing with his hand and arm movements.

Both Mr Druchen and Ms Newhoudt are deaf.

Mr Jantjie has been called an 'embarrassment'

Three sign language experts said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages.

South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation.

Nicole Du Toit, an official sign language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, said the man on stage was an "embarrassment".

Mr Jantjie, who was accused of being an imposter, which led to security concerns, claims he is a genuine interpreter and a "champion of sign language" who was paid 850 Rand (£50) for one day's work.

Asked about his interpreting skills, he said: "It is very sad at this present moment because I believe that it was an issue that had to be dealt with earlier.

"If the Deaf Federation of South Africa​ have an issue with my interpreting they should have clarified it a long time ago, not at this crucial time for our country."

He says he has photographs of him working next to various people including President Jacob Zuma in the past.

He said felt honoured to be part of the historic event on Tuesday, but the president's office has contacted him to find out who recommended him for the job.

Meanwhile, the South African government has said it will not release photographs of Mr Mandela lying in state, and has urged people to avoid a picture posted on the internet which purports to show his body.

An official statement said: "If this content exists, government calls on people not to view it and to delete it from their timelines."

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Six-Year-Old Suspended For Kissing Schoolmate

The suspension of a six-year-old boy for kissing a girl at school is raising questions about whether the peck should be considered sexual harassment.

The boy's mother said officials at Lincoln School of Science and Technology in Canon City, Colorado, are overreacting.

Jennifer Saunders said her son was suspended once before for kissing the girl and had other disciplinary problems, and she was surprised to find out that he would be forced out of school again for several days.

Hunter Yelton said he has a crush on a girl at school and "she likes him back".

"It was during class, yeah. We were doing reading group, and I leaned over and kissed her on the hand. That's what happened," he said.

Ms Saunders said she saw nothing wrong with her son's display of affection.

She said she punished him for other problems in school, including "rough-housing", but was shocked when the school's principal brought up the term "sexual harassment" during a meeting.

"This is taking it to an extreme that doesn't need to be met with a six-year-old. Now my son is asking questions. 'What is sex mommy?' That should not ever be said, sex. Not in a sentence with a six-year-old," she said.

District superintendent Robin Gooldy said the boy had been suspended because of a policy against unwanted touching.

"The focus needs to be on his behaviour. We usually try to get the student to stop, but if it continues, we need to take action and it sometimes rises to the level of suspension," he said.

David Welsh, a school psychologist, said some policies that bar bullying, harassment and weapons on public school campuses may go too far.

But he said school boards are being forced to develop strict policies because of a large number of complaints being reported by students and teachers who face consequences if they keep silent.

"If you have a policy and procedure and you don't follow it, it's hard to defend," Mr Welsh said.

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