PICTURES

Foreign statesmen arrive for Mandela memorial

Sri Lanka’s opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe signs a condolence book at the South African High Commission in Colombo on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP
Sri Lanka’s opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe signs a condolence book at the South African High Commission in Colombo on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP
A diplomat writes messages of condolence in front of a photograph of the late former South African president Nelson Mandela at the South African High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP
The condolence book is seen in front of a photograph of the late former South African president Nelson Mandela at the South African High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP
Candles are displayed next to a portrait of South African former president Nelson Mandela at the South African High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP
The FNB stadium, where the memorial service for Nelson Mandela will take place, is seen in Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. -- PHOTO: AP
The FNB stadium, where the memorial service for Nelson Mandela will take place, is seen in Johannesburg, South Africa on Monday, Dec 9, 2013. Scores of heads of state and other foreign dignitaries are beginning to converge on South Africa as the final preparations for Tuesday's national memorial service for liberation struggle icon Nelson Mandela are put in place. -- PHOTO: AP

JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Scores of heads of state and other foreign dignitaries are beginning to converge on South Africa as the final preparations for Tuesday's national memorial service for liberation struggle icon Nelson Mandela are put in place.

More than 80,000 are expected to attend the memorial for the anti-apartheid hero at a stadium in the Soweto township where Mandela made his last public appearance at the closing ceremony of the 2010 soccer World Cup.

The government said on Sunday that 53 heads of state and government had already confirmed they would be attending the national memorial service and/or the state funeral for the country's first black and democratically-elected president.

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