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.