AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister John Howard will pay his first official visit to Ireland later this month to hold talks with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and other Government members.

A former African National Congress activist appointed by Nelson Mandela as a justice to South Africa’s Constitutional Court has been lined up for a two day conference on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland.

A grief-stricken former President Nelson Mandela attended a memorial service for his son Makgatho, whose death of Aids complications last week underscored the silence still shrouding a disease that kills more than 600 a day in South Africa.

A grief-stricken former President Nelson Mandela attended a memorial service today for his son Makgatho, whose death of Aids complications last week underscored the silence still shrouding a disease that kills more than 600 a day in South Africa.

Beyers Naude, an Afrikaner cleric who spent half his life using the Bible to justify apartheid before becoming one of the anti-apartheid movement’s most important moral voices, died early today.

Archbishop Emeritus Denis Eugene Hurley of Durban, South Africa, died on Friday last after returning home from a religious celebration. He was 89 and had retired from office in 1992.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, was convicted today of theft and fraud.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the ex-wife of former President Nelson Mandela, plans to sue the South African parliament to overturn its ruling that she violated MPs finance regulations.