NELSON MANDELA DIES @95

South Africa's first black president and anti-
apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has died, South
Africa's president says. Mr Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition
from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.
He had been receiving intense home-based
medical care for a lung infection after three
months in hospital.
In a statement on South African national TV, Mr
Zuma said Mr Mandela had "departed" and was at
peace "Our nation has lost its greatest son," Mr Zuma said.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was one of the
world's most revered statesmen after preaching
reconciliation despite being imprisoned for 27
years. He had rarely been seen in public since officially
retiring in 2004.
"What made Nelson Mandela great was precisely
what made him human. We saw in him what we
seek in ourselves," Mr Zuma said.
"Fellow South Africans, Nelson Mandela brought us
together and it is together that we will bid him
farewell."
Earlier, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge, outside Mr
Mandela's home in the Johannesburg suburb of
Houghton, said there appeared to have been an
unusually large family gathering.
Among those attending was family elder Bantu
Holomisa,
A number of government vehicles were there
during the evening as well, our correspondent
says.
Since he was released from hospital, the South
African presidency repeatedly described Mr
Mandela's condition as critical but stable.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993
and was elected South Africa's first black president
in 1994. He stepped down after five years in office.