Sixteen members of Nelson Mandela’s family have pleaded criminal complaint against the eldest grandson of the former president. A South African police spokesman told the BBC that Mandla Mandela was being investigated for allegedly illegally tampering with gravesides two years ago. Mike Woodridge reports.
Nelson Mandela’s oldest male heir Mandla is alleged to move the remains of two of Mr. Mandela’s late sons and a daughter without the family’s consent from Qunu to the nearby village of Mvezo in 2011. Mandla Mandela holds a traditional chieftaincy of Mvezo. It was Nelson Mandela’s birthplace and Mandla’s constructing a heritage center there. But his actions have been the source of acrimonious division in the Mandela family. And on Friday, 16 members of the family secured a court order here for the remains to be returned to Qunu.
The Irish parliament has voted by a big majority to back a bill legalizing abortions when the cases are medical emergency. Almost uniquely in Europe Ireland officially bans abortions in all circumstances, even though the country’s supreme court ruled in 1992 the termination should be legal if they were done to save the life of the woman involved.
The late Pope John PaulⅡhas cleared the final obstacle before being formally declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. The Commission of Cardinals and Bishops has now signed of his case. All that’s needed is the signature of Pope Francis. Despite calls for an immediate declaration when John Paul died in 2005, it has taken eight years of research and verification of what the Vatican believes is a second miracle by the Polish pontiff.