AP News in Brief
South Africans hold day of prayer for Nelson Mandela ahead of big stadium memorial
• JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- South Africans flocked to houses of worship Sunday for a national day of prayer and reflection to honor Nelson Mandela, starting planned events that will culminate in what is expected to be one of the biggest funerals in modern times.
• "We felt it important that we should have a day where all of us as South Africans can come together and pray for our first democratic president and reflect on his legacy," President Jacob Zuma said at a Methodist church service in Johannesburg. "But it is also to pray for our nation ... to pray that we not forget some of the values he fought for."
• Zuma said Mandela had forgiven even those who had kept him in prison for 27 years, and that he had opposed both white and black domination.
• At the famous Regina Mundi Church that was near the epicenter of the Soweto township uprising in 1976 against white rule, Father Sebastian J. Rossouw described Mandela as "moonlight," saying he offered a guiding light for South Africa. Hundreds of people attended the mass.
• "Madiba did not doubt the light," Rossouw said. "He paved the way for a better future, but he cannot do it alone."
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Storm that hit US midsection takes aim next at Mid-Atlantic region threatening sleet and ice
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- A powerful storm system that spread hazardous snow, sleet and freezing rain widely across the nation's midsection rumbled toward the densely populated Eastern seaboard on Sunday, promising more of the same.
• Forecasters said the potent system already blamed for numerous power outages and thousands of weekend flight cancellations elsewhere, has Virginia and other Mid-Atlantic states in its icy sights before the Northeast is up next.
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