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grazed nearby. Some civilians were also already lining route, shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas.
• Mandela had longed to spend his final months in his beloved rural village but instead he had spent them in a hospital in Pretoria and then in his home in Johannesburg where he had remained in critical condition, suffering from lung problems and other ailments, until his death.
• There was a surprise announcement in the plans for Sunday's funeral in Mandela's home village of Qunu as retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu's family said he would not be attending because he had not received credentials as a clergyman.
• "The Archbishop is not an accredited clergyperson for the event and thus will not be attending," Rev. Mpho Tutu, the archbishop's daughter, said in a statement. She is chief executive of the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation.
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Tribal rituals to feature in Mandela's state funeral
• JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- An ox will be slaughtered, the deceased will be wrapped in a leopard skin and a family elder will keep talking to the body's spirit: The state funeral for South Africa's anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela on Sunday will also include those rituals from the tradition of the Xhosa people, to whom Mandela's Thembu clan belongs.
• The funeral in Mandela's southeastern childhood village of Qunu will be an eclectic mix of traditional rituals, Christian elements and those of a state funeral.
• Here's a brief look at the Xhosa people and the main elements of their burial traditions:
• The Xhosa people
• The majority of the country's 7 million Xhosa people live in the country's southeast, in the Eastern Cape province. Their language, Xhosa, is famous for its three click sounds. The Xhosa recognize the presence of ancestral spirits and call upon them for guidance. Veneration for the world of the ancestors, or Umkhapho in Xhosa, plays an important role in their culture. The ceremonial slaughtering of animals is one of the ways the ancestors are called upon for help, according to a website of South Africa's Tourism Department.
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Secret Service must rely on foreign gov'ts abroad, must manage risks to traveling president
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the hours before President Barack Obama arrived at a Johannesburg soccer stadium to honor Nelson Mandela, the White House staff was (Continued on page 24)
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