ANC welcomes news on Nelson Mandela: News24: South Africa: News garage.

"Cape Town - The African National Congress has congratulated the Surgeon-General and the defence force for their 'sterling work' while former president Nelson Mandela was being treated in hospital.

It was announced on Friday that Mandela had been discharged from the Milpark Hospital, in Johannesburg, and would receive home-based care for an acute respiratory infection.

'This announcement brings to the end weeks of speculations and insensitive reporting by some sections of the media on the health of Madiba,' party spokesperson Jackson Mthembu said in a statement on Friday.

'We commend the sterling work done by the SANDF medical team led by the Surgeon-General, Lieutenant-General Vejaynand Ramlakan, who was responsible for Madiba's health and the Milpark Hospital specialised doctors, management and staff.'

The party also sent thanks to 'the entire South Africa community' and the international community for sending prayers and well wishes to Mandela for his speedy recovery.

- SAPA"

ANC welcomes news on Nelson Mandela: News24: South Africa

Egypt sends army into streets amid mass protests

"Cairo, Egypt -- The Egyptian army patrolled the streets of Cairo with armored personnel carriers Friday after thousands of angry anti-government demonstrators clashed with tear-gas firing police.
As the government cracked down on protesters across Egypt, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, who returned home to Cairo to join the demonstrations, was placed under house arrest, a high-level security source told CNN.
ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, was warned earlier not to leave a mosque near downtown Cairo where he was attending Friday prayers.
Authorities imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. local time in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, where the largest demonstrations took place Friday.
In Cairo, vans packed with riot police circled neighborhoods before the start of weekly prayers in the afternoon. Later in the day, Egyptian soldiers moved onto the streets for the first time since the unrest began Tuesday.
But protesters, fed up with economic woes and a lack of freedoms, defied security warnings to demand an end to President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian 30-year-rule."

Egypt sends army into streets amid mass protests - CNN.com

Bin Laden message warns France to pull out of Afghanistan

"Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- A speaker claiming to be terrorism mastermind Osama bin Laden warned in an audiotape aired Friday that the release of two French journalists abducted by militants hinges on France's military role in Afghanistan.
'We repeat the same message to you,' said the speaker in an audiotape played on the Al-Jazeera satellite news network. 'The release of your prisoners from the hands of our brethren depends on the withdrawal of your soldiers from our countries.'
One U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN that the tape 'sends a chill up your spine,' as it refers to 'a couple of human beings whose lives are at stake.'"

Bin Laden message warns France to pull out of Afghanistan - CNN.com

Tucson

TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords was distressed when the glass front door of her district office here was shattered by a kick or a pellet gun last March, an act of vandalism that took place hours after she joined Democrats in passing President Obama’s health care bill. “Things have really gotten spun up,” she told a television interviewer the next day.

But tensions have long run high in the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona, a classic swing district that shares a 114-mile border with Mexico. Protesters chained themselves to the desks of Ms. Giffords’s Republican predecessor, Jim Kolbe, 12 years ago. And over the past year, Ms. Giffords struggled in a brutal re-election campaign during which her opponent appeared in a Web advertisement holding an assault weapon. The district has become a caldron of divisions over government spending,immigration, health care and Barack Obama.

Today, the Eighth District stands apart as one of the most emotionally and politically polarized in the nation.

The rampage on Saturday that left six dead and Ms. Giffords gravely wounded may prove to be an isolated act of violence by a mentally disturbed man. The suspect attended at least one of Ms. Giffords’s town meetings before the event Saturday.

Still, the shootings came after a disconcerting run of episodes in this district of mountains and desert, raising temperatures here in a way that some that some of Ms. Giffords’s friends argue fed an atmosphere that might encourage violence.

Several of them pointed back to the smashed door of her district headquarters at 1661 North Swan Street last March as a turning point; a time when a cloud of unease settled over Ms. Giffords and her staff.

liverpools stricker Fernando Torres goes to Barcelona

With the January transfer window opening in just a few days, Barcelona are reportedly set to try and sign Liverpool striker Fernando Torres and Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas
Barca's new shirt sponsorship deal with the Qatar Foundation has given them the funds to make some major moves in the transfer market and according to The Mirror, the Spaniards are ready to raid the Premier League for two of its best players.
Fabregas has long been a transfer target for the Catalan club, with the Arsenal midfielder seeming to be close to moving to Camp Nou last summer only to be talked into staying in north London.
But the Spain international is believed to be keen on still playing for the La Liga giants and should a bid be made, Arsenal may find it hard to hold on to the midfielder.
Liverpool striker Torres has not enjoyed the best of seasons so far and has also been linked with Barca's rivals Real Madrid.
The former Atletico Madrid forward was linked with a move away from Anfield last summer only to pledge his future to the Merseysiders, but after a disappointing first half to the season may opt to leave the club unless its new owners NESV decide to invest in new players to such an extent that Roy Hodgson's side become serious title challengers again.