PRESIDENT Nelson Mandela yesterday met actor Sidney Poitier, who Will play the part of the South African leader in a movie based on the country's transition to democracy.
Mandela posed for photographs with Poitier at his office, referring to the American actor as "not only a film star, but a freedom fighter".
Mandela joked that he would not wash his hands after he shook hands with Poitier.
Poitier plays Mandela in One Man, Oned Vote, which began filming earlier this month.
Pope John Paul arrived in Slovenia yesterday on his 76th birthday for a three day visit to the former Yugoslav republic.
The late John Wayne has been technically resurrected to appear in a TV commercial, 20 years after his death.
The legendary action hero, affectionately known as "The Duke", appears in an ad for Coors Light beer dressed as a general who admits to a drill sergeant browbeating his troops about a missing beer can: "It's my beer. Sergeant.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin has enrolled a popular circus director in his pre election campaign. "Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin is a difficult personality and a difficult politician, but there are 110 ideal people in the world," Yuri Nikurin, boss of the Moscow's Circus, and the author of several books of jokes, said in a broadcast.
Stephen Fry was close to suicide after walking out of a West End play last year - and only the thought of the pain it would cause his elderly parents stopped him, he said.
He would have acted more sensibly had he contacted the Samaritans before disappearing, he told the launch of Samaritans Week.
Australia has sworn in its first aboriginal judge in a ceremony hailed as a step towards racial harmony.
Sydney lawyer Bob Bellear, began studying law in the early 1970s in response to widespread police harassment of aborigines.
A 22 year old Australian has worn through eight pairs of shoes and written himself into the record books for the most golf holes played in a week.
Richard Cavander Cole ran, walked and stumbled over the Sanctuary Cove golf resort playing more than 6 rounds (1,134 holes).