14/12/2013 BBC Weekend News

Good evening. The body of Nelson Mandela has been taken to its final

resting place, his childhood village of Qunu, where he will be buried

tomorrow. The coffin was flown to the Eastern Cape, where large crowds

turned out to pay their respects. World affairs editor John Simpson

reports. Solemnly, the coffin carrying the

body of the man who transformed this country was brought to Waterkloof

airport for the ANC's farewell to him. For his widow, Graca Machel,

this was the most emotional public moment so far. Friends say she has

taken his death had. It has been a difficult time politically for Jacob

Zuma, the president has had to endure public criticism and

humiliation. But here he could speak without being heckled. Madiba had

something powerful. He had the capacity to persuade... The guests,

made up a varied gathering, including Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein

in Ireland, a man who also talked peace with his former enemies. But

they did not include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mandela's long-term

friend. He says he has not been invited to the funeral. The ANC,

with whom he does not see eye to eye, insists he has been. And then

it was time to start the journey home. Nelson Mandela was leaving the

region where, in the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, he had

achieved his greatest successes. He was heading back to the poorer but

even more beautiful territory of the Eastern Cape. You might have

expected the crowds along the road to his birthplace, Qunu, to be sad

and quiet. On the contrary. This is such a sad day, and yet

everybody is happy, why is that? It is so painful that he is dead, but

now we have the chance to celebrate. So you are celebrating his life and

showing your gratitude? CROWD: Yeah! And then down the road, the

procession accompanying the herds with Nelson Mandela's body. Once he

tended farm animals in the fields around here, just as children still

do. Now the one-time shepherd boy had the full panoply of the state to

bring him back home. Africa correspondent Andrew Harding

is in Qunu now, where the funeral service will take place tomorrow, so

many big events this last few days, but tomorrow is going to be

enormous. It is, Nick. You have just missed a

spectacular sunset here, and it will be an early start tomorrow, the

coffin taken from Nelson Mandela's house in the valley to a marquee in

the garden and then to a private burial plot. It will be a hybrid

ceremony-events tomorrow, there will be an ox slaughtered in keeping with

local traditions, there will be a Christian service. It will be on one

level and intensely private family event, so no cameras at the actual

burial, but it is also a state funeral, so 4000 guests, including

the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles, and a number of African leaders,

although not, as John was mentioning, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

There is some confusion there. We were told he was very upset that he

had been left off the guest list and did not want to gate-crash, but then

the government insisted it was not a snub, because there was frequent

criticism of the ruling party, but a misunderstanding and he was welcome

to come. We will wait to see if he manages to get here in time. In the

meantime, the forecast for tomorrow is rain, but apart from that,

everything seems to be going very smoothly. As John suggested, the

mood is very joyful here. In other news, china's ambitious

space programme took another giant leap today, successfully landing an

unmanned spacecraft on the moon. It is the first landing in 37 years

following the United States and the former Soviet Union. From Beijing,

Damian Grammaticas reports. 250,000 miles from earth and

descending to the moon, live coverage of the mission was beamed

across China. Computer animations were used to show the unmanned moon

lander manoeuvring carefully into place. 100 metres above the lunar

surface, an board cameras began sending still images of the landing

site, a lava plain known as the Bay of Rainbows. Computers on the probe

controlled its final moments. Four metres from the surface, it

hovered, then cut its engines, a perfect soft landing, one giant step

for Chinese ambition. This is a feat only two countries have achieved

before. Just as, for America and the Soviet Union, with their moon

missions 40 years ago, China's is a showcase, a statement of national

prowess. It stokes national pride and, after this, China wants to

bring back samples from the moon, and one day maybe send a Chinese

astronaut their plans. The robotic rover will spend the next few months

exploring the service, but for this rising nation, the science is less

important than the symbolism as it reaches for the moon.

Detectives investigating the disappearance of Jayden Parkinson in

Oxford just say they are now treating it as a murder inquiry. The

17-year-old has been missing for nearly two weeks. A man and a

17-year-old have been arrested on suspicion of murder. Police say

nobody has found but they want to speak to a man who was seen with a

suitcase in a field near Upton village.

A witness has come forward to say that, in the early hours of Monday

the 9th of December, at about 2am, they saw a man with a large suitcase

in that rural area. The suitcase was large, it was heavy, it was

difficult to manage. NHS England is to announce plans to

improve care for patients at weekends with more senior staff on

duty following concerns that people treated on Saturday and Sunday

supper worst medical outcomes and higher death rates than those

admitted during the week. -- suffer. Dissident republicans opposed to the

peace process a they carried out a bomb attack in Belfast last night.

Police say the explosion could have killed or caused serious injury in

an area packed with people. Claire Savage reports.

It was supposed to be a big night out for Belfast, with many relaxing

at the end of the week, enjoying Christmas parties. Instead, hundreds

had to be evacuated from the city's Cathedral Quarter. This photograph

was taken moments after the bomb went off. It only partially

detonated, and no-one was injured. A warning had been received, but it

gave the wrong location. This was the bag in which the bomb was

placed. The scene of the blast was cleared this morning with barely a

sign of the explosion. Dissident republicans have claimed

responsibility for the attack, which police say could have killed. This

device was fully functional. It could have injured or killed members

of the public. And it has similarities to previous devices

used by dissident republicans. Yesterday's attack was the latest in

a string of dissident attacks. Last month, a car bomb partially exploded

near a police station, also in the city centre. The political

settlement has transformed life in Northern Ireland, it is not going

back to the dark days of the past, and that is illustrated by the

universal condemnation of what went on last night in Belfast city

centre. It was business as usual today for

Belfast shoppers, and a sense of defiance. It would not put we off,

because it is isolated. I am not going to be put off by things like

that. Hopefully they will stop what they are doing and let everyone get

on with their lives in peace. It is one of the busiest shopping days of

the year and a busy night for Belfast, so police have ramped up

security measures in the cities and and have urged the public to keep an

eye out for anything suspicious. Belfast may be accustomed to

disruptions of this kind, but there is still in these in the city

tonight that normal life has once again been disrupted by a bomb. --

there is still an ease. The cricket now, and English hopes

of holding onto the Ashes are a knife edge. They two of the crucial

Third Test in Perth concluded with England on 180 - four. -- they two.

There is still something to fight over in the Ashes, England had

finished the Australian Ashes fairly promptly and felt themselves in

pursuit of 385. 85 on the board when Carbury miscalculated, ball off back

onto stumps, and so Joe Root. The filed by a decided eventually that

he had edged the ball to the wicketkeeper. Joe Root said no,

review. If the conclusion was inconclusive, the decision stayed it

was, gone for four. Alastair Cook forced to 72 and unleashed a shot to

David Warner. Australia had worked hard to restrain Kevin Pietersen,

hoping for just this kind of thing. A wonderful catch by Mitchell

Johnson, bowler Peter Siddle and the whole Australian team celebrated the

success of a plan coming together again. England will resume 205

behind and four wickets down, still time for them to make a meaningful

contribution with the bat, but that time is now or never.

That is it, I will be back with our next bulletin