From Washington,this is VOA News.

South Africans are gathering in churches, mosques, temples and other places for sure today for a national day of prayer and reflection honoring Nelson Mandela.

The country's firs black president and anti-apartheid icon died Thursday at the age of 95.

World leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, are traveling to Johannesburg to attend the official memorial service for Mr. Mandela on Thursday.

But today with his former wife, Winnie Mandikizela-Mandela, and other members of the Mandela family in the attendence at the Regina Mundi Roman Catholic Church,South African President Jacob Zuma thanked God for giving Mandela to South Africa.
 
Mandela's remains will lie in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria - the official seat of the South African government - on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

South Korea has declared an expanded air defense zone that partially overlaps one recently announced by China.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the new zone, which will take effect on December 15, will include a submerged reef in waters off the south coast.

The U.S. State Department said Sunday that the South Korean government had conferred with the United States in advance of Seoul's decision, including in a meeting Friday between U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and President Park Geun-hye in Seoul.

Thailand's Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she sees no immediate end to her country's political impasse.

But Yingluck says Thai officials are willing to negotiate with opposition protesters aiming to overthrow the government. She has said the only option the protesters now see is forcing the government to dissolve and for her to resign.

Opposition leaders have said they will not rest until Yingluck quits and turns over control to an unelected council.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his top diplomat are seeking support for a recent temporary agreement to halt Iran's nuclear programs and U.S. efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.

VOA's Kent Klein reports.

President Obama says he sees the chance of a final agreement on Iran's nuclear program as 50-50 (50 percent) or less.  But he sought to reassure critics that the latest deal will stop Iran from advancing its nuclear program for the next six months.

"What we can achieve through a diplomatic resolution of this situation is, frankly, greater than what we could achieve with the other options that are available to us."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who says the agreement is too soft on Iran, speaks to the forum on Sunday.

Obama pledged that the United States will always defend Israel.

Kent Klein VOA News WASHINGTON.

French troops have been welcomed in the streets of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, as warplanes and helicopters swooped low over the embattled city and residents cheered.

The deployment came as French President Francois Hollande said French reinforcements to a United Nations-mandated force would reach 1,600 by today -- 400 more than originally planned.

Mr. Hollande, speaking in Paris, said the French force had been ordered to disarm "all militias and armed groups terrorizing the population" in the city, where relief workers have collected hundreds of corpses since Thursday.

Ukraine's opposition, gearing up for what it hopes will be a massive demonstration Sunday, says it will only negotiate with President Viktor Yanukovych if he names a new government that will deepen European ties.

Organizers hope more than 300,000 people show up to protest Yanukovych's decision to back away from a trade deal with the European Union. And instead, he preserved economic ties with Moscow.

Opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk outlined their demands on Saturday, saying,"The first one to sack the government," which he says is "responsible for the political and economic mess that is in Ukraine right now."