South Africa says Mandela condition improved overnight, still critical

Former South African president Nelson Mandela's condition improved overnight and is now "stable" while still critical, the government said on Thursday.

The statement followed a visit by President Jacob Zuma - his second in the past 24 hours - to the anti-apartheid hero in a Pretoria hospital, where he is being treated for a lung infection.
 
This comes as Mandela is responding to touch and is "still there", his eldest daughter Makaziwe said after visiting the critically ill anti-apartheid leader in hospital.

"I won't lie, it doesn't look good. But as I say, if we speak to him, he responds and tries to open his eyes. He's still there. He might be waning off, but he's still there," she told SABC radio.
 
Meanwhile, members of a South African choir have prayed and sung outside a hospital where Nelson Mandela, the country's former president, is reported to be in critical condition.
     
In addition to the choir from the Salvation Army, other people arrived to deliver flowers and messages of support for 94-year-old Mandela at the hospital in Pretoria, the South African capital.
     
Members of the youth league of the country's ruling party, the African National Congress, were planning prayer meetings Thursday to honor the anti-apartheid leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
   
President Jacob Zuma canceled a trip to Mozambique on Thursday in an indication of heightened concern about Mandela, whose health deteriorated last weekend.
 

AP/REUTERS