Brazil Leader to Attend Mandela Funeral

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will travel to South Africa to attend the funeral of late leader Nelson Mandela next week, her office said Friday.

Her government also decreed seven days of national mourning in honor of Mandela, who passed away at his home in Johannesburg on Thursday at the age of 95.

Rousseff will join other world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, and well-known personalities who were close to the statesman like Oprah Winfrey and Bill and Hillary Clinton, at the state funeral scheduled for December 15 in Pretoria.

The gathering will be one of the largest in South Africa since Mandela was inaugurated as its first black president in 1994.