Doctor Who actress Mary Tamm dies

Doctor Who star Mary Tamm, who played companion Romana alongside Tom Baker, has died aged 62.

The actress, who was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, fought a long battle with cancer and died in hospital in London.
Agent Barry Langford, who confirmed the news, said she had a "zest for life".
"She was a darling companion and wonderfully witty and kind," said Tom Baker, who played the fourth Doctor. "I'm so sorry to hear of her death."
Colin Baker, who played the sixth Doctor, wrote on Twitter: "Shellshocked to hear Mary Tamm is gone. A funny, caring, talented, lovely and down to earth lady."
Tamm's stage and screen career also included films The Odessa File and The Likely Lads, as well as recurring roles in EastEnders and Brookside.
"She was a fantastic actress," said Langford, who was her agent for 22 years.
"She played stage parts of such range, parts that would take your breath away. She could play any role, and do so wonderfully."
Tamm, who lived in London, had been suffering from cancer for 18 months.

Tamm appeared in six stories as companion Romana, alongside Tom Baker, in the late 1970s

The actress played Romana, a Time Lady from the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey, alongside Tom Baker's Doctor and his robot dog K-9 in a season of six connected stories in 1978-9.
Her first story, The Ribos Operation, saw her join the Tardis crew on a quest to find the six scattered segments of the Key to Time.
Romana's other adventures included a story called The Pirate Planet, written by Douglas Adams, and The Stones of Blood, which was the 100th story since the sci-fi show started in 1963.
When Tamm left Doctor Who the role of Romana was taken over by Lalla Ward.
Tamm trained at Rada, beginning her career at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, alongside Derek Jacobi, Joan Sims and Ronnie Barker.
Her stage work included the roles of Amanda in Private Lives and Beverley in Abigail's Party.
She moved on to work in television and film. Her first feature film was Tales That Witness Madness, with Kim Novak.
More recently, she starred in Wire in the Blood, Paradise Heights and Jonathan Creek on TV.

The Stones of Blood was one of the six stories that Tamm was involved in

Actress Helen Lederer, a friend of Tamm's, said: "Mary was such an energised, talented woman with a great twinkle in her eye and she was so very beautiful."
Tamm leaves behind husband Marcus Ringrose, daughter Lauren and seven-year-old grandson Max.
Mr Ringrose paid tribute to her "sheer talent".
"Mary was truly beautiful in every way. On set and offstage, her earthy northern humour and self-deprecating wit brightened every occasion."
"We will miss her every day."
Her agent Langford revealed that Tamm had been saddened by the recent deaths of contemporaries Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who, and Angharad Rees, who died last weekend.
He said: "All of these people who she knew were going."

NDC endorses President Mahama as flagbearer

 
The National Executive Council of ruling National Democratic Congress has endorsed President John Dramani Mahama as the party’s candidate for the December general elections.

The NDC’s flagbearer slot became vacant after its flagbearer and then sitting president John Evans Atta Mills died unexpectedly last Tuesday.

National Executive Council (NEC) of the party had been meeting on Thursday to deliberate on finding a replacement for Prof. Mills to lead the party to the 2012 December elections.

Joy News Sammy Darko reported that the decision to endorse President Mahama followed a motion moved by the NDC's Parliamentary group led by Member for Tamale South and Minister for Communications, Haruna Iddrisu.

President John Mahama will be presented to congress at a date not later than September 1, 2012, to be endorsed by delegates.

London Olympics final countdown begins

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics is due to take place later after seven years of preparations.

The three-hour spectacle in the Olympic Stadium is expected to be viewed by a global TV audience of a billion people.
The final day of the torch relay will see the Olympic flame taken along the Thames on royal rowbarge Gloriana - and then used to light the cauldron that will shine during 16 days of sport.
The Games will see the biggest UK peacetime security operation mounted.
Organisers have released a video clip giving a sneak preview of Oscar winner Danny Boyle's opening ceremony, featuring groups in colourful stage outfits dancing to Tiger Feet by 1970s rock group Mud and cyclists with wings pedalling along to Come Together by the Beatles.
Europe's largest bell will ring inside the stadium at 21:00 BST at the start of the £27m extravaganza, featuring a cast of 10,000 volunteers and said to be a quirky take on British life.

Some 15,000 square metres of staging and 12,956 props will be used, and the event will boast a million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers.

The crowd of about 80,000 will include the Queen and a host of dignitaries and celebrities.
As late as Thursday night, Games organisers said that the ceremony had not sold out and tickets in the two highest price categories, costing £2,012 and £1,600 were still available.
In other developments:

• London taxi drivers who were to protest at Hyde Park Corner over their ban from using Olympic traffic lanes have been banned by the Metropolitan Police.
• A mass bell-ringing, conceived by Turner Prize-winner Martin Creed, is to take place for three minutes from 08:12 BST to mark the official start of the Games. Big Ben will chime 40 times during the period
• About 60,000 people gathered in Hyde Park on Thursday night to see the final torchbearer light a cauldron in front of 60,000 people as London Mayor Boris Johnson wished the crowds a wonderful Olympics, and thanked them for their support
• The Team GB men's football team were denied victory on their return to the Olympic Games after a 52-year absence when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Senegal in their opening Group A match at Old Trafford on Thursday in front of a near capacity crowd of 72,476
• The mayor of London has hit out at US presidential candidate Mitt Romney for comments suggesting Britain is not ready to stage the Olympic Games

The torch relay is at Hampton Court Palace, where it wove through the famous maze before travelling down the Thames.
The final torchbearer of the 70-day relay will be 22-year-old basketball player Amber Charles, who played a key role in London's winning bid and who will carry the flame in front of City Hall and Tower Bridge at approximately 12:45 BST.
The relay ends late in the evening with the lighting of the cauldron during the opening ceremony but the identity of the person who will take on the honour remains a mystery.

Mandela plot: South African convicted of treason

The mastermind of a white supremacist plot to kill Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, has been convicted of treason.

A Pretoria court ruled that Boeremag group leader Mike du Toit was behind the nine bombings in Johannesburg's Soweto township in 2002.
He is the first person to be convicted of treason in South Africa since white minority rule ended in 1994.
Analysts say race relations in South Africa are still tense.
However, white extremist groups like Boeremag, which means Afrikaner Power in Afrikaans, have very little support, they say.
'Blueprint for revolution' The Pretoria High Court handed down its verdict against Du Toit, a former academic, following a nine-year trial.
Earlier Judge Eben Jordaan said Du Toit had authored a blueprint for revolution intended to evict black people from most of South Africa and to kill anyone who got in the way, the South African Press Association reports.
Witnesses told the court that Boeremag had carried out a spate of bombings in Soweto in 2002, killing one person.
The Boeremag had also planned to stage a coup and assassinate Mr Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison before being elected president in 1994 and acted as a unifying force after decades of white-minority rule.
The group also intended to shoot whites who opposed their vision of a racially pure nation, the witnesses said.
More than 20 other suspects were on trial with Du Toit, but the court has not yet ruled on their fate.
Nearly 200 people gave evidence for the state - including police informants within Boeremag.

Mr Mandela stood down as South Africa's president in 1999 after serving one term, handing over to Thabo Mbeki.