A spokesman for former US president George H.W. Bush has apologised after erroneously issuing a statement of condolence stating that South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela had died.

Nelson Mandela went home in an ambulance after nearly three months in a hospital that became the focus of a global outpouring of concern.

A probe into policing in the troubled new country of South Sudan has uncovered 11,000 fake names on the payroll.