LONDON (AP) British Prime Minister David Cameron has praised Nelson Mandela as "a towering figure" as he opened the tributes in the U.K. House of Commons for South Africa's late leader.
Cameron, who will fly to South Africa later Monday to attend a memorial service for Mandela, described the elder statesman as "a towering figure in our lifetime" who "did not see himself as the helpless victim of history he wrote it."
Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband drew laughs in recounting how Mandela appeared at a party conference and "described himself as an unemployed pensionerwith a criminal record," while former Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a rare appearance in the Commons to recognize "the man that taught us no injustice can last forever."
