Nelson Mandela

South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela ended a three-day visit here Saturday after an unhesitant embrace of Cuban President Fidel Castro's Communist revolution, which he called "a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people." "We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious, imperialist-orchestrated campaign," Mandela told a rally at which he was Castro's honored guest.

For a look at the future of digital museums, check out the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory's new digital archive composed of thousands of scanned documents from the African leader's life. With the help of a $1.25 million grant from Google, the center digitized thousands of documents and images that illustrate the life and times of South Africa's first black president. But instead of scanning them and dumping them online for scholars to peruse, the center, with Google's support, created a virtual museum experience -- highlighting certain pieces from the archives, putting them in the context of Mandela's life and then enabling a visitor to the site to go deeper if they'd like.

Nelson Mandela's hobbling steps up to the stage at an African National Congress election rally Sunday were painfully slow, but they were a powerful political boost to president-in-waiting Jacob Zuma. The crowd at the ruling ANC's final rally before general elections Wednesday was ecstatic when Mandela -- known here as Madiba -- made an unannounced visit, circling the Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg on a golf cart with Zuma at his side.

Former U.S. Rep. Howard Wolpe, a Michigan Democrat who played a key role in the 1986 passage of the federal anti-apartheid act that imposed economic sanctions on South Africa, has died. He was 71. Wolpe, who had been ill with a heart condition, died Tuesday at his home in Saugatuck, Mich., said Ken Brock, a former staff member. As chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Wolpe was a main sponsor of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, which demanded the end of apartheid and mandated sanctions against South Africa for its system of white-minority rule.

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa — One of the highlights of the 2010 World Cup took place about 10 minutes before the players took the field to warm up for Sunday's final. After a star-studded closing ceremony headlined by Shakira and a herd of 13 faux white elephants, former South African president Nelson Mandela made a brief appearance, greeting the 80,000-plus at Soccer City Stadium. Mandela, who will turn 92 this week, was driven out onto the field in a golf cart, accompanied by wife Graca Machel and flanked by at least half a dozen security personnel.

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa -- A week into the country's monthlong World Cup celebration Nelson Mandela , the man considered the father of the new South Africa, made his first public appearance Thursday by attending the funeral of his 13-year-old great-granddaughter. And though Mandela still hasn't spoken publicly, his grandson Mandla Mandela said the 91-year-old former president is following the tournament and believes it can help promote peace both in the country and on the continent.

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to welcome Nelson Mandela with a day in his honor, but one board member called on the black South African leader to repudiate his support of Yasser Arafat, Moammar Kadafi and Fidel Castro. Supervisor Mike Antonovich blamed the three leaders for much of the "bloodshed" in the Middle East and Africa, and urged the African National Congress leader to distance himself from them.

In the chilly night air at Wembley Stadium, tens of thousands of pop music fans gave their loudest and longest ovation to a man who's never had a song on the charts. In fact they sang to him, belting out the Broadway show tune turned British soccer standard "You'll Never Walk Alone" for anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.

Wilton Mkwayi, 81, who served 20 years of a life sentence alongside former South African President Nelson Mandela for combating apartheid, died Friday of cancer in King Williams Town, South Africa. Mkwayi helped the African National Congress party fight the system of white rule by founding and leading its armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation, for which he was sentenced in 1964 to life in prison. He served with Mandela at the prison on Robben Island.

Imprisoned black leader Nelson Mandela saw relatives and fellow activists Saturday after earlier rejecting government-sanctioned visits to protest a ban on celebrations of his 70th birthday. Mandela's wife Winnie, their daughter, two grandchildren and an American attorney who represents the Mandela family's interests visited Mandela at Pollsmoor Prison for 80 minutes.

The worst thing about growing up a bookworm in a South African squatter camp wasn't the dearth of books. Reading was "un-African," William Gumede remembers. It wasn't manly, like sports or kite-flying. So if you did get your hands on a book, you'd better have a good place to hide it, or you'd get a beating and see your book ripped up. The day he heard that a mobile library was coming to a nearby township in Eastern Cape province, he and a friend walked miles to see it, and the library card he was given changed his life.

To promote its Emmy nomination, A&E bought a print ad for "Hoarders" that used quotes from celebrity fan Kathy Griffin. The problem? "Hoarders" and Bravo's "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" are both nominated in the reality program category. Not happy with her competitor's tactic, Griffin has come out with her own Emmy promo ad that reads, "Quoting me in an Emmy ad? Bravo, Hoarders. BRAVO. " Griffin is pictured among stacks of newspapers and magazines, a la "Hoarders.

A highway and a mile-wide valley divide the glittering retail towers and leafy suburbs of Sandton from the exuberant chaos and squalid poverty of Alexandra township in South Africa. But on Mandela Day, the birthday of the nation's best-loved liberation hero, the gulf seems less impossible. Nelson Mandela celebrated his 93rd birthday Monday with family at his home village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, while adoring compatriots rolled up their sleeves and did some good. It's a day when people in South Africa try a little kindness — 67 minutes' worth — in honor of the 67 years that Mandela worked for equality in the African nation, from 1942 until his retirement from public life in 2009.

First Lady Michelle Obama met Tuesday afternoon with Nelson Mandela, this nation's first black president, a revered figure who has largely disappeared from public view for many months. It was a historic meeting for Mandela, 92, an iconic symbol of the country's fight against apartheid, and Obama, 47, the first black wife of a U.S. president. The first lady arrived Monday for a weeklong official visit to Africa. She and Mandela had not met before. In 2005, Mandela met then-Sen.

He has an illegal Soviet gun and 200 rounds of ammunition. He's just returned from a military training camp in northern Africa and he's planning to blow things up. He's a hero to his followers, but a terrorist to the government. And police are closing in. So, hide the gun and ammo. He steps out the back door of the rural farmhouse hide-out, paces out 20 steps and digs a deep pit on the edge of a field. He oils the weapon, wraps it in plastic and foil, then in khaki cloth, places it in the hole and covers it carefully with a piece of tin to deflect the rain.

South Africans heaved a sigh of relief after their beloved 92-year-old former president Nelson Mandela was discharged Friday from a hospital and returned home after being treated for a respiratory infection. Mandela, who served as the country's first democratically elected president from 1994 to 1999, was driven home about lunchtime in a military ambulance. Doctors at Milpark Hospital, near Mandela's home in Houghton, a leafy Johannesburg suburb, had announced earlier that he had suffered an acute respiratory infection but was recovering well.

Mary Benson, 80, exiled anti-apartheid campaigner and biographer of Nelson Mandela. Benson absorbed the prejudices of white South Africans growing up in Pretoria, where she was born in 1919. She did not reject those attitudes until she read Alan Paton's celebrated novel about the nation, "Cry the Beloved Country," in 1948. She developed a close friendship with Paton and began to write about black Africans' struggle against apartheid and campaign in London for their cause.

Imagine conducting a movie research screening with Nelson Mandela as the test audience. As far as Arsenio Hall figured, who other than the African National Congress leader could best judge the authenticity of "Bopha!"--the talk show host's debut film as an executive producer--than someone who has lived, breathed and fought apartheid all his life. "I knew he was coming to Los Angeles.

For the second time in a few weeks, rumors swept South Africa on Thursday that Nelson Mandela, the country's beloved former president, had died. Mandela, 92, was hospitalized Wednesday for what were described as routine tests, and he remained in the hospital Thursday. There was no official announcement on the reasons for the longer stay. Reuters news agency reported that he was recovering from a collapsed lung and might be discharged Friday. Mandela, South Africa's first democratically elected president who was imprisoned for 27 years because of his struggle against apartheid, is regarded as one of the world's most inspiring liberation leaders.

South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen maintained his grip on the British Open on Sunday and with a stunning 40-foot eagle putt at the ninth kept closest challenger Paul Casey four shots at bay. A win so unpredictable at the start of the week -- he had missed the cut in all his three previous Opens -- was starting to look like something of a stroll as the 27-year-old Oosthuizen compiled seven steady pars before he showed his first signs of frailty with...