"Nelson Mandela, who led the emancipation of South Africa from white minority rule and served as his country’s first black president..."

"... becoming an international emblem of dignity and forbearance, died Thursday. He was 95."

Mr. Mandela’s quest for freedom took him from the court of tribal royalty to the liberation underground to a prison rock quarry to the presidential suite of Africa’s richest country. And then, when his first term of office was up, unlike so many of the successful revolutionaries he regarded as kindred spirits, he declined a second term and cheerfully handed over power to an elected successor, the country still gnawed by crime, poverty, corruption and disease but a democracy, respected in the world and remarkably at peace.

"As the anti-apartheid icon fights for survival in a hospital, his family is clashing over where and how he is to be buried."

"The squabble is playing out in newspapers, online and on TV, angering a nation gripped with grief and praying collectively for their beloved 94-year-old former president to remain with them longer."

In microcosm, the tragic decline from one generation to the next.

"A South African magistrate granted bail Friday to double amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius..."

"... who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius is charged with premeditated murder in the death of Steenkamp."

CNN breaking news email.

Wow.

If you were him now, wouldn't you attempt to flee?

ADDED: Think he's too recognizable because of his lack of feet? What about the 1-armed man on "The Fugitive"? He escaped notice for years.

"And the Xhosa for 'tort' is ulwaphulomthetho (oo lwa poo loom twe to)."

Questions, asked at Althouse, get answers.

Police beg for help catching 10,000 escaped crocodiles.

In South Africa, where a flood enabled the animals' escape from a farm (where they are raised for their meat and their glamorous skins).

South African president Jacob Zuma said owning a dog is part of "white culture."

He said that loving dogs more than people shows a “lack of humanity” and an effort to “emulate whiteness.” He's gotten some criticism for these remarks.

The president’s office sought to clarify his remarks, saying he was encouraging “the previously oppressed African majority” to uphold its own culture.