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An international incident was touched off yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa, when a goodwill appearance by President Obama was interrupted by an impromptu funeral. Mr. Obama was generously posing for souvenir pictures of himself with fawning admirers at the FNB Stadium (Soccer City), when security people rolled in Nelson Mandela's casket and demanded to have a memorial service. When questioned as to why they were disrupting Mr. Obama's appearance, the security men offered no explanation aside from "we reserved the stadium last week for this." "This kind of thing is a constant problem for Mr. Obama" said one of his...

South Africa's apartheid is a familiar concept the world over. But what did it actually look like? Established in 1948 under the racialist National Party, apartheid not only meant separate and inferior public services, benches and building entrances for non-whites. It also stripped South African blacks of their citizenship (placing them into tribally-based bantustans instead) and abolished all non-white political representation. Nelson Mandela was a key anti-apartheid activist, leading defiance campaigns and working as a lawyer. He was arrested in 1962, and given a life sentence for conspiracy to overthrow the government. His imprisonment did little to quell resistance. After...

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President Obama took a selfie with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt while seated in the audience at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in South Africa on Tuesday.

An international incident was touched off yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa, when a goodwill appearance by President Obama was interrupted by an impromptu funeral. Mr. Obama was generously posing for souvenir pictures of himself with fawning admirers at the FNB Stadium (Soccer City), when security people rolled in Nelson Mandela's casket and demanded to have a memorial service. When questioned as to why they were disrupting Mr. Obama's appearance, the security men offered no explanation aside from "we reserved the stadium last week for this." "This kind of thing is a constant problem for Mr. Obama" said one of his...

Given that the entire planet seems to be of one voice in both mourning the loss of Nelson Mandela and celebrating his life, most will find it inconceivable that anyone would think to so much as suggest that Mandela was anything less than the saint that his admirers are working tirelessly to depict him as. But truth is truth and Mandela was no saint. Mandela was a proponent of “democratic socialism” who, along with the South African Communist Party, unleashed a torrent of violence against his political opponents that included the bombing of government sites. He was convicted of “sabotage”...

With the death of Nelson Mandela, the mythology continues that, under Ronald Reagan, the 1980s was the lost decade in dealing with South Africa. It’s the same old line — Reagan was insensitive to AIDS because he wasn’t gay. He was insensitive to racism because he wasn’t black. And he was not involved in policy, because he wasn’t very deep. All of that is just not true. During the recent Bush Administration, I served on the board of the National Defense University (NDU) and came to know two of my colleagues — Chester Crocker and Edward Perkins. Chet, an academician...

Calling him one of the “most influential, courageous and profoundly good people to ever have lived,” President Obama ordered all U.S. flags lowered to half-staff in honor of Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday, December 5. As the worldwide tributes pour in for the former leader of the African National Congress (ANC) and first black president of South Africa, it is good to remember just who Mandela was, and who he wasn’t.As president of South Africa, Mandela—though a typically bumbling socialist—was not a vengeful character. After having spent much of his adult life in prison, he is widely praised...

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), in an appearance on MSNBC's "PoliticsNation" on Friday, condemned former Sen. Rick Santorum's comments comparing Nelson Mandela's fight against apartheid to the fight against Obamacare as "shameful." "And actually if I was going to make a comparison, I would make the opposite comparison, because I think the struggle for justice, which Nelson Mandela led for so many years is similar as the struggle for the health care as a right for people in the richest country in the world, and so the idea that they would make that comparison in the opposite way is...

Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under fire for missing Nelson Mandela’s memorial in Johannesburg on Tuesday. Although dozens of world leaders made the trip, she stayed in Berlin. Germany was represented by President Joachim Gauck, who took his place alongside world figures including US President Barack Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Although Merkel wrote in a book of condolence in the South African Embassy in Berlin on Monday, she did not travel to pay personal tribute, a decision which was criticized by some. …

A sterling example of the maxim, no good deed goes unpunished. Former President George W. Bush was booed when he appeared on the video monitor at today’s memorial for Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, according to the White House pool report, which cited local press outlets. Meanwhile, when the images President Obama and Michelle popped up, there was a 30-second “deafening roar,” the pooler wrote. How sad. Bush has done an far greater amount for South Africa than Obama. But Obama is much better at crafting his public image and saying the right things. Bush personally saved the lives...

In the last two decades of his life, Nelson Mandela was celebrated as a model of how to liberate a country from the colonial yoke without succumbing to the temptation of dictatorial power and anti-capitalist posturing. In short, Mandela was not Mugabe, South Africa remained a multi-party democracy with free press and a vibrant economy well-integrated into the global market and immune to hasty Socialist experiments. Now, with his death, his stature as a saintly wise man seems confirmed for eternity: there are Hollywood movies about him — he was impersonated by Morgan Freeman, who also, by the way, played...

David Cameron and Barack Obama were caught posing for a mobile phone “selfie” at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. The two men were sat either side of Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and smiled as she took the snapshot of the three leaders at the FNB Stadium in Soweto. … Twitter user @jamesarmitage3 wrote: “What selfish morons take a ‘selfie’ at a memorial service? Oh yeah that’s right, Barack Obama and David Cameron.” …

Mandela's final act of peace: Obama shakes hands with Fidel Castro's brother (before selfies with David Cameron and Danish PM) President Obama shook hands with Cuban President Raul Castro today, an unprecedented gesture of friendship which occurred, fittingly, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. The handshake between leaders of the two Cold War enemies took place during a ceremony which honored the former South African President's powerful legacy of reconciliation... He was later spotted in the VIP stands posing for a 'selfie' camera phone picture with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Danish PM Helle Thorning Schmidt...

In this 1987 presentation, filmed in South Africa before an audience of 1,000, Donald S. McAlvany clearly detailed the Soviet strategy for drenching the African continent in violence and bloodshed.

US President Barack Obama, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and Denmark's PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt took an impromptu photograph of themselves at the memorial service for the late South African President Nelson Mandela.

*SNIP* Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, said it was a "bad joke" to have invited Raul Castro talk during funeral services for Mandela, along with Obama and other international figures... "We admire Mandela because it represented the opposite side Castrism", said Sanchez

Soweto (South Africa) — A rain-sodden crowd at the Nelson Mandela memorial repeatedly booed one of his successors as president, Jacob Zuma, Tuesday, in a sign of growing discontent at this generation of South African leaders. As images of Zuma flashed up on the big screens inside the Soweto stadium, there were sustained and repeated jeers from the tens of thousands of onlookers present. Amid the tuneful celebrations to Mandela's life, the heckles were jarring. Mandela's immediate successor Thabo Mbeki received applause in what often appeared to turn into a political beauty contest.

Gov. Jerry Brown said flags would be flown at half-staff at the state Capitol and issued this reaction: “Nelson Mandela fought heroically for freedom and a truly democratic society. His courageous life shows what’s possible when one acts on his convictions.” Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released a statement saying, “I will never forget the time I spent with President Mandela.” The former governor recalled how “during the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics in South Africa, I had the opportunity to stand with him in his former jail cell at Robben Island to light the torch, and his legend grew...

The Internet is buzzing over a sequence of photos that appear to show First Lady Michelle Obama having a snit over her husband President Barack Obama having fun with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as they sat at the Nelson Mandela memorial in South Africa today.The sequence seems to have started with Obama, Thorning-Schmidt and British Prime Minister David Cameron posing for a 'selfie', followed by Obama touching Thorning-Schmidt on her shoulder, then a glaring Michelle Obama, ending up in Barack and Michelle switching seats so that she is now sitting next to Thorning-Schmidt.Photos via Twitter.SourceSource