Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 95

JOHANNESBURG: South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on Thursday after a prolonged lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man hailed by global leaders as a moral giant. Although Mandela had been frail and ailing for nearly a year, Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate shook South Africa. Tributes began flooding in almost immediately for a man who was an iconic global symbol of struggle against injustice and of racial reconciliation. US President Barack Obama said the world had lost "one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth". PM Manmohan Singh said, "A giant among men has passed away. This is as much India's loss as South Africa's. He was a true Gandhian. His life and work will remain a source of eternal inspiration for generations to come. I join all those who are praying for his soul." British Prime Minister David Cameron called Mandela "a hero of our time" and said "a great light has gone out in the world". Ordinary South Africans were in shock. "It feels like it's my father who has died. He was such a good man, who had good values the nation could look up to. He was a role model unlike our leaders of today," said Annah Khokhozela, 37, a nanny, speaking in Johannesburg A somber Zuma made a national broadcast to announce the death of South Africa's first black president, who emerged from 27 years in apartheid prisons to help guide Africa's biggest economy through bloodshed and turmoil to democracy. "Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed," Zuma said in the nationally televised address. "Our people have lost a father. Although we knew this day was going to come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world. His humility, passion and humanity, earned him their love," he added.   Reuters