The former South African president was a revered statesman and anti-apartheid leader.

John Carlin, the author of the book "Playing the Enemy," on which the film "Invictus" was based, reveals what it was like to know and cover Nelson Mandela.

President Barack Obama paid somber tribute to Nelson Mandela Thursday, celebrating the late South African leader’s ”fierce dignity and unbending will" and unquenchable thirst for justice.

U.S. House of Representative Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday he wants his fellow Republicans to be more "sensitive" as they seek to appeal to women voters in next year's congressional elections. "I try to get them to be a little bit more sensitive," Boehner said at his weekly news conference, when asked what advice he was giving his fellow Republicans as they campaign against Democratic women candidates, and try to attract female voters. There are 81 women members of the House, of whom 62 are Democrats, compared with 19 Republicans. In the Senate, 16 of the 20 women are Democrats and four are Republicans.

The White House acknowledged Thursday that President Barack Obama lived with a Kenyan uncle targeted for deportation — after initially saying there was no evidence they had ever met.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — As the news of Nelson Mandela's death spread across South Africa, residents of the black township of Soweto gathered in the streets near the house where he once lived, singing and dancing to mourn his death and celebrate his colossal life.

NEW YORK (AP) — The thing about Nelson Mandela was that he made the rest of us want to be almost as noble as he.

The world knows Nelson Mandela as a man who forever changed the course of modern history and who will surely continue to leave his mark long after his death Thursday at the age of 95.

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Wielding rifles and machetes, armed Christian fighters who support the Central African Republic's exiled president assaulted the capital at dawn on Thursday, leaving nearly 100 people dead. Shrouded bodies were lined up in a mosque as dozens of wounded lay on blood-stained hospital floors.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Officials were engaged Thursday in the delicate task of recovering a stolen shipment of highly radioactive cobalt-60 abandoned in a rural field in central Mexico state.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — With the wind chill falling to almost minus 40, Steve Hendershot's mind was elsewhere Thursday as he and his crew of roustabouts worked a well in North Dakota's booming oil patch.

NEW YORK (AP) — Someone was willing to pay big bucks for an early glimpse of what would become the Boss' "runaway American dream."

For about an hour Friday, much of the planet will come to a dead stop, all eyes and attention glued to four bowls of what look an awful lot like pingpong balls. A lottery that could make someone rich beyond his or her wildest dreams? No, though some would argue this can bring even more happiness.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy is growing faster, corporate profits are rising and companies are laying off the fewest workers in six years.

NEW YORK (AP) — While the Metro-North Railroad is already getting hit with multimillion-dollar civil claims over a deadly commuter train derailment, prosecutors will face tough choices when deciding whether to bring criminal charges against the train's engineer, who told investigators he nodded or fell into a daze at the controls.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Counting himself among the millions influenced by Nelson Mandela, President Barack Obama on Thursday mourned the death of the anti-apartheid icon with whom he shares the distinction of being his nation's first black president.

An Indian artist wishes Nelson Mandela improved health with a portrait sculpted from sand during his treatment in June for what the South African government has said is a lung infection. Colorful murals of South Africa's first black president adorn walls in the cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town. A snow-dusted bronze likeness stands with arms outstretched in London's Parliament Square.

WASHINGTON (AP) — With hopes of a "grand bargain" long gone, congressional negotiators now are seeking a more modest deal before year-end to ease the automatic spending cuts that are squeezing both the Pentagon and domestic federal programs. But the going is getting rougher.

Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) - France ordered more troops into its former colony of the Central African Republic on Thursday, hours after a sectarian bloodbath left more than 120 people dead in the troubled nation's capital of Bangui. Shortly after the UN Security Council issued a green light for the military intervention, French President Francois Hollande ordered an additional 600 troops to the African country, doubling the force it already has in and around Bangui. The depiction of a chaotic, desperate situation was confirmed by AFP reporters in Bangui, who counted 54 corpses gathered in a mosque in the PK5 area of the capital. The violence appeared to vindicate recent warnings from France, the United States and others that the Central African Republic (CAR) was on the brink of collapse with tensions soaring between its Christian and Muslim communities.

Opposition activists again accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of using poison gas in Syria's civil war on Thursday, and said victims had been discovered with swollen limbs and foaming at the mouth. The activists told Reuters two shells loaded with gas hit a rebel-held area in the town of Nabak, 68 km (40 miles) northeast of Damascus, on a major highway in the Qalamoun region. Separately, the Syrian Revolution Coordinators Union also accused Assad's forces of using poison gas. "We have documented nine casualties from poison gas used by the regime in neighborhoods of Nabak," it said on its Facebook page.

Ronnie Smith, 33, of Texas was married, had 2-year-old son.

Areas further east are bracing for the frigid blast as the storm creeps into the Southern plains, the Tennessee Valley and the Northeast later this week. Yahoo News is collecting anecdotes from residents in the storm’s path. Below are lightly edited excerpts from stories they shared with us this week.