Calling off visit, Obama acclaims ailing Mandela

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses during a news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The possibility of a meeting between the two historic figures — the first black president of the United States and the first black president of South Africa — was so tantalizingly close. But with Nelson Mandela fighting for his life in a Pretoria hospital, President Barack Obama abandoned his hope for a visit and instead on Saturday used every stop here to talk in emotional and sweeping terms about what Mandela meant to the world, and to him.

Nelson Mandela in critical condition days before Obama visit

Throughout the night, crowds of people stood outside the hospital where former South African President Nelson Mandela is being treated, and among the balloons, posters and cards early Tuesday were dozens of news crews and broadcast vans.

More than 40 vehicles crowded the parking spaces outside the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, the South African Press Association reported. Generators hummed and the area was brightly lit for the news organizations doing regular live broadcasts.

Improving Mandela clocks sixth day in hospital

JOHANNESBURG(AFP) – Nelson Mandela remained at the Medi-Clinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria for a sixth day on Thursday receiving treatment for a lung infection after South Africa’s president said the revered anti-apartheid icon was improving.

A small group of people held a candlelight vigil overnight outside the private clinic in Pretoria where the 94-year-old was admitted almost a week ago.