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SOUTH AFRICA

Honoring Mandela's birthday in service

South Africans honored the 67 years of former President Nelson Mandela's service to the country with 67 minutes of charity and community action around the country on his birthday Saturday.

Established in 2009, the day is meant to encourage South Africans to emulate Mandela's humanitarian legacy and recognize the decades he spent fighting apartheid.

All over the country, volunteers handed out blankets and books, distributed toys at orphanages, and cleaned up public areas, before reporting their activities on social media.

Mandela's former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, held a lunch for elderly, needy women at the Mandela family restaurant near the family home in Soweto, calling it a chance to recommit to his values of "bettering the lives of our people." - AP