A memorial took place inside the rotunda at San Francisco City Hall to remember the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela.

Amazon.com Inc.'s grocery delivery service is rolling into San Francisco.

There are burgers, and then are burgers. A San Francisco restaurant is now offering a $65 creation.

The America's Cup sailing races this year generated far less economic activity in the San Francisco Bay Area than projected.

A hearing before the NTSB on the crash of an Asiana Airlines flight at SFO has been postponed.

A task force of federal agents and police officers arrested a number of drug dealers who set up shop near schools.

Critics of a regional plan to encourage development and growth in areas with easy access to mass transit filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on Tuesday. The petitioner, a group called Bay Area Citizens that says the plan will hurt their property values, is being represented in court by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento conservative organization. The lawsuit alleges that Plan Bay Area violates the California Environmental Quality Act by omitting alternatives to its plan to steer 77 percent of future growth near "priority development areas," including places like Mission Bay in San Francisco, Oakland's Jack London Square and downtown San Rafael, Walnut Creek and Fairfield.

AC Transit officials said Tuesday night they were "very close" to finalizing contract negotiations with employees, but East Bay commuters still have no assurance of a ride to work Wednesday. AC Transit also wants workers to begin paying a portion of their health-care premiums. A bus operator's base salary is $55,000, but health and other benefits bring total compensation to about $103,000, Johnson said.

A car belonging to a missing Oakland woman has been found, but her whereabouts remain unknown, police said Tuesday. Coke is an African American woman, 5 feet 6 inches tall and 150 pounds, with a medium complexion, brown hair and brown eyes.

Four girls walking together in San Francisco's Mission District were injured when a big rig hit a traffic signal pole and knocked it into the group, police said. The girls, whose ages range from 9 to 14, were with an adult relative about 7:15 p.m. Monday when the truck tried to turn right from 24th Street onto South Van Ness, said Officer Tracy Turner, a police spokeswoman.

BART management and union leaders, locked in a lengthy contract dispute that resulted in a 4 1/2-day strike in July, are set to present their cases Wednesday to a board of inquiry. The three-member board, appointed by the governor when he intervened at the request of BART management to avert a midnight strike deadline on Sunday, has one week to present him with a written report outlining the facts in the dispute, which has been characterized by heated accusations from both sides, including charges of foot-dragging and bargaining in bad faith. "Really, the goal of the board of inquiry is to present the facts to the governor," said Susan Gard, a spokeswoman for San Francisco's Human Resources Department, whose director, Micki Callahan, was tapped for the new investigatory board. Cooling-off periodThe law is silent on how long the governor can take to review the report, and Brown's spokesman said ideally a contract resolution would come before Sunday. After reviewing the report, Brown can direct state Attorney General Kamala Harris to ask a judge to order a cooling-off period, which the court must do if it determines that a strike "will significantly disrupt public transportation services and will endanger the public's health, safety and welfare," as Brown stated in a Sunday letter to key negotiators. Last month's BART strike plunged the Bay Area into a morass of congestion and cost the region an estimated $73 million a day in lost worker productivity because employees couldn't get to their jobs, according to the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored public policy group. In 1997, Gov. Pete Wilson named three retired judges, while Brown has now opted for one of his senior advisers, Jacob Appelsmith, to head a board that has a mix of labor, contract negotiation and mediation experience in Callahan and Robert Balgenorth, president emeritus of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California. BART is offering smaller raises than the unions are seeking, and the transit agency wants workers to begin paying into their pension fund and contribute more toward health care costs. Previously worked for State Mediation and Conciliation Service for 10 years and was supervisor of conciliation from 2000-05, and weathered labor strife with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Served as special assistant to the attorney general and led California Bureau of Gaming Control, 2008-11, where he negotiated gambling contracts with American Indian tribes.

Tens of thousands of East Bay bus riders could soon find their commutes upended after AC Transit workers gave notice on Monday that they were prepared to strike on Wednesday in the midst of ongoing contract negotiations. In a letter delivered to the transit agency's Board of Directors as it met in Oakland, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192, which represents 1,625 bus operators and mechanics, said they intended to go on strike 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless their demands are met by then, said Clarence Johnson, an AC Transit spokesman. When BART seemed on the verge of shutting down again this week, before Gov. Jerry Brown intervened and called off the strike for at least seven days, AC Transit touted itself as a transportation alternative.

A government report has determined a fleet of aircraft owned by Google's founders and former CEO received improper discounts on jet fuel that saved the three billionaires up to $5.3 million.

Family members say search efforts have mostly ended for a small private airplane that went missing over the mountains in central Idaho with five people aboard.

Oakland sent left-hander Jerry Blevins to the Washington Nationals for minor league outfielder Billy Burns, the Athletics' fifth trade in 10 days.

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – A Bay Area attorney has been building a legacy in the courtroom and the classroom. His volunteer work has earned him this week?s Jefferson Award. For more than three decades, […]

Major League Baseball plans to eliminate home plate collisions, such as the one that severely injured San Francisco Giants star catcher Buster Posey, possibly as soon as next season but no later than by 2015.

Negotiators with Bay Area Rapid Transit and its two largest unions are set to restart negotiations on Thursday, with many hard feelings remaining on both sides of the table.

"I cannot begin to express the shock and sadness we feel this evening," Santa Cruz Mayor Hillary Bryant said. "Two of our most beloved officers were killed in the line of duty and this has rocked the community to our absolute foundation."

The two slain officers are identified as Detective Sergeant Loran "Butch" Baker, a 28-year veteran of the department and 10-year veteran Detective Elizabeth Butler. Police Chief Kevin Vogel describes Baker as a longtime friend and mentor. Detective Baker leaves behind a wife, two daughters, and a son who works as a Community Services Officer for Santa Cruz police. Detective Butler is survived by her partner and two young sons, Vogel says.

"It was with deep, deep sadness that I stand before you this evening to talk about the death of my two officers today," Chief Vogel said. "We at the Santa Cruz police department are like family. I've known both of these officers for a long, long time and there just aren't words to describe how I feel personally about this and about how my department is reacting to this horrific, horrific tragedy."

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak's department will lead the investigation. He says it appears the two plain clothes detectives went to Goulet's home on Banciforte as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Based on physical evidence and witness accounts, Wowak says Goulet opened fire on the detectives. The two officers and witnesses called for help.

When authorities arrived on the scene they say they found the two detectives dead outside the home and Goulet missing. A multi-agency team then locked down the neighborhood which includes three schools and a busy Whole Foods supermarket.

Within minutes of setting up the search, Sheriff Wowak says officers encountered Goulet. A short chase ensued and then gunfire was exchanged, he says. Goulet was shot and killed at the scene.

Even after Goulet's death, officers continued a house by house, "closet-by-closet" search of the neighborhood to determine if there were additional suspects. Sheriff Wowak says it is his belief the public is now out of harm's way.

Students at the three schools were taken by bus to the nearby Government Center where they were re-united with their families.

Authorities are praising nearby law agencies including deputies from San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey County sheriffs departments and police officers from Scott's Valley, Capitola, and Watsonville who just showed up on the scene to offer their help.

Wowak says the California Department of Justice, the FBI, and the regional law agencies will all assist in the investigation. He says it could be weeks before we know all of the details of what happened and why.

Stay tuned to KRON 4 and KRON4.com for comprehensive coverage of the investigation into the shootings and the community's mourning of the two slain officers.

(Copyright 2013, KRON 4, All rights reserved.)

SAN JOSE (BCN) -- Police are investigating the death of a pedestrian who was fatally struck in a hit-and-run collision in San  Jose early Tuesday morning, officers said.
     
Shortly after 1 a.m., police received a report of a traffic collision at the intersection of Monterey Road and Bellevue Avenue.
     
Upon arrival, police determined that a vehicle had struck a woman and the driver had fled before police arrived on scene.
     
The victim was transported to a local hospital and treated for life-threatening injuries. She succumbed to her injuries at 1:50 a.m., police said.
     
Preliminary police investigation into the incident revealed that the victim was crossing the street when a dark-colored vehicle struck her.  The vehicle did not stop and continued southbound on Monterey Road, police said.
     
Neither the driver nor the vehicle has been located and the incident remains under investigation, according to police.
     
The victim's identity is being withheld pending notification to next of kin, police said.
     
Anyone with information regarding the incident or about the suspect vehicle is asked to contact local authorities.

(Copyright 2013, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)

(BCN) The U.S. Coast Guard has called off its search for a man, woman and two children who reportedly abandoned ship off the coast of Monterey County on Sunday afternoon saying that the report could have been a hoax.

The search was suspended at about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday.

Coast Guard boats and aircraft had been scouring the waters about 65 miles off the Monterey coast since about 4:20 p.m. Sunday, when the family made a distress call to Coast Guard Sector San Francisco.

The caller said he was on a boat, possibly named "Charmblow," with his wife, their 4-year-old son and the boy's young cousin.

The man told the Coast Guard that the vessel's electronics system was failing, and then said over a choppy radio connection that the family had decided to abandon ship, according to the Coast Guard.

Chief Petty Officer Mike Lutz said it is not clear how many life rafts the family had with them, but that there was no life raft. In the last dispatch from the boat at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, the man said the family was trying to string together a cooler and a life ring to cling to.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Barry Bena said there have been no missing-persons reports that would help identify the family.

Lutz said the Coast Guard has checked local marinas for information about a boat named "Charmblow" or something similar, to no avail.

However, although the search has been called off, the Coast Guard is still treating the incident as a legitimate distress call, Lutz said.

(Copyright 2013, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)

SAN FRANCISCO -- A longtime oboist with the San Francisco Symphony remains hospitalized Monday after collapsing on stage Saturday night during a  performance at Davies Symphony Hall, a symphony spokesman said.
     
William Bennett, 56, the principal oboist, was performing Richard  Strauss' Oboe Concerto during an 8 p.m. performance at the hall, located at  201 Van Ness Ave., when he fell to the stage, spokesman Oliver Theil said.
     
The show was stopped and he was taken to a hospital, where it was determined that he had suffered a brain hemorrhage, Theil said.
     
He was still at the hospital this morning and was listed in guarded condition, according to Theil.
     
"We all think the world of Bill, and our thoughts and best wishes are with him and his family," Theil said.
     
Bennett has been a member of the symphony since 1979 and has been  the principal oboist since 1987.
     
There has been an outpouring of support for Bennett over social media, including by the New York Philharmonic, which sent well wishes in a  tweet this morning.

(Copyright 2013, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)

(BCN) -- Family members and friends are worried about an Oakland couple who may have disappeared during a bike trip in South America last month.

Garrett Hand, 25, and his girlfriend, Jamie Neal, left on their bike trip in late November, and at the end of January all communication stopped, Hand's sister Larkin McGowan said today.

She said there has been no financial activity on the couple's bank accounts or credit cards since Jan. 25.

"That's the big alarm," said McGowan, who lives in Concord.

The couple, who McGowan described as avid bicyclists and well-traveled, have been documenting their trip online. Social media posts dropped off around the same time the financial activity stopped, she said.

The last post on Neal's Facebook was on Jan. 23, when the pair arrived in Cusco, Peru.

Hand, a commercial fisherman in the Bay Area, posted in Spanish on his Facebook page from Cusco on Jan. 25 that the next stop of the trip would be Pucallpa, Peru, if the couple could find a bus.

Neal, who is in her 20s and works at the Pedaler Bike Shop in El Sobrante, had been in touch with her coworkers through the end of January, shop mechanic Mark Lindgren said.

The shop has pooled together a $3,000 reward for any information that will help locate the couple.

Lindgren said Neal had taken time off work for the trip, and that regular customers and colleagues are concerned.

Donations for the couple's families can be made at any Mechanics Bank by mentioning Hand or Neal, Lindgren said.

On Feb. 13, the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, posted an emergency message warning of a potential kidnapping threat in the Cusco area.

"The Embassy has received information that members of a criminal organization may be planning to kidnap U.S. citizen tourists in the Cusco and Machu Picchu area," the message reads.

The threat is listed as credible through the end of February.

McGowan said the families are working with the U.S. Embassy and local authorities.

Copyright 2013, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)

SAN JOSE (BCN) -- A third suspect in a 2010 homicide in San Jose is in custody after being arrested Friday afternoon as he was on his way to court, police said.
      
Carlos Ruiz Paz, 21, a San Jose resident, was arrested at about 1:30 p.m. as he was en route to an unrelated court case, police said.
      
The victim, 22-year-old Jose Antonio Vega Calderon, was found stabbed and shot at the corner of Willard Avenue and San Carlos Street at about 9:30 p.m. on April 21, 2010, police said.
      
He was taken to a hospital, where he died later that night.
     
The killing was later determined to be gang-related, according to police.
      
Jose Torres, 22, and Alvaro Ochoa, 22, were identified as suspects and arrested in connection with the murder. They have been in custody since their 2010 arrests, police said.

(Copyright 2013, Bay City News, All rights reserved.)

BART and its two largest unions will be meeting again with a federal mediator over a key contract provision that has led to a lawsuit.

Representatives for the transit agency and the SEIU Local 1021 and ATU Local 1555 say they will meet on Thursday and Friday about a disputed Family Medical Leave Act provision that was stripped out of a contract the BART board approved last month.

The parties also will be meeting in Oakland with federal mediator Greg Lim who helped them reach a tentative agreement to end a contentious second strike in October.

The unions filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court last week claiming BART's board broke state law by approving the contract without the family medical leave provision.

BART says the provision was included in the contract by mistake.

As one world leader after another paid homage to Nelson Mandela at a memorial service, the man standing at arm's length from them appeared to interpret their words in sign language. But advocates for the deaf say he was a faker.

The incident, which outraged deaf people and sign-language interpreters watching the service broadcast around the globe, raised questions of how the unidentified man managed to crash a supposedly secure event attended by scores of heads of state, including President Barack Obama.

It also was another example of the problems plaguing Tuesday's memorial, including public transportation breakdowns that hindered mourners going to the soccer stadium and a faulty audio system that made the speeches inaudible for many. Police also failed to search the first wave of crowds who rushed into the stadium after the gates were opened just after dawn.

The man, who stood about a yard (one meter) from Obama and other leaders, "was moving his hands around, but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for," Bruno Druchen, national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

When South African Deputy President Cyril Rampaphosa told the crowd that former South African President F.W. de Klerk was among the guests, the man at his side used a strange pushing motion unknown in sign language that did not identify de Klerk or say anything about his presence, said Ingrid Parkin, principal of the St. Vincent School for the Deaf in Johannesburg.

The closest the man's gestures came to anything in sign language at that point might possibly be the words for "running horse," ''friend" or "beyond," she said, but only by someone who signs terribly.

The man also used virtually no facial expressions to convey the often-emotional speeches, an absolute must for sign-language interpreters, Parkin said.

Collins Chabane, one of South Africa's two presidency ministers, said the government is investigating "alleged incorrect use of sign language at the National Memorial Service," but has not finished because it has been overwhelmed with organizing the public viewing of Mandela's body in Pretoria and his funeral Sunday in his hometown of Qunu. He did not identify the man, but said the "government will report publicly on any information it may establish."

U.S. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said in response to an emailed question by the AP that "agreed-upon security measures between the U.S. Secret Service and South African government security officials were in place" during the service.

"Program items such as stage participants or sign-language interpreters were the responsibility of the host organizing committee," Donovan added.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest added: "It's a shame that ... a service that was dedicated to honoring the life and celebrating the legacy of one of the great leaders of the 20th century has gotten distracted by this and a couple of other issues that are far less important than the legacy of Nelson Mandela."

Four experts, including Druchen and Parkin, told the AP the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages and could not have been signing in any other known sign language because there was no structure to his arm and hand movements. South African sign language covers all of the country's 11 official languages, according to the federation.

"This man himself knows he cannot sign and he had the guts to stand on an international stage and do that," Parkin said. "It's absolutely impossible that he is any kind of interpreter. Or a language person at all, because he's not even using a language there."

Nicole Du Toit, a sign-language interpreter who also watched the broadcast, said in a telephone interview that the man was an embarrassment for South Africa.

"It was horrible, an absolute circus, really, really bad," she said. "Only he can understand those gestures."

The man also did sign interpretation at an event last year that was attended by South African President Jacob Zuma, Druchen said. At that appearance, a deaf person in the audience videotaped the event and gave it to the deaf federation, which analyzed the video, prepared a report and submitted a formal complaint to the governing African National Congress party, Druchen said.

In the complaint, the federation suggested the man should take the five years of training needed to become a qualified sign language interpreter in South Africa. But the ANC never responded, Druchen said.

A new complaint will be filed to the ANC with a demand for an urgent meeting, he said. The federation did not know the man's identity.

"We want to make a statement that this is a warning to other sign-language interpreters who are fake and go about interpreting," Druchen said. "I am hoping the South African government will take notice of this."

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu declined comment.

Bogus sign-language interpreters are a problem in South Africa because people who know some signs — frequently because they have deaf relatives — try to pass themselves off as interpreters, Parkin said. And those contracting them usually don't know how to sign, so they have no idea the people they are hiring cannot do the job, she said.

"They advertise themselves as interpreters because they know 10 signs and they can make some quick money," Parkin said. "It is plain and simple abuse of the deaf community. They are taking advantage of the deaf community to make money."

___

Associated Press writers Nastasya Tay in Johannesburg and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

A pair of young sisters who ran away from their Richmond home on Tuesday were found this afternoon hiding at a neighbor's home, a police sergeant said.

Xiomara Zelaya, 13, and her 9-year-old sister Heidi Moreno were found around 3:15 p.m., nearly 24 hours since the pair took off from their own home in the 300 block of Maine Avenue, according to Richmond police Sgt. Nicole Abetkov.

Abetkov said the teen decided to leave home after getting into a disagreement with her mother over a boy.

Though Xiomara has run away before, this time she decided to bring her sister along, the sergeant said.

Police searched for the girls in Richmond and in San Francisco, where they attend school and lived until recently, and at relatives' homes in Solano County.

Abetkov said investigators found clues about the girls' whereabouts via social media, which led them to the neighbor's home Wednesday afternoon.

Both girls were in good condition, she said.

Family members say search efforts have mostly ended for a small private airplane that went missing over the mountains in central Idaho with five people aboard.

Alan Dayton of Salt Lake City is the uncle of Jonathon Norton, one of the passengers. Dayton told The Salt Lake Tribune that family members feel they've done everything they can.

Nadine Bird of San Jose, Calif. is a friend of the pilot's family and says a few family members were still searching on Tuesday afternoon.

A search by law enforcement ended Friday.

Fifty-one-year-old Dale Smith, a software executive from San Jose, Calif., was flying the plane from eastern Oregon to Butte, Mont., when he reported engine trouble.

Smith's son and his wife, along with Smith's daughter and her fiance, Norton, were on board.

Smith's family has established a website for parties interested in assisting with the search by providing aerial video or images of the search area. The website can be accessed here.

Time magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year on Wednesday, saying the Catholic Church's new leader has changed the perception of the 2,000-year-old institution in an extraordinary way in a short time.

The pope beat out NSA leaker Edward Snowden for the distinction, which the newsmagazine has been giving each year since 1927.

The former Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected in March as the first pope from Latin America and the first Jesuit. Since taking over at the Vatican, he has urged the Catholic Church not to be obsessed with "small-minded rules" and to emphasize compassion over condemnation in dealing with touchy topics like abortion, gays and contraception.

He has denounced the world's "idolatry of money" and the "global scandal" that nearly 1 billion people today go hungry, and has charmed the masses with his simple style and wry sense of humor. His appearances draw tens of thousands of people and his @Pontifex Twitter account recently topped 10 million followers.

"He really stood out to us as someone who has changed the tone and the perception and the focus of one of the world's largest institutions in an extraordinary way," said Nancy Gibbs, the magazine's managing editor.

The Vatican said the honor wasn't surprising given the resonance in the general public that Francis has had, but it nevertheless said the choice was a "positive" recognition of spiritual values in the international media.

"The Holy Father is not looking to become famous or to receive honors," said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. "But if the choice of Person of Year helps spread the message of the Gospel — a message of God's love for everyone — he will certainly be happy about that."

It was the third time a Catholic pope had been Time's selection. John Paul II was selected in 1994 and John XXIII was chosen in 1962.

In Argentina on Wednesday, Padre Toto, one of the many "slum priests" the pope supported for years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, praised Time magazine's selection.

"I think the recognition of Time magazine is good news, because Pope Francis embodies one of the values of a church that's more missionary, closer to the people, more austere, more in keeping with the gospel," Toto said. "He had the genius of knowing how to express this sense of the church and hopefully his way of being will catch on with other political leaders, business executives, sports figures. His leadership is inspiring."

Besides Snowden, Time had narrowed its finalists down to gay rights activist Edith Windsor, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Syrian President Bashar Assad.

President Barack Obama was Time's selection for 2012.

Time editors make the selection. The magazine polled readers for their choice, and the winner was Egyptian General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who didn't even make the top 10 of Time's final list.

Black and white, old and young, South Africans by the thousands paid final tribute Wednesday to their beloved Nelson Mandela. In silence or murmuring, they filed past the coffin. Some glanced back, as if clinging to the sight, a moment in history.

One man raised his fist, the potent gesture of the struggle against white rule that Mandela led from prison. A woman fainted on the steps, and was helped into a wheelchair.

They had only a few seconds to look at the man many called "tata" — father in his native Xhosa — his face and upper body visible through a clear bubble atop the casket, dressed in a black-and-yellow shirt of the kind he favored as a statesman

"I wish I can say to him, 'Wake up and don't leave us,'" said Mary Kgobe, a 52-year-old teacher, after viewing the casket at the century-old Union Buildings, a sandstone government complex overlooking the capital, Pretoria, that was once the seat of white power.

Wearing the black, green and gold of the African National Congress, the ruling party Mandela once led, she was among the multitude who endured hours in the sun to say goodbye to the man they call their father, liberator and peacemaker.

Kgobe said losing Mandela, who died Dec. 5 at 95, was like losing a part of herself.

"This moment is really electrifying, knowing well what he did for us. I wish we could follow in his steps and be humble like he was," said Kgobe, whose grandfather, an ANC activist, was arrested several times.

Long lines of mourners snaked through the capital for a glimpse of Mandela's body as it lay in state for three days — an image reminiscent of the miles-long queues of voters who waited patiently to cast their ballots during South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994 that saw Mandela become the country's first black president.

At a parking lot where buses ferried people to the viewing, the mood was cheerful. When a bus carrying supporters of the ANC made a wrong turn and drove away from the Union Buildings, one man joked: "Do they think we will steal the body?"

There was order and respect once they disembarked at the foot of steps leading to a marquee that sheltered Mandela's casket. Signs on the wall said no firearms were allowed. Some people shielded themselves from the sun with squares of cardboard plastered with large images of Mandela.

"Today was the first day and the last day I saw him. ... I had to see him for myself even if I couldn't speak with him," said Amos Mafolo, who works in logistics for the South African police.

When his four children are older, Mafolo said, he will sit them down and tell them where he was on this day.

Silver Mogotlane opened his heart, saying he knew Mandela as a symbol and a historical figure, but still wondered in awe: "Who is this man?"

"I'm lost. My mind is lost," he said after passing the casket.

Police officers stood nearby, one holding a box of tissues.

Mandela was lying in state in the same hilltop building where he made a stirring inaugural address that marked the birth of South Africa's democracy — an irony that was not lost on the throngs.

"It's amazing to think that 19 years ago he was inaugurated there, and now he's lying there," said another viewer, Paul Letageng. "If he was not here, we would not have had peace in South Africa."

The mourners were joined by world leaders and Mandela family members, who walked silently past the casket at a special morning viewing, Mandela's widow, Graca Machel, and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, among them.

By the afternoon, long lines had formed, but the government said the cutoff point had been reached, urging people to arrive early on the following two days to get their chance.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, South African President Jacob Zuma and other leaders passed by the casket in two lines as four junior naval officers in white uniforms stood guard.

U2 frontman Bono also paid his respects, as did F.W. de Klerk, the last president of white rule who shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela for ending apartheid.

"I hope that his focus on lasting reconciliation will live and bloom in South Africa," de Klerk said.

South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, stood transfixed before removing his trademark black cowboy hat and crossing himself.

The orderly proceedings were in contrast to a large-scale celebration Tuesday that went somewhat awry because of poor transport planning, faulty sound equipment and even an alleged impostor who, acting as an interpreter for the deaf, spouted nonsense rather than translating speeches by President Barack Obama and other statesmen.

The half-empty stands at that event led some to think the public had become apathetic, but the overwhelming response Wednesday showed South Africans' thirst for a simple way to say goodbye.

On Wednesday morning, police on motorcycles escorted a hearse bearing Mandela's flag-draped coffin from a military hospital outside Pretoria. Hundreds lined the streets, singing songs from the struggle against the apartheid regime and calling out farewells to Mandela.

Army helicopters circled overhead, but a sudden quiet fell over the amphitheater as the hearse arrived. Eight warrant officers representing the services and divisions of the South African military carried the casket, led by a military chaplain in a purple stole. The officers set down the coffin and removed the flag.

Mandela's body is to be flown Saturday to Qunu, his rural childhood village in Eastern Cape Province, where he will be buried Sunday.