South Africa

Ryan Appell stood on an isolated stretch of highway on the outskirts of an old South African mining town dressed like Betsy Ross' worst nightmare. He wore a bandana and a scarf made from a U.S. flag, had a flag tied around his neck and carried another in his hands. "This," he says with a smile, "is me." Apparently, it's a lot of other Americans, too, because the U.S. soccer team's fan base, which once consisted primarily of friends and family members, has swelled into one of the largest contingents at this World Cup. According to FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, only South Africa bought more tickets to this World Cup than the U.S. And while some of the 136,500 tickets sold in the U.S -- more than the number sold in Germany, Italy, France, Mexico and Brazil combined -- were undoubtedly purchased by fans who came here to root for one of the 31 other teams in the tournament, Appell was hardly the only American fan who made the difficult trip halfway around the world.

If fiftysomething basketball players can spend thousands of dollars on fantasy camps with the likes of Coach K and MJ, if golfers make similar pilgrimages to the sport's birthplace in Scotland, why shouldn't hunters do the same at exotic venues in Africa? That is what Johnny Schickerling and his wife, Mariana, have been counting on, having converted their family's 37,000-acre cattle ranch into Agarob Hunting Safaris - a hunting-on-horseback operation in Namibia - more than 20 years ago. It is what Erik Terblanche, a former electrical engineer, was relying on when he started Amanita Safaris around 1995 in his native South Africa.

JOHANNESBURG — There is an undertone of disquiet about the 2010 World Cup. It is difficult to pin down exactly, but the feeling is pervasive and clues to its identity seem to surface daily. It would be too much to blame it on the country's sad and complicated history, but the legacy of apartheid did come into play Wednesday. Readers in Johannesburg awoke to see the headline "History is on Bafana's side" emblazoned across the front page of the Star. The reference was host South Africa's game against Uruguay and also to June 16, 1976, when thousands of schoolchildren in Soweto staged a protest march.

Theodore Neal "Ted" Holmes, who founded the old Chicken George restaurant chain and built it into a regional fast-food business, died of diabetic complications Nov. 29 at Sanctuary at Holy Cross in Burtonsville. The Jessup resident was 72. Born in York, Pa., he was son of the Theodore G. Holmes, a Cadillac dealership worker, and Sarah Wilson Holmes. He was a 1957 graduate of William Penn Senior High School, where he played basketball and was later inducted into the school's hall of fame.

Despite war in the Persian Gulf, in South Africa this week there was progress toward peace. After a day-long meeting on Tuesday, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela and Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi announced a major breakthrough toward ending a split that in recent years has turned violent and deadly. Since 1986, fighting between rival factions of South Africa's black community has claimed as many as 5,000 lives.The meeting, the first between the two leaders in almost three decades, may not immediately end the vicious rivalry between the followers of the two men. But the cordial atmosphere of the meeting and the two men's acknowledgment that their differences had been fully addressed without acrimony are reasons to hope that the healing process has truly begun.

As Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk, the odd couple of historic destiny, received their well-deserved Nobel Peace Prizes Oslo yesterday, South Africa was not the country it had long been. During the week, it changed utterly.On Tuesday in Cape Town, exclusively white minority rule ended. Mr. de Klerk promulgated the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) -- 32 members (only seven of them white) from 16 parties -- to oversee his government. Unfortunately, groups of black and white conservatives under the rubric of the Freedom Alliance stayed out after negotiations to include them had failed.

South Africa is moving so swiftly on some fronts that its biggest need is to catch up with itself on others. Nigeria's President Ibrahim Babangida, chairman of the Organization of African Unity, welcomed South Africa's President F. W. de Klerk as "the man who closed the book on apartheid." It will be hard for any government's sanctions to remain in place long after that.But for South Africa to move into economic leadership of all Africa, its peoples have to share power with each other. And that is becoming more difficult as the violence between Xhosa-African National Congress people on one side and Zulu-Inkatha Freedom Party people on the other grows worse.

The declaration of next April 27 as the date for universal elections in South Africa sets transition to a multi-racial society on a firm timetable. Electoral politicking begins now. Even though both black and white conservatives holding out for a federal system did not agree to the date, most of the 26 parties to constitutional talks in Johannesburg did. There now is confidence the election and the transition will occur.The agreement was part of the grand bargain President F. W. de Klerk and ANC leader Nelson Mandela hoped to present during their simultaneous visits to this country.

President Bush was premature in lifting sanctions against South Africa. Given a little more time, the Pretoria government headed by F.W. De Klerk and the African National Congress headed by Nelson Mandela seemed destined to settle the question of releasing all political prisoners, the only one of five preconditions still in dispute. It would have been better if the South Africans, black and white, had worked out this matter among themselves.Nevertheless, U.S. action to terminate the psychological, political and economic isolation of South Africa was a recognition of reality.

The bloody assault Sunday on South African church-goers was a repulsive piece of symbolism. Bad enough that a church was selected as a target in the continued civil strife as South Africa moves haltingly toward racial justice. But predominantly white St. James Church, affiliated with an evangelistic Anglican denomination, has been open to all races for 25 years and reached out to a nearby black township. This was not a random attack such as has been marring the efforts by majorities of blacks and whites to create a constitutional, multi-racial society.

2011 Masters: Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 2010 PGA: Martin Kaymer (Germany) British Open: Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) U.S. Open: Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) Masters: Phil Mickelson (U.S.) 2009 PGA: Y.E. Yang (South Korea) British Open: Stewart Cink (U.S.) U.S. Open: Lucas Glover (U.S.) Masters: Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 2008 PGA: Padraig Harrington (Ireland)

Nearly a generation after researchers isolated the HIV virus that causes AIDS, there is still no cure for the disease nor a vaccine to protect people from infection. But a new White House strategy to curb the spread of AIDS, and reports this week of an experimental gel that helps reduce the chances of transmitting the virus in women, offer hope that millions of lives can be saved over the next 20 years both in the U.S. and abroad. The president's plan builds on efforts begun during the Bush administration to encourage people to get tested for the virus and to seek treatment before symptoms appear.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — At 6:30 Sunday night, a little guy named Louie waved his white cap, smiled his gap-tooth smile and walked up the most famous fairway in the world and into golfing lore. Louis Oosthuizen, 27, of South Africa had won the British Open. Four days ago, those words would have brought everything from laughter to disbelief. He was on nobody's radar. Now, he was in everybody's heart. In 1981, no more than 300 yards away on the West Sands of St. Andrews Bay, they had filmed the movie "Chariots of Fire."

As Emily Kerstetter and her fellow church mission members enjoyed a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant in Uganda, the 16-year-old Ellicott City resident told her new friends that she wanted to stay and work through the rest of the summer. She had already extended her trip once, opting out of her original flight that departed five days earlier. She was ready for more. Minutes later, a suicide bomber struck outside the restaurant, one of two attacks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala that killed at least 74 people and wounded 85 others, including Emily, her grandmother and three other members of her group.

As Emily Kerstetter and her fellow church mission members enjoyed a meal at an Ethiopian restaurant in Uganda, the 16-year-old Ellicott City resident told her new friends that she wanted to stay and work through the rest of the summer. She had already extended her trip once, opting out of her original flight that departed five days earlier. She was ready for more. Minutes later, a suicide bomber struck outside the restaurant, one of two attacks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala that killed at least 74 people and wounded 85 others, including Emily, her grandmother and three other members of her group.

Sandeep Rao watched this year's World Cup matches in a raucous stadium in Cape Town, late at night in front of a relative's television set in India and on Sunday on a grassy park at the Inner Harbor. "This is actually what they do in South Africa," said the 32-year-old, gesturing at the families sprawled on blankets and young couples sipping beer in front of an oversized screen. "If you don't have a ticket, you watch it in a place like this. In Cape Town there was a waterfront TV set up just like this."

DURBAN, South Africa — The World Cup semifinal Wednesday between Spain and Germany is a rematch of the last European Championship title game. But that's where the similarities end — at least on the German side. "Two years later for us there are many changes while the Spaniards are similar," German coach Joachim Loew said Tuesday. Loew took over the German team after the last World Cup, where Germany finished third. "We have made progress in the style of football we play and the results we get," he said.