(This post was last updated at 6:57 a.m. ET.)

The skies are gray over Johannesburg, this morning.

Still, tens of thousands of South Africans and dozens of world leaders gathered at FNB Stadium in Soweto to pay tribute to the country’s emancipator and its former president, the late Nelson Mandela, who died on Thursday at age 95.

“There is, of course, much music — some of it mournful and some of it joyful,” NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from South Africa. “Either way South Africans are dancing and swaying, with their umbrellas up.”

The stadium itself is bookended with two huge portraits with the simple words “Nelson Mandela 1918-2013.”

Andrew Mlangeni, one of only three surviving co-accused at the Rivonia treason trial that sent Mandela and his anti-apartheid colleagues to prison for 27 years, opened the service remembering Mandela as an “incomparable force of leadership,” who “illuminated the way in our nation’s darkest hour.”

“It would be in our collective wisdom… to uphold the values of Nelson Mandela,” Mlangeni said.

President Obama delivered a 20-minute eulogy that compared Mandela to Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and America’s founding fathers.

Mandela, Obama said, was the “last great liberator of the 20th century.” But he was not only a man of politics, but a pragmatist and flawed human being who managed to discipline his anger to turn centuries of oppression into what Mandela liked to call a “Rainbow Nation.”

“It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth,” Obama said. “He changed laws, but he changed also hearts.”

We’ve embedded the live video feed being live streamed by SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster, at the side of this post. C-Span2 is also airing and streaming, unanchored coverage of the event.

We’ll be live blogging throughout the service, so hit refresh to see the latest.

Update at 6:51 a.m. ET. The Last Great Liberator:

President Obama remembered Nelson Mandela as the “last great liberator of the 20th century.”

He talked about his legend and compared him to Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and America’s founding fathers.

But Obama also lingered on Mandela as a human and a pragmatist. Here’s a particularly moving excerpt from his speech:

“Madiba disciplined his anger; and channeled his desire to fight into organization, and platforms, and strategies for action, so men and women could stand-up for their God-given dignity. Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price. …

“Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas; the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those you agree with, but those who you don’t. He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet. He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and passion, but also his training as an advocate. He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. And he learned the language and customs of his oppressor so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depend upon his.

“Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough; no matter how right, they must be chiseled into laws and institutions. He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of conditional release, reminding the Apartheid regime that, “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.” But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. And because he was not only a leader of a movement, but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy; true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African.

“Finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. There is a word in South Africa- Ubuntu – that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us. We can never know how much of this was innate in him, or how much of was shaped and burnished in a dark, solitary cell. But we remember the gestures, large and small – introducing his jailors as honored guests at his inauguration; taking the pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS – that revealed the depth of his empathy and understanding. He not only embodied Ubuntu; he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, but the jailor as well; to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, but a means of confronting it with inclusion, generosity and truth. He changed laws, but he changed also hearts.”

Update at 6:32 a.m. ET. ‘A Life Like No Other’:

President Obama thanks the people of South Africa for sharing Mandela — who he says lived a “life like no other’ with the world.

“His struggle was your struggle,” he said. “His triumph was your triumph. Your dignity and hope found expression in his life, and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy.”

Update at 6:31 a.m. ET. Obama Now Speaking:

Obama has now taken the podium and will deliver a eulogy.

Update at 6:17 a.m. ET. About The Boos:

NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports that many of the boos you may have heard when President Zuma has spoken, are coming from people in one section of the stadium who are wearing red.

Ofeibea says that they are the “Economic Freedom Fighters,” a group who broke from the ruling African National Congress, which was also Mandela’s party.

On its website, the group bills itself as a “radical and militant economic emancipation movement.”

Update at 6:07 a.m. ET. Influence Reached Across The Planet:

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said Mandela’s influence extended a “deep root that reached across the planet.”

There is no better testament to his influence and fight for equality, than this stadium today.

“We are here,” he said. “All are united.”

Ban said when South Africa held elections in 1994, the first time black South Africans were able to cast a ballot, it marked a “triumph for the ideals of the United Nations” and a “victory for everyone who has faced the poison of prejudice.”

Update at 5:57 a.m. ET. A Warm Welcome For The Obamas:

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are now in the stadium. When their images were show on the big screens, the audience erupted into a huge roar.

Update at 5:44 a.m. ET. ‘Incomparable Force’:

Andrew Mlangeni, one of only three surviving co-accused at the Rivonia treason trial that sent Mandela and his anti-apartheid colleagues to prison for 27 years, remembered Mandela as an “incomparable force of leadership,” who “illuminated the way in our nation’s darkest hour.”

“It would be in our collective wisdom… to uphold the values of Nelson Mandela,” Mlangeni said.

Update at 5:22 a.m. ET. A Memorial, A Thanksgiving:

As the memorial service got started with speeches from a collection of religious leaders, including a Muslim cleric, a Rabbi and Christian minister, Ofeibea spoke to Morning Edition from the stadium.

She said it’s very loud and there’s been a combination of joyful, mournful and soulful music. The service is “clearly a celebration” of life, said Ofeibea.

“It is a memorial, but it’s almost a thanksgiving as well,” she said. “I think people are so grateful to what Nelson Mandela and his generation of freedom fighters did to liberate South Africa with equality for all South Africa.”

Update at 5:10 a.m. ET. The Importance Of The Site:

Our colleague Greg Myre spoke to Melissa Block last night to explain the importance of FNB Stadium.

“Mandela had his first big rally there just days after he was released in Cape Town. He flew to the stadium – it’s in Soweto, which is the big black community just outside Johannesburg,” Greg said. “It’s the biggest soccer stadium in the country, holds about 95,000 people. And some of our listeners may recall it was renovated for the World Cup in 2010.”

Update at 4:57 a.m. ET. The Official Program:

Officially, the program was supposed to start at 11 a.m. They are running late.

According to the official program (pdf), after the national anthem and some interfaith prayers, the first to speak will be Andrew Mlangeni, one of only three surviving co-accused at the Rivonia treason trial that sent Mr Mandela and his anti-apartheid colleagues to prison for 27 years.

Also on the program: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, President Obama, Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, Cuban President Raúl Castro. The keynote address will be delivered by South African President Jacob Zuma.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Ukraine’s government on Monday deployed riot police near Independence Square outside Kiev’s City Hall, which has been occupied by anti-government protesters for more than a week.

Update at 12:30 p.m. ET: Police Reportedly Tear Down Protest Tents

Police have started to dismantle protest camps, the BBC and the AP report. The AP also says that police were tearing down barricades that had been erected in front of municipal buildings.

In another sign of tougher government tactics, an opposition party says their offices were raided.

From the AP:

“Ostap Semerak told The Associated Press that troops broke into the Fatherland Party’s offices on Monday evening. He said some troops were walking along its corridors while others were climbing in through the windows. He called the situation ‘insane.’”

Our original post continues:

NPR’s Corey Flintoff, reporting from Kiev, says police told protesters last week that they must vacate the government building by today or be forcibly ejected.

Opposition leaders have been trying to calm the situation, which was sparked by outrage over President Viktor Yanukovich’s decision to reject closer ties with the European Union in favor of joining a trade pact with Russia.

Corey filed this report for our Newscast unit:

“Riot police with black helmets and shields formed a line near the building, but didn’t advance toward it. Vitaly Klitchko, an opposition politician and world boxing champion, spoke briefly with one of the police commanders.

“He said before giving any orders, the police should consider whether they themselves are violating the law. Klitschko said the protest was a peaceful demonstration with no aggression.”

In signs of escalating tensions, several subway stations near the square were shut down Monday, and “battalions of police” took up positions ringing the protest area, according to The New York Times.

“Demonstrators were scrambling to reinforce barricades, and they moved public benches, wood planks and anything else available to add to the fortifications that have closed off the area for more than a week,” The Times says.

As Corey reports, Ukraine’s opposition is led in part by Vitaly Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champ. On Monday, Klitschko said the group is prepared to discuss a compromise with Yanukovich — to a point.

“I am sure that the current government must resign,” Klitschko tells Reuters. “We have announced our demands more than once and in relation to this we are ready to talk with Yanukovich because no one else is making decisions.”

The latest word from Yanukovich is that he’s ready to talk. On Monday, he issued a statement via his website that he supports holding a “nationwide panel discussion” that includes the opposition — an idea that was put forward by former President Leonid Kravchuk.

Those talks could take place Tuesday, according to the site.

On Sunday, a large anti-government rally in Kiev’s Independence Square resulted in the dismantling of a statue of Vladimir Lenin — a symbol of Russia that was targeted by the protesters.

As Eyder reported for The Two-Way Sunday, organizers of the anti-government protest say that the statue was brought down spontaneously.

“We can say that people organized themselves,” one man said of the statue’s removal.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

U.S. and British intelligence agencies have worked to infiltrate networks of violence-prone individuals who might unite for a common cause. And in some cases, the spies are also targeting networks that aren’t regional terrorist cells — they’re online gaming communities, according to the latest revelation from documents given to the media by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

“Exploiting Terrorist Use of Games & Virtual Environments” is the name of a 2008 NSA document being cited in coordinated reports out Monday from the Guardian, ProPublica and The New York Times.

The reports describe spy agencies’ push to infiltrate systems that allow millions of people to closely collaborate and even exchange money — all through a veil of alternate identities.

The project involved spies creating identities in networks that include Second Life and World of Warcraft, according to the reports. The agency is also said to have collected massive amounts of data from Microsoft’s Xbox Live network and elsewhere.

The effort was not a small one, the news agencies report. In fact, so much anti-terrorism work was being conducted in the virtual worlds that a separate “deconfliction” group was tasked with monitoring spies from the CIA, Pentagon and FBI so that they wouldn’t interfere with — or waste time spying on — one another, according to ProPublica.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s equivalent of the National Security Agency, also reportedly worked to insert its agents into the digital communities and review communications. And private contractors such as SAIC and Lockheed Martin “won contracts worth several million dollars, administered by an office within the intelligence community that finances research projects,” ProPublica reports.

The Guardian explains what could motivate government agencies to spy on people in gaming environments:

“If properly exploited, games could produce vast amounts of intelligence, according to the NSA document. They could be used as a window for hacking attacks, to build pictures of people’s social networks through “buddylists and interaction”, to make approaches by undercover agents, and to obtain target identifiers (such as profile photos), geolocation, and collection of communications.”

Britain’s GCHQ evidently succeeded in getting details about a credit card fraud group via an informant on Second Life. But as The Times notes, the records do not include a mention of any successful anti-terrorism operations that were based on intelligence gained in the virtual world.

It seems that proponents of spying on gaming networks struggled to find proof that terrorists have used gaming networks to communicate — and they suggested that the only way to find out was to conduct methodical research online, according to the Guardian.

News of the spy agencies’ work in the gaming community comes as eight large tech companies have sent “an open letter to Washington” urging President Obama and Congress to enact reforms in the practices of spy agencies such as the NSA.

The letter was signed by Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo, LinkedIn and Microsoft.

“The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual — rights that are enshrined in our Constitution,” the letter said, in arguing for laws that more tightly restrict the way surveillance is carried out on private citizens.

The large corporations posted the open letter at the Reform Government Surveillance website Monday.

Reacting to the letter, both the American Civil Liberties Union and WikiLeaks tell The Associated Press that they would have preferred it if the Internet companies had spoken out in favor of individuals’ privacy rights before Snowden exposed the spy agencies’ tactics.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

You know what they say: It’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt.

That was certainly the case Friday on the campus of the University of Oregon, where football players planned a big snowball fight to celebrate the season’s first, big snowfall.

It was all fun until students started to aggressively pelt the car of retired professor Sherwin Simmons. At one point, when Simmons steps out of the car to confront the crowd, one young man dumps a bunch of snow on his lap.

The Daily Emerald, a student-run news organization at the school, put out a video of the incident. Since then, it’s been watched 2.2 million times and the school released a statement saying the University of Oregon Police Department is investigating.

“Police hope to determine the identities of those who were throwing snowballs, whether they are UO students and whether their actions constitute a criminal act,” the school’s dean of students, Paul Shang, said in a statement. “The University of Oregon takes the conduct of its students seriously. Consequences are clear for those whose actions reflect poorly upon the university or violate its standards for student behavior.”

Offensive lineman Andre Yruretagoyena tweeted: “Embarrassed by the video I just watched. That’s not all of us, sending the sincerest apologies.”

The Emerald reports, however, that Simmons, who described the young people as “out of control,” doesn’t plan to press charges.

He told the paper: “I have confidence that the reaction of the university given what has happened will be proportional. It will consider these young people and their futures and will also, I hope, suggest to them that they need to rethink behavior like that.”

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dissolved one of the country’s official news agencies and an international radio broadcaster on Monday, setting up a new organization to be run by a news anchor known for his ultraconservative views.

RIA Novosti, the news agency, and Voice of Russia, the broadcaster, will be absorbed by a new entity, Russia Today.

Jessica Golloher is reporting on the story for our Newscast unit:

“A decree published on the Kremlin’s website announced Dmitry Kiselyov’s appointment as the head of Russia Today, replacing RIA Novosti in a major overhaul of the state news agency. The news anchor is known for holding controversial views; over the summer, Kiselyov said he believed that the organs of homosexuals are not fit for transplants, maintaining they should be burned. Putin holds the power to appoint and dismiss the head of the country’s news agency. The announcement effectively transfers all property of RIA Novosti to Russia Today.”

In a story on its own demise, RIA Novosti called the move “the latest in a series of shifts in Russia’s news landscape, which appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector.”

Sergei Ivanov, the head of the presidential administration, said the changes were about saving money and making state media more effective.

“Russia has its own independent politics and strongly defends its national interests,” he said. “It’s difficult to explain this to the world, but we can do this, and we must do this.”

RIA Novosti has a storied past. It was established in 1941, two days after Nazi Germany invaded what was then the Soviet Union. At the time, the news agency was called the Soviet Information Bureau. It now has reporters in more than 45 countries and provides news in 14 languages.

The New York Times notes that while RIA Novosti “continued to serve as an official news agency, its reporting has earned greater respect for balance and a diversity of viewpoints” — a position that was criticized by some Russians.

The Associated Press reports:

“Russian media outlets speculated that the reshuffle was aimed at RIA Novosti’s former director, Svetlana Mironyuk, who presided over the company’s more objective coverage of massive anti-Putin protests sparked by a fraud-tainted parliamentary vote in 2011. While Mironyuk was said to be backed by some liberal figures in the Kremlin, that reportage received a more critical reception among its hawkish wing.”

As NPR’s Corey Flintoff said last year, independent journalists in Russia have been subjected to a crackdown.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of an ancient (nearly) freshwater lake on Mars that could have sustained life billions of years ago.

The salinity in the lake, which covered a small part of the 96-mile-wide Gale Crater, would have been so low that it could “plausibly be described as drinkable,” according to The Washington Post. The findings are being published in six separate papers on Monday in the journal Science.

Space.com writes:

“This long and skinny freshwater lake likely existed about 3.7 billion years ago, researchers said, suggesting that habitable environments were present on Mars more recently than previously thought.

” ‘Quite honestly, it just looks very Earth-like,’ said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.”

Curiosity analyzed sedimentary rocks called mudstones, “which commonly form in calm, still water,” Space.com says. “The mudstones contain clay minerals that formed in the sediments of an ancient freshwater lake, researchers said. Curiosity also spotted some of the key chemical ingredients for life in the samples, including sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon.”

Grotzinger says the clay-rich minerals in the rock indicate it was a relatively freshwater lake, making it more suitable to a wider range of possible life forms. “It’s the kind of water where if you were really dying, you could drink it, but you probably wouldn’t bottle it for resale.”

The Post says:

“The chemistry of the lake would have been congenial to organisms known as chemolithoautotrophs — mineral-eaters. Whether such organisms, which thrive on Earth in exotic environments such as caves and deep-sea hydrothermal vents, actually existed on the young Mars is a question Curiosity lacks the tools to answer.”

NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel says scientists think “the lake was part of a network of streams and aquifers that resembles our own planet.”

As Space.com reported in September, there’s been a veritable flood of evidence collected by Curiosity over the past several months that water once flowed on Mars.

” ‘We know that on Mars there was what we interpret to be a habitable environment, where water was good enough for us to drink,’ Melissa Rice, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said after a presentation on imaging results from Curiosity’s workhorse Mastcam instrument.

“She talked about rocks that Curiosity studied earlier this year, finding evidence that ancient Mars could have supported microbial life.

” ‘We know that we had an initial habitable environment when these rocks formed, and then sometime later — we don’t know when — these rocks had water flowing through them, through these fractures, leaving calcium sulfate behind,’ Rice said. ‘We don’t know if that era would have also been habitable, but it tells us that there were at least two major wet stages.’ ”

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Relatives of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have asked people to mark Saturday’s anniversary of the mass shooting with “acts of kindness” and say they will light candles in memory of the victims.

At a news conference on Monday, the families also announced the launch of a website, http://mysandyhookfamily.org, to create a “singular place of sharing, communication, and contact with the families of those who lost their lives that day.”

Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe said extra police officers would be on duty on Saturday.

The city of Newtown is not holding any formal events, but First Selectman E. Patricia Llodra, speaking at the news conference, asked for the media to give the town privacy on Dec. 14, the day last year that 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults at the school in one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history.

“We’re trying to respect the world’s interest in us, and we certainly have benefited from that interest in many ways,” Llodra said, but, she added, “We pay a price when the media is here.”

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Federal prosecutors announced Monday the indictment of 18 current and former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on an array of charges stemming from a sweeping investigation into inmate abuse and corruption.

“These incidents did not take place in a vacuum — in fact, they demonstrated behavior that had become institutionalized,” said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. “The pattern of activity alleged in the obstruction of justice case shows how some members of the Sheriff’s Department considered themselves to be above the law.”

The grand jury indictments and a criminal complaint allege unjustified beatings of jail inmates and visitors at LA jail facilities, unjustified detentions and obstruction of justice. The documents were unsealed Monday after 16 of the 18 defendants were arrested. They are expected to be arraigned Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, The Associated Press says.

The New York Times reports that several officers, including high-ranking officials, were among those taken into custody. The Los Angeles Times says a lieutenant, a sergeant and a deputy were among those arrested by FBI agents.

The New York Times says:

“The Los Angeles County jails have been under intense federal scrutiny for more than two years following a string of lawsuits that accused deputies of targeting and abusing inmates. One case brought before a grand jury focused on whether sheriff’s officials tried to hide an inmate who was working as an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The county’s jail system is the largest such system in the country, and many advocates say that it is the most troubled.

“The allegations come at a particularly difficult time for Sheriff Lee Baca, who is facing several challengers in his campaign for re-election next year. Sheriff Baca has repeatedly said that he has responded to all charges of misconduct as soon as he was aware of them, but critics like the American Civil Liberties Union say that he willfully ignored persistent problems.”

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Congress voted to renew a ban on plastic firearms that can skirt airport detectors, but Republican lawmakers blocked efforts to tighten the restrictions.

The Senate approved the measure by a voice vote hours before it would have expired at midnight. The House voted last week to renew the ban.

As The Associated Press reports:

“GOP senators rejected an effort by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to strengthen the ban by requiring that such weapons contain undetachable metal parts. Some plastic guns meet the letter of the current law with a metal piece that can be removed, making them a threat to be slipped past security screeners at schools, airports and elsewhere.”

The Christian Science Monitor writes:

“Monday’s vote to extend the prohibition on plastic guns for another decade responds to a growing threat from steadily improving 3-D printers that can produce such weapons. But gun control advocates seem sure to lose an effort to impose additional, tougher restrictions on plastic firearms — a harsh reminder of their failure to enact any new federal gun curbs in the year since 20 first-graders and six educators were murdered in Newtown, Conn.”

According to the AP:

“The National Rifle Association, which has been instrumental in blocking gun restrictions, expressed no opposition to renewing the law. But the gun lobby said it would fight any expanded requirements, including Schumer’s, ‘that would infringe on our Second Amendment rights’ to bear arms.”

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians have agreed to a water-sharing pact that would see the construction of a desalination plant on the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea and bring “a long-awaited Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline one step closer to completion,” according to Reuters.

The plant would be built on the Jordanian side of the Gulf and the resulting potable water would be shared between Jordan and Israel.

Alexander McPhail, the lead water and sanitation specialist in the World Bank’s Water Practice division, tells The Jerusalem Post Monday that in return, “Israel will increase the annual releases of water from Lake Kinneret to Jordan and will also increase its sales of water to the Palestinian Authority.”

“‘It’s like a swap,’ McPhail told the Post, regarding the Israeli and Jordan portions of the agreement. ‘Israel needs water in the south because they want to settle that part of their country. Jordan needs more water in the North.’”

Israel’s Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom said in a statement that the pact includes building a 112-mile pipeline northward from Aqaba to the Dead Sea at an estimated cost of $300 million to $400 million.

Bloomberg reports:

“That study examined various plans to halt the shrinking of the Dead Sea, whose restorative powers have attracted visitors since biblical times. The lowest place on Earth has lost a third of its surface area from drought, agricultural diversion and pumping to extract minerals for fertilizers.”

“‘This is a breakthrough after years of difficulty and struggle,’ Shalom said on Army Radio of a pipeline he estimated will take three years to build to the benefit of each side economically and environmentally.”

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.