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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela and as South Africa’s last apartheid president oversaw the end of the country’s white minority rule, has died at the age of 85. De Klerk died after a battle against cancer at his home in the Fresnaye area of Cape Town, a spokesman for the F.W. de Klerk Foundation confirmed on Thursday. De Klerk was a controversial figure in South Africa where many blamed him for violence against Black South Africans and anti-apartheid activists during his time in power, while some whites saw his efforts...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — F.W. de Klerk, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela and as South Africa’s last apartheid president oversaw the end of the country’s white minority rule, has died at the age of 85. De Klerk died after a battle against cancer at his home in the Fresnaye area of Cape Town, a spokesman for the F.W. de Klerk Foundation confirmed on Thursday.

F.W. de Klerk, who served as the last President of apartheid-era South Africa, said on Wednesday that it was unfair to say that Israel is an apartheid state. De Klerk, who is visiting Israel where he received an honorary doctorate from Haifa University, gave an interview to Channel 2 News, in which he was asked about comments recently attributed to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, that Israel would become “an apartheid state” if talks failed. “There are many definitions of apartheid. I do not know what Mr. Kerry meant, but one should be careful about making comparisons,” said de...

Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk hold their hands high as they address a huge crowd of people in front of the Union Building after the first presidential inauguration in 1994 The Nobel Peace Prize winner said not all aspects of apartheid were "morally repugnant", and that there was "merit" in the notion of ethnic groups living apart but that in South Africa, the experiment had not worked. In a CNN interview, Mr de Klerk said he had made a "profound apology" about the injustices wrought by apartheid on many occasions. "What I haven't apologised for is the original concept...

The election of President Barack Obama was a seminal moment in history similar to Nelson Mandela’s election as president of South Africa, F.W. de Klerk said Tuesday. Obama’s victory represents “a crossroads in (demonstrating) we can successfully rise above all forms of racism,” de Klerk said. “It was a powerful message not only for America and the world, but for us in Africa,” said the man who released Mandela from prison and presided over the end of apartheid in South Africa. de Klerk was in Lincoln to deliver a lecture at the E.N. Thompson Forum on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln...

The trial of a man accused of killing Marike de Klerk, South Africa's former first lady, has begun in Cape Town Marike de Klerk was killed in her beachfront home Luyanda Mboniswa, a security guard at Mrs de Klerk's luxury beachfront apartment, had the charge of rape added to that of murder as the trial got underway. The ex-wife of former President FW de Klerk was discovered dead in her apartment in Tableview, just north of Cape Town, in December last year. She had been stabbed in the back and strangled in a vicious attack. Unclear motive FW de Klerk...