DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado became the eighth U.S. state to grant driver's licenses to illegal immigrants under a measure signed into law on Wednesday by Governor John Hickenlooper.

Under the bill passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature last month with no Republican support, applicants must show they live in Colorado, have filed a state income tax return and provide proof of their identity from their home country.

The bill's sponsor, Democratic state Senator Jessie Ulibarri, said the measure had the support of the state's law enforcement community because it was a public safety issue.

"Our roads will be safer when we can properly identify everyone who drives on them," he said. "We estimate that thousands more Colorado drivers will get insured because of this law."

Ulibarri said the license will state on its face that it cannot be used to vote, as a form of federal identification, or to apply for government benefits.

The signing of the Colorado law comes as the U.S. Senate is set to consider next week a bill that would be the largest overhaul of immigration policy in three decades.

Other states that allow illegal immigrants to apply for motor vehicle licenses in some form are New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, Illinois and Washington and Maryland.

The Colorado law will go into effect on August 1, 2014, and licenses must be renewed every three years.

The driver's license measure is the third legislative victory this year for immigration reform advocates in Colorado, which has a Hispanic population of nearly 21 percent.

Hickenlooper, a Democrat, signed into law a bill, which passed with some Republican backing, that allows children of illegal immigrants born in the state to receive reduced college tuition rates, provided they graduated from a Colorado high school.

A 2006 law that required local law enforcement to notify federal authorities of the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally was repealed by the legislature.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Eric Beech)

In a laboratory study, researchers found that mosquitoes infected with the tropical disease were more attracted to human odors from a dirty sock than those that didn't carry malaria. Insects carrying malaria parasites were three times more likely to be drawn to the stinky stockings.

The new finding may help create traps that target only malaria-carrying mosquitoes, researchers say.

"Smelly feet have a use after all," said Dr. James Logan, who headed the research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "Every time we identify a new part of how the malaria mosquito interacts with us, we're one step closer to controlling it better."

The sock findings were published last month in the journal, PLoS One.

Malaria is estimated to kill more than 600,000 people every year, mostly children in Africa.

Experts have long known that mosquitoes are drawn to human odors, but it was unclear if being infected with malaria made them even more attracted to us. Infected mosquitoes are believed to make up about 1 percent of the mosquito population.

Using traps that only target malaria mosquitoes could result in fewer mosquitoes becoming resistant to the insecticides used to kill them. And it would likely be difficult for the insects to evade traps based on their sense of smell, scientists say.

"The only way mosquitoes could (develop resistance) is if they were less attracted to human odors," said Andrew Read, a professor of biology and entomology at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not part of Logan's research. "And if they did that and started feeding on something else like cows that would be fine."

Read said the same strategy might also work to target insects that carry other diseases such as dengue and Japanese encephalitis.

In a related study, Logan and colleagues also sealed human volunteers into a foil bag to collect their body odor as they grew hot and sweaty. The odors were then piped into a tube next door, alongside another tube untainted by human odor. Afterwards, mosquitoes were released and had the option of flying into either tube. The insects buzzed in droves into the smelly tube.

Logan said the next step is to identify the chemicals in human foot odor so that it can be made synthetically for mosquito traps. But given mosquitoes' highly developed sense of smell, getting that formula right will be challenging.

Some smelly cheeses have the same odor as feet, Logan noted.

"But mosquitoes aren't attracted to cheese because they've evolved to know the difference," he said. "You have to get the mixture, ratios and concentrations of those chemicals exactly right otherwise the mosquito won't think it's a human."

Scientists said it's crucial to understand the subtleties of mosquito behavior. Other studies have shown mosquitoes don't become attracted to humans for about two weeks the time it takes for the malaria parasites to become infectious for humans.

"At the moment, we only have these glimpses of how parasites are manipulating the mosquitoes," said George Christophides, chair of infectious disease and immunity at Imperial College London. "We need to exploit that information to help us control malaria."

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Online:

Journal: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063602

DeFeet says on its Twitter account that ''we have concluded our sponsorship of the Vini Fantini professional cycling team.''

Chief executive Shane Cooper wrote that ''DeFeet will not support teams that do not provide a clear clean path 4 this new generation. I challenge other CEOs to stand up.''

The firm, based in Hildebran, N.C, announced its decision after the International Cycling Union said Monday that Giro stage winner Mauro Santambrogio tested positive for EPO on May 3, the opening day of the three-week race.

Vini Fantini said it has fired Santambrogio and teammate Danilo Di Luca, whose positive test was announced during the Giro.

The reason: On Tuesday, the day after Sen. Frank Lautenberg's death, Christie announced a special election to fill the seat. But instead of holding it in November, when Christie is on the ballot for re-election, the budget-slashing governor scheduled it for Oct. 16, at an expected cost to the state of $12 million.

The move was at odds with Christie's reputation for frugality and the politics-be-damned stand he took last fall, and it infuriated Democrats and some Republicans as well.

Some said Christie clearly doesn't want to be on the same ballot with a strong Democrat for Senate say, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a rising star in the party for fear that that could boost black and Democratic turnout and deny Christie the blowout victory that could make him a strong candidate for the White House in 2016.

Former Rep. Dick Armey, a tea party leader from Texas who was once GOP House majority leader, called the October special election "debilitating stupidity."

In an interview with ABC, he predicted it would backfire with Republicans because Christie was stressing fiscal responsibility as governor, yet willing to waste millions on special elections.

The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, called it "a shameless move that will waste at least $12 million and risk the integrity of the vote."

The sharp criticism from so many directions is unusual for Christie, whose often combative style and quick wit have made him popular in New Jersey, an attraction as a fundraiser for Republicans across the country and a frequent guest on TV talk shows.

Last year, he worked closely with Obama in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and hugged the president when he visited storm-devastated parts of New Jersey. That drew criticism from some Republicans, who said he was too cozy with the president days before Obama was re-elected. But the blowback this time is more widespread.

When he unveiled the plan Tuesday, Christie portrayed it as a nonpolitical move designed to uphold democratic principles by giving voters a say in their representation as quickly as possible under state law.

"This is about guaranteeing the people of New Jersey both a choice and a voice in the process in the representation that they deserve in Washington," he said.

Christie also scheduled a Senate primary election for Aug. 13, saying the candidates should be chosen by the people and not party bosses. That will cost the state another $12 million, and set up three elections in a span of less than three months.

"It's as if he gave the residents of this state the finger," Democratic state Sen. Richard Codey said.

"Instead of holding an expensive special election that tries to protect the governor's political vulnerabilities," he said, "the voters should have the opportunity to have their say in the regular election in November."

Booker and Rep. Frank Pallone, both well-financed Democrats, had previously expressed interest in the seat held by Lautenberg, a Democrat whose term expires at the start of 2015. Neither man has said whether he will run in the special election.

If Booker were on the ballot in November, he could bring out Democratic voters who would not bother to show up at the polls for Barbara Buono, the state senator who is challenging Christie for governor. Big Democratic turnout could hurt the GOP's chances of picking up seats in the Legislature.

On the Republican side, some lawmakers are reportedly considering running for the Senate, along with some political outsiders, including Al Leiter, a former major league pitcher who is now a broadcaster. Conservative activist Steve Lonegan, a former mayor of Bogota, N.J., said he is gathering signatures and raising money for a run.

Even though New Jersey elected Christie as governor, a Senate run is expected to be a challenge for any Republican, a state that has 700,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans and has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.

Some Republicans believe their best shot would be for Christie to appoint a strong Republican now and schedule the election for November 2014, giving the GOP choice some time to gain voters' respect.

"From the folks that I've talked with, Chris Christie's glow has diminished," said Don Rogers, a tea party activist in South Carolina, which holds the first-in-the-South presidential primary. Rogers said the special election is the latest issue to give him misgivings about Christie, starting with the governor's willingness to appear with Obama along the Jersey shore shortly before the 2012 election.

Now, with the Senate vacancy, "we're afraid that he might make a moderate decision on this replacement," Rogers said. "If he believes in his own conservative principles and he has an opportunity, he needs to take it he needs to find the most conservative individual."

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Thomas reported from Bridgewater, N.J.

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Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill. Follow Thomas at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Their deal is the latest example of growing collaboration between entertainment companies in the world's two biggest movie markets.

Legendary, which also made "Inception" and "The Dark Knight," said its Chinese venture, Legendary East, signed an agreement with the Chinese company's unit, China Film Co., on Thursday in Beijing. The deal calls for the companies to fund development and production of multiple films over three years.

Their first collaborations will be announced in the coming months. Legendary said each is planned as a US-China co-production. That means they can get around China's import restrictions that limit the number of foreign movies shown on the country's 12,000 screens to 34 each year.

The companies said they plan to produce movies for global audiences that will be "tentpole-scale" in other words, the big-budget, highly promoted productions that earn enough box-office revenue to support the whole studio, in the same way that a tentpole holds up a tent.

No specific details were released.

In a statement, China Film Co. Chairman Han Sanping said the partnership will allow the companies to "make films that are more appealing to filmgoers, creating new genres that, through the magic of film, bring greater variety to audiences around the world."

Faced with stagnant box-office growth at home, Hollywood studios are keen to break into China, now the world's second-biggest film market. Box-office receipts in China totaled $2.7 billion last year and pushed the country's movie market past previous second-biggest, Japan, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Legendary East was set up in 2011 with the aim of making one or two "major, event-style films" starting in 2013. But the company had remained quiet since then and a plan to raise $220.5 through a deal with a Hong Kong construction company was scuppered by rocky financial markets.

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Online:

Legendary Entertainment: http://www.legendary.com

The video of the IRS workers practicing their dance moves, which lasts just under three minutes, comes weeks after it was revealed that agency workers produced two other videos parodying the "Star Trek" and "Gilligan's Island" TV shows.

The latest recording cost about $1,600 and was produced to be shown at the end of a 2010 training and leadership conference held in Anaheim, Calif., said IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge. At a time when most government agencies are coping with across-the-board spending cuts by furloughing workers and finding other savings, that conference has become the target of a report a Treasury inspector general plans to release next week.

The report, called "Collected and Wasted: The IRS Spending Culture and Conference Abuses," will be the subject of a hearing Thursday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that panel said Friday.

The IRS is also under fire by lawmakers and the Obama administration for targeting conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status for tough scrutiny between 2010 and 2012. That screening, revealed May 10, has led President Barack Obama to replace the agency's acting chief, and two other top officials have also stepped aside.

All three videos were provided in response to a request by a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La.

"The outrage toward the IRS is only growing stronger," said Boustany, who chairs the Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. "Clearly this is an agency where abuse and waste is the norm and not the exception."

In a written statement, the IRS said the video was "unacceptable and an inappropriate use of government funds." It said the agency has new policies in place "to ensure that taxpayer funds are being used appropriately."

Eldridge said the dance video was recorded at IRS offices in New Carrollton, Md., outside Washington, D.C.

In the video, various workers comment as colleagues practice their dancing in the background to music that sounds like "Cupid Shuffle," a 2007 hit by the performer Cupid. In the version obtained by The Associated Press, IRS employees' names have been erased.

At one point, one woman says, "And I thought doing the 'Star Trek' video was humiliating."

That "Star Trek" video was produced for the same 2010 conference. The agency called the "Star Trek" video, which lasted six minutes and featured employees dressed as characters from the popular show, a mistake.

The "Star Trek" and "Gilligan's Island" videos cost about $60,000 combined to make, the IRS said in March.

The "Gilligan's Island" parody was used at the beginning of a 12-hour video the IRS used in 2011 to train its workers on various tax issues, Eldridge said. The entire video was used to train 1,900 workers who assist taxpayers over the phone and in offices around the country, she said.

In a separate statement, Danny Werfel, the IRS' new acting commissioner, called the 2010 conference "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era."

He added, "While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred."

Werfel said the IRS has since instituted spending restrictions that include scaling back travel and training expenses by more than 80 percent since 2010.

"Taxpayers should take comfort that a conference like this would not take place today," Werfel said.

In a statement, the Treasury Department of which the IRS is part said it puts "the highest priority on protecting taxpayer dollars." It said it would work with Werfel as he reviews his agency's operations and tries to "restore public confidence in the IRS."

The 2010 conference was attended by 2,600 IRS workers from 350 offices around the country that handle tax returns for small businesses and self-employed individuals, Eldridge said.

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Online:

Dance video http://waysandmeans.house.gov/uploadedfiles/irs_dance_video.m4v

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Co-writer-director Joseph Kosinski ("TRON: Legacy") digs all the way to the back of the refrigerator for "Oblivion," taking leftover bits of "The Matrix," "WALL-E," "2001," "Moon" and "Planet of the Apes," among countless other science-fiction classics, and putting them into a slick, shiny and state-of-the-art crock pot.

The results looks amazing, but most of the ideas that resonate will feel very familiar and more than a bit warmed-over.

You'll see one if not both of the movie's big twists coming, and while a case could be made that "Oblivion" will make the boldest anti-drones statement of any fictional film this year, it's a chilly movie that never draws you in enough to get fully invested in what's happening.

Tom Cruise opens the film with a head-spinning torrent of exposition, but it boils down to this: It's 2077. Sixty years earlier, alien invaders wrecked the moon, destroying much of Earth. What was left of the planet got trashed by nukes used to fight off the E.T.s, and now most of the population lives on a moon of Saturn.

The only people left on Earth are Jack (Cruise) and Victoria (Andrea Riseborough, "W.E."), who live in a high-tech house in the clouds and whose memories were wiped five years earlier.

He goes out every day to repair the drones that scan the earth for the remnants of the alien Scavengers; she reports their progress to Sally (Melissa Leo, with a ludicrous twang) at Mission Control. Unbeknownst to Victoria, Jack still remembers meeting up with a mystery woman (Olga Kurylenko of "To the Wonder") at the Empire State Building back before the war.

He's also built a secret hideaway in the mountains, a lakeside cabin where he can shoot hoops, listen to old vinyl LPs and squirrel away the books he has found in his travels.

One day, Jack happens upon the top of the Empire State Building, which the Scavengers are using as a homing beacon; following the coordinates being sent out, he finds a crashed spaceship, but the passengers aren't aliens - they're humans. And one of them is the lady from Jack's dreams.

This discovery sets in motion Jack's new understanding of who he is and what has happened to Earth, and "Oblivion" might have worked better if it weren't so proud of these revelations that most audience members will figure out long before the characters do.

Kosinski is great with the doohickeys - Jack's transport, his fold-up motorcycle, that house of the future - but neither the plot nor the characters click the way they should. (And I say that as someone who actually liked "TRON: Legacy.")

Cruise has to spend most of the film playing a literal blank slate, but even after he starts filling in his own memories, the character remains as vague as ever. And poor Morgan Freeman, who turns up late in the film, gets saddled with some astonishingly clichd dialogue. (That YouTube reel of characters in dozens of movies saying the line, "You look like shit," just got three seconds longer.) M83's score is mostly effective, but even it feels unoriginal, like the love child of Daft Punk's "TRON: Legacy" music and the "Inception" BWAAAAH.

There's a weirdly sexist tinge as well, with the female characters being either nefarious or inert (not to mention a triangular big bad alien presence that could have been designed by Judy Chicago). "Oblivion" also indulges in one of those have-your-cake endings that are so popular of late; not to give anything away, but this is another movie that promises a gutsy, powerful denouement only to give the audience a reassuring wink and a high-five.

The stink of studio notes and focus groups pervades throughout, in fact - that awkward narration at the beginning shares information that Jack offers up again later in the film; one imagines a test audience complaining that they didn't understand what was happening, and the studio deciding to overlay all that clunky exposition up front. Just a theory, but I'd put five bucks on it.

If the dialogue and the concepts of "Oblivion" had been as fresh and powerful as its art direction, we'd really have something here. Instead, it's something borrowed packaged inside something new.

Italian Di Luca, who had a previous positive for the same banned substance in 2009, failed an out-of-competition test taken on April 29 at his home, five days before the start of this year's Giro.

The 2007 Giro champion has been sacked by his Vini-Fantini team who said in a statement they would be seeking compensation from the rider.

"I'm devastated, I never wanted Di Luca in the team," sports director Luca Scinto said.

"We have built our group on the sacred values of cycling and we made the mistake of complying with a request, expressed many times, by our main sponsor...who asked us to have faith in an athlete who was a dear friend of his.

"Unfortunately this trust has been rewarded with an terrible mistake, which I still cannot comprehend," Scinto added.

Vini-Fantini's main sponsor, Valentino Sciotti said: "What can I say? I believed in the man and in the athlete and it is right that it should be me who takes the blame because I made a mistake.

"I must ask forgiveness from the fans, the team, the other sponsors, my partners and all the other cyclists who are racing in the Giro d' Italia fairly and honestly, and all those young athletes who will be shaken by this news."

Di Luca, 37, had joined the team last month.

He also served a three-month ban in 2007 for his part in the 'oil for drugs' scandal' involving Italian sports doctor Carlo Santuccione.

Di Luca was 26th overall in the Giro standings, 33:33 behind Italian leader Vincenzo Nibali after Thursday's stage 18. The race finishes in Brescia on Sunday.

Nibali said Di Luca's positive test reflected badly on all the riders.

"It's very bad news because it's always all the riders who pay the price of something like this," he told reporters after Friday's stage was cancelled because of heavy overnight snow in northern Italy.

"This kind of thing is never good news for the world of cycling and something we never like to hear."

(Writing by Alison Wildey; Editing by John O'Brien and Clare Fallon)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California unveiled prices on Thursday that consumers will pay for a selection of health plans offered through the state under the Affordable Care Act, providing a glimpse into how health care reform may look as it is rolled out across the nation.

Under the federal health care reform law, Californians who do not get or cannot afford health insurance through their jobs can buy coverage through an exchange, at a group rate negotiated by state regulators.

The cost to a 40-year-old who needs coverage would vary from about $40 to $300 per month for a mid-level plan, depending on the person's income. Some young adults, who are less expensive to cover, could pay nothing, depending on how much they earn.

The prices in California, along with those announced in Washington, Vermont and other states, show that premiums under Obamacare can be more affordable than had previously been thought. Consumer advocates welcomed the new exchange.

"It's a revolutionary improvement to move from a broken market where people are charged by how sick they are, to a competitive market where people pay what they can afford, based on a percentage of their income, on a sliding scale," said Anthony Wright, executive director of advocacy group Health Access.

"Most consumers buying coverage in the individual market will get financial help and see their premiums go down," he said.

The sweeping federal reform law known as Obamacare seeks to extend health insurance to many of the 49 million Americans without it, and alter how care is delivered so as to curb what has been an inexorable rise in healthcare spending.

Congressional Republicans who oppose the law had warned that high premiums would sink Obamacare as the uninsured would not be able to afford coverage even with federal subsidies.

Even the modest rates announced Thursday do not really signal that the program will work, said California Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue.

"This is like a shell game to me," said Logue, co-chair of the assembly health committee, who predicted that taxes would go up to pay for the subsidies, forcing other prices to rise.

"They're not going to tell you that you're going to pay for it in your gas or your food or going to the show," he said.

About a dozen states have set up these exchanges, or large group plans, which are a key element of the massive national health reform effort. Several have already released rates for monthly premiums, and most say the cost will not go up as high as skeptics had feared.

In California, a 40-year-old who makes less than four times the federal poverty level - that is, $95,000 for a family of four or $46,000 for an individual - would pay as little as $40 per month for a mid-level plan in which about 70 percent of medical costs and all preventive care is covered. This excludes additional costs to cover children or a spouse.

The same plan for a person who makes too much to qualify for a subsidy would run about $300 per month on average, the state said. In addition, the total amount consumers would have to pay each year for co-payments and other out of pocket costs would be limited to $6,350 or less, depending on income.

Patients could choose plans that offer lower co-pays if they wished, but would pay higher premiums. In some cases, particularly for low and moderate income workers in their 20s, the premiums are free once a federal subsidy is factored in.

PLAN OPTIONS

The exchange will also offer what it calls platinum plans, in which co-payments are very low or non-existent. These plans would cost $500 for those who do not qualify for subsidies, but as little as $300 per month for low-wage earners.

The biggest subsidies go to people who make less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $17,000 for a single person.

Peter V. Lee, a longtime health advocate recruited by the state to help set up and run its program, said costs had been expected to skyrocket because the Affordable Care Act requires health plans to offer more benefits and cover more people than they might otherwise have done.

For example, the plans must cover people with or without pre-existing conditions that would make their care more expensive. The actuarial firm Millman had predicted a 30 percent rise in the cost of monthly premiums for individuals in California under the new exchange.

But Lee said that did not happen. While rates without subsidies may be moderately higher for some consumers next year, most will pay less, he said. The rates announced on Thursday must still be approved by state regulators.

Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, who backed the health reform act, said the program would protect millions from bankruptcy due to medical costs.

"Californians buying coverage on their own will now have access to the same quality coverage that people get through their employers at the same or lower rates," he said.

California's exchange will offer coverage from 13 insurers - down from more than 30 that had applied to participate.

Among them are some of the biggest names, including Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Kaiser Permanente. Coverage will also be offered by some companies that had previously limited their activity to the Medicare and Medicaid markets.

Paul Markovich, president of Blue Shield of California, which is offering coverage under the plan, said that to keep prices low, doctors and hospitals had lowered some of their rates. Some insurers also agreed to limit profits, Lee said.

The policies vary in their provider networks, but Lee said consumers would have access to about 80 percent of doctors in the state, and some of its premier medical centers.

Consumers will be able to begin signing up on October 1 for plans that will go into effect in January. Next month, the California exchange will reveal plans and prices for insurance that small business owners can purchase for their employees.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Humer and David Morgan; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Richard Chang)

"It's the hand that he stretches out. It is the touching of the hand that speaks volumes for me. And for me, if you ask me what I would treasure, it is this moment that I treasure with my father," said Makaziwe Mandela, the oldest of Mandela's three surviving children, all daughters. "It means, 'My child, I'm here.' It means to me that, 'I'm here. I love you. I care.'"

It could be the story of any family, this intimate encounter between an elderly parent beset by illness and a child with whom relations have, over many decades, been challenging or negligible. That the couple's communication has become so elemental also sheds light on the fragile state of a larger-than-life figure, revered for his sacrifice during 27 years as a prisoner of apartheid and his peacemaking role in South Africa's shift to a democracy inclusive of all races.

"My Dad has not been in good, perfect health over the past month. And he has good days and he has bad days," Makaziwe Mandela said Friday in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press in her home, where a bust of her father, made from bronze and the wood of a railway tie, sits on a piano in the foyer.

One of those bad days was April 29, when state television broadcast footage of a visit by President Jacob Zuma and other leaders of the ruling African National Congress to Mandela, who had helmed the ANC, at his Johannesburg home. Zuma said Mandela was in good shape, but the footage the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year showed him silent and unresponsive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand.

Makaziwe Mandela said her family is grateful that the "movement," as she refers to the ANC leadership, still visits her father. The broadcasting of the video, however, was unfortunate, she said. Critics allege the ANC was trying to score political points by its association with Mandela. The party fiercely denies it.

"In previous visits, there was no need to take a picture. What happened this time, I don't know," said Makaziwe, a 59-year-old founder of a South African winemaking company that highlights two centuries of the family's distinguished lineage in its branding. She is one of four children from her father's first marriage to Evelyn Mase, which ended in divorce. The other three died one in infancy, one in a car crash and one from an AIDS-related illness.

Makaziwe said the "dignity and privacy" of her father, also a father to the nation, is sometimes under threat, complaining that 20 journalists one day in May converged on her father's home, where he receives medical treatment, after an ambulance left to fetch medicine from a hospital.

"This is really utter madness," she said. "This thing that everybody has got to be the first one to hear when Nelson Mandela goes, it's not right. All of you will have your opportunity. You will get the news from the presidency at the right time."

During Mandela's recent hospitalization for pneumonia, which ended April 6, Zuma's office issued brief, regular updates on his health. On some past occasions, conflicting reports from the government contributed to mistrust between authorities and the media.

Fascination with Mandela stems from the sense that he is on a par with others whose human shortcomings were overshadowed by their contributions to humanity, including Indian independence hero Mohandas Gandhi and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

South Africa has held peaceful elections and is a major economic force in Africa, but struggles with high unemployment, crime and corruption. Nelson Mandela embodies a morality and unity of purpose that makes South Africans nostalgic for an earlier era of promise.

"He has something that people gravitate to, that they can hold to, that gives them hope," said Makaziwe Mandela, comparing him to Mother Teresa. "That's what Nelson Mandela has done, is to give people a better hope that, 'I can be somebody. Life today can be better than yesterday.'"

Makaziwe's home is in a comfortable suburb of Johannesburg that, as she pointed out, was barred to blacks in the apartheid era. Sculptures a gift from Gabon, presents brought by a son returning from Sweden lined a mantelpiece in the carpeted living room where she sat for the interview. Her daughter, Tukwini, worked in a nearby room on the "House of Mandela" wine business, which launched this year in the United States.

The Mandela name has lost some shine because of a legal dispute over control of two companies that pits Makaziwe and Zenani Dlamini, a daughter from Mandela's second marriage to Winnie Mandela, against old associates of the Nobel Peace prize laureate, who has withdrawn from public life. The firms, directed by associates who say they were appointed at Mandela's request, hold funds from the sale of handprint artwork by Mandela that is earmarked for eventual distribution to his family.

In the AP interview, Makaziwe Mandela would not discuss the court case.

She talked about the strain and stress of losing her siblings and having a charismatic father whose devotion to justice and equality came at the expense of his children.

"I'm sure now, in his twilight years, that he looks back and says, 'You know, I could have done that differently,'" Makaziwe said. "He has regrets in life, mostly about his family. He was not there as a father. He tried the best way that he could when he came out of jail. But you understand that my father came out of jail and was swallowed up even before he became president. He never really had the time to truly be a father."

In his autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom," Nelson Mandela wrote wistfully of his inability to fulfill his role as a husband to Winnie Mandela during his incarceration, which ended in 1990. The couple divorced in 1996. He is now married to Graca Machel, the former first lady of Mozambique.

"When your life is the struggle, as mine was, there is little room left for family. That has always been my greatest regret, and the most painful aspect of the choice I made," Mandela wrote.

Makaziwe Mandela said she relates to actress Jane Fonda, who wrote in a memoir about her troubled relationship with her father, actor Henry Fonda. "On Golden Pond," the 1981 movie that starred both Fondas, also offered a bittersweet lesson in how a child can reach out to an elderly parent, even one who didn't, or couldn't, do enough.

"It is me who has to make an effort, to bridge the gap," Makaziwe said. "To be there."