HENLEY-ON-KLIP, South Africa - Oprah Winfrey headed a celebrity lineup that included Tina Turner and Spike Lee at the opening Tuesday of the talk show queen's new leadership academy for poor South African girls.

The true stars, though, were Sade and Megan, whose father killed their mother and then himself; Zodwa, whose mother died of AIDS, and some 150 other girls who Winfrey said had a "light so bright" that it shone through their deprivation and helped their dreams come true.

The $40 million Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg, plucked the girls from poverty to be groomed for power.

Winfrey said she planned to open another school for boys and girls this month in eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

Guests on Tuesday, including Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey, Sidney Poitier and Chris Tucker, were asked to bring a personally inscribed book for the library, which included everything from self-help books to Harry Potter.

Winfrey, who is called "Mam Oprah" by the girls, said she came with a celebrity posse for a reason. "These people have the power to do things. They have voices which can be heard in the U.S. and across the world," she said.

Lee, who attended with his family, said it was a "testimony to Oprah's power to see all these people showed up to support her."

"Oprah is one of the most amazing women in the world. It is amazing to see what she can do when she puts her mind to it. It is an honor to be here," said Carey.

Africa has drawn attention from a number of celebrities. Madonna adopted a Malawian boy and set up programs for others orphaned by AIDS in that southern African country, while actor George Clooney has lobbied to stop the violence in Sudan's Darfur region. Other stars have acted as U.N. goodwill ambassadors.

Nelson Mandela, whom Winfrey credited with inspiring her to build the school, interrupted his vacation for the ceremony. Mandela, 88, looked frail as he was helped to the stage by his wife Graca Machel and Winfrey.

The anti-apartheid leader, who became South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994, beamed as he told Winfrey: "This is not a distant donation but a project that clearly lies close to your heart."

The girls sat attentively on stage in green-and-white uniforms as the poignant stories of some were told in a documentary shown to guests. A few students greeted guests and media with Winfrey, clutching at her long pink dress and holding her hand.

Maphefo Leputu, 12, of Soweto, who used to share a bed with her cousins, said she was overwhelmed at the prospect of her own room and bathroom - and the chance to one day become a lawyer.

"I would have had a completely different life if this hadn't happened to me," said 13-year-old Lesego Tlhabanyane, whose mother abandoned her when she was 4. "Now I get a life where I get to be treated like a movie star."

Earlier Winfrey said at a news conference that educating girls could have far-reaching benefits.

"Girls who are educated are less likely to get HIV/AIDS, and in this country, which has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the pandemic," she said.

Many of the girls come from families affected by the disease, which has infected 5.4 million of South Africa's 48 million population and hit women disproportionately hard.

Winfrey referred repeatedly to her own impoverished childhood and said she was grateful she had a good education.

"I was a poor girl who grew up with my grandmother, like so many of these girls, with no water and electricity," she said.

She promised to continue to support the girls so they could attend any university in the world.

The idea for the school was born in 2000 at a meeting between Winfrey and Mandela.

Built on 52 acres, the 28-building campus resembles a luxury hotel, with state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science labs and a library, theater and wellness center. Each girl lives in a two-bedroom suite.

Winfrey said she chose "every brick tile, sheet and spoon," because "if you are surrounded by beautiful things and wonderful teachers who inspire you, that beauty brings out the beauty in you."

Some South Africans called the school elitist and a waste of money which could have been used to educate more children. But others applauded Winfrey.

"Any initiative which … enhances the quality of education and which enhances the possibility of a young person realizing their dream to do better is a welcome opportunity," Education Minister Naledi Pandor said.

"Girls' education in Africa may be the highest returning investment in the world right now," said Gene Sperling, director of the Center for Universal Education at the Council on Foreign Relations. "There's never a CNN camera showing a child dying from lack of education, but children die from lack of education every day."

As for those who criticized Winfrey for creating a lavish retreat for a small number of girls, Ken Walker, the Africa press officer in Johannesburg for CARE, said: "You make leaders by treating them as elite."

Despite government efforts to improve the school system, the education department said last week that two-thirds of the 1,667,000 South African children who started school 12 years ago dropped out, and only 5 percent did well enough to be eligible to go to a university.

State-funded schools, especially in the townships that sprang up under white racist rule, are plagued by gang violence, drugs and a high rate of teen pregnancy.

Winfrey selected the 11- to 12-year-old girls from 3,500 applicants. To qualify, they had to show both academic and leadership potential and have a household income of no more than $787 a month.

Winfrey said she was building a home for herself on the campus to spend time with the girls and to be involved in their education.

"I love these girls with every part of my being," she said. "I didn't know you could feel this way about other people's children."

AP writer Sarah DiLorenzo in New York contributed to this report.

Celebrities bring attention, raise money, for Africa

- Madonna and her filmmaker husband Guy Ritchie are adopting a Malawian boy, David Banda. Madonna also has announced plans to raise at least $3 million to help the nearly 1 million children in Malawi who have lost parents to AIDS.

- George Clooney has campaigned on behalf of victims of violence in Darfur, traveling to the wartorn region of Sudan, pressing the U.S. Congress to support legislation on Darfur and taking part in U.N. conferences. Mia Farrow, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, has repeatedly gone to Darfur to draw attention to the suffering there.

- Angelina Jolie has traveled to Africa and elsewhere as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. She and Brad Pitt drew attention to Africa when they went to Namibia for the birth of their daughter Shiloh in May. Jolie and Pitt donated $300,000 to government-run hospitals in Namibia.

- Rock star and activist Bono has campaigned in favor of canceling the foreign debt of developing nations in Africa and elsewhere. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the U2 frontman spurred leaders of the Group of Eight nations to focus on increasing aid to Africa during their 2005 summit.

- Irish rocker Bob Geldof organized 1985's Live Aid concert to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Twenty years later, he organized Live 8 concerts around the world to raise awareness about Africa's problems.

- More than 40 celebrities gathered in 1985 to record "We are the World," written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, which raised more than $60 million for African famine relief.

First black elected mayor of largely white La. town is found shot to death

WESTLAKE, La. (AP) - The city council scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday after the mayor-elect, the first black man elected to lead the largely white town, was found shot to death.

The body of Gerald Washington, 57, was found Saturday night in the parking lot of a former school. He had been shot once in the chest, investigators said. Officials said a pistol was found nearby.

The killing is being investigated as a homicide, but Calcasieu Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Kim Myers said Tuesday morning that no arrests had been made and the department had no suspects.

Washington, who served three terms as a city councilman, was supposed to have taken office Tuesday as Westlake's first new mayor in 24 years.

The city council has 10 days to appoint an interim mayor. If it fails to meet that deadline, the governor could appoint someone to lead the town, according to Mayor Dudley Dixon, who is retiring.

Although the southwest Louisiana town of 4,500 is 80 percent white, Washington had no trouble winning election in September.

The retired refinery worker had 696 votes - nearly 69 percent of the vote - to 318 for social worker Paula Johnson.

"Mr. Washington is going to be missed by all the people of Westlake," Dixon said. "It's one of the most tragic things I've heard in a long time. He would be a good mayor."

Longtime Councilman Dan Cupit said he had been looking forward to working with Washington as mayor. "Westlake lost a good friend," he said.

Venezuela prison riot kills 16 inmates, injures 3

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Rival gangs battled for control of a prison in eastern Venezuela, killing 16 inmates and injuring three, authorities said Tuesday.

National Guard troops restored order after the riot broke out before dawn at Uribana Prison near the city of Barquisimeto, some 175 miles west of the capital of Caracas, said Fanny Marquez, a federal prison official.

"It was a fight for control of two cell blocks," Marquez told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency. "We have the situation under control."

Violence is common in Venezuela's overcrowded and understaffed prisons, where about 20,000 inmates live in 30 facilities built to hold 15,000. Prisoners often bribe guards to get weapons.

At least 378 inmates were killed and 883 more were injured from January through November in prison violence last year, according to the watchdog group Venezuelan Prisons Observatory. Some 411 inmates were killed and 737 more were injured in 2005.

Prisoners commonly stage rebellions to protest long sentencing delays that can leave them languishing for years with their future uncertain.

Survivors found days after sinking of ferry; 400 people still missing

REMBANG, Indonesia (AP) - Fishing boats rescued dozens of survivors from the sea Tuesday, four days after a ferry went down in a storm off Indonesia. But 400 other people remained missing.

Strong winds and poor visibility prevented aircraft from joining the search Tuesday, but ships patrolled the waters off the Java coast in the area where the ferry sank before midnight Friday.

About 200 survivors have been found, and officials say the search will continue until Sunday. Thirteen bodies have been recovered; scores of others have been seen floating at sea.

The ferry Senopati Nusantara sank after being pounded by heavy waves for more than 10 hours as it neared the end of a two-day journey from the Indonesian section of Borneo island to the country's main island of Java. Officials said the bad weather caused the sinking.

Indonesia's tropical waters are generally between 72 and 84 degrees Fahrenheit. People have been known to survive for days at sea, but only with a buoyancy aid.

One 35-year-old survivor was picked up by fishermen and taken to hospital with chest pain and respiratory problems after drifting in a life raft for four days.

"Six among us died, one by one," said Susilo, who like many Indonesians uses one name. Some of those who died drank sea water, he said.

An additional 27 survivors were rescued elsewhere off the Java coast Tuesday and taken to the eastern port of Surabaya.

Search teams focused on the area around Madura island, said rescue worker Agus Anwari. "Heavy surf and high waves are still hampering our relief efforts, but we believe many survivors are over there, they need our help," he said.

In another sea incident, officials said a speed boat capsized in poor weather Monday off Borneo, killing 15 people. It was the fourth accident in less than a week in the archipelago. Besides the ferry sinking, scores died last week in flooding and mudslides triggered by heavy rains, while a plane carrying 102 people was missing after sending distress calls during a flight Monday.

Haylift starts to save livestock stranded by blizzard; thousands on Plains without power

DENVER (AP) - National Guard helicopters dropped emergency food bundles and bales of hay for people and livestock trapped by snowdrifts as high as rooftops Tuesday after back-to-back blizzards paralyzed the Plains.

At least a dozen deaths were blamed on a weekend storm that knocked out electricity to tens of thousand of people in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma and left herds of cattle without food or water. The blizzard spread a blanket of snow on top of the icy layer left by a storm that hit just before Christmas.

Because of rising temperatures, many highways across the region were clear, but many rural roads remained impassable, and National Guardsmen used Humvees and snowmobiles to reach people trapped in their homes and take them to shelters.

Colorado also launched a haylift in hopes of saving thousands of cattle immobilized by drifts as high as 10 feet. In 1997, a similar storm killed 30,000 in the state.

"Most of my cattle haven't seen food since last Thursday, when the snow started," said Tony Hall, who has 200 head on a Colorado ranch near Lamar. "Wherever they were standing when the snow piled up, that's where they are now. Every day, it's getting more crucial."

Colorado was competing with Kansas to find enough helicopters capable of hauling hay bales that weigh up to 1,300 pounds, said Don Ament, Colorado's agriculture director. Many helicopters in the state's National Guard fleet are in the Middle East.

"These cattle have already gone a number of days without food and water. They're just going to lay over dead if we don't do something soon," Ament said.

National Guard helicopters in Colorado also dropped Meals Ready to Eat, or military rations, just outside people's houses so that they could reach the bundles, Sgt. 1st Class Steve Segin said.

In the Oklahoma Panhandle, a dozen troops went door to door in Humvees, checking on rural residents snowed in without power for days. Col. Pat Scully said the priority was to reach people on ranches and farms who might have medical problems.

"We have no reason to believe anybody is hurt, but we did think it was necessary to do some welfare checks," said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

Ice in some areas was even more difficult to deal with than the snow, snapping trees and bringing down power lines. In Nebraska, big portable generators were set up to maintain water service and keep emergency shelters open.

At least 6,300 homes and businesses in western Kansas were without power, along with an estimated 15,000 in Nebraska and more than 6,000 in Colorado and Oklahoma. Some utility officials warned it could take weeks to restore electricity.

Every motel in the western Nebraska town of Kearney was full with people who had no electricity.

Patrick Keough, 49, was one of 10 people in his family sharing three rooms at the Kearney Ramada Inn. At his home east of Kearney, there was no power at his house or shop, where he makes fiberglass animals for advertising.

"Hardly anybody got any snow," Keough said Tuesday. "It's all just ice. Even the gravel roads are a sheet of ice, because the gravel is below the level of the ice. I've never seen that in my life."

Power poles are snapped off for miles around, he said, and he was told not to expect any power for at least three weeks.

Ten traffic deaths were blamed on the latest storm in Colorado, Texas and Minnesota. A tornado spun off by the same weather system killed one person in Texas, and a Kansas man died in a rural home where a generator was apparently being used because the power was out.

Manager escapes serious injury when SUV plows through wall of store in Massachusetts

LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) - An SUV crashed through a wall of a grocery store, momentarily pinning the manager against the counter. He escaped serious injury.

"I was just checking the mail as I usually do … when I just heard this big boom," Andy Minaya, 26, said Tuesday.

Video from a security camera at Constanza Meat Market shows Minaya standing at the counter when the wall behind him explodes inward, showering him with merchandise and obscuring him briefly in a cloud of dust.

Minaya then leaps the counter and scampers out of harm's way. "I just wanted to get out of there," he said.

He went to the hospital where he was treated and released.

"I have bruises on my leg and back and my arms and a couple of little cuts," he said.

The driver of the sport utility vehicle, Roselia Santos, 40, reported feeling dizzy just before Friday's accident, according to the police report. She was not charged.

She is a regular customer at the store, Minaya said.

The store reopened later in the day.

Hope fades for finding survivors of Pakistani boat missing in Arabian Sea with 14 people

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistan's coast guard kept up a search for a second day Tuesday for a boat that disappeared in choppy waters in the Arabian Sea with 14 people aboard, an official said.

Maritime Security Agency boats and a surveillance plane scoured waters near the Iranian border off the coastal town of Jivani, but could not find either the small vessel or anyone in it, the agency's spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Attiqur Rehman said.

The search for the missing boat was called off after sunset with little hope of finding survivors, he said, adding that it will resume Wednesday.

The search was launched after the body of a man was found floating in the sea late Sunday near Jivani, a town about 330 miles west of Karachi, Pakistan's main Arabian Sea port, Rehman said.

The man was one of 15 people who were in the boat coming from a nearby Iranian coastal town Jivani to celebrate a religious festival with their families, Rehman said.

The men were fishermen and dock workers in Iran and their boat disappeared west of Jivani, he said.

Baby killed, 5 adults wounded in drive-by shooting outside a Florida home on New Year's Day

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - An 8-month-old baby was killed and five adults were wounded in a drive-by shooting outside a home on New Year's Day, sheriff's officials said.

Several adults were gathered outside the house Monday night when two suspects drove by and opened fire, sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller said.

The baby, Tavares Carter, was in the back seat of a car parked in front of the home. He died Monday night at a hospital.

Five adults suffered various injuries and were being treated at hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately available, but several were hit with multiple shots, Miller said.

"They were running for their lives," Miller said, adding that it appeared the home had been targeted.

Investigators were searching for the suspects on Tuesday. The motive for the shooting was unclear, authorities said.

Mobile home owners in Florida town could become instant millionaires

BRINY BREEZES, Fla. (AP) - The owners of nearly 500 mobile homes in one of the last waterfront trailer-park towns in South Florida stand to become instant millionaires if they agree to sell to a developer. But some are holding out, saying there are things more important than money.

"You just can't buy a way of life," said Tom Byrne, a 68-year-old retired sales executive from New York who doesn't want to sell even though he would make a little over $1 million on the trailer and site he bought two years ago for $150,000. "This is my home."

Briny Breezes is a down-market relic of old Florida, surrounded by glamorous multimillion-dollar homes and splashy high-rise condos.

The Briny Breezes brochure calls it a "self-governed mobile home community of kindred souls." Residents of the Palm Beach County town cruise the narrow streets on golf carts, passing palm trees and tiny, neatly manicured yards. They wave to each other and chat about the next neighborhood outing - water aerobics at the community pool, shuffleboard near the clubhouse, bowling night.

With 600 feet of oceanfront property and an additional 1,100 feet along the Intracoastal Waterway, real estate like this in southeastern Florida is pure gold.

Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments has big plans for the property if the deal goes through, as many residents are certain will happen. The company envisions about 900 low-rise multimillion-dollar condo units, a high-end marina and a 300-room luxury hotel.

"There really is no other piece of property like this in Florida," said Logan Pierson, the company's vice president of acquisitions.

The 43-acre town sprouted from a strawberry farm in the 1920s, back when Florida's charm was its subtropical weather and quiet, coastal bliss - long before the days of Art Deco, "Miami Vice" and Walt Disney World.

So-called "tin-can tourists" came down yearly with their trailers to escape the Northern cold. A group of regular visitors bought the property in 1958, and it became a town in 1963. It is run as a corporation by a board of directors, and residents own shares based on the size and location of their lots.

"This is pretty much it for an affordable community along the coast," said Debbi Murray of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. "It's just another piece of Floridiana that is going to disappear."

Briny Breezes' board recently approved the sale for $510 million. The owners of the 488 trailers have until Jan. 10 to ratify or reject the deal. A two-thirds majority is needed to sell. The amount each person would get depends on how many shares the resident owns. Each share is worth roughly $32,000 under the developer's offer. Owners would not get any money - and wouldn't have to move out - until 2009.

Kevin Dwyer, 47, is all for the deal. Dwyer, who paid just $37,500 for his trailer nine years ago, would make about $800,000.

"See these pockets? They're empty," Dwyer said, a stack of unpaid bills sitting on a table in his single-wide trailer less than 100 yards from the ocean. "I've nickeled and dimed my whole life. I hit the lottery."

Pierson acknowledged that the loss of Briny Breezes means a piece of old Florida will be gone forever. But he said that because of the town's location on a barrier island, a hurricane could eventually wipe out Briny Breezes.

"At some point Briny is going to face a bad storm," he said. "There are other potential threats out there other than development."

Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty is not so sure it's a done deal because of constraints on zoning, water, sewage and traffic. "I find the developers extremely optimistic to the point of being delusional," she said.

For one thing, the community is in a hurricane evacuation zone and has few ways in or out. Developers will have to clear their plans through the state before any dirt is moved, and neighboring communities will have a chance to weigh in.

"This would be extremely complicated and extremely unpopular," McCarty said. "But people see dollar signs and it sparks the imagination."

John and Gay Sideris, retired teachers from New York who bought their home in 2001, are conflicted.

"It will be good for us because we'll be able to help our family, but this is an amazing place to live. You know all your neighbors. You can walk your dog in your pajamas," said Gay Sideris, 70.

"If you sneeze, a neighbor hands you a napkin," added John Sideris, 71.

The couple paid just $155,000 for their home and now stand to make close to $1.5 million.

"We've been living a beautiful life," John Sideris said, sitting in a chair, staring out his window at his boat tied up to a dock just feet away.

Asked how he would vote, he crossed his arms and breathed a heavy sigh.

"The money is great, but you can't get another place like this to live," he said. "It's like Club Med."

On the Net:

www.brinybreezes.com

www.oceanland.com

Lone survivor of rollover accident that killed family in 2001 dies in New Year's truck crash

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - The lone survivor of a 2001 rollover accident that killed his entire family died New Year's Day after a fiery truck crash, police said Tuesday.

Anthony Castillo, 23, apparently lost control of his pickup truck, which flipped on Interstate 10 and burst into flames on Sunday. He died of his injuries Monday. An unidentified passenger suffered minor injuries and was taken to a hospital.

"It just knocked me off my feet," said George Pasterchick, the former football coach at St. Gerard Catholic High School, where Castillo played at the time. "It's unbelievable. The whole family wiped out in that auto accident. And now him."

Castillo had been 17 when he emerged with only scratches and bruises from a July 2001 car accident that killed his father, mother and older brother as they were returning home from a vacation to the Gulf Coast.