Mandela's South African AIDS concert canceled

An all-star AIDS benefit concert that was to be hosted by former South African president Nelson Mandela has been canceled because of problems with the producers, organizers said Friday. The concert, scheduled for February 2 on South Africa's Robben Island, was to feature Bono, Elton John, Shaggy, Youssou N'dour, Macy Gray, and other entertainers. John Samuel, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said in a statement, "The concert cannot take place since the proposed producers were not able to come to a satisfactory agreement with the foundation." The daylong concert was to have been televised around the world, with all funds raised going to the foundation, the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, and the Robben Island Museum. Robben Island is a rocky outcrop off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela was imprisoned for almost two decades by South Africa's apartheid regime.