BBC News with Julie Candler

Nelson Mandela has been laid to rest in South Africa's eastern Cape where he grew up.Friends,family and political leaders paid final tributes to him at the state funeral,remembering the qualities that turned a young activist into the world's most famous political prisoner and later his country's first democratically elected president.From the village of Quru,Mike Wooldridge reports.

For its most celebrated leader,South Africa has staged the biggest state funeral in its history.One of Nelson Mandela's granddaughters Nandi paid tribute to the man whose principal regrets about going to prison for 27 years was that he missed so much of a family life.

We shall miss your voice as you told us stories of your childhood.We shall miss your laughter.

In the most emotional tribute of all,Ahmed Kathrada in prison with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island said his life was now in a void.President Jacob Zuma pledged to continue promoting non-racialism,reconciliation,forgiveness and the other values for which Nelson Mandela was renowned.

Some 200,000 opposition supporters have converged on Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kiev,demanding the resignation of the President Victor Yanukovych.It's the latest protest over the government's refusal to sign a deal on closer integration with the European Union.The US senator John McCain was cheered when he told crowds that Washington supported them.

Ukraine will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better,to all Ukrainians, America stands with you.

The polls have now closed in Chile where people have been voting for a new president.The socialist candidate Michelle Bachelet's seen as the favorite.She found as short of the outright majority she needed in the first round.The electoral authorities say the turnout appears to have been low despite repeated calls by both candidates for people to vote.

France says President Francois Hollande will not attend the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia,nor will any other top French official.The announcement was made by the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in a radio interview,but he did not elaborate on the reasons,unless,he said the Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated his personal prestige on staging a successful Olympics in an effort to showcase his country.

A human rights group in Saudi Arabia says one of its members has been sentenced to 4 years in prison and 300 lashes for calling for great democracy.Omar al-Saeed,he's the latest member of the Saudi civil and political rights association to be jailed as the authorities continued their campaign against the group.

World News from the BBC

The German Chancellor Angela Merkal has appointed the country's first female defence minister,she's Ursula von der Leyen,currently labor minister and a mother of seven.Chancellor Merkal was unveiling her new cabinet after the center-left Social Democrats voted to join a grand coalition with her center-right bloc.Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.

The headline may be the appointment of Germany's first Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen,but other appointments may be more significant in terms of policy.She's unlikely to be any less reluctant on her male predecessor to get the German military involved abroad.In terms of the policy the big change may be the new foreign minister from the Social Democrats:Frank-Walter Steinmeier,the SPD is thought to be a keener on reaching an accommodation with Russia despite concerns about President Putin's record on civil rights.

The Public Prosecutors' Office in the Brazilian city of Manaus has demanded the immediate suspension of building work of the World Cup football stadium where construction worker was killed on Saturday.The worker plunged more than 30 meters to his death from a roof.The authorities say the working conditions are unacceptably dangerous and the urgency to finish in time for next year's tournament connot cause more lives.

The actor Peter O'Toole who shot to fame in an Oscar winning film Lawrence of Arabiahas died,he was 81,a mesmerizing and versatile actor.O'Toole was nominated for Oscar 8 times for roles ranging form Henry II and Becket to an alcoholic journalist in Jeffrey Bernad is Unwell.Although,he never won any of those,he accepted an Honorary Oscar in 2003 when he was given a standing ovation.

Always a bridesmaid,never a bride my foot.I have my very own Oscar now to be with me till death do us apart.