"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

Nelson Mandela 1918 - 2013

Nelson Mandela, who guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy and became an international icon of peace and reconciliation, died Thursday 05 December 2013 at age 95.

Lou Reed, 71, has died at his home in Long Island. The cause of death of the influential singer songwriter has not yet been released but may be related to a liver transplant five months ago.

Lou Reed, who found fame with the Velvet Underground and rose swiftly to the upper echelons of the rock aristocracy with his Warhol inspired album Transformer in 1972, was referred to today by Rolling Stone magazine as “a restlessly inventive solo artist… chameleonic, thorny and unpredictable, challenging his fans at every turn”.

Bill Pertwee, who played Warden Hodges in Dad's Army, died on May 27th. His agent Meg Poole said he died peacefully with his family around him. The actor was known for his role as the air raid warden in the classic 1970s comedy. He had been ill over Christmas and passed away peacefully with his family around him at his home in Cornwall.

Ms Poole said: "He was a really, really nice man. Very bright, very intelligent. He came from a big theatrical family, a big show business family, and like all of them it was his life and it was very important to him and he was a hugely professional, very clever man."

The director, actor and writer Bryan Forbes, who has died aged 86, was one of the most creative forces in the British film industry of the 1960s, and the Hollywood films he directed included the original version of The Stepford Wives (1974). In later life he turned to the writing of books, both fiction and memoirs.

The turning point for him in cinema was the formation of the independent company Beaver Films with his friend Richard Attenborough in 1958. For the screenplay of their first production, The Angry Silence (1960), Forbes received an Oscar nomination and a Bafta award.

Carolien van Leusden, who has died at the age of 50 after a 12-year battle with cancer, will continue to be an inspiration to others affected by the illness.

Born into a medical family in the Netherlands, she worked as a qualified nurse until moving permanently to Portugal 28 years ago.

Experienced parachutist Jonathon Wickham, the 44 year old owner of Oz Shades in Odiaxere, Algarve, has died in a freak accident as his parachute failed to open during a skydiving jump.

Portimão municipal aerodrome had been busy catering for over 200 skydivers, mostly from northern Europe, in a weekend aimed at honing their skills in the clear skies above the Algarve.

The Algarve's most feared letter-writer Ron Lavery died on the 4th of February. Long-term resident of the Algarve, Ron loved nothing more than stirring up expats and locals alike through the always-tolerant Letters page of the Portugal News. 

Film director Michael Winner, latterly a restaurant critic and always a bon vivant, died on Monday January 21^st at the age of 77.

His wife Geraldine said he died at his London home after an illness, Winner suffered poor health in recent years including a near-fatal bacterial infection from oysters, MRSA and liver disease.