Yuschenko's mother dies

Varvara Yushchenko, mother of newly-elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, has died at the age of 88.

Varvara Yushchenko passed away after “a long and serious illness” in a hospital in the capital Kiev, where she spent the last few months, said a statement from the president’s press office.

After funeral rites in Kiev, Yushchenko will be buried in her hometown of Horyzhyvka, in Ukraine’s north, it said. The statement offered no other details.

A mathematics teacher, Varvara Yushchenko was born in 1918. Widowed for many years, she is survived by two sons, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.