| * Mandela: man on mission to bind a nation * Asia equities on hold ahead of US jobs data * JLR to spend £240m on Brazilian plant * Gazprom denies cheap gas offer to Ukraine * Chinese entrepreneur in Crimea port plan * China signals shift on plurilateral trade * South Africa rand dips to near 5-year low * Russian diplomats face US fraud charges * Markets: mixed Mandela: man on mission to bind a nation
Nelson Mandela's history as a freedom fighter and political prisoner was merely the warm-up act to ending apartheid and leading South Africa back into the world
http://on.ft.com/194GtEt Asia equities on hold ahead of US jobs data
Asian equities and currencies were mostly on hold as markets looked to Friday's looming release of US jobs data, which should offer clues to the Federal Reserve's plans for its monetary stimulus programme.
http://on.ft.com/1blEcoU JLR to spend £240m on Brazilian plant
South America seen as crucial market in strategy to continue high-volume growth by targeting the emerging rich in developing countries
http://on.ft.com/194GtUU Gazprom denies cheap gas offer to Ukraine
An official of the Russian energy group has contradicted comments attributed to his country's deputy prime minister regarding prices
http://on.ft.com/194GtUW Chinese entrepreneur in Crimea port plan
Wang Jing, a Chinese telecoms entrepreneur, wades into Ukraine's political crisis with a project proposal worth $10bn to build a deepwater port
http://on.ft.com/194GtUZ China signals shift on plurilateral trade
After years of defending the multilateral WTO against the plurilateral threat of deals negotiated by some members, China is considering shifting sides
http://on.ft.com/194Grwn South Africa rand dips to near 5-year low
Volatile currency falls to its lowest intraday level since March 2009 as Africa's largest economy battles with a widening current account deficit
http://on.ft.com/194Gube Russian diplomats face US fraud charges
The Russian diplomats indulged in luxuries like affluent New Yorkers do, shopping at Swarovski and Tiffany and Jimmy Choo. But when it came time to having babies in their newly adopted home country, dozens of the diplomats and their spouses engaged in a scam in which they lied about their incomes and received welfare benefits meant for the poorest Americans, according to fraud charges filed by the US attorney's office in New York.
http://on.ft.com/1d0ezZ0 Emerging Markets
MSCI Emerging Market Index down -0.07% at 997.73 Americas
DJIA down -0.43% at 15,822
S&P 500 down -0.43% at 1,785
Bovespa up +1.14% at 50,788 Asia
Nikkei 225 up +0.04% at 15,184
Topix up +0.22% at 1,232
Hang Seng down -0.22% at 23,662
Shanghai Composite down -0.61% at 2,233
MSCI Asia ex-Japan down -0.09% at 552.25
CNX Nifty up +0.21% at 6,254 Currencies
€/$ 1.37 (1.37)
$/¥ 101.94 (101.78) Commodities
Brent Crude (ICE) up +0.25 at 111.23
Light Crude (Nymex) up +0.01 at 97.39
100 Oz Gold (Comex) down -4.50 at 1,229 | 
