funerals

• SOURCE: AP
  5-26-13
  

  Serbia holds funeral for last Yugoslav king

  BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia held a funeral on Sunday for Yugoslavia’s last king, Peter II Karadjordjevic, who had fled the country at the start of World War II and died in the U.S. in 1970.The former king’s remains, and those of his wife, mother and brother, were interred in the family tomb at St. George church in Oplenac, central Serbia, in a ceremony aired live on the state television.The funeral was attended by top state officials, who described it as an act of reconciliation and unity....

• SOURCE: NYT
  4-17-13
  

  Thatcher Funeral Draws Dignitaries and Complaints

  LONDON — A horse-drawn gun carriage bore the coffin of Margaret Thatcher to St. Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday for a ceremonial funeral that divided British opinion, much as the former prime minister known as the Iron Lady stirred deep and conflicting emotions during her lifetime and, in death, triggered an equally passionate debate over her legacy.With hymns and prayers and biblical readings, dignitaries from around the world and from Britain’s political elite gathered in the cathedral for a service regarded as austere and devout reflecting her Methodist upbringing as bells pealed over the city and a gun salute boomed from the Tower of London.Some 700 military personnel from three services — the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force — lined the streets, including guards in scarlet tunics and distinctive black bearskin hats on the 24 cathedral steps as the gun carriage processed along Fleet Street and Ludgate Hill from the church of St. Clement Danes in a closely scripted display of ceremonial precision honed over centuries....

• SOURCE: CBS News
  4-17-13
  

  UK bids farewell to Margaret Thatcher

  LONDON Thousands of Britons lined the streets of central London on a grey Wednesday morning to see the hearse pass by carrying former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's body to her funeral ceremony.Britain's Iron Lady is being laid to rest with a level of pomp and protest reflecting her status as a commanding, but polarizing political figure -- an elaborate affair with full military honors culminating in a service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London attended by world leaders and dignitaries from 170 countries.The first part of Wednesday's elaborate proceedings saw Thatchter's casket removed from a chapel inside the Houses of Parliament, where it spent Tuesday evening -- per her request -- and loaded onto the hearse for the ride to the St. Clement Danes chapel. It was just the first stop on Baroness Thatcher's final journey....