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Over a half a million people were attending the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Monday night in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yosef, 93, passed away earlier in the day. The crowd, observers said, consisted of a cross-section of Israelis, from hareidi to Religious Zionist to secular. Eulogies were being held at the Porat Yosef yeshiva in the Geula neighborhood. Dozens of speakers will eulogize the rabbi. Among the first to speak was Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, one of Rabbi Yosef's sons and current Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. In a heart-wrenching voice, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef spoke of his father, saying that “from the...

There was a scroll on Fox News the other day concerning the funeral of "Aunt Flossie" [spelling?] at Arlington National Cemetery ... Didn't get a chance to see the story - and can't Google it ... Any help?

This sort of thing ought to be left to the Westboro Baptist Church. The Washington Free Beacon reports that a Chicago judge has intervened on behalf of SCI Illinois Services, Inc., a national funeral-home chain, and ordered the local Teamsters chapter to suspend picketing at 16 funeral homes in the area. What prompted the legal action? The company testified in its filing that union members blocked grieving family members from leaving its parking lot, used bullhorns to shout obscenities at workers and mourners, and unleashed a German Shepard on a dead woman’s daughter and husband. The funeral home was eventually...

Margaret Thatcher’s spectacular ceremonial funeral cost the taxpayer just £1.2 million ($1.8 million), just a fraction of the sum claimed by left-wing opponents. The final bill for the ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral was revealed by ministers today in a rebuff to critics who suggested the costs would top £10 million ($15.4 million). Officials said that detailed work on the price of security, policing, staff overtime and hiring the Cathedral meant the total was much lower than early estimates suggested. …

Denver, Colo., Jun 6, 2013 / 02:02 am (CNA).- At the Archdiocese of Denver's Mount Olivet Cemetery, no person is buried without prayers being said over them – even those whose identities are a mystery. “Sometimes we don't even know the person’s name; they could come to us as a John Doe,” Llyod Swint, assistant director of Cemeteries and Mortuaries for the Denver archdiocese, told CNA June 4. “We’ll offer prayers for the repose of their souls, for the forgiveness of their sins, their deliverance into the arms of Christ.” Because Mount Olivet and the Archdiocese mortuary are on the...

“Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled” (John 14:1-6, 27)Let not your hearts be troubled. That is my message to you today--to you, the friends and family members; to you, the fellow members of Redeemer; and especially to you, Robert--to all of you who mourn the death of our dear sister, Edith. Let not your hearts be troubled. What? How can you say that, Pastor? A death has occurred! Edith has been taken from us! We’ll miss her. We’ll miss her pleasant company and conversation. We already miss her. And you’re telling us, “Let not your hearts be troubled”? And another...

Members of the Westboro church showed up today in Moore, Oklahoma to protest the funeral of a child killed in the Moore Tornado. Approximately 100 members of Patriot Guard Bikers showed up to provide a hedge between the cult church and the persons attending the funeral. It is my understanding the members of the Westboro Church were arrested for not acquiring a permit to protest and are currently being booked into the Moore City Jail. It is expected that processing and arraignment will not be completed until sometime after the Holiday weekend. Oklahoma.... is this a great state or what?

Relatives of Navy SEALs who died when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan in August 2011 spoke at a press conference Thursday to condemn the Obama administration and claim that the U.S. military presented a Muslim cleric at the dead SEALs’ funeral who disparaged “sinners and infidels who are fodder for the hell fire.” FreedomWatch president Larry Klayman, the attorney representing the families, claimed at the press conference, which Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota and former Florida Republican Rep. Allen West also attended, that the U.S. military presented an anti-American speaker at the SEALs’ 2011 funeral.

This combo shows the 30 troops killed in a helicopter downing in Afghanistan on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2011. The Pentagon on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011 identified the Americans as 17 members of the elite Navy SEALs, five Naval Special Warfare personnel who support the SEALs, three Air Force Special Operations personnel and an Army helicopter crew of five. (AP Photo) Today three families of Navy SEAL Team VI special forces servicemen, along with one family of an Army National Guardsman, appeared at a press conference to disclose never before revealed information about how and why their sons along with 26...

BOSTON (CBS) – The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is now at a funeral home in Worcester. Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, told WBZ-TV Friday he is handling funeral arrangements for the Tsarnaev family. Stefan said his staff has experience with Muslim services, which includes washing the body and preparing it for burial. A police cruiser parked outside the Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlor Friday. “We take care of a lot of Muslim funerals here, throughout the state,” Stefan said, “and this was no different, except for the circumstances.” A burial...

The British government says former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral cost taxpayers £3.6 million ($5.6 million), mostly for security. … Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said Thursday that Thatcher’s family was paying the cost of the undertaker and flowers for the funeral. …

After being carried through the streets of London in a flag-draped coffin aboard a gun carriage, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest this morning in St. Paul's Cathedral. But the big story of the day wasn't Maggie. No, it was a 19-year-old Texan who stole the show from the deceased Iron Lady. With a poise reminiscent of the elder Thatcher, Amanda Thatcher, Margaret's granddaughter, delivered a reading from Epistles that has the British media agog. Amanda, who lives with her mother in Texas, chose a rather militant passage that calls on believers to "put on the...

Protocol: President Obama declined to send a high-level delegation to Wednesday's funeral of Britain's Margaret Thatcher. It's a measure of how little he values the special relationship — and a sign of his own smallness. Back in more gracious times, vice presidents routinely attended funerals of foreign dignitaries. As such, the presence of Vice President Joe Biden — if not Obama himself — would seem fitting for as significant a U.S. ally as the late Prime Minister Thatcher, if not out of warmth of feeling, then simply to represent the U.S.' gratitude. Thatcher's uncompromising friendship with the U.S. helped to...

Amanda Thatcher's composure and dignity at the funeral of her beloved grandmother Margaret Thatcher bore more than a passing resemblance to the Iron Lady herself. The only daughter of the late Prime Minister's son Sir Mark and his American former wife Diane read from St Paul's Letter to the Ephesians VI. 10-18. Dressed elegantly in black, her voice crystal clear but faltering occasionally, Amanda, 19, spoke before a congregation of 2,300 dignitaries including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, and statesmen from around the world.

Lady Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, was borne to St Paul's Cathedral for a ceremonial funeral as thousands lined central London's streets to witness her final journey. With full military honours, the coffin bearing the body of one of Britain's most divisive politicians of modern times was escorted by members of all three armed forces to a service before a congregation of 2,300 from across the globe and led by the Queen. Although not officially a state funeral, as accorded to Sir Winston Churchill, the event was conducted with a level of pomp and ceremony not witnessed in London...

In one of those ceremonial pageants the Brits invented, former Prime Minister and Baroness Margaret Hilda Thatcher's funeral unfolded this morning on the old streets of London to the sounds of the classical music she loved and the Bible verses at a service in Sir Christopher Wren's St. Paul's Cathedral. So great is the global appreciation and admiration for the Iron Lady who led Great Britain from 1979-90, that some 2,000 dignitaries attended, including in an historic breach of protocol Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. This was the first funeral of a former prime minister the monarch has attended...

In pictures: Baroness Thatcher's funeral

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In an amazing snub, Barack Obama, who sent an official delegation to Venezuela for tyrannical socialist dictator, Hugo Chavez’s funeral, won’t send one to Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher’s...

The Wizard of Oz song at the centre of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign will not be played in full on the Official Chart Show. Instead a five second clip of the 51-second song will be aired as part of a Newsbeat report, Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper has said. Sales of Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead have soared since the former Prime Minister's death on Monday, aged 87. Mr Cooper called the decision "a difficult compromise". The song is set to take the number three spot in Sunday's countdown, according to the Official Charts Company.