VANCOUVER, Nov 17, 2007 (AFP) - Some 650 people attended the funeral Saturday of a Polish emigree who died at Vancouver airport after police stunned him with a Taser, a disturbing incident that was videotaped by a bystander and shown around the world.

'We were quite surprised. People came from everywhere,' said Kamloops Funeral Home employee Lawrence Schrader. The funeral home owner, Zofia Cisowski, also the mother of the 40-year-old victim, Robert Dziekanski, had planned for 100 mourners, he said.

MADRID, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Spain on Wednesday laid to rest two Spanish soldiers killed in Afghanistan earlier this week at a state funeral attended by King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The religious and military ceremony was held at the parachute brigade's base at Paracuellos del Jarama on the outskirts of Madrid which the two soldiers, aged 20 and 33, belonged to.

The fallen soldiers were posthumously awarded the cross of military merit at the ceremony.

VIENNA, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Top musicians Tuesday paid homage to Joe Zawinul, founder of the jazz-rock group Weather Report, by performing at his funeral at Vienna's central cemetery.

Violin virtuoso Toni Stricker, saxophonist Hans Salomon and Belgian singer Sabine Kabongo performed at the moving ceremony while US pianist Chick Correa said in a message that Zawinul was 'an incredible source of inspiration.'

Zawinul died earlier this month at the age of 75.

PARIS, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - Marcel Marceau, the world-famous mime artist who died on Saturday, will be buried on Wednesday at the Pere-Lachaise cemetery in central Paris, the funeral directors said.

The ceremony -- with prayers from a former chief Rabbi of France -- will be 'on the theme of silence' in accordance with his family's wishes, they said.

Marceau died in the southern town of Cahors at the age of 84.

MODENA, Italy, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - The funeral of Italian opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti began in the cathedral of his home town of Modena Saturday, with more than 800 people inside the church and thousands more watching on television screens outside.

But there were fewer mourners and spectators in the northern Italian city than the 50-100,000 predicted by mayor Giorgio Pighi.

SEOUL, Sept 8, 2007 (AFP) - The 21 South Korean survivors of a weeks-long Afghan hostage ordeal attended a tearful funeral Saturday for the pastor killed by their Taliban kidnappers.

About 1,500 friends and relatives packed the Saem-Mul Presbyterian church on the outskirts of Seoul, weeping as a video clip of pastor Bae Hyung-Kyu was shown.

SAN LUCA, Italy, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - Around 1,000 people attended a funeral mass in the southern Italian region of Calabria late Thursday for three of the six Italian men shot dead in a brutal crime vendetta, after two were buried earlier in a neighboring town, media reports said.

The three bodies arrived from Rome as night fell, the coffins were taken directly to the church in an effort to maintain security. Police cordoned off the village, barring access for security reasons.

ROME, Aug 23, 2007 (AFP) - Around 200 people attended a funeral mass in the southern Italian region of Calabria Thursday for two of the six Italian men shot dead in a brutal crime vendetta in Germany last week, media reports said.

The bodies of brothers Francesco and Marco Pergola were flown in from Rome at dawn and immediately taken inside the church in their home village of Siderno amid concerns that a funeral cortege could pose a security threat.

LONDON, Aug 10, 2007 (AFP) - A man who died of heart failure weighing 50 stone (317 kilogrammes, 700 pounds) has been buried in what undertakers said was the biggest coffin ever made in Britain.

Mark Bamber, 38, was buried in a solid mahogany casket measuring seven foot 11 inches (2.3 metres) long and four foot six inches wide with a depth of 30 inches, the Manchester Evening News in north-west England said.

BUCHAREST, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - The patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Teoctist I, was buried Friday in Bucharest's Patriarchal Church in a ceremony attended by top Romanian officials and delegations from sister congregations.

Teoctist died Monday aged 92 after suffering a heart attack following an operation.

Some 4,000 faithful followed the funeral mass, celebrated by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, on giant screens in front of the church. It was also broadcast live on all Romanian television stations.

FERRARA, Italy, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of mourners including cinema celebrities gathered Thursday for the funeral of legendary filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni in his native Ferrara, northern Italy.

Antonioni has gone 'beyond the clouds,' said German filmmaker Wim Wenders, referring to the 1995 film 'Al di la Delle Nuvole' that he co-directed with the Italian legend with segments filmed in Ferrara.

The funeral mass was held at Ferrara's San Giorgio cathedral, where Antonioni, who died in Rome on Monday, was baptised 94 years ago.

FERRARA, Italy, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of mourners including cinema celebrities gathered Thursday for the funeral of filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni in his native Ferrara, northern Italy.

Antonioni has gone 'beyond the clouds,' said German filmmaker Wim Wenders, referring to the 1995 film 'Al di l? Delle Nuvole' that he co-directed with the Italian legend with segments filmed in Ferrara.

The funeral mass was held at Ferrara's San Giorgio cathedral, where Antonioni, who died in Rome on Monday, was baptised 94 years ago.

BELGRADE, July 29, 2007 (AFP) - Nine people killed by a lone gunman in eastern Serbia were buried on Sunday, the Beta news agency reported.

Several thousand relatives, friends and inhabitants of neighboring villages attended the funeral in the village of Jabukovac, near the eastern town of Negotin, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the capital Belgrade, according to the report.

Serbia's Interior Minister Dragan Jocic, who had described the incident as 'a huge tragedy with no rational explanation,' attended the funeral.

BELGRADE, July 29, 2007 (AFP) - Nine people killed by a lone gunman in eastern Serbia were to be buried on Sunday.

Two days after the shooting spree, local media speculated that the shooter, Nikola Radosavljevic, was suffering serious psychiatric problems when he opened fire randomly in the village of Jabukovac, near the eastern town of Negotin, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the capital Belgrade, on Friday.

PRIJEDOR, Bosnia-Hercegovina, July 28, 2007 (AFP) - The remains of 147 Muslim victims of Bosnia's brutal 1992-95 war that were exhumed from mass graves were buried Saturday in the northern town of Prijedor.

Some 3,000 Muslims attended a religious ceremony in the city's stadium before the remains were buried in a number of different cemeteries.

'It's horrible to have a funeral for so many people, killed only because they were Muslims. What happened here will never be forgotten,' said Harisa Trto, 50, whose brothers Nizret and Emir were among those buried.