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SEPTEMBER 8, 1997 SPECIAL REPORT: PRINCESS DIANA, 1961-1997 CHARLES: RESPECT THE BOYS Prince Charles pleaded Sunday for Britain's press to relax its fixation on the royals enough to give his sons peace to deal with their mother's death. The appeal, made through a Palace spokeswoman, came a day after the world watched as Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 12, solemnly followed their mother's coffin on the last leg of its procession through London to her funeral services at Westminster Abbey. "The last thing they need is to face a blast of flashguns when they go back to school," the spokeswoman said of the young princes. "The Prince of Wales wants some time and space for the boys so they can come to terms with their loss and prepare for the future." MOTHER TERESA'S LAST JOURNEY Church bells pealed and anguished wails rose from mourners Sunday as Mother Teresa's body was carried in a simple wooden coffin from the Calcutta headquarters of her worldwide charity to nearby St. Thomas' Catholic Church, where the Nobel laureate, who died on Friday, will lie in state this week. The lid of the open coffin in which she rests, which is decorated with a silver plaque inscribed with "Our dearest Mother Teresa, RIP," rode in an ambulance with her as the vehicle sped the 2 1/2 miles to St. Thomas' on streets cleared of traffic. A White House spokesman has said that first lady Hillary Clinton, who represented the U.S. at Diana's funeral last weekend, may attend services for Mother Teresa next Saturday. DIANA'S BURIAL A tranquil, tree-shaded island in an ornamental lake on the grounds of her childhood home was the final resting place for Princess Diana, who was buried Saturday beyond the reach of even the longest telephoto lens, reports the Associated Press. In contrast to the overwhelming media coverage of Diana's life, death and emotionally-charged funeral, the burial at Althorp Park, ancestral estate of her Spencer family for 20 generations, was private, and the family released no details about it. Meanwhile, mourners from around the world continue to pour into London. Sunday's crowd in front of Buckingham Palace was said to be the largest of the entire week. THE BODYGUARD SPEAKS The only survivor of the deadly car crash that took Diana, her companion Dodi Al Fayed and their driver emerged from his coma long enough to tell his parents he is racked with guilt, reported Sunday's (London) Observer. But Trevor Rees-Jones, 29, who was Al Fayed's bodyguard, told his mother and stepfather he was powerless to prevent the crash, said the paper. Rees-Jones remains in intensive care in a Paris hospital, where officials deny earlier reports that his lips and mouth were so damaged that he is unable to speak. NO FUNERAL SET FOR DRIVER The new date of the postponed funeral of Henri Paul, the driver of Princess Diana's car when it crashed in Paris, remains a mystery, even at the church where he was to have been buried. Reuters reports that Paul's funeral was to have taken place on Saturday morning -- just before Diana's funeral in London -- but was abruptly put off because his family demanded new tests to contest an official post-mortem that showed his blood-alcohol level to be far over the drunk-driving limit. "We still haven't received any notification from the municipal burial service," an official at the Sainte Therese church said by telephone from the Brittany port of Lorient. "We don't know when it will be." WATCHING DIANA'S FUNERAL About 50 million people in the U.S. watched some of Princess Diana's funeral early Saturday on live TV, the networks estimate. That would be fewer than the 58 million people who tuned in to see Diana marry Prince Charles in 1981. While NBC and ABC ran neck-and-neck in attracting viewers for the funeral, as they do in the evening news race, the Nielsen Media Research numbers were disturbing for CBS, which came in a distant third -- fourth, when you add in CNN -- for the live, early morning telecast between 4 to 8 a.m. |
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-STEVEN M. SILVERMAN -PEOPLE DAILY | ||||||
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