Funerals

Killers in New York state no longer will have the power to control what happens to their victims' remains. The prohibition comes from a new bill prompted by the case of a woman slain by her husband and then buried near his favorite fishing spot, over her family's objections. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers said Monday they had agreed on final wording of the bill , which is expected to pass easily before the end of the legislative session on June 21. The so-called slayer law  would prevent those charged in a person's death from controlling the disposal of their victim's remains.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Two more of the children killed by a gunman who invaded a Connecticut elementary school were buried on Tuesday as officials released new details of the deadly spree that has reshaped the debate over gun control. The National Rifle Assn., which has been under pressure to comment on the Newtown shootings, broke its silence and issued a statement saying it was ready to offer its plans at a Friday news conference. “We were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown,” said the pro-gun rights lobbying group, which has repeatedly fought gun-control legislation on the national, state and local levels.

The white-minority government today banned outdoor funerals for victims of black unrest and forbade political speeches at all funerals. Anti-apartheid groups said the measures could spark more bloodshed. Services for slain blacks have often drawn thousands of mourners and militants, and have been one of the last remaining forms of protest against apartheid in a nation in which political assemblies have long been banned.

I disagree with putting colored photographs in the paper of any gang member or gang activity, including a funeral. It does nothing but memorialize the animal-like behavior of individuals who, according to the article, can kill a 2-year-old in a drive-by shooting and show no remorse, but who go to bizarre lengths to ritualize death of members by grandiose funerals. It will be impossible to change this behavior, if it is reported as you did, with everyone including the corpse looking very civilized.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets Monday in Iran's main theological center and clashed with pro-government militiamen during the funeral of the country's top dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri. The demonstration in the city of Qom was significant both for its important location and its merging of several currents in Iran's population: It drew older supporters of Montazeri from smaller cities and towns in the countryside as well as young middle-class urbanites from the capital.

Penny Hall and Kevin Taylor planned to be together in marriage. Instead, they were united in death, buried side by side, a week after they perished in a fierce night of tornadoes. More than 300 mourners came to the funeral for the couple and Hall's parents, Ed and Debra, who also were killed when a twister demolished the family's mobile home early Monday morning.

As 200-mph tornado winds bore down on the Joplin Home Depot near here a week ago, the floor manager ordered customers and employees into the back of the store. At the last minute, though, desperate people still in the parking lot were trying to find a way in. "There were people tapping at the door," branch manager Steve Cope said. Electrical department manager M. Dean Wells let them in, herded them back toward a safer area, then helped others in, about a dozen in all. He was near the front of the store when a massive, prefabricated concrete wall collapsed on him and on a father and two young girls whom Wells had just ushered in. Photos: Tornadoes plague Midwest By the time it was over, the bulk of the massive warehouse was little more than a pile of twisted metal and concrete.

The cost of Michael Jackson's private funeral topped $1 million, with more than half that amount going to buy a crypt in a celebrity-studded Glendale mausoleum and $35,000 spent on clothes for the singer, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. Jackson, who died in June, was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in September in a nighttime ceremony arranged by his family and paid for by his estate. The probate judge who signed off on those expenses made public the funeral costs at a hearing in which he also appointed two longtime Jackson associates, entertainment attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain, as executors of his estate.

About a month ago, the Peek Family Colonial Funeral Home in Westminster put the finishing touches on the Terrace Rooms, a complex built especially to accommodate the growing number of Vietnamese funerals the mortuary has been handling. There is a kitchen where the families can cook the special dishes they will offer to the spirit of the dead. There are two large viewing rooms where the families and close friends can linger for incense-scented services that sometimes go on for days.