Funeral Live Blog

Bahraini protesters battled with riot police near Manama on Friday after the funeral of a woman whose family said she died after tear gas entered her home twice in the past week. 

A UN rights body this week expressed concern over the use of excessive force and tear gas by Bahraini security forces. 

Police moved in with water cannon and armoured vehicles to break up hundreds of protesters as they approached a checkpoint near 'Pearl Roundabout', hub of pro-democracy protests last year led by majority Shi'ite Muslims complaining of marginalisation. [Reuters]

An Egyptian coptic man holds a huge poster of Pope Shenouda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority, outside the Bishoy monastery where he will be buried in Beheira province of the Nile Delta, 150 kms northwest of Cairo, on March 20, 2012. The late pope died on March 17 at the age of 88 after a long battle with illness. He spent his time at the monastery in exile after a dispute with late president Anwar Sadat where he asked to be buried. [AFP/KHALED DESOUKI]

Egypt's military rulers have declared a national day of mourning for the funeral on Tuesday of Coptic Pope Shenuda III, the spiritual leader of the Middle East's largest Christian community.

Tens of thousands have flocked to Cairo's St Mark's Coptic cathedral since Shenuda died on Saturday at the age of 88, to catch a final glimpse of body, which was dressed in golden robes and crown and had been sat upright on the
papal throne.

Flags will be flown at half mast, a security official told AFP, as preparations were underway for the funeral service at the cathedral, followed by Shenuda's burial at the St Bishoy monastery in the Nile Delta.

Tens of thousands of people queued for hours on Sunday to get close to the throne, many weeping and lamenting their loss as the church scrambled to find a new leader of the anxious Coptic community.

Worshippers in black hoping for a final blessing from their spiritual leader took pictures of Shenuda on their mobile phones, amid tears and wailing.

Three of the mourners were crushed to death in the crowd and 137 injured, according to the health ministry, prompting church officials to cut short the viewing and close the cathedral to the public.

Thousands of grief-stricken people continued to mass outside, an AFP reporter said.

Al Jazeera online producer Gregg Carlstrom reports that around 1,000 to 1,500 people attended today's funeral march for Jaafar Jassim, a 41-year-old man who allegedly died from police tear gas inhalation. They chanted "down with Hamad," a reference to Bahrain's king Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and "killers must be held accountable".