Italy Halts to Mourn Victims of Iraqi Attack

[wtmusic]

ROME (Reuters) - Italy ground to a halt on Tuesday from the Alps to Sicily as the nation bade an emotional farewell to 19 Italians killed in Iraq (news - web sites) in its worst military slaughter since World War II.

As tears flowed at a state funeral mass in Rome, a cardinal told the packed congregation that Christians had to love their enemies, even if they were "terrorist assassins."

Minutes of silence were observed, stores pulled down their shutters and millions of people in schools and offices followed the funeral which was shown live on most television stations.

President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi led the nation in mourning at St Paul's Basilica, Rome's second-largest church, where the 19 wooden coffins rested on a red carpet in front of the altar.

Seconds before the solemn mass started an elderly man went to the microphone and said in a distraught voice: "My God, my God, so much suffering for nothing."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=5&u=/nm/20031118/wl_nm/iraq_italy_dc_3

[soothsayer]

1. that's why dumbya hides our body transport tubes

So no terra-ist sympathisers can say those distraught kind of things that would call the bfee's motives into question.

[MaineDem]

2. May they rest in peace

While our war dead go unnoticed and forgotten.

[Endangered Specie]

3. Italians know how to pay respect

Unlike our Fuehrer, he couldnt care less past what the teleprompts have him say.