Her soul ached for Russia
Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II

Maria Fyodorovna's coffin was lowered into the imperial crypt in the Peter and Paul Fortress, the resting place of Russian tsars. The final resting place is beside the graves of her husband and son. Guests filed past, sprinkling earth onto the coffin. Flags flew at half-mast around the city and artillery fired a salute. Orthodox Patriarch Alexiy II, who led a mourning ceremony ahead of the burial, said: "This will be another sign that Russia is overcoming the enmity and divisions brought by the revolution and civil war." He said: "Having fallen deeply in love with the Russian people, the empress devoted a great deal of effort for the benefit of the Russian fatherland. Her soul ached for Russia."

A picture taken in 1866 shows Danish Princess Dagmar at her wedding with Tsar Alexander III in St Petersburg
Princess Dagmar married Tsar Alexander III in 1866

Maria Fyodorovna was born Princess Dagmar in 1847, changing her name and converting to the Russian Orthodox faith when she married as a teenager. Her husband was the heir to Russia's imperial throne, the man who went on to become Tsar Alexander III. The tsarina had six children, including Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II. She returned to Denmark after the Bolshevik Revolution and died there, never having accepted that her son and his family had been killed. Her coffin had been lying in state in Peterhof, outside St Petersburg, since its arrival on a Danish ship on Tuesday. Lengthy negotiations preceded its transfer, a project championed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has tried to rehabilitate some of the icons of the imperial past.

Outspoken Italian journalist dies
Oriana Fallaci, 1992
Prior to her death Fallaci had shunned publicity

Fallaci was uncompromising in her views

Oriana Fallaci, an Italian journalist best known for her abrasive interviews and provocative stances, has died in a hospital in Florence. She was 76 and had been diagnosed with cancer. Ms Fallaci made her name interviewing such leaders as former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. She triggered a row with her blunt criticism of Islam in a book after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US. Ms Fallaci had lived in New York for years and had come back recently to her home town of Florence as her condition worsened.

A resistance fighter during World War II, she became one of the first women war correspondents, reporting on conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America, as well as the Vietnam war. But she was best known for her uncompromising interviews with world leaders. They included the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.

Henry Kissinger wrote after being interviewed by her that the interview was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press". After the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, Oriana Fallaci provoked a storm with her interviews and books assailing Islam. Her best-selling book, The Rage And The Pride, led to accusations of inciting hatred against Muslims. An anti-racism group in France unsuccessfully sought in court to ban the book. Later a judge in Italy ordered her to stand trial for defaming Islam but the case never went to court.