Westminster Abbey: Focus of the world

World Remembers Diana

The funeral service At Westminster Abbey was watched all around the world. It was one of the biggest televised events in history, with an estimated audience of 2.5 billion people, nearly half the world's population.

Millions more followed the events by radio, in a multitude of languages.

As hundreds of thousands gathered on London to witness Diana's final journey, others around the world remembered her in their own way, from candlelit vigils in the U.S. to a traditional wake on the South Sea island of Tonga.

Japanese viewers following events in London

In Paris, where Diana was killed in a high-speed car crash, locals and tourists laid bouquets, candles and messages near the mouth of the tunnel where she died. "Goodbye to the real Queen of England," read one in English.

There are no official ceremonies to mark the funeral but millions of people throughout the country followed the service live on radio and television. On the eve of the funeral, 300 members of the British community in Paris attended a service of commemoration.

Across the United States, millions stayed up all night or rose before dawn to watch the blanket television coverage.

There were tributes across the country. In San Francisco, some 14,000 people marched through the city in a candelight procession on Friday night to pay tribute to Diana, particularly her work on behalf of AIDS patients.

Most walked in silence until the end of the march where they were greeted by a recording of Elton John's Candle in the Wind.

A special tribute to Diana in the skies over Hollywood

In Los Angeles, more than 2,500 people turned a baseball field into a giant candle-lit shrine on Friday night in a tearful memorial organized by an AIDS organization.

Wearing red ribbons and carrying candles, the crowd marched to the park where a dozen people with AIDS spoke a single word each to express their feelings about Diana.

Bosnian landmine victims joined in the mourning, saying Diana's humanitarian visit to their country last month had helped focus attention on the suffering caused by mines.

Other landmine victims in Angola also joined in the mourning, saying they wished their government had given them as much care as Diana had shown when she began an anti-mine crusade there in January.

Many of the victims she visited at a prosthesis centre in the capital Luanda were unable to watch her funeral on television because of an electricity black-out in parts of the city.

In Tonga, itself a monarchy, a group of Diana's devotees planned a traditional wake, or pongipongi, after the funeral.

"Diana was a very kind princess who helped poor people in all the nations, poor people like us in Tonga," said the wake organiser and songwriter Kilisimasi Mounga.

In Indonesia, two songwriters recorded a special tribute, in English as well as their own language, saluting the "princess of all nations".