World leaders gather for Havel funeral

Presidents and princes paid their final respects Friday to Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, writer and dissident who helped bring down his country's Communist regime and end the Cold War. Dignitaries inside Prague Castle's towering St. Vitus Cathedal included former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while thousands of admirers stood outside in freezing temperatures to watch the funeral on big screens. Havel, a shy but iron-willed intellectual endowed with a playful sense of humor and a powerful moral compass, died Sunday at the age of 75. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was born in Prague, praised a man she said was pleased to have had as a friend. "Few were as Czech as Vaclav Havel, but his wit and kindness, his wisdom and the depth of his thoughts spoke to all," she said, addressing mourners in Czech during the funeral. His former political advisor Jiri Pehe called Havel "a politician who wasn't a politician, catapulted into politics by history. Throughout his presidency he was a dissident politician who liked to do things in a different way." Speaking before the funeral, Pehe said he would remember Havel more for his personality than his politics, recalling his "booming laugh" and saying: "to work with him was a joy ... To be around him was simply inspiring." Dissident friends of Havel arrived grim-faced for the funeral Friday. Many hugged each other before going into St. Vitus Cathedral. Havel's picture stood to the side of the altar draped in black ribbon in a state funeral both grand and religious, an irony given his personal modesty and the fact that the Czech Republic is among the least religious countries in Europe.