Army takes charge of Mother's body

Three high ranking army officials led by a major general stood guard near Mother Teresa's body in south Calcutta's St Thomas church, as thousands of mourners poured past.

On Thursday, the army took charge of the Mother's body. It will continue to be in charge till the burial on Saturday.

In the morning, six pall bearers, led by Major General Jitender Singh, the general officer commanding Bengal area, draped the Mother's body in the tricolour, keeping with the procedure for according the highest State honour.

General Singh said the historic gun-carriage which transported the bodies of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had been brought from Delhi for the funeral.

''We are not here for security reasons, but for ceremonial purposes,'' he added.

Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, will head the Papal delegation to the funeral.

Queen Elizabeth will be represented by the Duchess of Kent. British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will also be present at the funeral.

The BBC, CNN and all Doordarshan channels will transmit the funeral live. The live coverage will commence at 0855 hours IST and will continue till 1400 hours IST.

BBC World will commence its telecast at 0830 hours and the coverage will be anchored by Nick Gowing. The BBC cameras will be stationed at three different locations -- Mother House, the Netaji stadium, and St Thomas church. Doordarshan and the Asian News International will make available to BBC films from six other television crews.

UNI