Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
In a somber, regal procession, Queen Elizabeth II's flag-draped coffin was driven slowly through the Scottish countryside Sunday from her beloved Balmoral Castle to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Mourners packed city streets and highway bridges or lined rural roads with cars and tractors to take part in a historic goodbye to the monarch who had reigned for 70 years.
The hearse drove past piles of bouquets and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died Thursday at 96, for a six-hour trip through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse palace in Edinburgh. The late queen's coffin was draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland and topped with a wreath made of flowers from the estate, including sweet peas, one of the queen's favourites..
The procession was a huge event for Scotland as the U.K. takes days to mourn its longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. People turned out hours early to grab a space by the police barricades in Edinburgh. By afternoon, the crowds were 10 people deep.
"I think she has been an ever-constant in my life. She was the queen I was born under, and she has always been there," said Angus Ruthven, a 54-year-old civil servant from Edinburgh. "I think it is going to take a lot of adjusting that she is not here."
Silence fell on the packed Royal Mile in Edinburgh as the hearse carrying the queen arrived. But as the convoy vanished from view, the crowd spontaneously started clapping.
"A very historic moment. I am quite speechless actually," said Fiona Moffat, a 57-year-old office manager from Glasgow. "She was a lovely lady. Great mother, grandmother. She did well. I am very proud of her."
When the hearse reached Holyroodhouse, members of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, wearing green tartan kilts, carried the coffin past the queen's youngest three children --Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward -- into the throne room, where it was to remain until Monday afternoon so staff can pay their last respects.
King Charles III and his Queen Consort Camilla will travel Monday to Edinburgh to join another solemn procession that takes the queen's coffin to St. Giles Cathedral on the city's Royal Mile. There the coffin will remain for 24 hours so the Scottish public can pay their respects before it is flown to London on Tuesday.
Britain's Princess Anne and her husband Tim Laurence travel behind the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped with the Royal Standard of Scotland, passing through Aberdeen, Scotland, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022 as it continues its journey to Edinburgh from Balmoral. (Paul Campbell/PA via AP)
The first village the cortege passed through was Ballater, where residents regard the royal family as neighbors. Hundreds of people watched in silence. Some threw flowers in front of the hearse.
"She meant such a lot to people in this area. People were crying, it was amazing to see," said Victoria Pacheco, a guest house manager.
In each Scottish town and village, the entourage was met with respect. People stood mostly in silence; some clapped politely, others pointed their phone cameras at the passing cars. In Aberdeenshire, farmers lined the route with an honor guard of tractors.
Along the route, the cortege passed through locations laden with House of Windsor history. Those included Dyce, where in 1975 the queen formally opened the U.K.'s first North Sea oil pipeline, and Fife, near St. Andrews University, where her grandson Prince William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.
Sunday's solemn drive came as the queen's eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch -- King Charles III -- in the rest of the United Kingdom: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It came a day after a pomp-filled accession ceremony in England.
"I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now passed to me," Charles said Saturday.
Just before the proclamation was read Sunday in Edinburgh, a protester appeared with a sign condemning imperialism and urging leaders to "abolish the monarchy." She was taken away by police. Reaction was mixed. One man shouted, "Let her go! It's free speech!" while others shouted: "Have some respect!"
Still, there was some booing in Edinburgh when Joseph Morrow, Lord Lyon King of Arms, finished his proclamation with "God save the king!"
That upset Ann Hamilton, 48.
"There's tens of thousands of people here today to show their respect. For them to be here, heckling through things, I think it was terrible. If they were so against it, they shouldn't have come," she said.
Still, it was a sign of how some, including people in Britain's former colonies, are struggling with the legacy of the monarchy -- and its future.
Earlier in the day, proclamations were read in other parts of the Commonwealth, including Australia and New Zealand.
Charles, even as he mourned his late mother, got to work at Buckingham Palace, meeting with the secretary-general and other Commonwealth envoys. Many in those nations are grappling with both affection for the queen and lingering bitterness over their colonial legacies, which ranged from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British cultural institutions.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is in favor of an Australian republic, said Sunday that now was not the time for a change but for paying tribute to the late queen. India, a former British colony, observed a day of state mourning, with flags lowered to half-staff.
The hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped with the Royal Standard of Scotland, passes the City Chambers on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022 on the journey from Balmoral to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, where it will lie in rest for a day. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP)
Amid the grief enveloping the House of Windsor, there were hints of a possible family reconciliation. Prince William and his brother Harry, together with their respective wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance Saturday.
The queen's coffin was taking a circuitous journey back to the capital. After it is flown to London on Tuesday, the coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state until a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.
In Ballater, the Rev. David Barr said locals consider the royal family as neighbors.
"When she comes up here, and she goes through those gates, I believe the royal part of her stays mostly outside," he said of the queen. "And as she goes in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran and then later on a loving great-gran -- and aunty -- and be normal."
Elizabeth Taylor, from Aberdeen, had tears in her eyes after the hearse passed through Ballater.
"It was very emotional. It was respectful and showed what they think of the queen," she said. "She certainly gave service to this country, even up until a few days before her death."
Corder reported from London.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.