Adieu, Mitterand

PARIS: As mourners stood in a gray drizzle outside Notre Dame cathedral, 61 heads of state and hundreds of international dignitaries gathered inside for the state funeral of former French president Francois Mitterrand, who died Monday of prostate cancer. President Jacques Chirac was joined by Vice President Al Gore, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, British Prime Minister John Major, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Cuba's leader Fidel Castro in paying respects to one of France's most revered leaders. "It was a basically a solemn mass, with a lot of praise bestowed on Mitterrand," reports TIME's Bruce Crumley. "But the praise hasn't been easy for Chirac, who is starting to get some heat from his party for being too laudatory to Mitterrand."