国际英语新闻：Poland buries presidential couple after funeral

KRAKOW, Poland, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Poland buried the bodies of late President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria Sunday after holding a funeral for them here in southern Poland, state media reported.

The Kaczynskis were among 96 people killed when the presidential jet crashed in Smolensk, western Russia on April 10.

The funeral was being held at St Mary's Basilica church, and attended by world leaders including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Two coffins, draped in Polish national flags, lay near the altar. The presidential couple's only child, Marta, and Kaczynski's twin brother sat in the front row.

At the entrance of the church, Medvedev lit a candle for the couple and bowed before a portrait of them.

Hearses with the coffins of the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria arrive at the Market square for a mass in Krakow, Poland Sunday, April 18, 2010.

Outside, an estimated 5,000 mourners watched the funeral on large screens.

The funeral came one day after some 100,000 people attended an official ceremony in Warsaw to honor the crash victims.

U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were among the foreign leaders who canceled their trips to the funeral because the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland forced the closure of many European airports.