Israel’s Shamir to be buried today

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The body of Israel’s former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, who died Saturday aged 96, will lie in state at the country’s parliament before his burial Monday, a Knesset spokesman said Sunday. “The coffin will be put in the Knesset where the public can come to pay final tribute before his burial,” parliamentary spokesman Yotam Yakir told AFP. Shamir is expected to be buried Monday at the Mount Herzl cemetery, where Israel’s leading political and military figures are laid to rest. Shamir was Israel’s prime minister from 1983 to 1984 and then from 1986 to 1992, also serving terms as president of the Knesset and foreign minister. He retired from political life in 1996 and in his later years suffered from Alzheimer’s, living in a retirement home north of Tel Aviv until his death. — AFP