Thousands lined the streets of Birmingham, England, on Wednesday to pay an emotional farewell to hometown hero Ozzy Osbourne as the heavy metal hell-raiser was laid to rest.
Black Sabbath frontman Osbourne, who earned the nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness” and once bit a bat while on stage, died on Tuesday last week at the age of 76.
He had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019 and died 17 days after playing a final gig to a sold-out crowd in Birmingham.
Photo: Reuters
Osbourne’s funeral procession set off at around 1pm on a route planned with the rocker’s family through the English city.
Chants of “Ozzy” could be heard, with one fan crying out “we love you Ozzy” as his coffin — sitting in a stately black Jaguar hearse topped with flower arrangements — and other vehicles crawled by.
The procession, which earlier passed the star’s childhood home in the city’s Aston area, was accompanied by a live brass band performance by local musicians from Bostin’ Brass.
Photo: AP
Fan Mhairi Larner said it was “overwhelming” and “very emotional” to be part of the city’s farewell to a star who had been so “proud of his roots.”
“I’ve been a fan as long as I can remember, and I raised my son to do the same,” said the 31-year-old carer who had traveled from Nottingham.
“He was just nuts, a little bit weird, but it’s nice to have someone like this,” she said.
Another fan, Reece Sargeant, came with friends to say goodbye.
“I think it was important to come and pay our respects... Ozzy and Black Sabbath really put Birmingham on the map,” he said.
The 16-year-old described the band’s last concert as “out of this world.”
Osbourne famously once said he wanted his funeral to be a celebration of his life and not a “mope-fest.”
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
RSS