LONDON -- Some had slept in the streets to guarantee a good spot to watch her body pass by on a gun carriage, but others said they were glad she was gone: Margaret Thatcher’s funeral proved as divisive as the 11 years she spent as Britain's prime minister.

To her supporters, the “Iron Lady” was the greatest British premier of modern times -- rivaled only by World War II icon Winston Churchill. For them, Thatcher was a leader who transformed the country’s ailing economy, won a war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands and blazed a trail for women as the first female prime minister.

To her detractors, she was responsible for mass unemployment, the decimation of traditional industries like steel refining and coal mining and a culture that celebrated greed.

Slideshow: Margaret Thatcher's funeral

Glyn Kirk / AFP - Getty Images

Supporters and opponents line the streets as the funeral of the U.K.'s former prime minister, "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, takes place at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Launch slideshow

A funeral procession to London's St. Paul's Cathedral was marked by cheering but also some booing from crowds of people lining the route. At one point, supporters and opponents almost came to blows with insults and threats exchanged, ITV News reported.

Right-leaning journalist Melanie Phillips said in a tweet, "Watching the funeral, finding it hard not to feel we are today somehow burying England."

About 2,300 guests attended the 11 a.m. (6 a.m. ET) funeral service, including Queen Elizabeth and other members of the U.K. royal family.

There were also representatives from 170 countries -- such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and current leaders from more than a dozen states.

Many British politicians, including past premiers Tony Blair and John Major, and more than 50 guests associated with the Falklands, including veterans of the conflict, also attended.

In his address, the Bishop of London Richard Chartres spoke of Thatcher’s “formidable energy and passion” and “a life lived in the heat of political controversy.”

Chartres said there was a place for debate about legacies and the impact of political decisions, but it was not at her funeral.

“This is a place for ordinary human compassion of a kind that is reconciling,” he said. “It’s also the place for the simple truths that transcend political debate.”

He said Thatcher, who died on April 8, had become a “symbolic” and even a “mythological” figure to some.

But he noted her “personal kindness” and her “capacity to reach out to the young” and those who were not considered by some to be important.

Chartres also spoke of her struggles to become one of the few female members of the U.K.’s parliament despite prejudice against women and how she suffered “many rebuffs on the way.”

Amanda Thatcher, Margaret’s granddaughter, read a passage from Ephesians that recalled the late prime minister’s fighting spirit. “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil," she read.

David Cameron, Britain's current prime minister and a Conservative like Thatcher, then read a passage from the Book of John. 

Before the service, Cameron told BBC Radio that the ceremony was "a fitting tribute to a great prime minister, respected around the world."

He added that he hoped opponents of Thatcher would show “respect” even if they disagreed with her. More than 4,000 police were deployed on the streets of the U.K. capital, officials said.

After the service, the coffin was taken in a hearse to The Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Thatcher's remains were cremated later in the day at Mortlake Crematorium in South-West London. Her ashes will be buried next to those of her husband Denis, who died in 2003.

Earlier on Thursday, her British flag-draped coffin had been loaded into a hearse at the Palace of Westminster, home of the U.K. parliament and made its way to the Church of St. Clement Danes.

A card with flowers on coffin read "Beloved Mother -- Always in our hearts."

Her coffin was then transferred to a gun carriage and accompanied by members of the armed forces on the way to St. Paul's.

"You gave millions of us hope, freedom, ambition," read a placard held up by one man on the route.

A hardcore of supporters had slept on the streets overnight to ensure they had a good spot, ITV News reported.

Margaret Kittle, 79, told ITV News that she had traveled from Canada for the funeral and waited outside St. Paul's since 8 a.m. local time Tuesday.

“It was a cold night, the damp goes through you but I always said I would come to the U.K. for Margaret Thatcher's funeral because I respect her,” she added. “I think she did a lot for the world. We will never see the likes of Mrs. Thatcher again.”

However in Easington, County Durham, northern England, miners were remembering the 20th anniversary of the closure of the local pit.

“It's the end of an era for the person who destroyed our coal mines,” Durham Miners Association general secretary David Hopper told ITV News. "We are recognizing that the perpetrator of all this evil has gone and thankfully she will not be coming back."

Reuters contributed to this report. ITV News is NBC News' U.K. partner.

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This story was originally published on Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:09 AM EDT

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images

Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, seen giving a speech during a campaign rally in Rome Friday, appears to have shrugged off recent scandals.

ROME — He is the comeback kid of Italian politics, but Silvio Berlusconi's attempt to revive his career is under the spotlight after he defended fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony for victims of the Nazi Holocaust. 

The former prime minister said Mussolini's decision to echo Nazi Germany's anti-Jewish laws had been his "worst fault" as a leader "who in so many other ways did well."

He said: "It is difficult now to put yourself in the shoes of people who were making decisions at that time. Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead to victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it."

The remarks, given to reporters in Milan on Sunday, prompted outrage from many quarters in Italy and overseas.

“He has lost the plot," said David Patsi, president of the Italian school Dante Alighieri in Jerusalem and whose father was killed in a concentration camp. "He is an idiot. But I am not surprised. Sometime he even reminds me of Mussolini."

He added: "But I don’t think he is the problem. The problem is that a large number of Italians agree with him.” 

That helps explain why Berlusconi could still make his comeback, despite a track record would have forced almost any other politician to retire from public life.

In November 2011, he was forced to resign as prime minister after it became clear that his denial of the economic crisis was bringing Italy to the brink of disaster.

In October last year, he was sentenced to four years in prison for an epic offshore tax fraud, put off pending appeals to higher courts.

And, if that weren't enough, he is still on trial for allegedly paying an underage exotic dancer for sex.

His popularity hit an all-time low and the 76-year-old with a net worth of almost $6 billion -- according to Forbes magazine -- might have been expected to retire to one of his many mansions.

But he was simply waiting for the chance to strike back in the flamboyant style that won him three terms as prime minister.

Following the resignation of Mario Monti -- the technocratic prime minister who replaced him in 2011 promising to reinvigorate Italy's languishing economy -- Berlusconi has done what he does best: He carpet-bombed the Italian media with guest appearances, clocking up an impressive 63 hours of airtime in only 21 days.

In essence, it's as if during the recent U.S. presidential election, former president George W. Bush was given more airtime than Barack Obama and Mitt Romney combined.

Crisis 'wasn't my fault'
Seems inconceivable, but then Italy has always been an exception in the Western world, and flamboyant and media-friendly Berlusconi, even as an outsider, draws a bigger audience than his closest competitors combined.

Officially, Berlusconi is not actually running as a candidate prime minister -- because this was the price it took to persuade the Northern League party to join Berlusconi's People of Freedom party in a coalition.

But a good result in the elections could mean that all bets are off.

“Italy’s economic crisis wasn‘t my fault. It was the consequence of the wider international crisis,” a defiant Berlusconi recently told a TV host, before he refused to apologize for previously denying the extent of the crisis.

It would seem to be an uphill task for Berlusconi to win the premiership for a fourth time -- in polls his coalition is trailing the center-left Democratic Party by at least 12 points.

But, after his TV onslaught, Berlusconi's bloc saw its poll rating rise by 3 percentage points.

Berlusconi 'very clever'

Italians are tired of painfully high unemployment rates, rising taxes, tax-evasion clampdowns and plummeting spending power.

But it remains to be seen whether they really believe Berlusconi when he claims that the economic crisis wasn't his fault and that his tax-cutting strategy is the solution.

“Berlusconi has been very clever. He stepped aside when the new government introduced very unpopular austerity measures and has come back in the limelight only now, saying that the cure was worse than the illness,” Maurizio Caprara, a journalist for the daily Corriere della Sera, said.

“Now he is trying to rally again his troops. Many became disillusioned following his many scandals, but many, as the polls show, may decide to give him one more try,” he added.

Monti recently called Berlusconi the "Pied Piper of Hamelin," who “leads the mice to drown in the river, having fooled Italians three times already.”

And yet, at least according to his recently rising popularity, many Italians seem to find his tune irresistible.  

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TEL AVIV — Israelis headed to the polls Tuesday in an election that was expected to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a third term in office and mark a shift to the political right.

More than 5.6 million Israeli are eligible to vote, and results are expected Wednesday morning.

Exit polls showed the Israeli leader's Likud party, yoked with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu group, would still be the biggest bloc in the 120-member assembly with 31 seats, 11 fewer than the 42 they held in the previous parliament. 

The vote is expected to be followed by talks between different political parties to form a coalition government since no single party is likely to get an outright majority of the 120 seats in the Knesset.

Netanyahu’s Likud party is running with the nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, and opinion polls have showed a surge in support for the far-right Jewish Home party, Reuters reported.

Several Israeli Arabs and Palestinians claimed Tuesday that Israel was moving toward “fascism and racism” and said that hope for the creation of Palestinian nation as part of the proposed two-state solution to the Mideast crisis was fading.

In Tel Aviv, however, voter Ari Abacsis, in his late 20s, said Netanyahu was a proven leader.

“I think Netanyahu did it in the past and he did it quiet well. Nobody is perfect, but Netanyahu fits the requirements,” he said.

“He did some good things. He brought back Gilad Shalit [the Israeli soldier held for years in Gaza]. We remember him for that and for a lot of other things,” he added. “All the others didn't prove themselves. He proves himself. I think we don't know what is happening behind the scenes.”

Young people have 'lost hope'
Yaffa Braverman, 58, an art gallery owner in Tel Aviv, criticized the number of small parties in Israeli politics.

“The problem is the system. We need more big parties that are capable of making important decisions, and the way that we'll do it again is based on small parties and everyone fighting for his own chair,” she said. “I think that's why the young generation has lost hope.”

Avi Shai, 35, financial adviser also from Tel Aviv, said he hoped Netanyahu would develop better relations with the United States and move to the left.

“I don't see any resolution coming because it's a different situation we're in," he said. "A lot of things can happen in the near and far future. Everything is liquid here in the Middle East. It doesn't matter which prime minister is elected -- a lot of things can happen."

“I hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu would be more in the left wing and would have better agreement with Obama, which is not the case right now,” he added.

Palestinians living in Israel expressed a similar lack of hope, but in much stronger terms.

Hana Hurani, 34, an engineer from Eilaboun in the north and an activist in the National Democratic Assembly, said Israel’s politics were headed toward “fascism and racism.”

“We, the Arabs, should stress our national identity and our unity as Arabs. Election day is a day on which Arabs try to represent themselves, and after that we go back to a racist reality,” he said.

“On the Palestinian issue, I expect there to be a stalemate and as there will be more settlement expansion, we will witness the final burial of the two-state solution on which there is an international consensus,” he added.

'Indifference is fatal'
Hurani said Israeli Arabs should “be more active” politically: “Indifference is fatal. … Unfortunately, ignorance and abstention from voting is one of our enemies."

Nijmeh Ali, 30, a political science Ph.D. candidate at the Hebrew University and a lecturer at Al Quds University in Jerusalem, said it was clear from opinion polls that the next government would be right-wing.

“The Palestinian street is boiling, and it will explode at one point against the existing occupation,” he said.

“There is racism and discrimination against the Arabs in Israel, and this will not change since we are a defect in the Zionist project, whether we demand our social or political rights. The legitimization of racism will increase,” he added.

Mustafa Barghuti, 55, a member of the Palestinian National initiative in Ramallah on the West Bank, said most Israelis were voting for Jewish settlements and an “apartheid system at the expense of peace and a two-state solution.”

“It looks like there is no peace camp in Israel,” he added.

Fawzi Barhum, a spokesman for the Hamas movement in Gaza, said he expected that Israel would elect the “most extreme and racist government to lead Israel.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images, file

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani (center) is escorted by security as he waves upon his arrival at the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on April 26.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was disqualified by the country's top court and declared ineligible to hold office Tuesday.

On April 26, judges convicted Gilani in contempt of court proceedings for refusing to open a corruption probe against President Asif Ali Zardari. The court said Tuesday that Gilani should not have held office since that verdict was announced.

The April ruling was previously questioned by the speaker of the National Assembly, who decided that the court order did not cast any doubt on the premier's right to hold office.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Anjum Naveed / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow

But the speaker's decision was struck down Tuesday by a bench of judges headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry.

After his contempt of court conviction in April, Prime Minister Gilani had 30 days within which he could file an appeal. He failed to do so, arguing that the President enjoyed immunity from prosecution -- but his failure to file an appeal rendered the earlier conviction final, and disqualifed him from office.

Gilani had the opportunity to challenge the conviction legally, but chose instead to stand on principle. 

"Since no appeal was filed (against the April 26 conviction) ... therefore Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani stands disqualifed as a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (parliament)," Chaudhry said in a packed courtroom, according to Reuters.

"He has also ceased to be the prime minister of Pakistan ... the office of the prime minister stands vacant," the judge added.

Gilani's lawyer, Fawad Chaudhry, told The Associated Press that only parliament could dismiss the prime minister. 

The Supreme Court ruling came in response to petitions filed against Gilani for not standing down after the conviction. 

Emergency meetings
In their written order Tuesday, judges reminded Zardari that he is "required to take necessary steps under the Constitution to ensure continuation of the democratic process."

Senior leaders of Gilani's party -- the PPP (Pakistan People's Party) -- were reportedly in emergency meetings Tuesday. The party does enjoy a majority in parliament to elect their chosen successor.

The civilian government has been lurching from crisis to crisis for the majority of the last year, in what many saw as a power struggle between the powerful army, judiciary, and government.

Tuesday's action is likely to throw the government into further turmoil, as they struggle to become the first civilian government to complete a full five-year term before the scheduled elections in February 2013. The instability could lead to early elections being called. 

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistani leaders are so consumed with keeping their government stable and remaining in power, they're unable to devote the necessary attention nor make any bold decisions to re-engage with the U.S. and get the alliance back on track.

The overland NATO supply lines which run through Pakistan have been closed since November, shuttered in protest about a U.S. cross-border strike in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.

A U.S. team recently spent weeks in Pakistan, negotiating new rates to re-open those supply lines, but left without any resolution. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Matt Dunham / AP, file

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron walks from number 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament in London last week. Britain's economy has fallen back into recession for the first time since 2009.

LONDON -- As Britons vote in local elections Thursday, political insiders agree that the results will provide the best report card yet on whether Prime Minister David Cameron has been able to win hearts and minds during challenging times in the U.K. 

Cameron could be in for a drubbing.

"David's beginning to lose his gloss as a leader," says Tim Knox of the right-leaning Center for Policy Studies. "Despite a lack of experience in the real world, he looks statesmanlike. But there's a real lack of hard convictions at the heart of the coalition."

For two years, Cameron's Conservative Party has ruled in alliance with the centrist Liberal Democrats, after none of the three main parties won an outright majority in the House of Commons.

Even though Cameron has steered the government to a position where it's widely expected to see out its term, contrary to some expectations, the ride has not been easy. 

The coalition inherited a huge fiscal deficit and embarked on an austerity program the likes of which Britain had not seen in 60 years. It has sought to fund deficit reduction by cutting expenditures – on welfare, local government, pensions – and increasing tax revenues. Two years on, and with country in its second recession in three years, the cuts feel to many like the only part of the plan that is on track.

The experiences of Stuart Bradley, an electrician from Derby, an industrial city in the English Midlands, reflect those of many throughout the country.

"It's a real struggle at the moment ...  there's always an extra bill that comes through," he says. "I thought they'd try to help the people just starting out in life, but it's not worked out like that."

And recent opinion polls suggest Ed Miliband, the leader of the center-left Labour Party, is regaining some of its popularity. Some commentators put this down to the electorate's doubts about whether Cameron is clear and consistent on policy matters.

'Taken his eye off the ball'?
This perceived lack of conviction could be one of the reasons why the government has frequently been seen to flip-flop since taking power, changing its mind on issues as wide-ranging as the fate of the country’s forests and taxes on charitable donations.

"At first, having second thoughts was taken as a sign of strength and confidence," says Matt Grist, senior researcher at the think-tank Demos. "But if it happens too often, it gives the impression of not really caring. David's let too many things fall off the back of the stove."

The co-author of a biography of Cameron agrees.

"Until recently, he was very good at being prime ministerial," says James Hanning, who co-wrote 'Cameron: The Rise of the New Conservative' with Francis Elliott. "But increasingly there's the perception that he's taken his eye off the ball."

Hanning believes Cameron is much the same person he was when he took office, describing the prime minister as reliable, consistent and good under pressure.

But without an enforcer of some kind, or press secretary who can help shape public presentation, "Cameron has allowed policy to slip under the radar," Hanning says.

For example, during the 2010 general election, one of Cameron's main campaign messages was his desire for a "big society."

As an aspiration – that society can and should take care of its own – the idea had plenty going for it, especially as big government had grown even bigger under Labour and was blamed by many for the huge public deficit.

But two years on, many feel no closer to understanding the idea of a big society and just how it might work in everyday life, Hanning says.

Russell Cheyne / Reuters, file

The leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party Ed Miliband addresses the Scottish Labour Party Conference in Dundee, Scotland last month. If Labour does well in the election it will secure Miliband's leadership.

"He was raised in a community that looked after each other, that was seen to be caring and civic-minded. That's one of the ideas at the heart of the big society," he says. 

The paradox, Hanning's says, is that same upbringing also made him suspicious of grandiose schemes and ideologies Knox, of the Center for Policy Studies, agrees that there's disconnect between person and policy. 

"There are two key ingredients to government; competency and ideology," he says, "David Cameron has shown that he can lead, but on policy it is a totally different matter. In so many areas, there is a lack of clarity."

Demand for clearer policy, ideology
Issues of policy and consistency aside, Knox says he believes the prime minister compares favorably with previous Conservative leaders who led administrations during tough economic times.  

But how far will voters go to punish the coalition government over the country's economic woes?

Demos' Grist says the recent shambolic handling of the budget, in which the government was seen to be grabbing money from retirees, has been particularly damaging.

"Normally, it would have been written off as being out-of-touch or incompetent," he says, "But in the context of a flat-line economy, it's really toxic."

If Labour performs well, it will help secure Miliband's leadership, enabling him to take more of the offensive when he and Cameron square off.

And if the Conservatives fare badly, it will be put down to a mid-term protest vote in the midst of a recession.

The key results, however, may lie elsewhere.

If the Liberal Democrats, who in past years have been strong contenders at the local level, are seen to lose badly (they lost 800 council seats in the 2011 elections), it may put pressure on the party leadership to differentiate itself further within the coalition.

They could push for an easing of austerity measures or possibly call for some clearer signals on policy and ideology. If that happens, it will be a true test of David Cameron as politician and statesman.

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