IN MEMORIAM

Cambodian King’s Body Returns Home

A hundred thousand expected to line the coffin route.

The week of mourning for Cambodian King Norodom began on Wednesday as the monarch’s body was returned to Phnom Penh. The 89-year-old Norodom Sihanouk died Monday in Beijing, and as many as 100,000 are expected to line the coffin’s route from the airport to the royal palace. Sihanouk became king in 1941 while still a teenager, and led Cambodia to independence from France in 1953 and remained in power despite years of political and social turmoil in his country and his ill-fated decision to back the violent Khmer Rouge in its early years. Sihanouk’s body will remain at the palace for three months for people to pay their respects before his funeral and cremation.