Updated at: 1455 PST, Saturday, April 17, 2010
WARSAW: Church bells pealed and emergency sirens blared across Poland at 8:56 a.m. (0656 GMT) Saturday to mark the minute a week earlier that a plane crashed as it attempted to land in Russia, claiming the life of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others.
Thousands of Poles massed in Warsaw's Pilsudski Square for a public memorial service for the victims. But some world leaders canceled their attendance at a state funeral Sunday, citing the volcanic ash cloud hanging over Europe, leaving numerous airports closed.
So far delegations from India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Pakistan have canceled plans to attend Sunday's state funeral, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Piotr Paszkowski said.
The crash plunged Poland into a deep grief not seen since the death of Pope John Paul II five years ago.
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