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S. Vietnam's Ex-Leader Remembered In Whittier

WHITTIER (AP) — Friends and family of Nguyen Cao Ky are gathering in Southern California to pay their last respect to the former South Vietnamese prime minister.

About 350 mourners filled the Rose Hill Memorial in Whittier on Sunday. Family members filed past a photo of Ky and placed incense near an urn holding his ashes.

The memorial service comes more than two weeks after Ky died in Malaysia at age 80 from complications linked to a lung infection.

Ky served for two years as his country's wartime leader in the mid-1960s. He fled to the United States when Saigon fell to the Communists and settled in Southern California.

A funeral was held last week in Malaysia's capital city. His ashes were flown to the United States for Sunday's service.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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