London, April 30 (IANS) Soldiers posted in Afghanistan took time off from their duties and had a wedding cake while ISS astronauts sent congratulatory messages and 200 Chinese couples themselves got married as they celebrated the British royal wedding of Prince Wiliam and Kate Middleton Friday.
An estimated two billion people around the world watched the royal wedding live on television, with many broadcasters scheduling wedding-themed programmes throughout the day, the Daily Mail reported.
Thousands of people gathered in New York’s Times Square early in the morning to watch the ceremony on big screens.
The astronauts in the International Space Station (ISS) sent a celebratory message to the couple. NASA broadcast live TV coverage of the wedding to the space station where the crew watched it.
TV hosts provided viewers with crucial details on royal etiquette, while many were dressed in royal-themed hats and tiaras in studios decorated with Union Jack flags and suits of armour.
In Dubai, hundreds of tourists watched live broadcast of the ceremony on a beach.
Over 250 people wore prince and princess costumes at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Soldiers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province had a wedding cake made by army caterers. In Kabul, many enjoyed a drink during the wedding ceremony.
Even in Antarctica, British scientists at the Halley survey station battled high winds outside to toast the couple.
Many Australians donned Prince Charles masks, and were dressed in crowns and royal-themed costumes at Sydney’s Lord Dudley hotel.
Elderly residents at a retirement home in Hamburg watched the events on TV, while women cried with delight in Hong Kong.
British expats all over the world – including Germany, Turkey, Canada, Italy, Sicily, France, Romania and China – drank to their hearts’ content.
At Tsinghua University in Beijing, 200 couples tied the knot at a group wedding ceremony.
However, an Iranian state news channel said the ‘people of this monarchical country’ were having to pay for the ‘most expensive’ royal wedding in British history at a time of ‘economic stagnation’.
‘The people of this country are forced to work around-the-clock so that princesses can pile up cash,’ it said.
