Free Republic

The fast-talking and well-dressed Texas customs broker has arrived at the Treasury Department twice in recent years with luggage stuffed with crusty, grimy greenbacks. The money was ruined, he said, and worth about $6.4 million. The broker wanted to exchange the soiled bills, unearthed in Mexico, for a U.S. government check. But the transactions raised alarms for authorities... Felhaber first came onto authorities' radar in August 2005, when he, his uncle and a female relative appeared at the Federal Reserve Bank in El Paso. They had $120,000 in water-damaged and ruined cash, just a small portion of millions of dollars...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A boy's body has been found buried in the sand of a playground at a public park on the city's northeast side, and police are asking the public for their help as detectives try to find out who the child is. Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said during a news conference late Friday that police have had no reports of missing children. "We have detectives standing by to respond to any information anyone can provide us about this missing juvenile. We believe that he may be missing from the neighborhood," the chief said. The boy — believed...

A Canadian woman who went missing last week in a blizzard has been found alive, buried under almost a foot of snow for four days.   Freezing: Donna Molner is taken to hospital after four days in the snow  Donna Molnar, 55, set off from home in Ancaster, Ontario, on Friday but her car got stuck in a field of snow drifts.The vehicle was found a day later, abandoned by the side of a road.By this time, fears for her survival were mounting and it was not until Monday, when police officer Ray Lau was trudging through almost knee-high...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A Pakistani lawmaker defended a decision by northwestern tribesmen to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands, telling stunned members of Parliament to spare him their outrage. "These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them," Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, told The Associated Press Saturday. "Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid." The women, three of whom were teenagers, were first shot and then thrown into a ditch. They were still breathing as mud was shoveled over their bodies, according to media reports, which...

ISLAMABAD: Three teenage girls along with their two close elderly relatives were shot at before being buried alive in a desert of Balochistan by their tribesmen in the name of honour. The shocking reports of this horrible incident reaching the capital from different quarters revealed that the girls studying in classes 10 to 12 intended to marry men of their choice through a civil court by defying the centuries-old tribal traditions. When the fuming elders of Umrani tribe came to know about the intentions of these girls to appear before a local court, they picked them up from their homes...

ARLINGTON, Va. , Oct. 12, 2007 – Hundreds of soldiers, family members and friends gathered at Arlington National Cemetery today to honor 12 soldiers killed in a helicopter crash Iraq earlier this year. Army honor guard soldiers hold 12 folded American flags during an interment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Oct. 12 for 12 soldiers killed in Iraq 10 months ago. The soldiers, 10 from the Army National Guard and two from the active duty Army, were killed northeast of Baghdad when their UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was shot down. Photo by Sgt. Mary Flynn, USA   (Click photo...

NEW YORK - Fifty-three years after he was shot down on a desperate cargo-delivery flight over Vietnam, a legendary pilot and soldier of fortune known as Earthquake McGoon will be buried Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery. The burial plan was announced by the Pentagon on Wednesday. Earthquake McGoon, whose real name was James B. McGovern Jr., was one of the first two Americans killed in the Vietnam conflict. His remains were recovered from an unmarked grave in a remote northern Laos village in 2002 and identified last year by forensic experts at the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command's laboratory at Hickam...

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) - More than two months after he died, soul singer James Brown's body was placed in a crypt Saturday at the home of one of his daughters, though it likely will not be his final resting place. Brown's body had been kept in a secret location during disputes over his estate. He died Dec. 25 at age 73. The Rev. Al Sharpton presided over the private ceremony held for family and a few friends at the home of Deanna Brown Thomas. Also attending were Brown's partner, Tomi Rae Hynie, and the couple's young son. "This is...

Buried treasure that's kept in the dark By Meron Rapoport The first 10 minutes at the excavation site passed in silence. The moment we saw the high walls and the large, well-preserved rooms dug into the ground between the olive trees, the archaeologists in the group started to bound from wall to wall, to delve into the rooms. "This is one of the biggest MBs I've seen," Dr. Rafi Greenberg, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, mumbled. "It really is a very impressive MB," another of the archaeologists in the group agreed. Because of their excitement, it took a bit...

Most of you experienced the "media storm" over Bob Woodward's new book-criticizing Rumsfeld and the administration,natch. When the Department of Defense issued a blistering rebuttal, it was as if a tree fell in a deserted forest. Read the rebuttal - and a few other interesting facts- right here.

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 26, 2006 -- Eighty-eight years after being killed in action along the not-so-quiet Western Front of World War I, Army Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati was buried today with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry carry the casket of formerly missing U.S. Army Pvt. Francis Lupo in Arlington National Cemetery Sept. 26. Lupo was killed in World War I in 1918 in France. Photo by William D. Moss  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Lupo is the first U.S. servicemember classified as missing in action from World War I to...

ARLINGTON, Va. - The only testament to Francis Lupo's death in a World War I battle has long been his name, etched on a French chapel wall with those of hundreds of other missing soldiers. On Tuesday, 88 years after he was killed, the recently discovered remains of the U.S. Army private were buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. And by year's end, his name will be carved anew, this time on a white headstone like those marking the graves of his fellow soldiers. Lupo is the first World War I soldier whose remains — a few fragments...

Archaeologists find terracotta figurines older than those buried with Chinese first emperor Chinese archaeologists have discovered two terracotta figurines dating back to about 2,500 years ago, older than the famous terracotta warriors buried with first Chinese emperor Qinshihuang. The rough-hewn, 10-centimeter tall statues might be the oldest terracotta figurines produced by the Qin State at the beginning of the Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC), said some experts. The two figurines were found at the ruins of Yongcheng, an ancient Qin State capital, in northwest Shaanxi Province, according to local media reports. Qin State unified China in 221 BC. Qinshihuang,...

McKinney's Black PanthersTom Bevan Mon Aug 7, 9:31 AM ET Check out this nugget on the McKinney campaign buried at the end of a story in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Several people dressed in black suits and boots followed McKinney around. The patches on their clothes said: "New Black Panther Party Freedom or Death." The organization does not have an official role in McKinney's campaign and are not on her organization's payroll, said McKinney's campaign manager, John Evans. So members of the "largest organized anti-Semitic black militant group in America" just show up spontaneously to follow McKinney around during the final...

A young mother who was murdered, along with her three children, in Columbus last week, were loved by many in her old hometown of Warren, and they showed that love today. The funeral for Jameila West, daughter Jameire, and sons Trevion and Jakia, was held today at the family's church in Warren. Beyond the uplifted hands and voices at the Greater Apostolic Church in Warren, is the devastating loss of four loved ones, but only two caskets. 27 year old Jameila West and her 3 year old son Jakia lie in one, 10 year old Jameire and 5 year...

MADRID, Spain - Scientists said Friday they have confirmed that at least some of Christopher Columbus' remains were buried inside a Spanish cathedral, a discovery that could help end a century-old debate over the explorer's final resting place. DNA samples from 500-year-old bone slivers could contradict the Dominican Republic's competing claim that the explorer was laid to rest in the New World, said Marcial Castro, a Seville-area historian and high school teacher who devised the study that began in 2002. However, some of Columbus' remains also could have been buried in the Dominican Republic, he said. The announcement came a...

CAMP MERCURY, Iraq (Feb. 25, 2006) -- Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Edward looked at the stacks of unearthed munitions and shook his head in disbelief. “We’re going to need more C-4,” Edward said. The 29-year-old explosive ordnance disposal technician with Mobile Unit 3, Detachment 9, 8th Engineer Support Battalion was witness to the largest weapons cache discovery made by Marines from L Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, since they arrived in Iraq nearly a month ago. The weapons are commonly used against Marines and Iraqi Security Forces in improvised explosive devices. The company made the find during...

GUINSAUGON, Philippines - High-tech gear detected "signs of life" Monday at the site of an elementary school buried under mud that swept down a hillside soaked by rain in the eastern Philippines, the provincial governor said. Sounds of scratching and a rhythmic tapping were picked up by seismic sensors and sound-detection gear brought in by U.S. and Malaysian forces, said South Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias. Generator-powered lights were set up to allow teams of rescue workers to dig through the sludge during the night. "To me, that's more than enough reason to smile and be happy," Lerias said. "The adrenaline...

15,000 wrecks lie buried on Irish seabed Andrew Bushe LUSITANIA, the Cunard Line steamer sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Cork in 1915 drowning all 1,200 on board, is one of the most famous shipwrecks in Irish waters. But a new study has discovered that the seas surrounding Ireland are littered with evidence of thousands of other maritime tragedies, with as many as 15,000 wrecks resting on the seabed. Following one of the most extensive research programmes ever carried out by underwater archeologists, the number of wrecks discovered has soared from an initial examination six years ago...

Geoscience rediscovers Phoenicia's buried harbors Space and Earth science : January 05, 2006 The exact locations of Tyre and Sidon's ancient harbors, Phoenicia's two most important city-states, have attracted scholarly interest and debate for many centuries. New research reveals that the ancient basins lie buried beneath the medieval and modern city centers. A network of sediment cores have been sunk into the cities' coastal deposits and studied using high-resolution geoscience techniques to elucidate how, where, and when Tyre and Sidon's harbors evolved since their Bronze Age foundations. In effect, ancient port basins are rich geological archives replete with information on...

A Plymouth Belvedere that was buried in a concrete vault nearly 50 years ago as part of the state's golden anniversary celebration will be unearthed in 2007 as part of the Oklahoma centennial festivities.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2005 – Iraqi and U.S. forces have removed more than 4,200 mortar rounds from a major weapons cache found Nov. 27 outside of an abandoned military base near Kirkuk, Iraq, military officials reported. Iraqi soldiers discovered the buried rounds that morning. The soldiers removed about 800 mortar rounds before realizing the cache was much larger than originally thought. U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team were called in to help excavate the munitions and secure the area. The ammunition was buried under concrete blocks with dirt mounded on top. All ammunition removed so...

Villa buried by Pompeii eruption is unearthed By Hilary Clarke in Rome (Filed: 22/11/2005) An archaeological dig on the Amalfi coast has revealed the first luxury villa to be built in the idyllic fishing village of Positano, a popular haunt of today's rich and famous. A frescoe on a wall of the villa found in Positano Two storeys of a first century millionaire's abode have been found under a church which was hidden for 2,000 years by the same volcanic eruption that devastated Pompeii in 79AD. During renovation work on the church's crypt last summer, roof beams were found poking...

Tomb scan reveals buried treasure Thursday, October 20, 2005; Posted: 1:02 a.m. EDT (05:02 GMT) Some of the terra cotta soldier statues found around Qin's tomb. BEIJING, China (AP) -- A magnetic scan of the unopened tomb of China's first emperor has detected a large number of coins, suggesting Emperor Qin was buried with his state treasury, a news report said Thursday.

Tomb scan reveals buried treasure Thursday, October 20, 2005; Posted: 1:02 a.m. EDT (05:02 GMT) Some of the terra cotta soldier statues found around Qin's tomb. BEIJING, China (AP) -- A magnetic scan of the unopened tomb of China's first emperor has detected a large number of coins, suggesting Emperor Qin was buried with his state treasury, a news report said Thursday.

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) - Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam during a major escalation of the war, was buried Saturday at the U.S. Military Academy, where he was once superintendent. The World War II combat veteran died Monday at the age of 91 of natural causes at the South Carolina retirement home where he lived with his wife, Katherine. "He left his mark in history," a chaplain, Lt. Col. John J. Cook, said in a graveside eulogy. "The season of war is gone ... Now he'll enter a season of rest." Following a private chapel service...

Terri Schiavo's husband buried her cremated remains in a Clearwater cemetery Monday, inscribing on her bronze grave marker that ``I kept my promise.'' David Gibbs, an attorney for the woman's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, said inscribing the marker that way was a nasty political statement by Michael Schiavo, who held the service and burial Monday before telling her family. ``Obviously, that's a real shot and another unkind act toward a grieving mom and dad,'' Gibbs said. After earlier announcing plans to bury his wife's ashes in their native Pennsylvania, Michael Schiavo instead interred them at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park...

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) - A CIA pilot killed in an ambush by Chinese communists 53 years ago has been buried in his mother's grave, a year after military investigators found his remains and identified them. Robert Snoddy was 31 when he was shot down on a clandestine mission in Manchuria in 1952. A last wish of Snoddy's mother was that no marker be placed on her grave until her son came home. A stone with the names of both mother and son will mark the long-delayed reunion. "He's home, and it's not a time to be sad anymore," Roberta Lee...

LAKE WORTH, Fla. - An 8-year-old girl who was raped and buried alive told a friend she remembers her attacker towering over her before she passed out, then awoke seven hours later beneath a pile of rocks and concrete blocks when she heard the voices of rescuers. The girl, who had been staying overnight at her godmother's house, was reported missing early Sunday. She was hospitalized in good condition Monday and a teenage boy who also had been staying at the home was arrested. Authorities said he confessed. "She said the last thing she remembers is that he looked over...

MARTHASVILLE, Mo. (AP) - For sale: Portion of historic farmstead. Asking price: $1.2 million. May or may not be burial place of storied frontier explorer. No one disputes that Daniel Boone and his wife, Rebecca, were buried on the Bryan farm, near the Missouri River west of St. Louis. The 32-acre tract that is now on the market includes the original brick farmhouse and the Bryan family cemetery. But in 1845, 20 years after Daniel Boone's death, the couple's remains were supposedly reburied at Frankfort, Ky., in the state that Boone helped open to settlers. Some believe, though, that another...

BURIED WOMEN ‘WERE IN AMAZON FIGHTING TRIBE’ Published in News & Star on Wednesday, December 29th 2004 Fierce: Women may have fought in the Roman army By Pam McClounie TWO bodies unearthed from an ancient cemetery at Brougham, near Penrith, have changed experts’ views on Roman Britain. For the 1,750-year-old remains – found at the site in the 1960s – have been identified as women warriors who may have been from the fabled Amazon fighting tribe of Eastern Europe. The discovery has astonished archaeologists and historians because women were not previously known to have fought in the Roman army, which...

NAGAOKA, Japan (Oct. 27) - A 2-year-old boy was rescued Wednesday after surviving for four days buried in a landslide from the powerful quake that ravaged northern Japan over the weekend. Rescuers also pulled Yuta Minagawa's mother, Takako Minagawa, 39, from the wreckage, but doctors later announced she had died. A daughter, 3-year-old Mayu, was still buried and her condition was uncertain. The family's white van was swept away in a wave of boulders and earth that pulverized the hillside road they were on when a 6.8-magnitude quake ripped across rural Niigata prefecture on Saturday, killing at least 31 people....

An Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found in August 2003 buried in the sand after an informant tipped off U.S. troops. The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery teams. The MiG was reportedly one of over two dozen Iraqi jets buried in the sand, like hidden treasure, waiting to be recovered at a later date. Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets found were from the Gulf War-era. The Russian-made MiG-25 Foxbat being recovered by U.S. Air...

Niya yields buried secrets By Wang Shanshan (China Daily) Updated: 2004-03-12 10:39 The Chinese characters embroidered on a colourful brocade of mysterious pattern found by archaeologists in 1995 read: "China will rise when the five stars appear in the East together." Long, long ago there was a king. He had 300 soldiers, 3,000 residents in his state and one gold camel, which was his dearest possession. But he fell in love with a woman who was also loved by the king of another state, and thus a war was started. God, angered by the war, blew up a black sandstorm...

HERO’S BURIAL: Gen. John MacDonald, official representative of the US army, hands over the American flag to Helen Therriem, mother of Fil-American US army specialist Solomon Bangayan (inset) who was killed in action in Iraq earlier this month. Bangayan was given the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal as he was buried in his hometown of Sudipen in La Union yesterday.

Buried megaliths discovered at stone circle site Archaeologists have discovered an arc of buried megaliths that once formed part of the great stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire. The National Trust says the existence of these enormous stones, originally constructed more than 4,500 years ago, has remained a puzzle for the last 300 years. Visitors to Avebury will see most of the standing megaliths in the western half of the stone circle. The famous map of Avebury drawn up by William Stukely in the 1720s showed that many of the stones in the south east and north east quadrants of...

Against the wishes of the European Union, a European Jewish organization has released the much-anticipated report on anti-Semitism in Europe that was withheld by the EU for fear of offending European Muslims. Contrary to the wishes of the European Union, a large European Jewish organization has released the much-anticipated report on anti-Semitism in Europe, buried by the EU for fear of offending European Muslims. It was reported last week that the EU Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia had decided not to release the findings of an extensive study it had commissioned on the basis that the results were ‘flawed’....

Ancient boat found buried in mud The site is inaccessible when the tide is in A wooden boat thought to date back more than 1,500 years is to be raised from its resting place on the Hampshire coast. Archaeologists are to attempt to raise the canoe from the intertidal mud of Langstone Harbour, near Portsmouth. The boat, hollowed out of an oak tree trunk, is only the second of its kind to be found in the Solent since the 1880s. It is thought to date back to 500 AD. It was discovered in March 2002 by John Cross and Arthur...

Some 30 Iraqi planes found buried in sands Iraq-USA, Local, 8/2/2003 American officials announced that the occupation forces in Iraq found scores of planes dumped under the sand while searching for mass destruction weapons, alleged to be with the former Iraqi regime. The officials explained that among the found planes are "Maig 25 fighters" and "Soa 25" planes found dumped in al-Taqadum ( progress) military base, to the west of Baghdad, where weapons experts team found the planes after they had noticed parts of the planes surfacing from under the sands. Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence...

<p>PHILADELPHIA — Four teenagers charged with beating a 16-year-old boy to death plotted the killing for weeks and listened to the Beatles song "Helter Skelter" (search) several dozen times before the murder, according to an alleged confession read in court.</p>

The buried palace of Gaur SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY in Malda Excavations in Malda throw light on the architecture and engineering of Gaur, the capital of the medieval Muslim rulers of north Bengal. PICTURES: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH The Bais Gazi wall, which surrounds the palace area. IN his book Memoirs of Gaur and Pandua, the historian Khan Sahib Abid Ali, who himself hailed from Malda, wrote: "Excavations have been made in different parts of the ruined city by village cultivators in search of treasure, which have revealed traces of spacious halls, pavements, staircases, subterranean passages, and a good many other relics, all...

Gilgamesh tomb believed found Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject of the oldest "book" in history. The Epic Of Gilgamesh - written by a Middle Eastern scholar 2,500 years before the birth of Christ - commemorated the life of the ruler of the city of Uruk, from which Iraq gets its name. Now, a German-led expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King. "I don't want to say...

<p>It began with a plan to drain Pensacola Bay, and ended with a hurricane. In between was 30 years of struggle to colonize Santa Rosa Island.</p> <p>Today the site lies peacefully under a blanket of white sand. Low-lying dunes and typical barrier island vegetation give no hint at what's underneath, and the sound of waves crashing on the Gulf of Mexico shoreline is easily heard. But about two feet down lie what should be extremely well-preserved remains of the third Spanish settlement in Pensacola.</p>

Three students of the hesder yeshiva (combining army service with yeshiva study) in Otniel were laid to rest today. They and a fourth student - Noam Apter, 23, who was buried in his hometown of Shilo last night - were murdered by terrorists who infiltrated their yeshiva on Friday night. Pvt. Yehuda Bamberger, 20, was buried in his hometown of Karnei Shomron; Tzvi Zimen, 18, of Reut, was laid to rest in the nearby cemetery of Modiin; and the funeral of Gavriel Hoter, 17, of Alonei HaBashan in the Golan was held in Kfar Adumim, between Jerusalem and Jericho. Twelve...

<p>SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) --Captain Cook fans who credit the English explorer-adventurer with the formal "discovery" of eastern Australia may have to think again.</p> <p>History teacher Greg Jefferys said on Tuesday he believed he had found remains of a Portuguese warship buried under a beach in what is now the state of Queensland and he had dated the wreck to as much as 200 years before James Cook landed in Botany Bay.</p>

16:23 2002-08-29 WHERE IS APOSTLE MATTHEW BURIED? This is the subject of dispute for American television and scientists of the Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan An archeological expedition that was organized by the American television company IPV News USA found an object that looks an something to store relics in. As scientists believe, the object could have been used to store the remains of the Biblical monk Apostle Matthew. IPV News USA Director Sergey Melnikoff is certain that he found the grave of one of the authors of the Gospel. Ancient legends say that Apostle Matthew died on his way...

March 29, 2001 Old Rum Distillery Buried as Ground Shifts on Its Fate By CLAUDIA ROWE LBANY, March 28 — Nearly every time a shovel breaks ground for downtown development here, it strikes something from the deep past: In recent years, archaeologists hired to do pre-construction surveys have found Dutch cemeteries, American Indian artifacts and, most recently, an 18th-century rum distillery. And just as often, the shovel keeps on going: All of those discoveries have been unceremoniously reburied. Just last Friday, the city dumped backfill over the distillery's vine-tied wooden fermentation vats to make way for a six-story parking garage....

Egypt announces discovery of 30,000 year-old skeleton Wednesday, 8 May 2002 The skeleton of a human being who lived more than 30,000 years ago has been discovered in southern Egypt by Belgian archaeologists, an Egyptian official announced. "Anthropologists have set his, or her, age to be between 30,000 and 33,000 years ago," Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said. It was the oldest skeleton ever found in northern Africa, Mr Hawass said. A team from the University of Leuven found the skeleton buried in a seated position facing east, with the head turned upward, the director of...