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Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) is criticizing the new ethics office that recommended he be reviewed by the House ethics panel. Graves issues a statement Thursday thanking the House ethics committee for dismissing the charges against him and lashed out at the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). Graves struck early by releasing the statement before the ethics panel publicly announced that it had unanimously dismissed the complaint against him. Graves lashed out at the OCE in his statement, accusing it of investigating an anonymous complaint and looking into a matter that even if true did not violate House ethics rules. “I...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is facing mounting pressure to intervene in an intense dispute between an outside ethics office she pushed through the House and the full ethics committee. The stakes are high for the future of the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), a new entity Democrats created to help police lawmakers. Its board members and top staff are threatening to resign if the ethics committee doesn’t meet a deadline the OCE believes is critical to its role, according to several sources within the ethics community. Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said the Speaker believes cooler heads will prevail and the...

She was dumped by a boyfriend who no longer wished to follow her around the world. She found herself heartbroken and sick and finally went to a doctor who said he had news -- at 39, she was with child. Impossible, she replied: Throughout her previous 17-year marriage she tried repeatedly to get pregnant,

JERUSALEM – Palestinian Christians in a normally quiet village are reeling from a series of grave desecrations this week that they say are indicative of intimidation tactics from the town's growing Muslim population. "Christians don't feel free anymore. Our way of life is changing while the Muslim population grows," a local Christian told WND. The Christian would only give his first name, Anis, for fear of Muslim retaliation if he speaks out. He pointed out there are several other Anis's in his village, Jisna, which is located near the West Bank city of Ramallah. This week, 70 Christian grave sites...

On this Memorial Day, thousands of small American flags will fly in cemeteries near your home, next to the headstones of men and women who defended this country. Flags also will decorate the thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery as well as sacred ground throughout Europe and the Pacific that bears long, straight rows of ivory-white crosses and stars. Many of the young Americans who rest under these simple markers did not live past the age of 19 or 20. There also are tens of thousands of equally young men who fought gallantly for this country during World War...

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - Construction workers at a city lot in downtown Montgomery stumbled upon numerous bodies Tuesday morning.

Clues to the mysterious deaths of 57 Irish immigrants came first from a secret file that had been locked in a vault until 1970. The men, who sailed from Ireland in 1832, arrived in Chester County to work on the railroad. They died about eight weeks later, most of cholera. Until the file was read six years ago by two brothers, both historians, the immigrants were the stuff mostly of legend and ghost tale. On Friday, another milestone in their story was found in East Whiteland Township. An archaeology research team based at Immaculata University in Chester County uncovered 90...

The remains of a woman's skull with a rock thrust into its jaws is evidence of the mediaeval fear of vampires, Italian anthropologists have claimed. Scientists found the skull, with its mouth agape and a large slab of rock forced into its mouth, while excavating a mass grave dating from the Middle Ages on an island near Venice. Female "vampires" were often blamed for spreading the plague epidemics through Europe, said Matteo Borrini of Florence University. Wedging a rock or brick into the mouth of a suspected vampire was a way of preventing the person from feeding on the bodies...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Two historic cemeteries in Colorado Springs face a troubled future -- and not because the death rate is slowing.

A United Nations human rights expert will travel to the Twin Cities next month to listen to Hmong families upset about the desecration of graves in Thailand. The expert will hear testimony about the unearthing of hundreds of graves where thousands of Hmong refugees once lived. The site is near a Buddhist temple in Thailand. The hearing will be at the University of Minnesota, where the Human Rights Program has taken up a project to study and help resolve the issue.

Police in northern Baghdad found a mass grave Tuesday that contained the remains of 15 people, an Interior Ministry official said. The grave was in a house under construction in the Ur neighborhood, which used to be controlled by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia. Authorities were attempting to determine who the victims were and when they died. In other incidents, two bombs in a car exploded in Nineveh province's Sinjar area Tuesday. A civilian was killed and 11 were wounded, authorities in Mosul said. A roadside bomb exploded in front of the western Baghdad house of an Electricity...

(Republican) Graves' for Congress new campaign video 'The Axis of Taxes' newly released on YouTube: Promo: "Kay Barnes raised over $1 billion in new taxes as a liberal big city mayor..."

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Justice Department investigation finds former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves of the Western District of Missouri was forced out because of opposition from Missouri Sen. Kit Bond's office. The report by the department's internal watchdog says Bond's legal counsel, Jack Bartling, asked the White House at least twice in 2005 to remove Graves. Bartling told investigators that he wanted to remove Graves because of conflicts between the staffs of Bond and Graves' brother, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican who represents northwest Missouri. Bartling said Rep. Graves' operation "did not run business" the way that Bond's office...

When Paul C. Sereno went hunting for dinosaur bones in the Sahara, his career took a sharp turn from paleontology to archaeology. The expedition found what has proved to be the largest known graveyard of Stone Age people who lived there when the desert was green. The first traces of pottery, stone tools and human skeletons were discovered eight years ago at a site in the southern Sahara, in Niger. After preliminary research, Dr. Sereno, a University of Chicago scientist who had previously uncovered remains of the dinosaur Nigersaurus there, organized an international team of archaeologists to investigate what had...

snip...Tens of thousands of skeletons that lie hidden beneath the streets, houses and offices of London have been revealed for the first time on a map, in a collaboration between the Museum of London and The Times. snip...Another skeleton was found with a metal spike lodged in its spine. Its owner, a man who was buried in Smithfield, East London, in about 1350, was probably hit with an arrow or spear, but the attack did not kill him. He survived only to catch bubonic plague in his late thirties or early forties. “Somehow the injury didn't cause an infection,” Mr...

Ramhormoz graves may be Elamite royal burials: experts TEHRAN, May 20 (MNA) -- A team of archaeologists studying two graves discovered in the city of Ramhormoz in southern Iran said that they bear their remains of a girl and a woman who were most likely members of an Elamite royal family. The team led by Arman Shishegar was assigned to carry out a series of rescue excavations in the Jubji region of the city in Khuzestan Province in May 2007 after the Khuzestan Water and Waste Water Company stumbled on two U-shaped coffins containing skeletons of a girl and a...

HARTLAND, Vt. (AP) — The 130-acre property was exactly what Michel Guite and his family wanted: an old Vermont farm with mountain views, rolling hills and meadows. There was, however, one wrinkle: The property included a small family cemetery — with the grave of a War of 1812 veteran — surrounded by a fence on a scenic knoll. His proposal to move the graveyard so he can build a house and barn has set off protests. The town has passed a resolution aimed at blocking the move, a descendant of one occupant of the graveyard is trying to fight him...

Exodus 3 1 Meanwhile Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. 3 So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." 4When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more...

Archaeologists uncover unique cremation graves By ÄŒTK / Published 20 March 2008 Prostejov, South Moravia, March 19 (CTK) - Czech archaeologists have uncovered unique cremation graves in Prostejov that date back to the Neolithic period of the Linear Pottery culture and that indicate that people believed in human soul's existence 7,000 years ago already, daily Mlada fronta Dnes wrote Wednesday. The graves were uncovered during construction of a new industrial zone on the eastern edge of the town. "This is the first cremation burial site of the Linear-Pottery-culture to be uncovered on Czech soil. Below it there are skeleton graves...

Irish and Dutch vessels found in Scottish graves Evidence that some of our prehistoric ancestors travelled considerable distances has come from two graves in Upper Largie, near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute. One grave contained three distinctive beakers which Alison Sheridan, of the National Museums Scotland, describes as belonging to an early, international style, best paralleled by finds from the lower Rhine region of the modern-day Netherlands. Radiocarbon dates of 2500-2280 BC from hazel charcoal from within the grave confirms an early Bronze Age date. Though no bone was found because of the acidic nature of the local soils, the...

Greek workers discovered around 1,000 graves, some filled with ancient treasures, while excavating for a subway system in the historic city of Thessaloniki, the state archaeological authority said Monday. Some of the graves, which dated from the first century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., contained jewelry, coins and various pieces of art, the Greek archaeological service said in a statement. Thessaloniki was founded around 315 B.C. and flourished during the Roman and Byzantine eras. Today it is the Mediterranean country's second largest city. Most of the graves — 886 — were just east of the city center in what...

Dig at homes site uncovers skeletons of eight monks By Nicola Fenwick BURIAL SITE: Mark Randerson, of Durham University's archaeology department, with two of the monks uncovered at the site in Northallerton ARCHAEOLOGISTS have discovered the complete skeletons of eight Carmelite monks. The excavation in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, also revealed that the town's priory is unique, because its layout differs from all other known Carmelite priories and monasteries in Europe. Housing developer Castle Homes owns the site and will be building a residential development there. But it has given assurances that the design of the building will ensure the preservation...

Dozens of gravestones at a Jewish cemetery near Norridge were desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti in an attack that Cook County authorities are calling a hate crime. The vandalism caused an estimated $100,000 damage to 57 tombstones scarred with spray-painted swastikas, other symbols and slurs that included "Aryan Power" and "white power." "To see the physical damage and the disrespect for people who are dead, it's so sad," said Phil Ferkel, executive director of Westlawn Cemetery. Several vandals -- described as "cowards who ply hate" by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart -- apparently invaded the cemetery last weekend. "What they did...

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 16, 2007 – They came from around the country, some with tears in their eyes, putting holiday demands on hold to honor veterans most never knew. In a few hours in freezing temperatures, about 3,000 volunteers yesterday placed more than 10,000 balsam fir wreaths with blazing red bows on graves at Arlington National Cemetery here. “I wish I could lay one on all of them,” said Charles Wright, a Vietnam War Marine veteran and commander of the Kansas City Composite Squadron, a civil air patrol unit. “This is a tribute I’ll remember forever.” Morrill Worcester, owner...

Mass Plague Graves Found on Venice "Quarantine" Island Maria Cristina Valsecchi for National Geographic News August 29, 2007 Ancient mass graves containing more than 1,500 victims of the bubonic plague have been discovered on a small island in Italy's Venetian Lagoon. Workers came across the skeletons while digging the foundation for a new museum on Lazzaretto Vecchio, a small island in the lagoon's south, located a couple of miles from Venice's famed Piazza San Marco (see a map of the Venetian Lagoon). The island is believed to be the world's first lazaret—a quarantine colony intended to help prevent the spread...

Graves of Ancient Russian Rulers Discovered at Altai 30.08.2007 Rurik, legendary Russian rulerArcheologsts have recently discovered graves of ancient Russian family of Ruriks (“Rurik” means “famous ruler”) in the town of Zmeinogorsk, reports famous Russian historian. The discovery was totally unexpected – fellows of local historical centre have taken children from historical society to perform diggings on the city’s cemetery, and among other pre-revolutionary burials they found graves of Ruriks. Now scientists start enormous research – they are going to identify the graves and bodies in them.

The riddle of Afghan graves By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul On a dusty desert plain a few kilometres north of Kabul, Afghan security officials recently revealed to reporters the latest mass grave discovered in the country. Some of the bodies were still in a sitting position in rooms built underground the former weapons depot in the Shomali plain. Others were in a lying position. Some still had clothes on. What is known is that the bodies are of victims of Afghanistan's war-torn past. But what is not known is - from which war? Afghanistan is no stranger to such...

Arial photo of what could be traces of Viking graves. PHOTO: NORD-TRØNDELAG LOCAL AUTHORITIES New Viking graves discovered 120 graves and traces of Viking houses discovered near the city of Trondheim.Traces of what could be a Viking Chief's hall. PHOTO: Ørn E. Borgen A reconstructed Viking Chief's hall in the cultural monuments park near the town of Hønefoss. What may be a Viking Chief's hall is among the new findings. PHOTO: Ørn E. Borgen A total of 145 antiquities have been found at 32 different places around Stiklestad in the county of Nord-Trøndelag. PHOTO: JON A. FOSSEIE While most parts...

Fifty Six Pre-Islamic Graves Discovered behind Salman-e Farsi Dam 03 July 2007 LONDON, (CAIS) -- The first season of archaeological excavations in the Parto-Sasanian city behind Salman-e Farsi dam in Iranian Fars province has been wrapped up with unearthing fifty six graves belonging to post Achaemenid period (333-248 BCE), Parthian (248 BCE-224 CE) and Sasanian (224-651 CE) dynastic eras, as well as a number of Sasanian industrial centres in the eastern side of the city. Announcing this Alireza Jafari Zand, head of excavation team behind Salman-e Farsi Dam told Persian service of CHN: “A number of these graves have already...

Mass grave of Quakers uncovered A meeting of the Society of Friends in its early days A mass grave believed to contain the bodies of followers of the Quaker religious movement has been uncovered in Cambridgeshire. Environment Agency workers found the rare Quaker burial site while carrying out work for flood defences at St Ives. Sixteen bodies were in the unmarked grave dating back to the late 1600s. Archaeologists described the find as "remarkable and unusual" as it gave an insight into Quaker burial practices just after the movement started. Pipe facet The Society of Friends was still emerging and...

Bodies to be stacked double in old graves By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent Last Updated: 2:33am BST 06/06/2007 Graves are to be reopened to allow bodies to be stacked one on top of another in a controversial move announced by the Government yesterday. A consultation last year found that most people would accept 'double-decker' graves Bodies buried for as little as 75 years could be dug up and re-buried in deeper ground to allow another coffin to be interred above. The name of the newly-buried person could even be added to the headstone. This follows Government research which found that...

The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday. A settlement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Wiccans adds the five-pointed star to the list of "emblems of belief" allowed on VA grave markers. Eleven families nationwide are waiting for grave markers with the pentacle, said Selena Fox, a Wiccan high priestess with Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wisconsin, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The settlement calls for the pentacle, whose five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit,...

Mayor's office in northern city of Lille says it is 'shocked' and 'disgusted' by weekend attack, which it describes as a 'hateful anti-Semitic act' More than 50 tombstones were damaged in an attack at the weekend on a Jewish cemetery in the northern French city of Lille that the mayor's office described as a "hateful anti-Semitic act". The Lille mayor's office said it was "shocked" and "disgusted" by the desecration of 53 tombstones overnight Saturday to Sunday in the Lille-Sud cemetery. New Interior Minister Francois Baroin issued a statement condemning the attack and pledging to mobilise "all means necessary to...

Debris that may have contained bits of bone from victims of the World Trade Center attacks was used to fill potholes and pave city roads, according to court papers filed on Friday. The charge was made in an affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court in an ongoing case filed in 2005 by family members of those killed in the attacks against the city. They say the city did not do enough to search for remains, denying victims a proper burial. Eric Beck, a construction worker employed at the Fresh Kills landfill in the borough of Staten Island, where the rubble...

New Viking treasures found Archaeologists have made a major discovery in Western Norway, unearthing well-preserved Viking graves from the 9th century full of riches.Glass beads covered with gold are among the items found in the Viking graves. PHOTO: JONAS HAAR FRIESTAD Workers at the excavation site are awed by what they've found. PHOTO: JONAS HAAR FRIESTAD The Viking treasures were found at Frøyland in Rogaland County. Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported Monday that items recovered from the graves indicate they belonged to wealthy Vikings of the time. In one of the graves, belonging to a woman, archaeologists found jewellery, many...

Kurdish victims found in three mass graves included more than 230 women and children along with dozens of adult men, who were lined up and gunned down by troops and buried where they fell, an American forensic expert testified today in the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein. Michael Trimble described a number of the bodies his team analysed from the graves: a pregnant woman shot through her abdomen, killing the foetus; a young girl wearing little green boots whose leg had been shattered by bullets and an infant who had no bullet wounds and apparently smothered under the body of...

Graves hint at contact with Romans Published: 8th November 2006 19:18 CET Archaeologists excavating ancient graves in western Sweden have found shards from ceramic vessels made in the Roman Empire, in a find that could challenge assumptions about contacts between people in Sweden and the Romans. The graves in Stenungsund, around 45 kilometres north of Gothenburg, have been dated to between the years 1 and 300 AD. The remains of burned bones from two people were found, along with the pieces of ceramic. "There are pieces from four or five vessels in each grave, and we have never previously found...

GRAVES SMASHED: ROCKET HITS ISRAELI CEMETERY... Awaiting more info....

For sale: old, second-hand graves. £3,000 each, many careful owners By Stephanie Condron (Filed: 04/07/2006) A cemetery is offering second-hand graves, with "refurbished" monuments including headstones, obelisks and crosses, to be used again. Recycled burial plots, complete with the original memorials, still contain the remains of those who died at least 75 years ago - the names of the dead are simply scoured from the monuments to allow new inscriptions. The City of London cemetery is selling 1,000 such plots advertised as "traditional-style graves" to be "adopted" by families willing to pay £3,000 to lease them for 50 years. The...

ON THE EDGE OF THE ASH SHAM DESERT, Iraq, June 3 — Among experts on the American-led team investigating Iraq's mass graves, the skeletal remains lying face-up at the rear of the tangled grave here have been given a name — the Blue Man — that speaks for a sorrowful familiarity developed by some of those who work with victims of mass murder. But more than his blue shirt, and his blue-striped trousers, what distinguishes the remains is the way they speak for the terror of death under Saddam Hussein.

Manny Loya has a bond with Tucson's war dead. In the hot sun, he gazes at their headstones, imagining how they lived, whom they loved and how they died. "At first, I used to dream about them," said Loya, a volunteer grave tender at Holy Hope Cemetery, the final resting place of thousands of departed military personnel. For the past week or so, the retired city sanitation worker has performed his annual labor of love, sprucing up the cemetery for the national holiday honoring fallen troops. It's a time of year that leaves him feeling sentimental. "Look at all these...

Graves of the Pacific's First Seafarers Revealed Richard Stone INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION CONGRESS, 20-26 MARCH 2006, MANILA Little is known about the Lapita peoples, the first settlers of the Western Pacific, other than their ubiquitous calling card: red pottery fragments with intricate designs. But in what's being hailed as one of the most dramatic finds in years, researchers at the meeting offered a glimpse of the first-known early Lapita cemetery. "This is the closest we're going to get to the first Polynesians," says archaeologist Matthew Spriggs of Australia National University (ANU) in Canberra, a member of the excavation team. Face...

Mass graves planned if bird flu pandemic reaches Britain By Adam Stones (Filed: 02/04/2006) Mass burials are being considered by the Home Office as part of contingency plans for a possible avian flu pandemic. A "prudent worst case" assessment suggested that 320,000 could die in Britain if the H5N1 virus mutated into a form contagious between humans, according to a confidential report. The paper - said to have been discussed by a Cabinet committee - said that the huge number of deaths would lead to delays of up to 17 weeks in burying or cremating victims. It warned that the...

Polish archaeologist unearths Europe's most ancient graves Mar 2, 2006, 14:15 GMT Warsaw - Five of Europe's most ancient graves, dating back 10,000 years, have been unearthed in the village of Dwreca, central Poland. Archaeologist Marian Marciniak found the graves on the site of ancient post-glacial dunes, the Rzeczpospolita daily reported. In them, a young woman, believed aged 18 to 21, was put to rest with a baby, a child aged 5 to 7 and another aged 7 to 11. An adult male found at the site was buried sitting upright, as if on a throne or chair. The bodies...

As Baku newspaper “Real Azerbaijan” informs, Mayor of Baku Hajibala Abutalibov decided to destroy the old Christian cemetery in the center of the city, near Montino. The territory will be used for construction of elite residencies. Newspaper called it “barbarity” and “Abu-Fascism.” When angered Russian resident came to Baku, Abutalibov said that the destruction is ordered by the President Ilham Aliyev, who decided to construct a new highway here.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have prepared a long-range plan to excavate mass graves in Iraq and prepare forensic evidence of crimes against humanity, according to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in May 2003, more than 270 mass graves in Iraq have been reported, Natsios told reporters March 17 at the State Department's Foreign Press Center in Washington. Some of the graves are relatively small, containing a few dozen remains, while other graves are hundreds of meters long, according to a report distributed at the briefing. There are 300,000-400,000...

The men went to explore the Ahora Gorge on the north-west slope of Ararat It has become some sort of a tradition to make sensational statements about discovery of Noah's Ark every year in October - November. As a rule, the exact place is not mentioned at that for two reasons. Either these people know the exact location of Noah's Ark and try to keep it secret, or make such sensational statements having no grounds at all just to have their names made public in connection with the sacred mystery. Noah's Ark This year, legendary mountain-climber President of Russia's...

VIENNA, Austria — The Vienna cemetery where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is believed to have once been buried will undergo partial restoration, cultural officials said Friday [August 19] as the city prepares for next year's celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth. Although the memorial marking Mozart's traditional burial site at St. Marxer Cemetery remains in sound condition, hundreds of other tombstones and statues in the surrounding park have suffered centuries of neglect. Authorities plan to restore a few of those graves — at a cost of 260,000 euros($316,758) — and use knowledge gained from the task for further...

THE bodies of 30 people, including two women, were discovered in a mass grave south of Baghdad today, and police have made several arrests in connection with the grisly find, security sources said. "A grave containing 30 mutilated bodies, of which two were women, was discovered at Awerij," about 20 km south of the Iraqi capital, said police lieutenant Muthanna al-Shumari. Shumari said the grave, located in Babylon province whose capital is Hilla, dated back around around six months. Iraqi forces conducted house searches in the region and arrested 13 suspects, including a Sudanese and an Egyptian, Shumari said, adding...

Her gravesite may be festooned in flowers, but "Rest in Peace" is something Terri Schindler has been deprived of in death. Date of birth and date of death are often the last things written for those who have departed this Earth, a timeworn testimony to the conventional practice that leans on societal respect for the dead left on untold scores of graves the world over. Convention and respect for the dead seem to fly out the window when it comes to widower Michael Schiavo and his flamboyantly bizarre attorney, George Felos.