Free Republic

An archaeological discovery in France has revealed the Stone Age remains of two women thought to have been tortured and sacrificed in a form of murder associated with the Italian Mafia. Though the remains were discovered in 1985, a study published last week in the journal Science Advances reveals the "atypical" positioning of the bodies. The paper's authors believe the women could have died by "self-strangulation" using a ligature that bound their ankles to their necks. The torture is known as "incaprettamento," a homicide ritual of the Italian Mafia, sometimes used to punish people thought to be traitors. A third...

The research found evidence of the "incaprettamento" method of murder at 14 Neolithic sites in Europe.The murder of sacrificial victims by "incaprettamento" — tying their neck to their legs bent behind their back, so that they effectively strangled themselves — seems to have been a tradition across much of Neolithic Europe, with a new study identifying more than a dozen such murders over more than 2,000 years.The study comes after a reassessment of an ancient tomb that was discovered more than 20 years ago at Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux near Avignon, in southern France. The tomb mimics a silo, or pit where grain...

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's Prime Minister Iyad Allawi warned France against appeasing insurgents in order to secure the release of two of its nationals held hostage in the country as he prepared to travel to Brussels. "France is bogged down by the past," said Allawi responding to a question by reporters on France's support for a conference by Iraqi civil society groups to be held in parallel to an official meeting on Iraqi elections scheduled for the end of the month in Egypt. "France must revise its policies towards Iraq because its actions and statements are driven by the fact...