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Last Update: Monday, October 31, 2005. 6:03pm (AEDT) Polynesian cemetery unlocks ancient burial secrets By Anna Salleh, ABC Science Online The first people to settle Polynesia went to surprising lengths to honour their dead, archaeologists show. Remains from the oldest cemetery in the Pacific suggest the Lapita people buried their dead in many different ways, some in "weird yoga positions", and removed their skulls for ceremonial purposes. Dr Stuart Bedford and Professor Matthew Spriggs of the Australian National University reported their finds on the Lapita culture in Vanuatu at a recent seminar in Canberra. "We found for the first time...

Jordan unblocks Hamas funds By Kim Ghattas BBC correspondent in Beirut Jordan's Central Bank has retracted a decision to freeze accounts belonging to leaders of Hamas, the radical Palestinian organisation. Islamists say Jordan is succumbing to US pressure The bank had issued the same list of names that had been put out by the US administration in late August after a Hamas suicide attack in Jerusalem. Islamist groups in Jordan had reacted angrily to the freeze order, saying it was humiliating for Jordanians to see their country succumb to US pressures once more. Jordan is a key US ally in...