Vatican Unveils ‘Little Pompeii’ Burial Sites (UPDATED)

AOL News:

VATICAN CITY (Oct. 9) – Visitors to the Vatican soon will be able to descend into an ancient world of the dead, a newly unveiled necropolis that was a burial place for the rich and not-so-affluent during Roman imperial rule.

The necropolis, which was unearthed three years ago during construction of a parking lot, will open to the public this week. One archaeologist said on Monday that sculptures, engravings and other objects found entombed with the dead made the find a “little Pompeii” of cemeteries.

The burial sites, ranging from simple terra-cotta funerary urns with ashes still inside to ornately sculptured sarcophagi, date from between the era of Augustus (23 B.C. to 14 A.D.) to that of Constantine in the first part of the 4th century.

From specially constructed walkways, visitors can look down on some skeletons, including that of an infant buried by loved ones who left a hen’s egg beside the body. The egg, whose smashed shell was reconstructed by archaeologists, might have symbolized hopes for a rebirth, officials at a Vatican Museums news conference said Monday.

The remains of the child, whose gender was not determined, were discovered during the construction of the walkways, after the main excavation had finished, said Daniele Battistoni, a Vatican archaeologist.

[…] “We have had the mausoleums of Hadrian and Augustus,” Spinola said, referring to majestic monuments along the Tiber in Rome, “but we were short on these middle- and lower-class” burial places.

The burial sites help “document the middle class, which usually escapes us,” said Paolo Liverani, an archaeologist and former Museums official who worked as a consultant on the site. “You don’t construct history with only generals and kings.”

Among those buried in the necropolis was a set designer for Pompey’s Theater, notorious for being near the spot where Julius Caesar was stabbed to death. Decorating the designer’s tomb were some symbols of his trade — a compass and a T-square.(READ MORE).

Los visitantes que vayan al Vaticano podrán descender a uno antiguo mundo de los muertos, una nueva necrópolis descubierta que servía de enterramiento durante el Imperio Romano. La necrópolis fue encontrada al hacer obras para un párking y, según un arqueólogo, puede ser considerada como la “pequeña Pompeya” de los cementerios. Se podrá ver algunos esqueletos, incluido el de un niño enterrado con un huevo de gallina, que los científicos creen que simbolizaba la esperanza del renacimiento.

“Teníamos los mausoleos de Adriano y de Augusto”, relata Spínola, el Jefe de Conservación de los Museos Vaticanos, pero “no teníamos casi enterramientos de esta clase. La historia no se hace solo de reyes y generales”. Entre otros está enterrado allí el arquitecto que diseñó el Teatro de Pompeyo, notorio porque está cerca del punto donde apuñalaron hasta la muerte a César.

UPDATE: Some photos:

A marble statue of a sleeping slave appears at the site of a Roman necropolis in the Vatican in a photograph released October 9, 2006.

A sarcophagus adorned with a woman and victory wings lies at the site of a Roman necropolis in the Vatican in a photograph released October 9, 2006.

In this undated photo provided Monday, Oct. 9, 2006 by the Vatican Museums, a general view of an ancient necropolis unearthed at the Vatican is seen. Vatican Museums officials and archaeologists on Monday unveiled the necropolis, which was unearthed three years ago during the construction of a parking lot for Vatican City employees and vehicles. Visitors to the Vatican will soon be able to step into the newly unveiled necropolis likened by archaeologists to a ”little Pompeii” of cemeteries which were the final resting place of the rich and not-so-affluent inhabitants during centuries of Roman imperial Rule. (AP Photo / Vatican Museums, ho)

Tags: Rome, Vatican, Vatican City

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NKorea conducts nuclear test

Defiant North Korea conducts nuclear test | Top News | Reuters.com

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North Korea said it conducted an underground nuclear test on Monday, defying a warning from the U.N. Security Council and opening its crippled economy to the risk of fresh sanctions. South Korea put its troops on heightened alert after the announcement, which came just minutes before Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe landed in Seoul for a visit. The move could heighten regional tension and deal a fresh foreign policy blow to President Bush ahead of mid-term elections. The White House branded the act “provocative” and said it expected the U.N. Security Council to take immediate actions. Long Pyongyang’s chief ally, China denounced the “brazen” act, urging it to avoid action that could worsen the situation, and Russian President Vladimir Putin also condemned the test. North Korea’s announcement pushed the dollar to an eight-month high against the yen and helped shove oil above $60 a barrel. South Korea’s won fell 1.5 percent to two-month lows and its main stock index tumbled as much as 3.6 percent.

You can read also: Washington Post:

The White House did not immediately confirm the test, but spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement: “U.S. and South Korean intelligence detected a seismic event Sunday at a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea. A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act, in defiance of the will of the international community and of our calls to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in northeast Asia. We expect the Security Council to take immediate actions to respond to this unprovoked act.”

The U.S. Geological Survey registered a “seismic event” of magnitude 4.2 at 10:35 a.m. Monday local time (9:35 p.m. Sunday EDT) 240 miles northeast of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist at the agency. She said the event occurred 45 miles north of the North Korean town of Kimchaek.

Russia’s defense minister said the reported test was equivalent to between 5,000 tons and 15,000 tons of TNT, the Associated Press reported. That would make the blast possibly as powerful as the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in World War II, which was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, the news agency said.

USA TODAY: North Korea says it conducted succesful underground nuclear test
NYT: NKorea reports 1st nuclear arms test.
Memeorandum: US Official N Korea tested nuclear weapon.
The Guardian: Blair condemns nuclear test.

Acordding to Spanish newspaper EL MUNDO, UN will act against NKorea.

Bloggers reporting about his: Right Wing News, RightWing Nut House, Michelle Malkin, LA Shawn Barber’s, Confederate Yankee, Big Lizards, Marmot’s Hole, Scared Monkeys, Hyscience, PoliPundit, Flopping Aces,Stop the ACLU,Blue Crab Boulevard,Barcepundit,Atlas Shrugs, The Belmont Club. In the Bullpen. Blue Star Chronicles,Jihad Du Jour,Ace of Spades. Il Mango Di Treviso,Dust My Broom,Gateway Pundit,

Winds of Change writes:

The truth is that North Korea is an irrelevant bit player in this whole drama. The real player here is China. They have helped North Korea at every step, and North Korea’s regime cannot survive at all without their ongoing food and fuel aid. Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear plans may be slightly inconvenient to the Chinese – just not not inconvenient enough to derail a strategy that still promises net plusses to those pursuing it within China’s dictatorship.
[…] In other words, make it clear to the Chinese via back-channel diplomacy that anything Taiwan chooses to do re: acquiring nuclear technology is no longer of any interest to the USA until Kim’s regime is gone – and that the Taiwanese are being briefed to that effect (the US had stopped a Taiwanese nuclear effort by threatening a cutoff of all military aid). Be clear also, and make public statements that “other states in the region” now have a viable reason to respond in kind. One could also drop hints about and then refuse to deny to the Chinese that back-channel discussions have begun with South Korea and Japan that involve America offering them a set number of working nuclear weapons from US stocks as a counterweight. They can also be told more directly via diplomatic channels that the USA will also support either or both countries if they choose to pursue their own programs, meanwhile floating diplomatic “trial balloons” re: a system that gives these countries their own deterrents as a better option, because it does not produce the capacity for further manufacture and so is “less destabilizing to the region.”

I agree. As I wrote here, the real goal is Taiwan and its independence.

I have found this [fake -or not? 😛 -] photo in Asia Pundit:

RECIPROCITY

You scratch my back, Ill test some missiles

To sum up…

En español podeis leer: Ajopringue,
EXPANSIÓN: El Consejo de Seguridad se reúne de urgencia para debatir sobre las pruebas nucleares de Corea del Norte.
ABC.es: Corea del Norte confirma su desafío nuclear tras el “éxito” de su primera prueba.

Just read this piece of news: it is disgusting AND
Test raises tension on border | The World | The Australian:

THE North Korean refugee had one request for her captors before the young Chinese soldiers led her back across the steel-girdered bridge on the Yalu River that divides two “socialist allies”.
“She asked for a comb and some water because she said that if she was going to die she could not face going to heaven looking as dirty and dishevelled as this,” recounted a relative of one soldier who was there. What happened next is testimony to the rising disgust in Chinese military ranks as Beijing posts more troops to the border amid a crisis with North Korea over its regime’s plan to stage a nuclear test.
The soldiers, who later told family members of the incident, marched the woman, who was about 30, to the mid-point of the bridge. North Korean guards were waiting. They signed papers for receipt of the woman, who kept her dignity until that moment. Then, in front of the Chinese troops, one seized her and another speared her hand – the soft part between thumb and forefinger – with the point of a sharpened steel cable, which he twisted into a leash. “She screamed just like a pig when we kill it at home in the village,” the soldier later told his relative. “Then they dragged her away.”

Lo que tiene que quedar muy claro es que el jugador aquí NO es Corea del Norte si no China. China, como señala Winds of Change un poco más arriba, ha jugado un papel determinante auydando a los norcoreanos en el éxito de su programa nuclear. Y eso es nuestro [1] verdadero problema, porque China está interesada en Taiwan y de esta forma le abre un nuevo frente a USA en su defensa de la independencia de la isla, así como de Japón y Australia. De modo que al final lo que se está acelerando es la carrera armamentística nuclear.

La última noticia relata cómo mataron los soldados de Corea del Norte a una chica que se había saltado a la valla para ir a pedir comida y su “aliado” China, se la devolvió. “Chilló como cuando matamos a un cerdo en mi casa del pueblo“, le dijo un soldado chino a un familiar. Y este país tiene energía atómica…. 😦

[1] NOTA: NO es el problema de Zapatero, que es partidario de que China anexione Taiwan…

Related posts: NKorea will test a nuclear device.

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UN Security Council approves Ban Ki-Moon as Next UN Secretary General

OneFreeKorea | Blog Archive » The Case for Blocking Ban Ki-Moon

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I’m betting on the U.N. to flub it, and I can even tell you how it’s going to happen. The front-runner to replace Kofi Annan is South Korea’s leftist Foreign Minister, Ban Ki-Moon, a man whose record embodies the very worst we’ve come to expect from the U.N.: passive-aggressive policies that appease evil and confront all efforts to define or enforce standards of civilized conduct. As Foreign Minister, Ban was architect and executor of a no-questions-asked appeasement policy toward North Korea. During those years, North Korea’s human rights record was the worst on earth, and probably the worst since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Kim Jong Il’s absolutist regime, supported by $7 billion in South Korean aid since 1994, stands accused of racial infanticide, the use of gas chambers for horrific chemical weapons on entire families, and a politically selective famine that “cleansed” North Korea of millions while the regime went on an arms-buying spree. North Korea’s forced labor camps are estimated to hold as many as 250,000 people, including thousands of children.
Ban and his government had little to say and nothing to ask as these atrocities went on, and go on to this very day. When resolutions condemning these crimes came before the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and later, the General assembly, South Korea’s ambassadors were instructed to either refuse to vote or abstain. Publicly, Ban’s government failed to raise more than one mild, belated, token call to improve human rights in the North, and then, only in the most vague and general sense and in response to withering criticism from abroad.

Add to this that the prisoners have resorted to cannibalism to survive (HT: Blah Blah Blog, thanks to Right Truth )

Well, I was not very happy at the possibility of this man being crowned as the new UN secretary General and after reading this [above is only an excerpt, there is more in the link above], I am less happy at the perspective of this man being the new UNSG. Because this same day he has been confirmed by the UN Security Council and is probable that he will be also ratified by the UN General Assembly [English: AOL News, BBC, Breitbart.COM (HT PJM), CNN, FOXNews, MSNBC, Reuters, French: Le Figaro, Le Monde, Nouvel Observateur]. I fear he is going to be Boutros Ghali-Koffi Annan reloaded.

Yesterday, there was however people like intelligent Alexandra from All Things Beautiful who, blogging about an article by The Guardian, wrote:

They don’t want a man who will focus on “administrative detail”; that would curtail their gravy train. They don’t want a leader who “knows to disagree without being disagreeable”; that would forgo juicy Israel bashing headlines. They don’t want a man with strong convictions; that would jeopardize the continuation of mindless anti-Zionist propaganda.

In short, they don’t want a man who is described as “intelligent, polite, moderate and honest” and who supports “UN reform, transparency and the free market”.

We may of course find to our dismay, that Ban Ki-moon has little sympathy for a beleaguered Israel, but in absence of a confirmed anti-Semitic, Muslim candidate, I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and look forward to rid the airwaves of the spineless and hopelessly corrupt Kofi Annan.

The same conclusion was reached also by Blue Crab Boulevard.

I really do not know what Ban Ki-Moon thinks about Israel, but seen how he has behaved with his neighbour NKorea, I am thinking he is not going to behave very well… 😦

ONE Free Korea es uno de los blogs más interesantes -junto con The Korea Liberator- relativos a la actualidad Corea del Norte. Es cierto que están escritos por americanos pero tanto en uno como en otro caso se han dedicado a denunciar los abusos de Derechos Humanos existentes en Corea en su vida profesional -especialmente el autor de One Free Korea-. Pues bien, según OFK, Ban Ki-Moon es un izquierdista, partidario del apaciguamiento. Su gobierno conocía que existía infanticidio racial, uso de cámaras de gas para los disidentes -incluso se ha utilizado con familias enteras-, que se produjo una hambruna políticamente inducida -es decir que mataban de hambre a los disidentes-, todo ello mientras el régimen seguía comprando armas… y Corea del Sur le entregaba 7 billones de dólares en ayuda desde 1994 y daba a sus embajadores la orden de abstenerse en las votaciones de condena de Corea del Norte por abusos graves -que, por otro lado, estaban más que justificados-. Su gobierno sólo ha criticado por encima a Corea del Norte para salvar las apariencias internacionales.

Pues este hombre acaba de ser elegido -no de manera definitiva, falta todavía la ratificación por la Asamblea General- como el nuevo Secretario General de las Naciones Unidas.
El Mundo:El Consejo de Seguridad designa al surcoreano Ban Ki-Moon próximo secretario general de la ONU .

LA Razón: El surcoreano Ban Ki-Moon, secretario general de la ONU .
Libertad Digital: Ban Ki-Moon, Ministro surcoreano de Exteriores, nombrado nuevo secretario general de la ONU .

El Pais: El surcoreano, Ban KI-Moon, designado próximo secretario general de la ONU .

ABC.es: El Consejo de Seguridad elige al surcoreano Ban Ki-Moon nuevo secretario de la ONU

Me temo que va a ser un Boutros Ghali-Koffi Annan reloaded. 😦

 

Tags: Ban Ki-Moon, Communism, concentration camps, dissidents, Human Rights, UN Security Council

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