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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Vandals have hit the Springwood Cemetery in Downtown Greenville. Officials say the vandalism happened sometime Wednesday night. They said more than 80 tombstones were either knocked down or cracked. Read more: http://www.wyff4.com/news/30004738/detail.html#ixzz1h2bN3OWn

It is no surprise to learn that, as land values continue to rise, space for cemeteries gets scarce. I have seen more and more mausoleums be built at the local cemeteries, and they are getting taller as the years go on. But the picture to the right really takes the concept to new heights! The picture is The Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica III, a vertical cemetery in Santos, Brazil. It is the world’s tallest cemetery, with burial spaces on 32 floors. There’s also a restaurant, chapel, lagoon and peacock garden. It has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in...

THE CREEPIEST, SCARIEST PLACE ON EARTH (not a joke) Père Lachaise Cemetery Paris France In Pictures... The grave of American Jim Morrison, the most iconic frontmen in rock music history, draws the most visitors. His ghost and the ghosts of others are frequently reported at Père Lachaise. ______________________________________ Père Lachaise virtual tour Virtual Tour Video- A walk through of the most famous cemetery in the world HERE Today, the Cimetière du Père Lachaise is home to "permanent Parisians"--and a sprinkling of foreigners--from all walks of life, with graves and tombs organized neatly into 97 divisions that are separated by...

Arleen Ocascio, director of the VA cemetery in Houston, has decided to take the Marxist Revolution a step further and has decreed that there will be no references to God or Jesus and that all ceremonies must be written and submitted to her for pre-approval. Obviously, this low level bureaucrat has decided Obama's Revolution is stalled and she must pick up the standard and impose her will on the veterans who come to the cemetery to bury their loved ones. According to her, there will be no mention of a Christian or Jewish God at future ceremonies, she has spoken...

Sources told ABC News a backpack in Melaku's possession contained a package labeled ammonium nitrate as well as spent firearm ammunition. Ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer, can be used in explosives. The FBI later said despite the label, the backpack presented no immediate threat. A search of Melaku's nearby car also found no potential devices. Law enforcement sources said Melaku does not appear to have known ties to any terror organization. In addition to his arrest today, Melaku already faces pending charges in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a rash of vehicle break-ins, police said.

A proposal to replace 835 oak, sycamore and walnut trees with 199,000 new interment spaces at a prominent Hollywood Hills cemetery near Griffith Park is at the heart of a controversy over the future of what little remains of the Los Angeles area's undeveloped wildlife habitat. Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries wants to develop 120 acres of its grounds because its existing expanse of carefully manicured lawns has nearly run out of room for interments in grassy havens with names like "Ascending Dawn" and "Vale of Hope." On Wednesday, as families in mourning gathered around grave sites overlooking the San...

Did you know there are 245,000 service men and women, including their families, buried at Arlington?

Her grave was robbed. A Brooklyn family was devastated to find their long-dead father lying next to a stranger at Washington Cemetery -- in the same plot their mother purchased years ago for her future resting place. Klara Tranis, 84, spent $3,200 on side-by-side plots in Section 5 of the city's largest Jewish cemetery in Midwood back in 1987, when her beloved husband of 42 years, Wolf Tranis, died at 59.

CHICAGO (CBS) – Cook County sheriff’s officials have found bodies stacked on top of each other – some buried eight at a time — at a south suburban cemetery. As CBS 2’s Susanna Song reports, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says Homewood Memorial Gardens, at 600 Ridge Rd. in Homewood, desecrated the bodies of people who couldn’t afford to purchase burial plots.

Bones delay Blue Island stadium By Steve Metsch smetsch@southtownstar.com Jan 18, 2011 02:31AM Blue Island Park District Commissioner John Spizzirri isn’t joking when he calls the hill at Blue Island’s Memorial Park, “Curse Hill.” Over the past year, the construction of a new stadium there has been delayed by weather, building woes and, yes, bones. Human bones. “We didn’t find any full skeletons,” said park board president Fred Bilotto. “It’s all pieces. A femur here. A rib there.” Construction workers discovered the bones in September while excavating for the foundation of a new football stadium at the park. When the...

Buena High School JROTC cadets place wreaths at grave markers on Saturday. (Ty Holland • For the Herald/Review) SIERRA VISTA — A year ago, when just 242 holiday wreaths were laid on the graves of veterans in Sierra Vista, a group of local women thought those who served this country deserved better, and they decided to do something about it. On Saturday morning, each and every one of the nearly 1,400 graves at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery was adorned with a touch of red and green as a result of their effort.

Army launches probe over Arlington National Cemetery remainsBy Jade Walker – 1 hr 51 mins ago The U.S. Army has opened a criminal investigation at Arlington National Cemetery after the cremated remains of eight people were dumped into a single grave, The Washington Post reported. The urns were discovered last October in a grave site marked "Unknown," even though cemetery records showed that only one set of remains was to be buried there. Since then, Army investigators have positively identified three of the remains and notified the families, USA Today reported. Officials are still trying to identify the other remains....

"Police look for link between C4 explosives in Manhattan cemetery and bizarre note found nearby" SNIPPET: "Eight blocks of the plastic, military-grade explosive, formally known as Composition 4, were found in a black plastic garbage bag just inside Marble Cemetery, on E. Second St." SNIPPET: "The explosives were buried near the back wall of the old cemetery, and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said "you could reasonably glean from that that it was put there to threaten any structure" on the other side. The back wall of the cemetery abuts some brownstones and is about 100 feet from the notorious E...

Marlet Spangler was robbed while visiting his wife's graveyard. Marlet Spangler's wife, Norma, died seven years ago at 81. Spangler, 92, misses her and just about every day, he drives to Prospect Hill Cemetery in Manchester Township to visit her grave. He usually spends a few minutes visiting her and then, he said, "he walks around looking at the graves, you know, monkeying around." On Wednesday, just after noon, he was at his wife's grave when he heard a car pull up near his car. A moment later, a man in his late 20s or early 30s, had pulled a...

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2010 – The Army is taking every measure possible to fix the problems at Arlington National Cemetery, and it should continue to manage the nation’s “most hallowed ground,” Army Secretary John M. McHugh told a congressional committee today. The top two officials in charge of cemetery were disciplined earlier this month after an Army investigation found the cemetery’s management to be dysfunctional. “For 146 years, the Army has proudly served in the administration of this hallowed ground,” McHugh told the House Armed Services Committee. “Clearly, we lost that commitment and that record of success. I want to...

WASHINGTON, June 22, 2010 – Officials at Arlington National Cemetery have established a special call center to address concerns worried family members may have about the potential mishandling of their loved ones’ remains. Family members with concerns can call 703-607-8199 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. The call center opened June 11, a day after Army Secretary John M. McHugh announced the findings of a months-long investigation into the cemetery’s records management. The report noted at least 200 cases of improper internment of remains, including lost accountability for remains, names and graves listed as empty. More...

Thanks to the wonders of globalization, I’m writing this in a fairly decrepit salon de thé off the rue de la Liberté in Tangiers, enjoying a coffee and a stale croissant grilled and flattened into a panini. What could be more authentically Moroccan? For some reason, the napkins are emblazoned with “Gracias por su visita.” Through a blizzard of flies, I can just about make out the plasma TV up in the corner on which Jimmy Carter, dubbed into Arabic, is denouncing Israel. Al Jazeera doesn’t so much cover the Zionist Entity as feast on it, hour after hour, without...

You haven’t been to America until you’ve walked the hillsides of Arlington. On the Virginia side of the Potomac, in the capital of our nation, where heroes lie row upon row. It is one of the most stirring and sacred places in our country. The despoiled farm of a Confederate general, hallowed by those buried in its soil, it is a place of the heart. Presidents are buried there, and generals and admirals, and the common soldiers and sailors of the last 150 years. The precision of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the green of the grass...

WASHINGTON, June 10, 2010 – The top two officials in charge of Arlington National Cemetery here were disciplined after an Army investigation found the cemetery’s management to be “dysfunctional,” Army Secretary John M. McHugh announced today at the Pentagon. Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh announces at a June 10, 2010, Pentagon press conference that in light of findings of inappropriate practices and mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery, he is relieving the cemetery’s current superintendent and deputy superintendent of their duties and placing Kathryn Condon (right) in the newly created role of Executive Director of the Army National Cemeteries...

- June 10, 2010 Army Fires Top Two Administrators Over Mismanagement of Arlington Cemetery Army Secretary John McHugh has fired the top two officials overseeing Arlington National Cemetery over allegations of mismanagement, including burying a service member's body on top of another, Fox News has confirmed. fox news Army Secretary John McHugh has fired the top two officials overseeing Arlington National Cemetery over allegations of mismanagement, including burying a service member's body on top of another, Fox News has confirmed. McHugh will announce Thursday that he is replacing Arlington National's superintendent, John Metzler, and his deputy, Thurman Higgenbotham, who had...

CARTHAGE, Tunisia, May 30, 2010 – Less than a mile from the 2,000-year-old ruins of ancient Carthage, Tunisian groundskeepers worked under a bright Mediterranean sun to prepare for Memorial Day observances to honor the 2,841 Americans buried here, as well as the thousands more who gave their lives in the North Africa campaigns of World War II that laid the bloody groundwork for the Allied liberation of Europe. Abdallah Lagahre, a Tunisian stone mason, refreshes gold leaf lettering on the gravestone of Medal of Honor recipient Army Pvt. Nicholas Minue at the North Africa American Cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, May...

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today met with more than 40 members of the 3rd. U.S. Infantry, The Old Guard, at Arlington National Cemetery, as they finished placing American flags on each of the graves in Section 60 of the cemetery. Video With flags in hand, members of the Army's Old Guard march out to their assigned sections during the “Flags In” ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 27, 2010. More than 1,500 servicemembers, Old Guard and other ceremonial units gathered for the sacred ritual that marks the start of the Memorial Day...

An umbrella group for Swiss Muslims says they should be able to be buried “with dignity” and is therefore calling for Islamic cemeteries in every Swiss canton. Farhad Afshar, president of the Coordination of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland, told the Sunday newspaper Sonntag he was preparing a legal case concerning freedom of religion.

George Watkins worked through the weekend on his Eagle Scout project. His project was to place pavers that were donated as a fundraiser for the Historical Soldiers Memorial Cemetery section at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista. He placed more than 4,000 pavers, a job that took two days to complete with the assistance of several Scouts and adult leaders. Photo by Mark Levy, Herald/Review

This Veterans Day 2009, the only remaining unidentified veteran's grave in the Indian River Cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. All other veterans' graves have been identified by name, war, date of death and location and catalogued into a database and map created by a Morgan School senior, Devon Isaacson for his Eagle Scout accreditation. While veterans' graves are marked with bronze service medals issued by the U.S. government, Devon is the first to produce a collection of Clinton's interred servicemen in the historic Cemetery . . . In his project, Devon divided the cemetery's 45 acres into...

ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey’s oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they’re worn, but because they’re partially underground. While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerRows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is currently undergoing a project of preserving...

Five fallen U.S. sailors from what has been described as America's first war on terrorism lie in a crumbling cemetery in Libya, their graves identified only by their heroism on a night more than 200 years ago. They represent a lingering legacy of the Intrepid -- a small ship used in a daring raid in 1804 to destroy the captured American frigate Philadelphia anchored in Tripoli Harbor, denying the enemy use of the former U.S. warship. Much the same tactic was attempted six months later when the Intrepid sailed into the same harbor, packed with gunpowder for use as a...

Jakarta, Indonesia (AP) - Explosive material recovered from the scene of two suicide bombings at hotels in the Indonesian capital is "identical" to that used by the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah in earlier attacks, police said. An unexploded bomb left in a room of the J.W. Marriott in Jakarta resembled devices used in attacks on Bali and one found in a recent raid against the network on an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, national police spokesman told a news conference Sunday.

CHICAGO - The White House, correcting earlier reports, says Michelle Obama's father is not buried at a cemetery where workers are accused of digging up and dumping bodies but at a cemetery nearby. Spokeswoman Camille Johnston in an e-mail message on Tuesday said Fraser Robinson III is buried in Lincoln Cemetery. Earlier in the day she was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying Robinson was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. The Cook County Clerk's office also confirmed that Robinson was buried at Lincoln, which is located in Alsip less than two miles from Burr Oak. Robinson died...

Banner only; no link yet Just mentioned by Andrea Mitchell, who breathlessly reports this now gives the story a political angle...

When I last wrote about Thistlerose Pet Cemetery and Crematory in 2008, the owners and their lawyer were promising the so-called final resting grounds would not be disturbed, even though the property in Greendale was for sale. Well, forget all that. Get the shovels back out.In a notice displayed at Thistlerose, they're already referring to it as the "former" cemetery. The anticipated closing date for the sale is July 30. "You have until July 24, 2009, to arrange for the removal of the remains of your pet and any memorial marker. If the remains and any marker are not removed...

video clip ALSIP, Ill. (AP) -- Three gravediggers and a cemetery manager unearthed hundreds of corpses from a historic black cemetery south of Chicago, dumping some in a weeded area and double-stacking others in existing graves, in an elaborate scheme to resell the plots, authorities said Thursday. All four were charged with felonies. Frantic relatives of the deceased descended on Burr Oak Cemetery - the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till and blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington - in hopes someone could tell them their loved ones' remains were not among the pile of bones that...

Everyone wants to write their congressman (person) when they are displeased with the way things are going. When that does not work (and it won't) many choose to demonstrate at their local city offices or state capital. Others take the time to actually travel to the seat of the real problem - Washington DC. When that does not work (and it never does) what is left to do. Just do it all over again and again and again........ Let me tell you a tale of Bill Clinton, an ambassador buddy of his (that was one of his anti-Vietnam war buddies)...

Bodies Dug Up, Plots Resold at Historic Cemetery: Police As many as 100 bodies disinterred at Alsip's Burr Oak Cemetery By BJ LUTZ and PHIL ROGERS Updated 6:19 PM CDT, Wed, Jul 8, 2009 As many as 100 human bodies may have been dug up from a South suburban cemetery and the burial plots resold, investigators said Wednesday. Often called the first African-American cemetery in Chicago, Alsip's Burr Oak Cemetery has a storied past and is the final resting place for several notables, including boxing great Ezzard Charles and blues legends Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington. Emmett Till, whose murder...

Vandals toppled 115 headstones and ripped up American flags in Hazelwood's Calvary Cemetery, where some of Pittsburgh's noted political, sports, religious and arts figures are buried, causing an estimated tens of thousands of dollars damage. The vandalism discovered Wednesday morning was the worst in the history of the Catholic Cemeteries Association, which oversees 16 cemeteries for the Diocese of Pittsburgh

MARGRATEN, Netherlands, June 10, 2009 – The 8,301 Americans buried at this beautifully manicured cemetery reminded Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today of the cost Americans pay for freedom. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tours the World War II Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial where 8,301 U.S. servicemembers are buried in Margraten, Netherlands. Along the sides are Tablets of the Missing on which are recorded 1,722 names, June 10, 2009. DOD photo by Air Force Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gates visited this cemetery during a break in meetings about Afghanistan’s Regional Command...

PORT HURON, Mich. (May 31) -- Squirrel. Thief. Patriot. A brazen squirrel has been grabbing small American flags placed in a Port Huron, Mich., cemetery and carrying them up to its nest, which now looks as if it's bedecked in bunting.

KIRKUK — More than 50 local Iraqi family members stepped foot inside the green gates of the Sultan Saqi cemetery to pay respect to mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and beloved ancestors, May 27. For some, it was the first time in decades they have crossed the sacred threshold. After Iraq's old regime barred relatives access to this site for almost 35 years, they were granted official visits to two on-base cemeteries here thanks to a partnership between the U.S. Air Force, Iraqi Air Force, a Defense Department Human Terrain Team, and the Kirkuk Provincial Council's Religious Affairs Committee. The U.S....

Sylmar's Pioneer Cemetery Gets Some Needed Attention on Memorial Day San Fernando Valley Historical Society held their annual Memorial Day activities at the historic Pioneer Memorial Cemetery located in Sylmar. This small plot of fenced land is the second oldest cemetery in the San Fernando Valley. Within its very rough cemetery grounds are individual's tombs that have their own stories to tell anyone interested in knowing them. On this Memorial Day, Civil War veterans (shamefully in currently unmarked graves) were the center of attention by the day's memorial speeches. However, there are many more unmarked veterans tombs of several historical...

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...

SHANGHAI, China (JTA) -- In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Western philanthropists and volunteers are restoring dozens of historic Jewish cemeteries. But in Shanghai, there are none to restore. The four cemeteries that once served this city’s small but prosperous Jewish community disappeared in the late 1960s during China’s Cultural Revolution. The sites were paved over to build a factory, park, hotel and Muslim cemetery, their history forgotten. Israeli photojournalist Dvir Bar-Gal is trying to change that. While the cemeteries may be gone, since 2001 Bar-Gal has made it his mission to track down as many of the...

BISBEE — Seventeen-year-old Andrew “Andy” Laborin has nearly achieved a project of upgrading Memory Gardens Cemetery on Highway 92. At 10 a.m. Saturday, community members will dedicate the refurbished memorial area. “I found a lot of veterans in there,” the Bisbee High School senior said, describing his Eagle Scout project with Troop 1. The pinnacle of his good turn was the installation of a 30-foot-tall illuminated flagpole at the cemetery. To do that, Laborin rallied community support. Jim’s Electric, located on Naco Highway across from Bisbee’s Safeway, donated half of the cost of the $1,400 flagpole and provided all the...

Clean air, green surroundings, silence, calm and wide streets...sounds like a residential area in a big city, right? In fact this is the City of the Dead, situated in the east of Cairo on the foot slopes of the Moqattam mountain. The City of the Dead is the oldest Muslim cemetery in all Egypt that is still operational, and today it is home to around one million people, living people. Why have such a high number of people chosen to move to a cemetery, and what kind of relationship has been established between the land of the living and that...

MUMBAI, India — A Muslim graveyard has refused to bury nine gunmen who terrorized Mumbai over three days last week, leaving at least 172 people dead and wreaking havoc at some of its most famous landmarks. The men are not true followers of the Islamic faith, according to the influential Muslim Jama Masjid Trust, which runs the 7.5-acre Badakabrastan graveyard in downtown Mumbai. "People who committed this heinous crime cannot be called Muslim," said Hanif Nalkhande, a trustee. "

SIERRA VISTA — Family and friends who want to honor a loved one entombed in the columbaria complex at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery no longer have to struggle to put in flower holders. Thanks to Nate Lacey and fellow Boy Scouts of Troop 447, sponsored by the Living Word Church, the ground where the offerings are left is now much easier place to display flowers. Lacey, 14, a freshman at Buena High School, did the columbaria flower rock project as part of his quest to become an Eagle Scout. On Saturday, he and 30 other Cub and Boy...

SIERRA VISTA — A pair of combat boots, a rifle and a helmet. Together, those items are used to honor a fallen member of America’s armed forces. Between the boots, an inverted M-16 is placed and on the butt of the rifle sits a helmet, thus creating a Fallen Soldier Memorial, which is also known as the Soldier’s Fallen Cross Memorial and Battlefield Cross. Jacob Hall’s goal is to have a 150-pound, nearly 5-foot-tall bronze replica of the monument placed near the Committal Shelter of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery by Veterans Day. But he still needs nearly $4,000...

SIERRA VISTA — The first step in the reburial 70 soldiers of the late 1800s took place Wednesday at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery during a ceremony attended by Arizona’s governor and the senior commander on Fort Huachuca. The exhumed remains of the soldiers will be brought to Sierra Vista next year from a long-abandoned cemetery in Tucson. Their final resting place will be among more modern veterans. “We’re very honored that we can be the final resting place for them,” Cemetery Administrator Joe Larson said, noting the reburial occurs May 16. Larry McKim, president of the cemetery foundation,...

A number of veteran events are coming up in the Sierra Vista area. “The one-year clock is ticking and the name of the game is fundraising,” said Joe Larson, administrator of the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery. He was speaking about next May’s reburial of remains of soldiers from the late 1800s from a Tucson cemetery to the Sierra Vista site. Larson spoke at the monthly meeting of the Grater Sierra Vista Area United Veterans Council meeting on Saturday. The Historic Soldiers Relocation Project will involve the reburial of 70 sets of remains, of which 53 are known, in an...

Jane Drury voted last year in an election in Stonington, Conn. The only problem is, she died eight years ago. Her daughter Jane Gumpel thought someone must have goofed. “I was surprised because this is not possible,” she said. But it did happen. The town clerk’s record clearly shows Drury’s vote, marked by a horizontal line poll workers put next to her name. And it turns out, Drury isn’t the only voter to apparently cast a ballot from the grave. [snip] 8,558 deceased people who were still registered on Connecticut’s voter rolls. They discovered more than 300 of them appeared...