Mass Grave

A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which contains three or more victims of execution.

Mass graves are an infamous variation on common burial, still occasionally practiced today under normal circumstances. Mass or communal burial was a common practice before the development of a dependable crematory chamber by an Italian named Brunetti in 1873.

In Paris, the practice of mass burial, and in particular, the condition of the infamous Cimetière des Innocents, led Louis XVI to eliminate Parisian cemeteries. The remains were removed and placed in the Paris underground forming the early Catacombs. La Cimetière des Innocents alone had 6,000,000 dead to remove. Burial commenced outside of the city limits in what is now Père Lachaise cemetery.

Mass graves are usually created after a large number of people die or are killed, and there is a desire to bury the corpses quickly for sanitation concerns. In disasters, mass graves are used for infection and disease control.

World heading for catastrophe over natural disasters, risk expert warns

Edit The Guardian 24 Apr 2016

With cascading crises – where one event triggers another – set to rise, international disaster risk reduction efforts are woefully underfunded. Global development is supported by. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. @swajones ... Last year, earthquakes, floods, heatwaves and landslides left (pdf). Yet the international community spends less than half of one per cent of the global aid budget on mitigating the risks posed by such hazards ... ....

photo: AP / Evan Agostini

FILE - In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo, singer Kanye West and girlfriend Kim Kardashian attend a benefit in New York. Reports attributed to anonymous sources broke over the weekend that Kardashian has given birth to her baby with West.

Kim Kardashian posts steamy NSFW photos from friend’s wedding

Edit Celebrity Café 24 Apr 2016

Kim Kardashian attended a friend’s wedding this past weekend and she captured the night’s events with some racy images that are definitely NSFW ... 001. A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on Apr 23, 2016 at 6.05pm PDT. 014 ... 006 ... He married model Isabela Rangel ... ....

photo: Creative Commons / Radio Okapi

Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba, commonly know as Papa Wemba

World music star Papa Wemba dies after collapsing on stage

Edit The Hindu 24 Apr 2016

Papa Wemba, a musician known around the world as the king of Congolese rumba, has died following a collapse on stage during a concert, officials said. He was 66. Culture Minister Baudouin Banza Mukalay confirmed the musician’s death on Sunday, calling it a “great loss for the country and all of Africa.” ... He was taken to a nearby clinic, but couldn’t be resuscitated ... Keywords....

photo: AP / Sunday Alamba

Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo arrives for the inauguration of the new Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, in Abuja , Nigeria, Friday, May 29, 2015.

Africa's longest serving leader seeks new 7-year term

Edit Graphic 24 Apr 2016

The country's opposition leaders and international civil society groups have already dismissed Sunday's vote as "not credible". President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo faces six mostly unknown opponents, with most of the opposition boycotting the poll ... Critics accuse the 73-year-old of failing to distribute the country's oil wealth to the population of about 700,000 ... In the last election in 2009, Obiang won 97 percent of the vote....

photo: AP

US President Barack Obama and Prince William while Catherine Duchess of Cambridge plays with Prince George at Kensington Palace during visit to Britain.

'Adorable' Prince George wows Obama in pyjamas

Edit Deccan Herald 23 Apr 2016

Barack Obama has described Prince George as "adorable" after the 2-year-old son of Prince William and Kate Middleton was allowed to stay up past his bed-time to meet the US President. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hosted Obama and wife Michelle for an informal dinner at Kensington Palace in London last night, after which photographs were released of the guests kneeling down to shake hands with the young prince in his pyjamas ... ....

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Poland buries remains of World War II resistance commander

Edit Atlanta Journal 24 Apr 2016

Poland's president and government ministers took part Sunday in the state burial of a World War II resistance commander and communist regime victim whose remains were found in a hidden mass grave ... Polish President Andrzej Duda and government ministers have taken part in the state burial of Szendzielarz, a World War II resistance commander and communist regime victim whose remains were found in a hidden mass grave....

Islamic State Mass Yazidi Graves Unearthed In Iraq

Edit Huffington Post 24 Apr 2016

Warning. Graphic content. Human remains left in mass graves by self-proclaimed Islamic State militants are being unearthed by spring rains in Iraq ... Human bones, hair and clothing are among the items that have been found ... ....

Aid agency resumes rescue operations in Mediterranean

Edit The Irish Times 24 Apr 2016

An estimated 2,892 men, women and children died in 2015 while attempting to cross the deadly stretch of water between Libya and Italy ... President of Médecins Sans Frontières Joanne Liu warned that the absence of a global solution to the refugee crisis and European states’ “refusal to provide alternatives to the deadly sea crossing” was continuing to kill thousands in what she described as “a mass grave” in the Mediterranean ...  . ....

MSF resumes Search and Rescue activities in the central Mediterranean (MSF - Médecins Sans Frontières)

Edit Public Technologies 24 Apr 2016

(Source. MSF - Médecins Sans Frontières). MSF. MSF Search and Rescue boat Dignity I ... 'This time last year, as MSF launched our first search and rescue operation, we called the Mediterranean Sea a mass grave - and little has changed since then,' said Joanne Liu, International President of Médecins Sans Frontières ... As humanitarians, we again refuse to look on from the shore.' ... MSF ... The lives of hundreds of thousands depend on it,' ended Liu....

Pak's 'RAW' agent drama fake, excuse to label homegrown Baloch freedom movt India's proxy war ...

Edit DNA India 24 Apr 2016

``It will take more than one fake `RAW agent’ for Pakistan to hide and cover all mass graves, enforced disappearances, State-run genocide and war crimes that it is committing against Baloch Nation.’’ ... It will take more than one fake “Raw Agent” for Pakistan to hide and cover all mass graves, enforced dissaparances, State-run Genocide and War crimes that it is committing against Baloch Nation....

Nigeria: Military cover-up of mass slaughter at Zaria exposed AMENDED

Edit Modern Ghana 23 Apr 2016

Mass slaughter of hundreds of men, women and children by soldiers in Zaria and the attempted cover-up of this crime demonstrates an utter contempt for human life and accountability, said Amnesty International as it publishes evidence gathered on the ground revealing how the Nigerian military burned people alive, razed buildings and dumped victims’ bodies in mass graves....

News24.com | AI urges Nigeria to 'come clean' over Shi'ite killings

Edit News24 23 Apr 2016

Amnesty International says satellite footage and witness accounts offer damning new evidence that Nigeria's military killed hundreds of minority Shi'ite Muslims late last year, burning some victims alive and dumping bodies in mass graves ... ....

Army Accused of Mass Killing of Shiites

Edit All Africa 23 Apr 2016

[Deutsche Welle] Amnesty International has accused Nigeria's military of deliberately shooting dead more than 350 Muslims and burying them in mass graves. Nigerian officials claimed the protesters wanted to kill the head of the army ... ....

Amnesty accuses Nigeria's military over deadly Shiite clashes

Edit Topix 23 Apr 2016

The rights group also dismissed as baseless army claims that the protesters from the Islamic Movement of Nigeria group wanted to kill the head of the army before the clashes last December. AFP / Guilemetter Villemin Lagos. Amnesty International on Friday accused Nigeria's military of deliberately shooting dead more than 350 Shiite Muslims, burying them in mass graves and destroying evidence of the crime ... ....

World top polluters China, US sign Paris climate deal

Edit Press TV 23 Apr 2016

These are some of the headlines we are tracking for you in this edition of Press TV';s Top 5.A record 175 countries, including the world's top polluters China and the US, sign ......

STOP Organ Trafficking (US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs)

Edit Public Technologies 23 Apr 2016

(Source. US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs). ISIS's barbarity-including genocide, rape, slavery, beheadings, and torture-is well known. It uses these acts to recruit more fighters to its perverted ideology by publicizing them online ... 'Bodies have turned up in mass graves bearing surgical incisions and missing organs such as kidneys.' [In a briefing to the U.N ... And that's why Rep ... Trott's bill unanimously. 'The U.S....

Editorials from around New England

Edit Tampa Bay Online 23 Apr 2016

The Providence Journal (R.I.), April 23, 2016 ... They were considered legal." ... ___. Online . ... Gloucester Times (Mass.), April 22, 2016 ... The Boston Globe (Mass.), April 20, 2016 ... They have filed a case with the International Criminal Court, an organization based in The Hague, highlighting evidence found in the mass graves of murdered Yazidis, mainly teenaged boys and men, near the town of Shingal in Northern Iraq, after ISIS invaded in 2014 ... ....

Nigerian Army Killed Hundreds, Buried Them in Mass Grave

Edit Voa News 22 Apr 2016

It was then filled almost as quickly as it had been dug ... A Kaduna state official told VOA that inside the mass grave were corpses of 347 people killed in a clash between the military and the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a Shi'ite sect based in Zaria ... In addition to those buried in the mass grave, the Shi'ite group says a further 350 of their members remain missing ... “I followed specific instructions ... ....