Paris catacombs closed to public after vandals scatter human skulls along underground paths

September 21st, 2009 Paris catacombs closed to public due to vandalismPARIS — Paris' underground bone collection, the catacombs, has been closed to the public indefinitely after being vandalized. Ordinarily, the creepy collection of human remains — cleared from city cemeteries long ago — is orderly, with bones piled in stacks along underground tunnels.

August 25th, 2009 Vets mark 65 years since Paris freed from NazisPARIS — Veterans of the French Resistance have joined President Nicolas Sarkozy in a ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Paris from the Nazi occupation. On Aug. 25, 1944, Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle moved back into the War Ministry in central Paris and made a famous speech from City Hall.

August 19th, 2009 RANCHI - The Jharkhand government is exploring the possibility of a second diversion for the closed Ranchi-Patna National Highway (NH-33) as the road being used now is also being threatened by an underground mine fire. The NH-33 which connects Ranchi and Patna via Hazaribagh and Koderma was closed on Aug 7 because of an underground mine fire which touched the road.

August 5th, 2009 Paris-Spain flight catches fire, several injured PARIS — The Paris Airports authority says the engine of an Airbus 320 of the low-cost carrier Vueling on its way to Alicante in southeastern Spain has caught fire and that several people have been slightly injured. An official at Paris Airports says the passengers were injured as they tried to exit the plane down the emergency slides.

July 24th, 2009 LUCKNOW - A priest and his wife have been arrested after four human skulls were found in their house in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district, the police said Friday. The skulls were recovered from the roof of the Kabir temple in the Vijaynagar locality in Kanpur, about 80 km from Lucknow.

July 24th, 2009 Emergency landing briefly closes Gatwick runwayLONDON — The runway at London's Gatwick Airport was briefly closed Friday after a flight from Paris to the Welsh city of Cardiff made an emergency landing. Gatwick spokesman Stuart McDonald said a FlyBe plane carrying 46 passengers and four crew members touched down Friday.

July 23rd, 2009 RANCHI - Traffic on the the National Highway-33, connecting Ranchi to Patna, is being diverted to avert any accident as a raging fire in a coal mine has threatened a section of the road, officials said Thursday. The fire in the closed mines of Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) near Kuju of Ramgarh district has drawn close to the national highway, posing a threat to a three-km-long stretch.

July 23rd, 2009 RANCHI - Work will soon begin on building a diversion on the National Highway-33, connecting Ranchi to Patna, to avert any accident as a raging fire in a coal mine has threatened a section of the road, officials said Thursday. The fire in the closed mines of Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) near Kuju of Ramgarh district has drawn close to the national highway, posing a threat to a three-km-long stretch.

July 16th, 2009 Taylor says he allowed skulls used at roadblocksTHE HAGUE, Netherlands — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor told a war crimes court Thursday he saw nothing wrong with displaying the skulls of slain fighters at roadblocks as his rebel forces swept into the country in a 1989 revolution. The invasion of Liberia and his ascent to power was a prelude to Taylor's involvement in the brutal 1991-2002 civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, for which he is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

July 14th, 2009 PARIS - Vandals in France set fire to 317 automobiles on the eve of Tuesday's Bastille Day celebrations, France Info radio reported Tuesday. That represents an increase of about seven percent over last year, French police said.

June 23rd, 2009 PARIS - An anonymous car owner in Paris, apparently fed up with looking for a place to park his car, has purchased a parking space in the heart of the city for the astronomical sum of 470,000 euros ($654,000), the daily La Tribune reported Tuesday. The space is located on the bank of the Seine River in the heart of the chic Sixth Arrondissement.

June 11th, 2009 PARIS - A sketchbook containing drawings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso has been stolen from the Picasso Museum in Paris, the police said. The sketchbook, which contained some 30 drawings and valued at between seven and 10 million euros ($9.8-$14 million), was stolen either Monday or Tuesday when the museum was closed to general public, the police said.

June 10th, 2009 ALIGARH - A fortnight after nearly 100 human skulls were discovered by street urchins in a dried-up pond here, the Uttar Pradesh police are still to come up with a credible explanation for the mystery. The skulls were discovered in a pond that runs parallel to the district jail boundary wall here.

June 1st, 2009 Vandals hurl paint-filled balloons at Rome museumROME — Vandals threw paint-filled balloons at a controversial museum designed by U.S. architect Richard Meier overnight, splashing the red and green colors of the Italian flag against the outside white wall, police said.

February 2nd, 2009 LONDON/PARIS - Heavy snowfall in Britain Monday shut down major airports, motorways and public transport services amid predictions of blizzards and more snow across the country. The cold spell, bringing below-zero temperatures and snowfalls of up between 10 and 40 cm, also affected the northern half of France and Belgium.