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Continue reading the main story In today's MagazineEnglish or Hinglish? India's choice
The remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat have been exhumed to investigate allegations he was murdered. The bodies of many well-known people have been dug up in the course of history, for myriad reasons. Here is a selection.
1. Oliver Cromwell
The English soldier and statesman died in 1658, was embalmed, had a state funeral and was then buried in Westminster Abbey. After the Restoration, he and two others were exhumed and beheaded. His corpse is believed to have been thrown into a pit at the execution site, which is near modern-day Marble Arch in London. His head was stuck on a pole and displayed on the roof of Westminster Hall. During the 18th Century it was regarded as a collector's item . The head was analysed in 1815 and confirmed to be that of Cromwell.
2. Jesse James
Rumours abounded that the notorious American gangster had faked his own death in 1882, so the body presumed to be his was exhumed in 1995 for DNA testing. The tests indicated that it was indeed his corpse, as the DNA was consistent with that of his known descendants. But a further two bodies were later exhumed - including that of a man who had claimed in life to be the real Jesse James.
3. Haile Selassie
Ethiopia's last emperor was exhumed after being discovered buried under a toilet in Addis Ababa 's Imperial Palace, in 1992. Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia for 45 years and was regarded as a living god by Rastafarians. He was overthrown in a coup led by the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974, and held captive for a year in the palace before he died. It is thought he may have been murdered by his captors. In 2000, more than 25 years after his death, he was in Addis Ababa 's Trinity Cathedral.
4. Evita
The wife of Argentine President Juan Peron was embalmed - but after a military coup in the mid-1950s the country's new rulers wanted the body out of the way. Removed by dead of night from a trade union headquarters in Buenos Aires, it probably spent time in a van parked on the streets of the city, behind a cinema screen, and inside the city's waterworks, as well as in the offices of Military Intelligence. In 1957, with covert help from the Vatican, she was buried in Milan, Italy, under a false name. Graffiti began to appear in Buenos Aires asking "Where is the body of Evita Peron?" In 1971 the body was disinterred and driven to Juan Peron's new home in Madrid. Two years later, he was again elected President of Argentina, but died soon after. His third wife, Isabel, oversaw the repatriation of Evita's body to Argentina. She now lies in her family's mausoleum, .
5. Charlie Chaplin
Continue reading the main story And another 10.8. Christopher Columbus
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