NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON: Craigslist drops adult ads

Under pressure from law enforcement and Congress, Craigslist said Wednesday it had permanently taken down its adult services ads on its popular classified site in the United States. The move is the first of its kind for a company that has become not only a place to buy used furniture and find apartments, but also a symbol of a free-speech, no-limit Internet. Yet even Craigslist ultimately yielded to the complaints of advocacy groups who say the firm's websites are being widely used in the global sex trade of women and children.

2 wrong burials found

Two people were buried in the wrong graves at Arlington National Cemetery, the Army said Wednesday, as it followed up an investigation into bookkeeping problems and burial mix-ups. After a report issued in June found that the problems could potentially affect thousands of graves, defense officials received about 1,100 calls from worried families. One call, from the widow of an Army staff sergeant, led to the exhumation of her husband's coffin late last month. The remains in it belonged to someone else, and the sergeant's remains were found in a nearby grave, said Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman. In a different section of Arlington, the grave and coffin of Marine Pfc. Heath Warner of Canton, Ohio, killed in Iraq in 2006, were opened. The site was found to hold his remains. "We're gratified that the outcome was positive and they were able to gain some closure," Tallman said.

CALIFORNIA: Suit over a city's high salaries

The state attorney general's office sued eight current and former officials of the scandal-ridden city of Bell on Wednesday, accusing them of defrauding taxpayers by granting themselves illegally high salaries. The suit demands that the officials, including former City Manager Robert Rizzo, return hundreds of thousands of dollars they were paid to run the working-class city of 40,000 where one in six people live in poverty. Rizzo's salary was $787,637 a year, nearly double that of President Barack Obama. Bell police Chief Randy Adams, who resigned later, was paid $150,000 more than the chief of the LAPD.