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Rome (CNN) — The body of a mobster buried among cardinals and bishops on a Vatican property has been exhumed in an investigation into a teenage girl’s disappearance.

Investigators at the church of Sant’Apollinare in central Rome opened the tomb of Enrico “Renatino” De Pedis on Monday in the search for clues about what happened to Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a prominent Vatican employee.

The 15-year-old vanished without a trace after leaving her Vatican apartment for music lessons on the afternoon of June 22, 1983.

The mystery has captivated people throughout Italy and triggered numerous conspiracy theories.

In the crypt, in addition to De Pedis’ body, investigators found dozens of boxes of human bones, which they are testing.

At the time of Emanuela’s disappearance nearly 30 years ago, a witness reported seeing a girl who fit her description getting into a dark green BMW near the music school, which was adjacent to the Sant’Apollinare church.

That lead was never corroborated.

In 1981, two years before the girl’s disappearance, Turkish national Mehmet Ali Agca shot Pope John Paul II.

In the days after Emanuela disappeared, her parents received anonymous phone calls from someone promising the safe return of their daughter if the Vatican released Agca.

Meanwhile, an anonymous caller told police that Emanuela was kidnapped to keep her father, Ercole Orlandi, quiet.

That caller said Ercole Orlandi had stumbled upon sensitive documents that tied banker Roberto Calvi to an organized crime syndicate. Calvi was known as “God’s banker” for his close association with both the Holy See and its primary banking facility, Banco Ambrosiano.

Orlandi worked in the Vatican’s special events office that organizes papal functions and Catholic celebrations.

Calvi was found hanged in London in 1982. Speculation turned from suicide to homicide in that case. The tipster to police in Italy said Orlandi’s daughter was nabbed to ensure her father’s silence.

Ercole Orlandi died in 2004.

In 2005, another anonymous call to an Italian detective said Emanuela was kidnapped on the orders of the then-vicar of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, and that “the secret to the mystery lies in a tomb in Sant’Apollinare basilica” — specifically De Pedis’ tomb.

De Pedis was gunned down in Rome in 1990 and his body was moved to the basilica some time before 1997, presumably either as part of a secret deal for a massive loan De Pedis made to the Vatican or to protect his tomb from being desecrated by rival gang members.

In 2008, De Pedis’ mistress said he was involved in Emanuela’s kidnapping and that the girl was buried under the foundation of a house outside of Rome. Investigators searched that house but found that the concrete foundation was poured the year before the girl’s disappearance and could not have been connected to the crime.

The Vatican has distanced itself from the Orlandi controversy.

In a three-page letter broadcast on RAI television, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said he asked Vatican cardinals whether the Vatican’s failure to collaborate in the original kidnapping probe was “normal and justifiable affirmation of Vatican sovereignty, or if in fact circumstances were withheld that might have helped clear something up.”

The Vatican cooperated immediately with the exhumation.

After opening the tomb Monday, investigators found De Pedis’ body so well preserved that scientific police were able to confirm his identity through fingerprints. Also inside the crypt were the boxes of bones, according to investigators on the scene.

The church has been used for burials for two centuries. Still, all of the bones will be tested to determine whether they are tied to De Pedis or to Emanuela’s disappearance.

De Pedis will not be reburied in the church, the Vatican said.

De Pedis family lawyer Lorenzo Radogna said the remains will either be cremated or reinterred in a public cemetery in Rome.

(CNN) — International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has announced new charges against a former Congolese rebel leader who is also a general in the Congolese Army despite having been already accused of war crimes.

The court issued an arrest warrant for Bosco Ntaganda in 2006 for his alleged role in perpetrating crimes against humanity, including the conscription of child soldiers in an eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In a statement Monday, Moreno-Ocampo said he is now seeking “an expansion of a current arrest warrant against Mr. Ntaganda,” after reviewing evidence in the case against Thomas Lubanga, a former Congolese militia leader facing life imprisonment after being sent to The Hague for prosecution in 2006.

Moreno-Ocampo also requested an arrest warrant for Sylvestre Mudacumura, a militia leader for the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, according to the statement.

“The followers of Ntaganda and Mudacumura have to understand that it is time for them to demobilize and stop their crimes, even help in arresting the leaders,” the chief prosecutor said. “So it’s time to refine the methods and we hope the Congolese army and the Rwandan army, if it is involved, can transform these military operations into arrest operations.”

The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a militia group largely based in eastern Congo, has included leaders of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and other displaced Rwandan Hutus. The group was also heavily involved in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s 1998 war.

Last month, the Congolese government called for Ntaganda’s arrest for war crimes, sparking clashes as forces loyal to him deserted the national army, forcing thousands to resettle along the border in Rwandan refugee camps.

CNN’s Nima Elbagir contributed to this report.

Twin suicide bombers rock Damascus

Unrest continues in strife-torn Syria

Syrian refugees flee to Turkey

Syrian man helps clear landmines

Opposition activists reported another day of widespread violence in many parts of the country that left at least 15 people dead.

Nine people died Wednesday in Khan Sheikhoun, according to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. A child and a civilian were among them. Four died of wounds suffered Tuesday as government forces attacked the area, the group said.

Three people, including a young girl, were killed Wednesday when government forces shelled a camp for displaced residents, opposition activists said.

The camp in Daraa is for displaced Syrians from the Golan Heights, who were not fleeing violence from the current unrest in Syria, according to the observatory.

Syria, on state-run news agency SANA, said 11 “army, law enforcement and civilian martyrs” were buried Wednesday.

Also, 250 citizens “who were involved in the recent events and whose hands are clear of the Syrian blood were released on Wednesday,” SANA said.

Syria blames the violence in the country on “armed terrorist groups.”

SANA also reported that three terrorists — one from Libya and two from Tunisia — “confessed that they infiltrated into Syria through the Turkish borders in order to carry out terrorist attacks in coordination with al Qaeda and militias of the so-called free army.”

The rebel Free Syrian Army has been battling regime forces.

Opposition groups say President Bashar al-Assad’s government has been trying to mar their efforts with false accusations of links to terrorism.

Syria has met their call for a new government and political reforms with a brutal, violent crackdown, opposition activists say.

The LCC on Wednesday reported raids, the burning of homes, random arrests and more throughout the country. Ambulances were prevented from aiding the wounded in some places, the group said.

The Tuesday attack on the U.N. convoy took place around the same time government forces fired on a nearby funeral procession, according to opposition activists.

At least 23 people were killed and 100 were injured in that attack, said the opposition group Avaaz.

The LCC described dozens of people falling to the ground after government forces fired on them using heavy machine guns.

Videos posted on YouTube purported to show what happened. CNN cannot confirm their authenticity.

The United Nations estimates that at least 9,000 people have died in the 14-month crisis, while opposition groups put the death toll at more than 11,000.

CNN cannot independently verify reports of deaths and violence because the Syrian government has severely restricted access by international media.

Meanwhile, a Western diplomat confirmed to CNN that according to a confidential U.N. draft report, Iran is violating a Security Council ban on weapons exports and that Syria is the top recipient for those arms.

The report, which was drafted by a panel of experts and submitted to the Security Council’s sanctions committee on Iran, describes three large seizures of Iranian weapons shipments within the year. The diplomat confirmed that report claims two of those seizures involved the Syrian Arab Republic.

CNN’s Samira Said, Amir Ahmed and Joe Vaccarello contributed to this report.

Athens, Greece (CNN) — Greece will hold new elections on June 17, state media reported Wednesday, amid a political and economic crisis that could have effects far beyond the country’s borders.

News of the election date came as Greeks pulled hundreds of millions of euros out of the banking system amid fears that the country will not be able to stay in the European Union’s single currency.

Just 10 days ago, Greeks voters punished the major parties for harsh budget cuts, leaving no party able to form a government.

A caretaker administration led by a senior judge will run the country until the new vote.

A caretaker government for Greece?

Hollande hopes Greece stays in eurozone

Interim Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos was sworn in Wednesday. The president’s office said Cabinet ministers will take their oaths of office Thursday morning.

The political deadlock is leading to fears that Greece will not have a government in place when it needs to make critical debt payments, which could in turn jeopardize its place in the eurozone, the group of 17 European Union countries that use the euro currency.

And a Greek crisis could spread, one analyst warned.

“If Greece exits the euro it won’t be alone. Others will exit,” said Paul Donovan, a global economist with UBS bank.

“There would be bank runs across multiple countries,” he predicted. “Citigroup, for example, may not be exposed to Greece, but it may be exposed to Portugal, Spain, France. … It may be exposed to a company that’s exposed to France, or exposed to exports to EU.”

In a worst-case scenario, he said, “you’re talking about widespread defaults in the corporate sector as well as the sovereign sector. It becomes very problematic.”

Even so, most major European stock markets ended the day Wednesday virtually unchanged.

European leaders were united Wednesday in saying they want to help Greece stay in the euro.

As Greek politicians met Wednesday to set the new election date, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she regrets the suffering of the Greek people in the face of harsh government budget cuts.

“It’s very bitter, obviously,” she said of the austerity measures that have left some Greeks struggling to pay for food or utilities.

But, she said, “Sacrifices had to be made. … I think these are necessary measures that had to be taken.”

Merkel, a champion of forcing governments to balance their budgets in order to promote stable economic growth in Europe, did offer possible assistance to Greece.

“Europe needs to show solidarity and help, particularly with growth, unemployment and development,” she said.

The head of the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, said Wednesday that Greece is “part of our family,” and that the EU will do what it can to keep Greece in the euro and the union.

But the final decision has to come from the Greek people, Jose Manuel Barroso said.

“We are fully aware that the present situation is asking a lot of the Greek people, with many sacrifices. But this is a result of policies made in the past,” he said.

“The program for Greece is the least difficult of all the difficult alternatives. The problems it addresses are real,” he warned.

Merkel and Barroso spoke after Greeks withdrew hundreds of millions of euros from banks, prompting the president of Greece’s central bank to warn that panic is possible, but is not taking place.

Greeks pulled about 800 million euros out of the banking system Monday, President Karolos Papoulias said.

He said he had spoken to Central Bank Governor George Provopoulos about it.

“There is, of course, no panic, but there is fear that could develop into panic,” Papoulias said, describing what the bank governor told him. “He also said that the strength of banks is very weak at the moment.”

The Greek debt crisis threatens the stability of the European Union’s single currency.

Europe is worried that Greece could fail to make debt payments as early as next month, which could force the country out of the euro.

Merkel said she is working to keep Greece in the eurozone, but she refused to be drawn into talk about what would happen if Greece did not meet its debt obligations.

The head of the European Central Bank echoed Merkel’s remarks.

“I want to state that our strong preference is that Greece will continue to stay in the euro area,” Mario Draghi said in a speech in Frankfurt on Wednesday.

The European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have been pumping money into Greece to keep the country in the euro, but they have demanded that the Greek government slash spending to get the funds.

Radical leftist leader Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party reaped the benefits of voter frustration with the austerity measures, urged Greeks on Tuesday to continue resisting “the parties of the bailout.”

“They asked us to leave the country without any hope,” he said, arguing that the May 6 election had made the terms of the bailout “null and void.”

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, meanwhile, said his party will “keep fighting for a developing Greece within Europe” and “against those who say they want to get Greece out of Europe.”

His party narrowly came in first in the May 6 elections, but opinion polls since then have suggested that Syriza would finish in first place in a new election.

Matthew Chance reported from Berlin, and Antonia Mortensen reported from Athens. CNN Business Producer Katy Bryon, CNN’s Per Nyberg and journalist Elinda Labropoulou contributed to this report.

The Hague, Netherlands (CNN) — Ratko Mladic, who is accused of orchestrating a horrific campaign of ethnic cleansing during the bloody civil war that ripped apart Yugoslavia, showed no remorse as his war crimes trial opened Wednesday, at one point even appearing to threaten victims in the court.

The former general drew his hand across his neck as if cutting a throat while staring at victims of the war that introduced the phrase “ethnic cleansing.”

At other times, the man accused of being “the Butcher of Bosnia” stared at them, fire in his eyes, and he once growled at the survivors.

‘Butcher of Bosnia’ shows no remorse

The 70-year-old former Bosnian Serb general has been indicted on 11 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 1992-95 war.

Mladic war crimes trial begins

2011: Ratko Mladic captured

His trial is taking place at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands, a special court established to try those responsible for atrocities during the war.

Prosecutors say Mladic’s campaign included the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Dermot Groome laid out details of the case against Mladic, saying that ethnic cleansing was not a byproduct of the war, but a specific aim of the Bosnian Serb leadership.

He will set out to show that Mladic was directly responsible for atrocities carried out by his forces, who were fighting for control of land in ethnically mixed Bosnia.

Sexual violence was a weapon of war, Groome said, describing a woman who said she had been raped more than 50 times, and women who were forced by Bosnian Serb forces to perform sex acts on members of their own families.

Prosecutors will use survivor testimonies and video clips to make their case at a trial that is likely to last for months or years.

Among those in the courtroom were the families of Srebrenica victims.

“Victims have waited nearly two decades to see Ratko Mladic in the dock,” Param-Preet Singh, senior counsel in the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said ahead of the trial. “His trial should lay to rest the notion that those accused of atrocity crimes can run out the clock on justice.”

(CNN) — Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb army commander who went on trial Wednesday for crimes against humanity, is a notorious name synonymous with the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the bloody assaults on Sarajevo and Srebrenica.

During the five-day orgy of slaughter at Srebrenica, which Mladic is accused of being directly involved in, up to 8,000 Muslims were exterminated in what was described by the U.N. war crimes tribunal as “the triumph of evil.” A judge at The Hague tribunal described what happened there in July 1995 as “truly scenes from hell written on the darkest pages of human history.”

Born in Kalnovik, Bosnia-Herzegovina, during the height of World War II, the 70-year-old was a career soldier who served in Yugoslavia’s military before that nation dissolved in the early 1990s.

Mladic was shaped by the war when his father was killed by Croat Nazis when he was two years old. In 1965 he graduated from a military academy and joined the Communist Party in Yugoslavia, an ethnic stew of six states — Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro.

Over the following three decades he rose rapidly through the ranks of the Yugoslav army. By the time he took Bosnia’s battlefields he had become a hero to many Serbs, seen as defender of their dwindling fortunes..

Bosnia Serb war criminal on trial

2011: Ratko Mladic captured

In May 1992, Bosnia’s Serbian political leaders picked him to head their forces and lead the assault on their enemies. Bosnia’s Muslim leaders wanted independence while the Serbs wanted to remain part of Yugoslavia — and the ethnic majority.

Mladic wasted no time galvanizing his heavily armed forces to besiege Sarajevo, cutting the city off from the outside world by shelling and sniping at its poorly prepared civilian population in the valley below them. More than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, were killed.

Over the course of the three-year war that raged across the whole country more than a quarter million people died, making the conflict the bloodiest in Europe since World War II.

A French policeman who collected evidence from Bosnian Muslims, Jean-Rene Ruez, told The Hague tribunal in 1996 that Bosnian Serb forces killed and tortured refugees in Srebrenica at will. Streets were littered with corpses, he said, and rivers were red with blood. Many people committed suicide to avoid having their noses, lips and ears chopped off, he said.

Among other lurid accounts of mass murder, Ruez cited cases of adults being forced to kill their children or watching as soldiers ended the young lives.

“One soldier approached a woman in the middle of a crowd,” he said. “Her child was crying. The soldier asked why the child was crying and she explained that he was hungry. The soldier made a comment like, ‘He won’t be hungry anymore.’ He slit the child’s throat in front of everybody.”

As the war ended in the fall of 1995, Mladic went on the run. Over the years, he eluded authorities while his cohort, Karadzic, was apprehended and is facing various charges at the court in The Hague. Their mentor, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, died in jail in 2006 during his trial at The Hague.

Eventually, more than 16 years later, he was captured an hour’s drive from the Serbian capital living on a farm with a cousin. World leaders and human rights groups described the arrest as “historic” and “an important step forward.”

Key dates in hunt for Mladic

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called it a “historic day for international justice. This arrest marks an important step in our collective fight against impunity.” Interpol called Mladic “Europe’s most wanted war crimes suspect” while Amnesty International’s law chief Widney Brown said “at last the people who suffered have hope he will be brought to justice.”

The arrest meant a major hurdle that once stood between Serbia and its long-awaited entrance into the European Union was overcome, but the trial could also usher in political backlash from the country’s electorate, some of whom consider Mladic a hero.

Speaking to a Serbian Radical Party demonstration outside Belgrade’s parliament building immediate after the arrest, Darko Mladic described his father as “a freedom fighter.” The elder Mladic “defended his own nation, defended his people, which was his job,” his son said.

His family and lawyer have tried to use his poor health to prevent his extradition to the International Criminal Tribunal on the Former Yugoslavia in the Netherlands, but they failed.

In the court room at The Hague last year Mladic appeared to have lost none of his visceral dislike of his enemies. CNN’s Nic Robertson said he saw the defendant drawing his finger across his throat, “a gesture aimed directly at at some of the Srebrenica widows sitting in front of me, whose husbands he is accused of killing.”