Ex-Communist's grave robbed

The grave of Hungary's last communist ruler, Janos Kadar, was prised open and his remains and his wife's urn were thought to have been stolen, Budapest police said.

The marble cover stone of Kadar's grave was removed and his coffin was broken. Graffiti that read "a murderer and traitor may not rest in holy ground" was daubed on the nearby communist workers' pantheon.

"The bones appear to be missing and it also looks like his wife's urn is gone, too" police spokesman Endre Kormos said.

"It's a relatively small hole so it's possible they were jostled around and we just can't see them but at this point, it's more likely they were taken," Kormos said.

Kadar ruled Hungary from 1956, when Soviet troops crushed the country's anti-communist uprising, until 1988 when he retired. He died a year later in July 1989, less than a year before the country's first free post-communist elections.