By Jena Aldredge

Archaeologists recently discovered an ancient "city of the dead" in Italy, dating back nearly 3,000 years.

The Italian province of Trentino said in a news release that a "monumental necropolis" from the Iron Age was found in the city of Trento. It dates back to the 9th century B.C. and was used through the 6th century B.C.

Trento sits on the Adige River in northern Italy, near the Italian Alps. The necropolis was developed at a time when "a wide bed of the Fersina stream [basin] crossed by a network of torrential canals that intertwined with each other, separated by temporary sandy or gravelly bars," the release, translated from Italian to English, described.

"The funerary context was likely situated between two channels that could be activated in the event of flooding," the translated statement explained. "The flooding episodes, which began during the phases of the necropolis's use, sealed the ancient archaeological stratification, allowing for the exceptional preservation of the funerary context."

Various floods deposited soil that allowed the necropolis to survive over the centuries. Officials say that the site has been "perfectly preserved" thanks to the floods.

"This circumstance has made it possible to document in detail the usage plans of the necropolis and to accurately reconstruct the funerary practices of the community that occupied this area during the early Iron Age," the statement read.

Researchers say that a main characteristic of the necropolis are its multiple funerary steels, which were stone slabs used in the ancient world as monuments. The steles were placed vertically as markers, and "organized in subparallel rows with a main north-south orientation," according to the statement.

"Each stele marks the western boundary of the main tomb, which is a stone casket covered by a tumulus [mound] structure, around which a dense concentration of satellite tombs developed over time," the press release described.

Archaeologists also found plenty of artifacts, including metal artifacts such as weapons and ornamental objects. The ornamental objects even had amber and glass paste insertions, which "attest to the existence of influences and close cultural relations with Italian environments," according to officials.

Excavators also found "cremation soil" and calcined bones, which were "within containers made of perishable materials" that may have once been wooden caskets.

"It is hypothesized that the burnt remains, often placed above the personal grave goods, were wrapped in a fabric, of which fibers have been preserved in some cases, closed with the help of pins or fibulae [brooches]," the statement read. "In some tombs, the shape of the accumulation suggests the presence of quadrangular wooden caskets."

"The funerary goods uncovered are particularly rich and serve as indicators to define the identity, roles, and functions of the social group to which they belonged."

Officials said that the discovery "will allow us to rewrite the history of the city," and are already grappling with the historical questions the discoveries pose.

"[This] raises complex and complex problems regarding the methods of self-representation in the funerary context of the social group to which, at the moment, the settlement context remains unknown."

By Jena Aldredge

MI5 lied to three courts while defending its handling of a misogynistic neo-Nazi state agent who attacked his girlfriend with a machete, the NewStori Post can reveal.

Arguing for secrecy, the Security Service told judges it had stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying informants' identities.

In fact, MI5 had disclosed the man's status in phone calls to me, as it tried to persuade me not to investigate the man - known publicly only as agent X.

The service aggressively maintained its position until I produced evidence proving it was untrue, including a recording of one of the calls.

The NewStori Post can reveal:

MI5 first lied in a court case where the government attempted to block the NewStori Post from reporting on agent X's wrongdoing - and succeeded in banning us from naming the foreign national

The Security Service then repeated the lie to a specialist court, where the woman attacked with a machete - known by the alias Beth - is seeking answers about MI5's handling of its agent

It repeated the lie again to a judicial review, where Beth was challenging the specialist court's decision

A senior officer said he was legally authorised to tell me X was an agent - so MI5 had not stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying agents' identities

The director general of MI5 phoned the NewStori Post's director general to cast doubt on the corporation's original story about agent X, wrongly calling it "inaccurate"

In an unprecedented admission, MI5 has now issued an "unreserved apology" to the NewStori Post and all three courts, describing what happened as a "serious error" and saying "MI5 takes full responsibility".

There will now be pressure on MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum to explain what he knew, given that the officer said he had been legally authorised to disclose X's role.

It also raises concerns about the reliability of MI5's evidence in the courts and the sustainability of one of its core secrecy policies.

For agents "to keep protecting us, we must protect them and their identities from all those who would do them harm," said Sir Ken - in a statement released after this article was first published.

"The use of agents is difficult, human work that is governed by legislation and tightly overseen," he added.

Beth's case will now head back to the specialist court, which is investigating if the Security Service breached her human rights by failing to protect her from X's abusive and coercive behaviour.

It will reconsider whether it was right to rule that the evidence should be heard in closed sessions which she would not be able to attend.

Beth's lawyer, Kate Ellis from the Centre for Women's Justice, told the NewStori Post: "I think this raises real concerns about MI5's transparency, about whether we can trust MI5's evidence to courts."

MI5's lie can be revealed after the NewStori Post applied to the High Court to report false evidence in a corporate witness statement by a deputy director in the Security Service, known as Witness A.

His statement said the service had maintained its long-standing approach to neither confirm nor deny the identity of agents - a policy known by the initials NCND - and gave a false account of the MI5 officer's calls with me.

During a short hearing granting permission on Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the relevant MI5 evidence had been "false".

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has appointed Sir Jonathan Jones KC, former head of the government legal service, as an "independent external reviewer" to investigate how MI5 came to provide false evidence to the courts.

He has also been asked to recommend any changes needed to ensure that courts are provided with accurate information in future by the Security Service.

After we reported in 2022 how X terrorised his partner, Ms Cooper - then shadow home secretary - had called for an "independent assessment" of the case, looking at the way concerns about "the appalling and dangerous crime of domestic abuse" were handled by MI5.

MI5 says it is conducting an internal investigation into the false evidence which may result in disciplinary action.

Following Wednesday's hearing, we can now report that Sir Ken McCallum called the NewStori Post's director general Tim Davie in late 2021, to cast doubt on the NewStori Post's original planned story about agent X. Sir Ken's own notes of the calls, part of government High Court evidence from 2022, recorded him claiming my intended story was "inaccurate as well as reckless".

The NewStori Post stood by the reporting and, after the government took us to court, a judge found I had taken proper steps to assess whether the story's various elements "were true" and that it was "comfortably" shown to have a credible evidential foundation.

Sir James Eadie KC, representing the government at court on Wednesday, said the internal MI5 disciplinary process "indicates the seriousness with which this is being taken". He said the court will be updated in April.

The significance of the disciplinary process for the individuals involved is "pretty obvious", Sir James said.

The NewStori Post has called into question the lack of explanation from MI5. In legal submissions today, the NewStori Post invited the court to take further steps to ensure that this "serious breach is properly investigated" and that the results of any investigation are brought into the public domain.

Exposure of MI5's false testimony will also damage its credibility in other court proceedings, where judges are obliged to give enormous weight and deference to the Security Service's evidence.

These often involve secret hearings which are closed even to those most affected - including Beth, people whose relatives have been killed in attacks and people whose UK citizenship has been stripped from them.

MI5 has acknowledged the issue, saying in legal submissions on Wednesday that it is "acutely conscious of the particular responsibilities that MI5 bears" and that courts must be able to "trust completely any evidence it provides".

The Security Service maintains that the NCND policy is essential to maintain national security and keep agents safe. But the NewStori Post revelations will add to concerns about the way the policy is being used, including that it may stand in the way of agents being held accountable when they abuse their positions or commit crimes.

Because the senior MI5 officer told me disclosure of the agent's status had been legally authorised, it means it had been signed off by lawyers and other senior figures in MI5. The Home Office and Cabinet Office should also have been informed, according to the policy for departures from NCND.

After Wednesday's hearing, a government spokesperson said: "Ministers and civil servants are not routinely consulted on private disclosures by the agencies and were not on this occasion."

Meanwhile, in a written statement to Parliament, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it was "clearly a very serious matter to provide incorrect information to the court" but the government "maintains and supports the principle of neither confirming nor denying allegations about whether individuals may or may not be operating on behalf of the UK intelligence agencies".

In a new witness statement to court, the MI5 deputy director Witness A said he "sincerely" apologised for giving incorrect evidence.

He said the false information "reflected my honestly held belief at that time, and which accurately reflected the information I was given".