Death

Bali's Open-Air Burials Endure Despite Pandemic

For centuries Bali's Trunyanese people have left their dead to decompose in the open, the bodies placed in bamboo cages until only the skeletons remain. It is a ritual they haven't given up - even as the COVID-19 pandemic upends burial practices worldwide with religious leaders in protective gear, cemetery workers in hazmat suits, and mourners banned or unable to comfort each other because of social-distancing rules.Across Indonesia funeral workers are now required to wear

17 June 2020
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Coronavirus Infections Top 5 Million Worldwide

Global infections from the novel coronavirus passed five million on Thursday as the pandemic played out unevenly across the planet, with China eager to declare a victory, Europe tentatively emerging from its shell and deaths still rising in hotspots in Latin America. The grim milestone comes after known cases of COVID-19 doubled in just one month, according to data collected from official sources, with the death toll now topping 328,000 worldwide.

22 May 2020
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Indonesia's Gravediggers Battle Virus Fears

Gravedigger Junaidi Hakim shouts "hurry up" as he summons his weary colleagues in a never-ending race to bury novel coronavirus victims at a Jakarta cemetery.The team switches quickly from digging fresh graves to burying the bodies - aiming to get the task done in under 10 minutes to lessen the chance of getting infected themselves."The most worrying part is when we're unloading a coffin because we have to touch it," said 42-year-old Hakim, a father of four."We f

20 May 2020
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Cremation Traumatises In Virus-Hit Philippines

Families of coronavirus victims in the Philippines are being denied traditional death rites in favour of hurried, impersonal cremations, with virus restrictions often meaning they are forbidden a last look at their loved ones.It is a painful and disorienting process for both the families and crematory workers that has upended the Philippines' intimate rituals of laying the dead to rest.Burial is the norm in the Catholic-majority nation, and it usually follows a days-long display of the e

4 May 2020
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COVID-19 Could Trigger 'Secondary' Health Crisis

Diverting the scarce healthcare resources of developing countries to the rapidly expanding COVID-19 pandemic could see a 45 percent jump in child and maternal mortality before the end of the year, an international health consortium warned Thursday (23 April).Unless poorer nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America get a rapid infusion of drugs, medical oxygen, protective equipment and on-the-ground assistance, the global South is likely see 1.2 million children and 57,000 mothers die over the

24 April 2020
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Indonesia declares state of emergency

Indonesian leader Joko Widodo declared a state of emergency Tuesday as coronavirus deaths in the world's fourth most populous country jumped again, but he resisted calls for a nationwide lockdown.Widodo's administration has been heavily criticised for not imposing lockdowns in major cities, including the capital Jakarta, a vast megalopolis home to about 30 million people where most of the country's virus deaths have been reported.Indonesia's leader offered few details of t

1 April 2020
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Coronavirus: The first death outside China

The Philippines has reported the first death outside China in the virus epidemic that has killed more than 300 people and spread to 24 nations.The 44-year-old Chinese man who died in the Philippines was from Wuhan, the city that has been ground-zero for the epidemic.Here is what we know - and don't know - about him:Where he visitedThe man and a 38-year-old Chinese woman also from Wuhan, who authorities called his companion, flew from Hong Kong to the Philippines on 21 January.Health depa

3 February 2020
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Nora Quoirin’s family push for inquest in Malaysia

The parents of a Franco-Irish teenager whose body was found in a Malaysian jungle are demanding an inquest after authorities ended investigations into the case, the family's lawyer said Wednesday.The unclothed body of 15-year-old Nora Quoirin was discovered in August after a massive hunt through dense rainforest not far from the resort where the London-based family had been on holiday.Her parents say they believe there was a "criminal element" to her death as the teen had learn

16 January 2020
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Iran to UN: Soleimani death an 'act of war'

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations described the killing of one of his country's top generals as an act of war, US media reported late Friday.The death of Quds Force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad was the most dramatic escalation yet in spiralling tensions between Iran and the United States, despite President Donald Trump's insistence he did not want war.But, speaking to CNN late Friday night, Iranian ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said: "In fact

5 January 2020
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Another building collapse in Cambodia kills again

Four people were killed and more than a dozen injured when a seven-storey building under construction collapsed in southern Cambodia on Friday trapping workers under the rubble, an official said, as the search for more victims went into the night.The building in coastal Kep province was meant to be a hotel but crumpled at around 4:30pm yesterday, with photos showing concrete floors sandwiched together as heavy machinery moved in to help clear the wreckage. Cambodian leader Hun Sen sa

4 January 2020
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The mysterious death of Nora Quoirin

By now many people around the world would have heard of the tragic fate of Franco-Irish teenager Nora Anne Quoirin who went vacationing with her family to the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia.

23 December 2019
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Village mourns cousins killed in UK truck tragedy

They wailed and clutched white roses, praying for their dead - families of two cousins who were among 39 Vietnamese found in a truck in Britain held emotional homecomings for the young men Wednesday.Relatives have waited weeks for their bodies to come home, after they were discovered lifeless in a refrigerated container in Essex, east of London, last month.Hoang Van Tiep, 18, and his 33-year-old cousin Nguyen Van Hung were among 39 people found in the truck, a tragedy that has paralysed commu

28 November 2019
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