Chaos of Gaza war forces Christians to bury dead in Muslim cemeteries
Gaza Reuters Too frightened to travel on dangerous roads that lead to their graveyards in Gaza, Palestinian Christians are lowering their loved ones into the ground in Muslim cemeteries amid the chaos of war between Israel and Hamas. “I’ve been working at this cemetery for almost 10 years and this is the first time in […]
Year after Kyiv area massacres, police struggle to find those still missing
Borodianka, Ukraine Reuters In a corner of Borodianka’s town cemetery, the bodies of three men lay buried for a year, to no one’s knowledge in the town 55 kilometres north-west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The three men, one of whom police have so far tentatively identified, are the latest confirmed dead civilians from Russian […]
In the US, California again seeks to pass human composting bill as Catholic bishops oppose it
United StatesRNS Seeking to legalise the process of converting bodies into soil, a California legislator is attempting, once again, to pass a bill that would allow human composting in the Golden State. Burial, cremation and alkaline hydrolysis are the only death care choices available in California, and proponents say the new bill, AB 351, “offers […]
A Sustainable Life: Funerals will hit 100 million a year by 2060 – here’s how to make them more sustainable
JULIE RUGG, a researcher at the University of York, says – in an article published on The Conversation – that the way we deal with human remains means balancing three major principles…
Living in uncertainty: Life stands still in Egypt’s City of the Dead as coronavirus fear spreads
MENNA A FAROUK, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports from Egypt on the plight of informal workers in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic…
A grave concern: Coronavirus highlights burial plot shortages in cities
Bangkok, Thailand/Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the problem of scarce burial space in cities, even as health concerns and tight budgets force more families to opt against traditional grave burials, land rights experts said on Monday. As cities around the world have rapidly expanded in recent decades, urban cemeteries have […]
Denied in life, India’s lower-caste Dalits fight for land in death
New Delhi, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation India’s lower-caste Dalits are increasingly asserting their claims over land so they can bury their dead, human rights activists said on Friday, as their traditional burial grounds are targeted by real estate developers and higher-caste Hindus. Last year, a viral video of Dalit men lowering a dead body by a […]
POSTCARDS: WHY NEPAL’S CHRISTIANS ARE TREKKING INTO THE MOUNTAINS TO BURY THEIR DEAD
VISHAL ARORA, of World Watch Monitor, reports on the difficulties facing Christians in Nepal when it comes to burying their dead…