A high tech plastic bag that could save the lives of premature babies is the metros lead. It reports doctors could be using it on babies in three years. The i leads with the a survey which suggests that voters want the Prime Minister to take part in tv debates despite her reluctance. The Daily Express has Madeline Mccann on its front page as the paper marks ten years since her disappearance. The daily mirror also leads with the anniversary, reporting a Senior Police officer claims theres a new lead in the case. Criticism of free Schools Funding is the big story in the guardian. The paper also features a picture of president trumps Daughter Ivanka in berlin. The times shares that image of ivanka along with Christine Lagarde and angela merkel, but its lead story claims senior conservatives want to sideline borisjohnson during the election campaign. And now this weeks our world. Sahar zand reports from the toraja region of sulawesi in indonesia where the dead are a constant presence. The tradition there is that when someone dies their body is preserved and it can often take months, sometimes years, before a funeral takes place. From the start, this programme contains images of corpses which some viewers may find disturbing. Its the great unspoken. A taboo. Something that ive had to face up to recently myself. Most of us dont know how to think or talk about death. But there are some people who do think they know. On the indonesian island of toraja, centuries old customs make the dead a constant part of day to day life. I have come here to learn more about these remarkable practices, which blur the line between this world and the next. A Morbid Obsession . Or a healthier way to deal with the grief of losing a loved one . Tana toraja in indonesia is an extraordinary place. Here, Ancient Aminist Beliefs intertwine with new religions, resulting in unique rituals. At this Traditional Torajan Funeral Friends And Family gather to celebrate the life of a local wealthy man called dengan, who died over two years ago. But here is the strange thing. As far as his family and everybody else here are concerned, dengan is still alive. Torajans have a strong desire to stay connected to their dead loved ones. In spirit and in body. To see what this means in practice, i went to visit a torajan family. Hello. Nice to meet you. This man is 86 and his family take care of him. He died more than two years ago. Here, it takes months and sometimes years, until a funeral actually takes place. In the meantime, families keep the deceased in the house and care for them on a daily basis. They treat them as if they were sick. Torajans traditionally rub special leaves and herbs over a body to preserve it. Nowadays, a chemical called formalin is often injected into the body to embalm it. There is a powerful odour of musk and the chemical. When my father died, we buried him in two days. It was all very sudden, it was all very bam, bam. And to be honest with you, a few years on, i still feel i havent adjusted. It was just too sudden. I am still in a bit of a shock. Does this help you . Whats really incredible, none of these kids seem to be fazed by the fact that there is a dead person lying here. Everybody is so calm. He will remain here until his family have saved enough money for a lavish funeral. During their lives, torajans work hard to accumulate wealth. But rather than saving for a luxurious life, they save for a grand departure from this earth. The wealthier they are, the larger and more elaborate the funerals. Some last for days. Dengan was a rich man. And his funeral lasted seven days. Animal sacrifice is a fundamental part of this tradition. Buffaloes are a very important element to the torajan funerals, because they are believed to be the carriers of the deceaseds soul into the afterlife. The meat is eaten at the funeral feast, and the buffalo horns create create homes and tombs of the deceased. A symbol of wealth and status. The sacrifice, its one part of helping your soul to reincarnation. 50,000 was spent on dengans funeral. Roughly ten times more than the average annual income here. They sacrificed 2a buffaloes, more than a0 pigs, as well as feeding and accommodating hundreds of guests. The funeral is one way to make your soul get to reincarnation. Even at this point, dengans funeral is not complete. Only when his coffin is carried to the top of this special platform, is he finally considered dead. According to ancient animist beliefs here, this is the point where the soul finally ascends to the cosmos. From there, it watches over living relatives, bringing them good fortune, as long as the families take proper care of their dead. For centuries, the torajans have been laying their dead to rest in caves like this. Yet another place where the afterlife connects with this one. This cave winds for two kilometres. And its pretty full. Even here, friends and families bring necessities for their dead relatives. In a Tradition Predating photography, statues of dead noblemen and women are carefully carved out of wood. Most people here are farmers, and their average income is around 5,000 a year. Its clear that for torajans, the process of dying and being reincarnated is far smoother if you are rich. These sculptures are dressed in the clothes, jewellery and even the hair of the deceased. Silent sentinels looking out over this one from another. Here, the physical relationship between the dead and the living continues long after death. Even after burials. People are coming out of the church now, and they are all Shaking Hands in their traditional manner. They do this and then they touch their chest. And theyre getting ready for a less usual ceremony. The village leader explains that the ritual is called manene, also known as the cleansing of the corpses. Once every couple of years, families bring the coffins of long departed relatives out of their graves and open them up for a big family reunion. These are the close relatives of a woman called maria, and they are here for the cleansing. One of the guests is a torajan professor of sociology. The family will bring maria out of this tomb for the first time today. Theyre bringing maria out now. Were just waiting for them to open her coffin. Im feeling a bit nervous, to be honest. I had to come out to get some distance from it. There really was no escaping death. I watched as they slaughtered pigs. And the final sacrifice. A buffalo. The coffin is finally opened. Once again, that strong odour of musk and formalin filled the air. Thank you. They want me to show what she looked like before and what she looks like now. She died three years ago and got buried two years ago. They kept in the house for one year. Maria is covered in her most treasured possessions. Relatives touch her as a greeting. Im going to try to touch her hair, just as everybody else does, as a sign of respect. She feels. She feels very hard. The hairfeels like normal. Still very soft. I couldnt help but wonder how children feel seeing their mother this. Her eldest son seemed very calm. I dont see any more sign of grief. Its just normal. Its just the body is here and its normal. When you couldnt see the body, when it was inside the coffin, even i was shaking. I was a lot more nervous. And everybody seemed more upset. Well, the relatives. But now everybody is content. Another guest particularly close to maria is esther, her daughter in law. How do you think this helps you deal with the grief . But for me, i want to remember my relatives, my dad, i want to remember him when he was alive. Im worried that if i see him dead, i will his identity will change in my mind. Many of these practices are slowly disappearing. The majority of horizons converted from the old animist religion to christianity after dutch missionaries arrived less than a century ago. But here, the two can and do coexist. Theyre wrapping maria in this white sheet. This is a symbol of changing her clothes. In some villages they literally change the outfit into a new fashionable one. But here, because they are christians, they dont want to mess around too much with the corpse. At the beginning of christianity here, no manene, no funeral. All this is so different to how ive dealt with my fathers death. Or so i thought. What did you do to your father . We buried him. I visit his grave sometimes. How . So perhaps the principles behind rituals here are not very different from most other cultures. Remembering our dead is something most of us try to do. Torajans dont leave that to chance. And for them, there certainly appears to be great comfort from their unique rituals around death. Hi there. It felt pretty chilly at times yesterday, didnt it . It was even cold enough for some snow on the ground up in the highlands of scotland. Not bad going for late april. You can see the snow cover here at kincraig in the highlands. And we even had a dusting of snow further south, as far south as staffordshire, up in the north west midlands. Those showers have been feeding in, then, on a brisk north easterly wind, but over more recent hours, weve seen those showers tending to become confined more to coastal districts, northern scotland, around the eastern side of england. Western wales, and cornwall as well. But, as we go through the day today, we are going to see a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers. Plenty of these thunderclouds will be developing as the day goes by, particularly across eastern stretches of england. And it is going to be a chilly start to the morning. There should be plenty of sunshine around, yes, but showers from the word go near to the east coast of england, and tending to move inland pretty quickly as the day goes by. There will be some pockets of frost, also around, across parts of the midlands, maybe South West England and wales, but soon melting away, with plenty of blue sky and sunshine here. Those winds continue to feed in the showers to the east coast of england, one or two for northern ireland, and showers continue to feed in across scotland. There will continue to be some snow up in the hills of scotland, above around 100 200 metres elevation, in the morning. So some wintriness here, perhaps a little bit of iciness around as well, and perhaps a bit of sleet in some of the heavy showers during the morning across eastern counties of england, and maybe a dusting of snow for the north york moors. Aside from that, though, i think its going to be Heavy Rain Showers that we see developing through the afternoon. And spilling inland across the midlands, covering much of east anglia, south east england, where the showers will be particularly heavy, some hail and thunder mixed in, another coolish feeling day, temperatures 9 12 degrees. Colder, though, as those showers move through, the temperatures will drop away for a time. Now, looking at wednesday night, things will begin to turn a little bit less cold across northern and western areas, as cloudier weather spills in, bringing some spots of rain with it. But further south, with any lengthy clear spells, we could well see a frost developing. And it could be quite a damaging frost, the lowest temperatures perhaps getting down to maybe about 3 degrees or so. So it will be a cold start to thursday morning. And, as this streak of cloud comes in, bringing some less cold air with it, it probably wont feel a whole lot different across southern counties, because although the air is less cold, we lose the sunshine. So cloudier weather, probably not feeling too great underneath those leaden skies. Temperatures ii or 12 degrees, some spots of rain arriving through the afternoon. Brighter conditions for the north and west. By friday, we will still have a few showers knocking around. Most of them will be near to the east coast of england. Sunny spells elsewhere. Temperatures recovering, highs of 15 degrees in london. Thats your weather. A very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in North America and around the globe. My names mike embley. Our top stories it looks like president trumps border wall is going to be delayed. Hes facing a Government Shutdown and mexicos not gonna pay. If they decide to do it, it is in their own sovereign right. The only thing that is clear is that there is no way mexico is not going to pay for it. A Special Report from lebanon, where refugees from syria are falling victim to the illegal trade in human organs. The United States begins to deploy its anti Missile System in korea a day after the north put on a massive display of firepower. The reality of. You hear the reaction from the audience, so i need to address one more point. And ivanka trump is greeted by groans in germany
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