https://www.scmp.com/rss/330867/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Singapore authorities have defended a decision to execute a Malaysian drug trafficker, in response to international criticism over their use of the death penalty. Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, 34, had been convicted of smuggling at least 42 grams (1.48 ounces) of heroin into Singapore, which has among the world’s harshest narcotics laws. He was hanged on Wednesday morning, after multiple legal challenges and appeals for clemency on the grounds that he had an intellectual disability, failed. His... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3175815/singapore-defends-execution-malaysian-nagaenthran-k?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3175815/singapore-defends-execution-malaysian-nagaenthran-k?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 28 Apr 2022 07:03:20 +0000 A Japanese woman recognised as the world’s oldest person, Kane Tanaka, has died at age 119, just months short of her goal of reaching 120. Tanaka died of old age on April 19 at a hospital in Fukuoka, her hometown in southern Japan where she spent all her life, city officials said on Tuesday. Tanaka, who had lived at a nursing home, was in and out of hospital only recently, they said. Fukuoka Governor Seitaro Hattori said in a statement that he was shocked and saddened by her loss, as he was... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3175518/worlds-oldest-person-japans-kane-tanaka-dies-119?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3175518/worlds-oldest-person-japans-kane-tanaka-dies-119?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 26 Apr 2022 04:24:53 +0000 Widely regarded as one of the greatest cricket players of all time, Shane Warne’s sudden passing on March 4 sent shock waves throughout the global sporting world. Warne, 52, succumbed to natural causes while on a tropical holiday in Koh Samui, Thailand. The Australian cricket legend is survived by his children, Brooke, 24, Jackson, 23, Summer, 20, and his ex-wife Simone Callahan. Away from the game, Warne was also known to be a champion father. Let’s get to know his three wonderful children as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3169985/who-are-shane-warnes-3-children-brooke-jackson-and-summer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/celebrity/article/3169985/who-are-shane-warnes-3-children-brooke-jackson-and-summer?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Mar 2022 22:00:12 +0000 University students in China are just as eager to learn more about death as sex, according to a new study by Chinese researchers. More than 56 per cent of students surveyed said they needed death education, the same proportion as sought sexual education, according to a study of 262 students from five universities in Beijing. Death is a taboo in Chinese culture. Bringing up the topic is regarded as inappropriate or rude in most circumstances. “While you don’t yet understand life, how can you... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3168720/amid-pandemic-and-unrest-chinese-university-students-are?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3168720/amid-pandemic-and-unrest-chinese-university-students-are?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Feb 2022 23:00:16 +0000 Grief is everywhere. It always has been, but before social media it was easier to pretend it wasn’t. Open Facebook, Instagram or TikTok now and the suffering is omnipresent – the loved one who died of Covid-19, the unwelcome health diagnosis, the fetus that never bloomed. Expressions of online grief proliferated during the pandemic – some people are lamenting monotony, some are unpacking traumatic loss. The suffering are posting with the hope of connection. But do the people reading the posts... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3167062/social-media-and-grief-how-respond-online-someones-loss?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3167062/social-media-and-grief-how-respond-online-someones-loss?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Feb 2022 11:15:19 +0000 A dead Chilean footballer is being celebrated the world over after his former teammates arranged for him to score a goal from his coffin as a farewell tribute to his striking prowess. Jaime Escandar died in the final days of 2021 but his friends with Chilean side Aparicion de Paine wanted to celebrate the life of the goalscoring forward. They positioned his coffin in the six-yard box and a teammate kicked the ball on to the coffin so it would rebound into the goal. Dozens of onlookers cheered... https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3162662/dead-chile-footballer-scores-final-goal-his-coffin-farewell-tribute?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3162662/dead-chile-footballer-scores-final-goal-his-coffin-farewell-tribute?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Jan 2022 08:59:02 +0000 A company based in Australia has created a 3D-printed pod that offers people a “painless” assisted death and the pod may be available soon to residents in Switzerland. The pod was created by a non-profit organisation called Exit International, which offers assisted suicide services. It dubbed the pod the “Sarco machine”. While assisted suicides in Switzerland are conducted with the ingestion of liquid sodium pentobarbital, Exit International is planning to offer an another option. Where assisted... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3158848/assisted-suicide-pod-now-legal-switzerland-offers-painless-death?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3158848/assisted-suicide-pod-now-legal-switzerland-offers-painless-death?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 08 Dec 2021 03:27:44 +0000 Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow, pub. Grand Central Publishing In the final moments of this deeply affecting, vividly written memoir, Kat Chow ruminates on what it means to grasp at the memory of someone who, having always been there, is suddenly gone. She is thinking about her dead mother, the primary subject of this book, but her contemplations would be immediately recognisable to anyone who has ever lost a loved one – anyone who has ever grappled with the weightlessness of absence when what the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3147370/beautifully-introspective-reckoning-death-kat-chows-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/article/3147370/beautifully-introspective-reckoning-death-kat-chows-memoir?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Sep 2021 11:15:21 +0000 At 5.30am last Sunday, my mother died. Aged 93, she was in an Alzheimer’s fog that had been aggravated by crushing loneliness amid a year of pandemic lockdowns in an English care home that kept everyone who loved her from visiting her. In her last months, even coherently talking to her was an insurmountable challenge.  This was not the way anyone deserves to die, and it reminds me of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and how, despite the miracles of modern medicine, we seem to have lost the ars... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3138612/our-ageing-societies-have-we-lost-art-dying?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3138612/our-ageing-societies-have-we-lost-art-dying?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 25 Jun 2021 06:30:09 +0000 The royal family has paid tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh on the day he would have turned 100, June 10. Prince Philip, the nation’s longest serving consort, died on April 9, just nine weeks before the milestone centenary of his birth. Princess Eugenie wrote on Instagram: “Thinking of Grandpa on what would have been his 100th birthday.” Prince Philip’s 100th birthday: youngest son Prince Edward opens up about his late father – exclusive interview View this post on... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3136934/queen-elizabeth-planting-duke-edinburgh-rose-jill?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3136934/queen-elizabeth-planting-duke-edinburgh-rose-jill?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 11 Jun 2021 08:08:09 +0000 A Japanese sumo wrestler has died after landing on his head during a bout last month in a horrifying injury that caused shock waves and calls for reform in the sport. Hibikiryu, a lower-tier wrestler whose real name was Mitsuki Amano, died of acute respiratory failure on Wednesday at a Tokyo hospital, the Japan Sumo Association said in a statement. “May his soul rest in peace, and we express our heartfelt gratitude towards his contribution” to the sport, the statement said. The 28-year-old was... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3131752/japanese-sumo-wrestler-hibikiryu-dies-after-suffering-head?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3131752/japanese-sumo-wrestler-hibikiryu-dies-after-suffering-head?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Apr 2021 07:04:50 +0000 In Zhang Lianchao’s first year working as a mortician he saw a lot of dead bodies, but none quite like the body of a woman who had tragically plunged to her death from a tall building – she barely had a face any more. “Her head had an open wound, shaped like a petunia ... when the family came, they carried all the tissues, including the brain, in a plastic bag,” he said. Zhang said he and his coworkers at the Xi’an Funeral Home can often spend more than 10 hours working on a body like this;... https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3129498/chinas-funeral-parlours-use-3d-printing-restore?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/social-welfare/article/3129498/chinas-funeral-parlours-use-3d-printing-restore?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 14 Apr 2021 23:00:08 +0000 Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, died at Windsor Castle this morning, aged 99, Buckingham Palace announced in a statement.  Prince Philip was discharged from London’s King Edward VII hospital on March 16, after being admitted a month earlier on the advice of his doctor because he was “feeling unwell”. Now, the unenviable task of initiating the late Duke of Edinburgh’s ceremonial funeral plans falls to the funeral directors of the royal household.  It is with deep sorrow that Her... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3128983/what-operation-forth-bridge-and-what-happens-now-prince?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/3128983/what-operation-forth-bridge-and-what-happens-now-prince?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 09 Apr 2021 12:43:52 +0000 For many Chinese people, the first week of April usually means a trip down memory lane. On April 5, also known as tomb-sweeping day, millions across China make a trip to burial sites to pay homage to their ancestors, laying flowers and burning incense. But this year, some sweepers won’t be heading to a headstone to lay a wreath. They’ll be scanning a QR code in front of a tree. Scan the barcode-like label, and visitors will be able to light a digital candle or leave a digital flower for the dead... https://www.scmp.com/society/chinese-cemeteries-introduce-qr-codes-green-burials/article/3004170?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/chinese-cemeteries-introduce-qr-codes-green-burials/article/3004170?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Apr 2019 10:17:01 +0000