Latest news with #Dantesque


Metro
02-07-2025
- Metro
Nearly 400 corpses found piled on top of each other inside crematorium
Nearly 400 decomposing bodies have been found piled on top of each other on the floor of a private crematorium in Mexico. Instead of being disposed of in line with their families' wishes, corpses were instead 'stacked' in random rooms throughout in the building housing the crematorium in Ciudad Juarez, close to the US border at El Paso. Eloy Garcia, communications coordinator of the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, said the bodies had mostly been 'just thrown like that, indiscriminately, one on top of the other, on the floor'. Some are believed to have been dead for up to four years. All were embalmed as they would typically be for a funeral, but it is unclear why they didn't take place. Cesar Jauregui Moreno, attorney general in the state of Chihuahua described the horrendous scene inside as 'Dantesque', invoking the writings of the Italian writer who described a journey through hell. So far, some 383 bodies have been recovered from the facility which 'were deposited irregularly in the crematorium, which were not cremated', Mr Garcia told AFP. Of those, 218 were men, 149 women and 16 whose gender has not yet been determined. The bodies of four children, including two newborns, were recovered from the piles. Authorities have been able to identify 15 by name, while four more were identified through tattoos or amputations. He said the deceased's next of kin were given 'other material' instead of their loved one's ashes. Gloria Criollo, 54, was among the relatives of 89 families who went to the state prosecutors office to ask about the bodies found. She told the El Paso Times: 'I'm already thinking about what they gave us, because they gave us ashes. More Trending 'The emotional distress experienced by the family, the perception of inadequate treatment, is deeply concerning. We are in a state of uncertainty.' Mr Garcia suggested the grim discovery was a product of incompetence on the part of the owners, rather than malice. He said they appear to have underestimated their 'daily cremation capacity', adding: 'You can't take in more than you can process.' Prosecutors are reportedly considering charges of mistreatment of corpses and potential fraud for denial of services. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Man, 29, dies at popular beach during 'first holiday with friends' MORE: Bridgerton star 'relieved' after prolific thief who targeted her faces 22 months in jail MORE: Mum arrested after decapitated and dismembered baby dumped in bin in Spain


Telegraph
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Feuds are futile: just ask Elton John and Madonna
Guelphs and Ghibellines, Montagues and Capulets, Sir Elton John and Madonna… In drama and poetry, feuds tend to reach a Shakespearean conclusion that involves corpses all over the stage, or a Dantesque vision of quarrelsome fellow citizens literally and metaphorically gnawing at each other. In celebrity-land, however, the proper culmination of a lengthy feud is a big old hug-and-make-up. So it was last week, with Sir Elton, resplendent in white samite, clasping Madge in a forgiving embrace – both of them looking straight to camera, rather than at each other. The discord seems to have started in the early 2000s when Elton accused Madonna of lip-syncing and dissed her theme song for the 2002 Bond film, Die Another Day, suggesting that the studio could have hired Lulu or Shirley Bassey instead ('or maybe I'm in that league'). It was downhill all the way from there, with harsh criticisms from Sir Elton's side met with haughty rejoinders by Madonna's people, who announced that she didn't 'spend her time trashing other artists'. Their reconciliation may have looked a touch performative, but it did at least contain a spark of the genuine respect felt by one considerable talent for another. The recent 'rapprochement' of Meghan Markle (sorry, Sussex) and Gwyneth Paltrow, perhaps not so much. The origins of the alleged falling-out between the grandes dames of Montecito seem obscure. Perhaps Gwyneth's remark to Vanity Fair magazine, that she didn't 'know [Meghan] at all. Maybe I'll try to get through their security detail and bring them a pie' didn't go down well. All good now, though: Gwyneth's recent Instagram video scotching the rumours featured a vignette of Meghan eating pie in a manner possibly intended to suggest irony. What exactly constitutes a feud? The OED defines it as 'a state of bitter and lasting mutual hostility'. Mere schoolyard invective – as in Elon Musk's recent description of President Trump's trade adviser, Peter Navarro, as 'dumber than a sack of bricks' – doesn't constitute a feud (although it might start one). 'Everyone knows how futile a feud is,' wrote the poet and novelist Michael Crummey. 'How ridiculous and useless and nearly impossible to resist. A feud is as primal and irrational as falling in love, which is why there's no talking to people involved in one.' It is a thought that must occasionally have occurred to the mother of the fractious Gallagher brothers. But all passion has a tendency to cool over time, and participants in even the most bellicose feuds often find themselves, like hostile versions of the deluded lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream, waking from their enchantment of loathing and settling their once irreconcilable differences with an awkward exchange of courtesies. (Admittedly, when Salman Rushdie and John le Carré eventually concluded their feud with just such a relapse into good manners, the Puckish provocateur Christopher Hitchens was disappointed: 'One's job… when seeing the embers begin to cool, is to blow on them as hard as possible.') But hatred is costly to sustain. Like love, you have to work at it. But unlike love it withers rather than nourishes the spirit. Better, like Madonna, Sir Elton and the grumpy Gallaghers, to hug awkwardly and consider a harmonious collaboration. Bad review The snappily titled Digital Markets Competition and Consumers Act recently passed into law. Fake reviews will be banned, which is certainly a good thing. But the ubiquitous demand that we rate every purchase and experience has increased to the point of absurdity and beyond. The sinister potential of reviews inspired 'Nosedive', the 2016 episode of Black Mirror in which a young woman's life falls apart as her personal ratings drop. Frank Skinner's Radio 4 comedy series, One Person Found This Helpful, takes a less dystopian approach, but still underlines the surreal aspect of reviewing every banal feature of our lives. I recently bought some cats' litter tray liners, and I have since been relentlessly pursued with demands to review them. My failure to comment on the cat's sanitary arrangements has provoked a blizzard of reminders and unsolicited emails, to the point at which, in sheer self-defence, I'm tempted to post a review after all: porous.