JAKARTA — A volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera has spectacularly erupted, spewing a grey ash cloud into the sky, and people from seven nearby villages have been evacuated, authorities said on Sunday.

Mt. Ibu erupted on Saturday evening, sending ash 4 km (2.5 miles) high, as streaks of purple lightning flashed around its crater, according to information and images shared by Indonesia’s volcanology agency.

A joint team comprised of police, military and search and rescue officials was dispatched to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, Abdul Muhari, from the disaster mitigation agency, said in a statement.

Photos shared by the disaster agency showed authorities assisting the elderly, while other residents were moved in pick-up trucks and accommodated in emergency tents for the night.

The agency did not provide any information about how many people had been moved, but authorities have recommended that a seven-km (4.35-mile) radius be cleared.

Indonesia’s volcanology agency raised the alert level of the volcano to the highest level on Thursday, after Mount Ibu erupted multiple times earlier this month.

Ibu’s activities follow a series of eruptions of different volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and has 127 active volcanoes.

Flash floods and cold lava flow from Mount Marapi, one of the most active in West Sumatra province, covered several nearby districts following torrential rain on May 11, killing more than 60 people.

In recent weeks, North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano has also erupted, spewing incandescent lava. The eruption prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people on a nearby island. — Reuters

VERONA — Arguments and tensions are inevitable in modern society and should not be brushed under the carpet, Pope Francis said on Saturday, warning that trying to impose a uniform vision fostered frustration and violence.

Addressing a peace gathering in a Roman amphitheater in the northern Italian city of Verona, the pope said people needed to learn how to deal with conflict before it got out hand, but also recognize that holding different opinions was healthy.

“A society without conflicts is a dead society. A society that hides conflicts is a suicidal society. A society that takes conflicts by the hand is a society of the future,” the pope told some 12,500 people gathered in the ancient arena.

“The flaw of dictatorships is not admitting plurality,” he added.

It was the pope’s second day trip to northern Italy in three weeks, following his visit to Venice last month, testing his stamina after repeated ailments over the past year that have sometimes forced him to curtail his public appearances.

As is now normal, the 87-year-old pontiff got around by wheelchair and appeared in good form as he first met priests and children in the city, before attending the open-air peace conference then having lunch in a local jail with prisoners.

Francis said the world was assailed by wars, but added that ordinary people had to try to build bridges and avoid being dragged into armed conflict at the behest of their leaders.

“Ideologies have no feet to walk, no hands to heal wounds, no eyes to see the sufferings of others. Peace is made with the feet, hands, and eyes of the people involved,” he said.

Underscoring the pope’s hopes for personal reconciliation, an Israeli man, whose parents died in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants, embraced on the Verona stage a Palestinian peace activist whose brother had died in an Israeli jail.

“I don’t think there are any words to add to this,” the pope said, leading the applause for their gesture.

The pope makes almost weekly pleas for an end to fighting in multiple conflicts, especially in Ukraine and Gaza, putting the drive for peace at the centre of his 11-year-old papacy.

“Don’t stop. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t become spectators of so-called ‘inevitable’ wars,” he told his audience. — Reuters

TORONTO — Some Canadian provinces have logged a jump in unclaimed dead bodies in recent years, with next of kin citing funeral costs as a growing reason for not collecting loved ones’ remains.

The phenomenon has prompted at least one province to build a new storage facility. Demand for memorial fundraisers has surged. The overall cost of a funeral in Canada at the top end has increased to about $8,800 from about $6,000 in 1998, according to industry trade group estimates.

In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, the number of unclaimed dead bodies rose to 1,183 in 2023 from 242 in 2013, said Dirk Huyer, the province’s chief coroner.

In most of those cases, next of kin were identified but unable to claim the body for a variety of reasons, the most common being money. Finances went from being the reason for 20% of the total unclaimed bodies in 2022 to 24% in 2023.

“It’s distressing because it’s a person who has passed and there’s nobody — family, friends, or others — that are in a position to be able to provide instructions or plans for that person after their death,” Mr. Huyer said.

Officially, in Ontario, a body is deemed unclaimed after 24 hours. But the coroner’s office staff may spend weeks trying to locate next of kin, he said. If the relatives confirm they are unable to claim a body, the local municipality works with a funeral home to provide a simple burial.

In the meantime, the body is kept in a morgue or temperature-controlled storage facility.

“There’s always been families that are in need of additional assistance. (But) I’ve never seen the number of unclaimed remains that currently exist,” said Allan Cole, owner of the Toronto-based funeral home MacKinnon and Bowes.

In Quebec, the number of unclaimed bodies grew to 183 in 2023 from 66 in 2013. In Alberta, the number of bodies for whom no next of kin could be located to claim them rose to 200 in 2023 from 80 in 2016.

Historically, the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador did not encounter enough unclaimed remains to warrant long-term storage, a spokesperson for Newfoundland Health Services told Reuters.

Now, in the wake of an uproar over unclaimed bodies kept in freezers outside the hospital, the province is constructing a permanent storage unit to hold remains.

“People weren’t claiming bodies because they realized they couldn’t afford to bury them,” said Jim Dinn, leader of the province’s opposition New Democratic Party. “It’s not about building a bigger storage unit: It’s about addressing the underlying cause causing the accumulation of bodies and removing the barriers so people can have a dignified burial.”

Location matters: An adult single grave with the Mount Pleasant Group on average costs $2,800, but the price in midtown Toronto was $34,000 as of April 1, according to the website of the cemetery, funeral and cremation provider across the Greater Toronto Area. The price excludes opening and closing of the grave, funeral, tombstone, taxes and other items.

A funeral can cost C$2,000 to C$12,000, said Funeral Services Association of Canada President Jeff Weafer, up from about C$1,800 to C$8,000 in 1998.

The number of memorial fundraisers on crowdfunding site GoFundMe has ballooned to 10,257 in 2023 from 36 in 2013, a spokesperson for the site said.

Government support for funerals has failed to keep pace with rising funeral costs, advocates have said. The federal government announced a C$2,500 top-up to the C$2,500 death benefit in the Canada Pension Plan in the April budget.

“Losing your life partner or spouse is devastating for a senior. It can also be an immense financial burden after a lifetime of hard work,” Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, wrote in an email.

“That is why we are strengthening the Canada Pension Plan to provide a top-up to the death benefit.”

That is not enough, Weafer said.

“This is not a respectful end for Canadians,” he said. “The reason deceased individuals are going unclaimed by their families is about affordability.” — Reuters