Daily Digest Online

A 95-year-old woman in China, believed by her village to have died, was discovered calmly cooking in her kitchen six days after being placed in a coffin, in a case doctors attribute to an extremely rare condition known as "artificial death." A village in China's Guangxi province was stunned when a 95-year-old woman, believed to have passed away, was found alive in her home days after her funeral preparations had begun. Li Xiufeng was discovered unresponsive by a neighbor who brought her breakfast in February 2012, following a recent fall. Unable to wake her and detecting no breath, the neighbor presumed she had died. According to local tradition, her body was placed in a coffin inside her home for a multi-day vigil before burial. Six days later, when the neighbor returned to check on the home, he found the coffin empty. A search led to the kitchen, where Li Xiufeng was found sitting on a stool, preparing a meal. She reportedly told her shocked neig...

In a story of loss, memory, and remarkable recovery, a Borno State woman has reclaimed a family fortune in gold—N23.6 million worth—that she buried in the sand fifteen years ago while fleeing a Boko Haram attack, a poignant symbol of hope returning to a scarred region. For fifteen years, it was a secret held by the earth and a memory held by a heart in exile. A young woman, her name shielded for safety, carried the image of a frantic, desperate act from 2010: burying a small jar in the sand as Boko Haram fighters advanced on her hometown of Mallamfatori in Borno State. Inside that jar, wrapped in cloth, was not just gold. It was her last tangible connection to her late mother—a small pouch of gold coins and jewelry, an inheritance and a hope for the future. With insurgents closing in, she chose to trust the land with her treasure rather than let it fall into the hands of violence. Then, she fled. This week, that act of faith was finally rewarded. The Borno State...