A man in Vietnam has died after his wife reportedly squeezed his testicles during a fight and refused to let go for five minutes.

Le Kim Khai, 53, died of suffocation on the way to the hospital on Sunday (July 10), reported Vietnam’s Tuoi Tre News.

It said Mr Khai, who was estranged from his wife and family, had gone to his wife’s home in the southern Vietnamese province of Tien Giang that night.

Afer being refused entry, he reportedly used a hand-saw to cut the lock on the door.

Mr Khai then entered the house and got into an argument with his 55-year-old wife, Phan Thi Kim Chuong. This quickly escalated into a violent altercation.

Tuoi Tre News reported that Mr Khai was the one who started the fight, repeatedly hitting his wife with his fists and ignoring their daughter’s pleas to stop.

He then allegedly turned on his daughter, assaulting her too. It is not known how old the daughter was.

This prompted Mr Khai’s wife to shout for help. In a desperate attempt to protect her daughter, she grabbed her husband’s testicles, dragging him to the floor, reported Tuoi Tre News.

She then sat on his stomach, her vice-like grip still on his testicles.

She even managed to call the police during this time.

Chuong released her grip only when neighbours, who heard her cries for help, arrived to help, according to Tuoi Tre News.

By this time, Mr Khai had lost consciousness. He was taken to hospital but died on the way.

According to an autopsy report, he died of suffocation after food became stuck in his windpipe. No further details were released.

Chuong, who is now being held by local police for questioning, told the authorites that her husband often attacked her and she had meant only to give him a “warning”, when she grabbed his testicles, reported Tuoi Tre News.

xiuhuil@sph.com.sg

TOKYO – Japan’s Emperor Akihito has no plans to step down, the imperial household has insisted, denying reports the 82-year-old wants to abdicate, in what would be an extraordinary move for a more-than 2,600-year-old royal line.

The country’s establishment was been thrown into tumult after respected public broadcaster NHK – citing palace sources – said Akihito wanted to pass the throne to his son.

Any such abdication – the first in 200 years – would be a huge shock to a country where the revered royal family symbolises stability and continuity.

Observers say NHK and Kyodo News, which separately carried a similar report, would be extremely careful before committing on such an explosive story, and would certainly have strong sourcing.

But the Imperial Household Agency, the government body that runs royal affairs, offered a categorical denial.

“It is absolutely not true,” Vice Grand Steward Shinichiro Yamamoto told reporters late Wednesday.

Emperor Akihito celebrates 82nd birthday with peace message

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Reuters, AFP

The emperor “has long refrained from discussing systematic issues out of consideration for his majesty’s constitutional position,” he told reporters.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declined to comment, hinting at the sensitivity of the matter, as did Yoshihide Suga, the government’s top spokesman.

Akihito’s role is strictly limited to one of “symbol of the state” under a constitution imposed by the United States in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War II.

A court official told AFP that the agency has not been discussing a possible abdication by the emperor.

However, Japan’s top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported that the government has been secretly reviewing such a possibility.

There is no provision in the Japanese constitution for an abdication, apparantly a mechanism to prevent the arbitrary replacement of emperors.

Akihito’s father Hirohito, in whose name Japan’s military campaigns of the 20th century were prosecuted, was treated as a living god until defeat in 1945.

The throne, which Japan claims to be one of the world’s oldest, is held in deep respect by much of the public, despite being largely stripped of its mystique and quasi-divine status in the aftermath of the war.

The much admired Akihito, who has suffered from numerous health issues, including prostate cancer and heart problems, publicly hinted late last year at his growing limitations in the performance of his ceremonial duties.

Japan’s emperor and empress in Philippines for historic visit

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Reuters, AFP, The Yomiuri Shimbun/ANN