A foul, putrid smell had caused a man to mistakenly think that his tenant was dead, when he was in fact, very much alive.

A man identified only as Old Wang was taking his usual stroll in the morning when he decided to check up on his tenant, Xiao He.

However upon arriving at the house, Old Wang was greeted by a foul odour and realised that the front door was unlocked. He went in to discover Xiao He with his eyes closed and foaming at the mouth.

Thinking his tenant had died, he fled to the nearest police station to make a report. He was quoted by China News as saying: “There is a rotting dead person inside my house!”

Police then accompanied Old Wang back to the house to investigate.

“As soon as I entered the room the stench hit me, this sour, rotten smell. I didn’t bring my face mask either, so it was even worse,” said a police officer to China News.

The officer described the young man on the bed as completely rigid, eyes tightly shut with a deathly pale complexion. Soon after, medical personnel arrived and began examining the body for signs of life.

It was when they removed the blanket from Xiao He’s body to check his heartbeat, that Xiao He immediately sat up straight and opened his eyes. His movement was so sudden and unexpected that it caused a paramedic at the scene to fall down.

“I was so scared, you see a rigid foul-smelling corpse suddenly sit up, I was terrified!” said the paramedic to China News.

After further investigation, medical personnel then clarified that Xiao He was epileptic, and that Old Wang had walked in on him experiencing an epileptic fit.

When asked why there had been a rotten smell in the house, Xiao He admitted that he had not showered for over a month due to limited funds. The rotten, putrid smell had come from his unwashed feet.

mldas@sph.com.sg

PHNOM PENH – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen denied buying fake ‘likes’ for a Facebook page Thursday, as the country’s rival politicians increasingly battle for social media acclaim.

A self-confessed digital dinosaur, 63-year-old Hun Sen has recently taken to the web with gusto, posting daily Facebook updates and debuting a tailored app featuring news about his everyday life.

The strongman’s Facebook page, minted in September, has already garnered 3.2 million ‘likes’, becoming one of the country’s fastest-growing and most popular pages.

But his political rival, self-exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy, has now accused the premier of hiring foreigners to create fake Facebook accounts to artificially boost his page’s popularity.

The allegation came after the English daily Phnom Penh Post reported that nearly half of Hun Sen’s thumbs of approval came from accounts based outside the country, mostly from India.

Rainsy’s page has fewer overall ‘likes’ at nearly 2.3 million but more come from inside Cambodia, according to the report.

Hun Sen batted down the allegations Thursday while he was speaking at a university graduation ceremony in the capital Phnom Penh.

“I don’t know where those ‘likes’ are from,” he said, calling Rainsy a “loser who doesn’t agree to lose”.

“If I could buy India, I must be really strong. But I am just happy that I, Hun Sen, have been recognised by Indian people and people in other countries as the Prime Minister of Cambodia,” he added.

Analysts say the premier’s new but voluminous social media habits are an effort to woo young voters as he seeks to extend his more than 30-year grip on power ahead of local elections next year and a national poll in 2018.

“This is yet another sign Hun Sen is desperately trying to halt his waning popularity,” Cambodian political analyst Ou Virak told AFP, adding that both Hun Sen and Rainsy have been spending money to advertise their pages.

Rainsy, who lives abroad to avoid arrest warrants he says are politically motivated, has long embraced social media to spread his message to young voters.

A 2013 election saw young Cambodians vote in droves for his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), wearied by the endemic corruption, rights abuses and political repression seen as the hallmarks of Hun Sen’s rule.

The party says it was denied a majority in the election by vote rigging.

In what seems to be yet another strange ‘fitness’ trend in China, young women and girls have started to measure their waists using a sheet of A4-size paper.

A standard sheet of A4 paper, as defined by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO), measures 8.27 inches wide when held up vertically.

A large number of social media users who were game enough to partake in this bizarre challenge flocked to China’s version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, to share pictures of their tiny waists.

Some of them showed off waistlines that were equal to or even slimmer than a sheet of A4 paper.

Chinese internet users have reportedly claimed that the slim waist fad is a healthy and attainable aim.

However, many netizens were also quick to slam the so-called ‘fitness’ fad and have called it “weird,wrong and worrying” while others poked fun at the trend.

Twitter user @thekimmyeast said: “My hip size is maybe like an A4 paper too…if you place the paper horizontally”.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Twitter, Sina Weibo

This is not the first time that China has obsessed over waistlines.

Earlier this year, Chinese women took part in another bizarre challenge to touch their belly buttons from behind their waist. Even celebrities took part in this odd trend which took China’s social media by storm.

Celebs join belly button challenge to show their good figures

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Sina Entertainment, Sina Weibo

Despite the backlash that the trend attracted, it seems there is no stopping Chinese netizens when it comes to new and bizarre ways to challenge each other and demonstrate their beauty.

ssandrea@sph.com.sg

BANGKOK – The Thai capital will impose a curfew during Thailand’s annual water festival next month to show solidarity with farmers hit by drought, city officials said.

Thailand is facing its worst water shortage in two decades, with 14 out of 76 provinces hit and large swathes of agricultural land at risk.

Thailand has entered its annual dry season, which typically runs from March to May, meaning the drought is likely to get worse.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s solution? Be a wet blanket by cutting festival days down from four to three and imposing a curfew.

“This is partly symbolic, but we hope to save water too because our lakes have become deserts,” said deputy Bangkok governor Amorn Kijchawengjul.

“We don’t want city folk splashing water around carelessly while farmers struggle.”

The Songkran festival, which marks Thai New Year, is often referred to as the world’s biggest water fight – a time when revellers splashing water on each other and everyone, young and old, is fair game.

A major tourist attraction, Bangkok’s water parties typically run late into the night.

But this year all splashing will have to stop at 9 p.m. sharp.

“We’ll just shut down the party,” said Amorn.

Related: No Songran water fights, urges Thai govt

Water-splashing fun at Songkran new year celebrations

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Reuters, AFP