Hanoi: The family of a 17-year-old Vietnamese youth who died 36 years ago kept his body in their home after a fortune teller told relatives they had buried the teenager alive by mistake.
The family thought he had died in 1968 of illness, but a herbal medicine man told the father his son was still alive after the burial, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper reported yesterday.
Stricken with remorse, the father dug up the body and displayed it in a glass-covered coffin, keeping it in the family home in southern An Giang until he recently confessed the macabre secret to police.
Johannesburg: In South Africa, meanwhile, police are going to court to demand the burial of a 77-year-old man who has been dead seven weeks despite his family saying a "prophet" has foretold his resurrection.
Free State resident Paul Meintjes's body was returned to his family late last week after the local mortuary refused to store it any longer. The body was kept in his widow's room for three days before officials said it was a health risk and ordered it returned to the mortuary.
"The body is OK - it is still recognisable," said police spokesman Capt Sam Makhele in Bloemfontein. "But after a few days out of the fridge the smell was not OK."
Dar es Salaam: A Tanzanian who went to a witch doctor in search of the power to resist bullets and knife attacks died when ritual cuts made on his body proved fatal.
Beijing: Three grave robbers were killed when a 1,000-year Chinese tomb collapsed on them.
Four herdsmen from Inner Mongolia broke into the tomb, from the Liao dynasty (916-1125) that ruled in the north, with the intention of looting, Xinhua news agency said. No sooner had they got inside when the brick-made tomb collapsed, killing three of the men.
The lone survivor escaped from the debris and reported the case to the police, Xinhua said.
Athens: Tinka's Boy, a Dutch-bred stallion participating in the Olympics, had one last bit of business to get out of the way before he and his rider Markus Fuchs tackled their first show-jumping hurdle yesterday.
In full view of more than 8,000 spectators at the Markopoulo equestrian centre and a worldwide television audience, the horse pulled up about 10 metres before his first jump, flicked up his tail and produced a steaming heap of dung.
Mr Fuchs, who was not penalised for the unscheduled stop because his round had not yet started, felt the 15-year-old stallion's back suddenly tighten up beneath him as the horse slowed down when he wanted to accelerate for the first jump.
"I felt it coming and thought 'uh-oh'," Mr Fuchs commented afterwards. "This is quite often the case with him. He's always doing this to me. I've asked him \ a few times but he hasn't given me an answer yet."