Compiled by RAHIMY RAHIM, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
A 16-STOREY mural featuring King of Mandopop Jay Chou and his wife Hannah Quinlivan in Miri, Sarawak, has gone viral on social media and quickly became the city’s latest photo hotspot.
Tourists are flocking to the downtown Mercure Miri City Centre just to take photos with the mural, which is now the largest in the city, China Press reported.
The artwork was created by Sibu artist Kong Chak Kiong, who blended the couple’s portraits with city landscapes.
Kong and his team worked from suspended scaffolds high above the ground that swayed in the wind, making the painting process even more challenging.
Due to its size, the mural cannot be viewed in full from ground level. The team relied on drones to check the layout and make adjustments.
Kong said they painted the mural voluntarily, with the building owner covering only the cost of materials and crane rental.
In 2019, he completed the Miri Balloon mural along Jalan Bendahara, which had also become a local landmark.
Over the past decade, he has produced murals in Sandakan, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Melbourne, Paris and Ireland.
His next project will take him to the United States next year.
> A man in Chengdu, China, who swallowed a lighter nearly 30 years ago on a bet has finally had it removed, China Press reported.
“It was probably in 1991 or 1992. I was drinking with friends and we made a bet. One of them dared me to swallow a lighter if he was willing to do the same.
“So I swallowed one just like that,” said the man, surnamed Deng.
Believing it would pass through naturally, Deng suffered no major discomfort aside from occasional stomach pain over the years.
It was only after he began experiencing persistent abdominal pain and bloating recently that he decided to undergo a gastroscopy.
Using a gastroscope, the medical team inserted a condom into the stomach, wrapped it around the lighter, and carefully extracted it. The entire procedure took 20 minutes.
The lighter, measuring 7cm, was coated in black, decayed matter but remained structurally intact.
Doctors urged the public not to attempt such stunts, noting that lighters contain flammable liquid which may leak or react with stomach acid, posing a potentially life-threatening risk.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
