World Scene: Vietnam

Sleeping next to dead wife

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed, an online newspaper reported yesterday. Le Van, 55, from a small town in the province of Quang Nam, opened up his wife's grave in 2004, moulded clay around the remains to give it the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said. The father of seven said neighbors did not dare visit the house for several years. "I'm a person that does things differently. I'm not like normal people," he was quoted as saying.