‘My son was conceived naturally’

Jay Chou rejects rumours that he had to undergo artificial insemination

MANDOPOP star Jay Chou (pic), 39, has denied rumours that his second son Romeo was conceived through artificial insemination, China Press reported.

Chou was responding to a local tabloid in Taipei, Taiwan, which claimed that he had chosen this conception method as he suffers from the hereditary disease ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis that affects the spine.

The tabloid also claimed that Chou did not want this disease to be passed on to the next generation, although the result did not come out as expected since Romeo is still found to be carrying the gene.

“We had a natural pregnancy,” Chou said.

> An octogenarian from China’s Tianjin province recently graduated with a university degree and has mastered five different languages, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Xiao Minxiu, 81, is proficient in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Latin.

To top it all, she is also able to edit images using Adobe Photoshop as well, compelling netizens to dub her a “Super Excellent Student”.

When Xiao was 17, she graduated from a pharmacy school and started working in a nursing home.

Although she was accepted into Northwest University three years later, she could not leave her job and ended up neglecting her tertiary studies.

Her passion to learn was reignited when the Education Ministry released a new policy declaring that citizens over 25 years old were eligible for Gaokao – China’s university entrance exam – in 2001.

After failing the first three times, Xiao was finally accepted into Tianjin University of Technology in 2014 and graduated on Jan 20.

> A father in his 30s in Melaka was arrested after allegedly beating his nine-year-old so harshly that the child’s face became swollen, China Press reported.

The father was apparently unhappy after getting feedback from teachers that the child showed poor attitude in school and failed to complete assigned homework.

Teachers started noticing the child’s unusual behaviour and injuries the next day, and reported the matter to police.