Boy, 6, circumcised by 'genie'

TANGERANG, Indonesia: It was a painful experience for Satrio Wibowo, 6, when he found his penis had swollen all of a sudden while he sat in the front porch of his parents' house in Rancagong village, Legok district, on Friday afternoon.

"We tried to get help from shamans but strangely none of them were around ... we suspected it was the work of a genie," the boy's mother Titin, a factory worker, said on Monday.

Siswo, the boy's father, who is a street vendor, claimed they could not afford to take their only son to the hospital.

But when the confused mother checked on Saturday morning, the painful swelling, as well as the foreskin of the boy's penis were gone as if it had been circumcised, but without a trace of a cut or stitches.

Circumcision is essential for Muslim boys to mark the arrival of puberty. -- JP