Boy, 9, Hangs "Like Saddam"

Television and parental neglect are being blamed. The "Don't Try This At Home" warning haunts.

From News24.com:

(Multan, Pakistan) A young boy who tried to copy hanging scenes from the execution video of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein died in central Pakistan, said police on Monday.

Mubashar Ali, 9, hanged himself, while re-enacting Hussein's hanging with the help of elder sister, 10, after tying a rope to a ceiling fan and his neck in his home in Rahim Yar Khan district on Sunday, said a local police official.

The father of the deceased boy said that his children had been watching the video of Saddam Hussein's execution on television and attempted to imitate the hanging as other family members thought they were playing in another room.

Police called the death accidental. I'd call it idiocy - trying to reenact an execution while expecting a different outcome.