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World’s shortest teenager tours New York

THE WORLD’S smallest teenager, standing at a mere 22 ins, toured New York and asked out a 6ft2 blonde on a date.

Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal, who is expected to take over as the world’s shortest man when he turns 18 on October 14, visited New York on a tour organised by ‘Ripley’s Believe It or Not’.

He was particularly taken with Mandy Stadtmiller, a reporter for the New York Post, his translator later explaining: “He likes tall girls. He is fascinated with blondes, because there are virtually no blond people in Nepal.”

Khagendra, who suffered from primordial dwarfism, a rare condition that only about 100 people in the world are believed to suffer from, is due to take over from Edward Nino Hernandez, a 24-year-old Colombian, who measures just 27ins.

Mr Hernandez weighs just 22lbs and has just been officially certified as the world’s shortest living man by Guinness World Records.

“He hasn’t grown since he was two years old,” his mother, Noemi Hernandez, said of the oldest of her five living children.

The previous title-holder was He Pingping of China, who was 1.5 ins (4cm) taller and died March 13. The Guinness people discovered Nino afterward.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .