Compiled by RAHIMY RAHIM, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
TWO shops in Nanjing which offered over 3,000 bowls of noodles for free daily caused eateries nearby to suffer losses, with some saying that their once peak hour lunch time crowd had disappeared, China Press reported.
The issue sparked a debate about being charitable and the impact on livelihoods of small food operators, prompting an investigation from the authorities.
The two noodle shops are located in the Jiangning and Yuhuatai districts, both serving a total of 3,000 bowls of vegetarian noodles daily at no charge.
Many of the folk who queue up are the aged, odd job workers and the jobless.
Yang, a man who has been selling fried noodles for 15 years, said his shop has been empty since the free noodle shop in Jiangning opened recently.
With rising rents and labour costs, Yang is considering closing shop.
Following complaints, the Jiangning district market regulator launched a probe and visited both shops, concluding that there was no evidence to show that they were using charity to make money or gain publicity.
As such, the regulators did not consider the giveaway unfair competition and that there was no legal basis to shut them down.
> The daily also reported that Hong Kong actress Charmaine Sheh was praised for keeping her composure after a fan accidentally stained her finger with a pen recently.
The four-time Best Actress winner, 51, was attending an event at Kai Tak Sports Park and was swarmed by fans after it ended.
A video of the incident showed fans holding up photographs and other memorabilia for Sheh to autograph.
One fan pricked Sheh’s hand with the tip of a marker and apologised immediately.
“It’s all right,” she responded while wiping the ink away before signing for the fan.
Many Internet users praised Sheh for her easy-going ways and pleasant interaction with fans.
(The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.)
