Compiled by BENJAMIN LEE and BEH YUEN HUI
A HOSPITAL in China came under fire for putting up a celebratory message for treating two million patients, China Press reported.
Visitors to the Taizhou Central Hospital in Zhejiang province noticed a message that read: “Good News. Warmly congratulate our hospital’s emergency services for achieving a new record of two million patients.”
The message appeared on the giant billboard at the lobby and on TV screens at various departments.
People condemned the 22-year-old health institution for being “heartless”.
“Seeing people in pain and suffering, what is there to celebrate?” they asked.
A hospital worker said the message was removed following complaints from the public.
> The daily also reported that actress Zhang Ziyi is down with Covid-19.
The star is one of hundreds of millions of Chinese who have contracted the virus in the over two weeks since China scrapped its zero-Covid policy following nearly three years of strict controls and preventive measures.
On Christmas Day, Zhang posted two photographs of herself on social media, saying: “I am positive too.”
Fans wished her a speedy recovery.
The 43-year-old’s latest public appearance was at the Macau International Movie Festival, in which she was crowned Best Actress and Best Director for her film My Country, My Parents last week.
> Major Chinese dailies reported that South Korean actor Song Joong-ki is dating a British woman.
It was said that the 37-year-old star had introduced the woman as “my girlfriend” to the film crew he was working with.
Song also invited his new sweetheart on a working trip to Singapore recently to promote his new drama Reborn Rich.
The actor had previously married his co-star Song Hye-kyo from Descendants of the Sun in 2017 but the marriage came to an end two years later.
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.