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Xu Zheng

Talking points

The Chinese comedy , which ends its run in mainland cinemas today, has overtaken as the film seen by the most people on the mainland. More than 38 million Chinese have seen the movie, directed by Xu Zheng, since its release on December 12. The success of the 30-million-yuan film, which began showing on mainland screens on December 12, has been a surprise for the domestic movie industry, which is normally dominated by big-budget historical epics with large casts.

 

Lei Yuen, a popular, 40-year-old noodle and congee shop in the centre of Causeway Bay, closes, a victim of the tourist hot spot's soaring rents. Hongkongers formed long queues over the past week at the small shop, behind the Sogo department store, for a last taste of its fare. The shop's vintage decoration stands in contrast to the neighbouring cosmetics, electronics and fashion shops.

 

The Democratic Party announces the results of a survey to gauge the public's satisfaction with the housing policies outlined in Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's maiden policy address. Meanwhile, the Professional Teachers' Union meets the media to express dissatisfaction at what it said was Leung's failure to honour his pledge to extend free education to 15 years.

 

The Agriculture Ministry briefs the media in Beijing on the government's plans for modernising agriculture. The central government has been working to improve the efficiency of agriculture and to increase harvests and farmers' incomes. The ministry will also issue the full text of its 2013 policy blueprint for agriculture on Thursday.

 

The mother of "Ruby the Heart Stealer", the star witness in former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's sex trial, gives evidence. The 76-year-old billionaire is accused of having paid her daughter, the former nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, for sex when she was a minor - a crime that could cost Berlusconi his reputation and 15 years in prison.

 

A Moscow court opens a fraud trial against lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose prison death in 2009 sparked an international outcry, making rare use of a legal right to try a dead person. Magnitsky was 37 when he died after nearly a year in pre-trial custody on tax evasion changes. He said he was denied proper medical care, and members of then-president Dmitry Medvedev's own human rights council said he was probably beaten to death.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...
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