Here are the leading news stories about Vietnam you should not miss today, February 19, 2016.

Politics

-- President Truong Tan Sang joined village patriarchs, artisans from 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups and overseas Vietnamese in an annual ethnic culture-themed festival in Hanoi’s outlying district of Son Tay on Thursday.

Society

-- Hanoi will earmark some VND11.5 trillion (US$513.39 million) for the city’s firefighting and search and rescue tasks, including purchases of airplanes, from now to 2025, according to a recently approved plan.

-- A fisherman in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa spotted a piece of debris, possibly a part of an airplane, when he was fishing offshore earlier this month, local authorities said Thursday.

-- A Philippine fisherman, who was rescued by Vietnamese soldiers stationed on Sinh Ton Island, part of Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago, when he was drifting off the island on February 8, was sent back to his country on Thursday, ten days after receiving treatment there.

-- The head of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department on Thursday urged all forces to strengthen effort to fight against criminals, after Secretary of the city’s Party Committee Dinh La Thang requested a day earlier that the rate of crime be reduced in three months.

Business

-- Fuel prices in Vietnam dropped for the fourth consecutive time this year on Thursday, with A92 gasoline, the most popular petrol in the country, selling at only VND13,752 ($0.61) a liter, the lowest in six years.

Lifestyle

-- Director Jordan Vogt Robert, along with actors and actresses such as Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, and Marc Evan Jackson, arrived in Hanoi on a private plane on Thursday to begin shooting parts of the “Kong: Skull Island” movie in northern Vietnam.

Sports

-- The Vietnam Football Federation on Thursday decided to award the Vietnamese futsal squad VND1 billion ($44,643) for securing a spot in the upcoming 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup after winning a terrific qualifying match against Japan a day earlier.

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