Tuoitrenews briefs some of the leading stories published today in Vietnamese media:

Politics:

-- Sweden has confirmed that it will support the European Union’s early recognition of Vietnam’s market economy status and help speed up negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the EU to ensure it will be completed in 2014,  Ewa Bjorling, Swedish Minister for Trade and Nordic Cooperation, told Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh in his recent working visit to Stockholm.

-- A recent seminar introducing prospects for wide-ranging cooperation between Vietnam and France has been organized in the city of Tours in the central Indre Et Loire province of France. The event, part of the activities held to celebrate the Vietnam Year in France 2014, has showcased Vietnam’s potentials in economics, culture and human resources to French participants who are seeking investment opportunities in Vietnam.

Society:

-- Electricity is responsible for most of the recent fires in Ho Chi Minh City, so local users should be aware of that fact and get more cautious with power when using it, said Lieutenant Tran Trieu Duong, the city firefighting chief, adding that safety equipment, like gas leak warning systems, and fire extinguishers should be widely equipped in companies, organizations, and households so that they can detect fires as soon as they break out and help put the flames out.

-- Hanoi police have summoned Nguyen Van Tien, 23, a student of the Hanoi University of Technology, to investigate his act of using the Internet to violate the law. Tien was found establishing many defamatory fanpages on Facebook to blackmail local organizations and businesses in exchange for the ability to take full control of the pages.

Business:

-- Toyota Vietnam (TMV) will recall 42,772 cars, including 40,241 Innovas and 2,531 Fortuners, for checking and replacing the spiral cable of the driver's airbag, as the possibly malfunctioning spiral cable may prevent the airbag from opening in the event of a crash. The move follows a global recall of 3.5 million Toyota vehicles due to faulty airbags in North America, Europe, Australia, Africa, Middle East, and Asia.

-- Italian heating and water heating manufacturer Ariston Thermo opened its first manufacturing plant in Vietnam, which is the second-largest in Asia, in the northern province of Bac Ninh on Friday. The US$18 million plant, covering an area of over 50,000 square meters in Tien Son Industrial Park, will offer jobs to about 300 people so that it can churn out 1 million electric water heaters per year.

-- Ho Chi Minh City will create highly favorable conditions to lure more foreign investments, including those from India, said Le Manh Ha, deputy chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee, at a meeting with a group of Indian business representatives on Friday. Vietnam and India need to strive to fulfill the potentials of both countries in many sectors, including trade, with an aim to reach two-way trade turnover of $7 billion and $15 billion by 2015 and 2020, respectively, he said.

-- As many as 350 enterprises from 26 cities and provinces nationwide have joined an international trade fair recently opening in the central province of Thua Thien Hue, a part of the ongoing 2014 Hue Festival, with 600 pavilions and 50 booths of businesses and trade associations from Thailand, Laos, Japan, France, the U.S., and Germany.

Lifestyle:

-- The annual Sa Pa Tourism Week will take place from April 29 to May 4 at the Ham Rong mountain eco-tourism site in Sa Pa Town in the northern province of Lao Cai with a wide range of festivities, including traditional music and dance performances and folk games of ethnic minority groups. The event will also cover cultural festivals of the Mong, Dao and Giay ethnic minority peoples and tours of their villages, a bonsai exhibition, and a trade fair.

-- An exhibition of 54 paintings that feature clothing used for grand ceremonies by the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) has kicked off in Hue City in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, as as part of the 2014 Hue Festival.