Here are the leading news stories about Vietnam you should not miss today, February 25.

Politics

-- Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang received Aso Yutaka, President of the Kyushu Economic Federation, in Hanoi on Wednesday, during which he asserted that Vietnam will create conditions for firms from the Japanese island to do long-term and effective business in the country.

Society

-- Lien Ket Viet, the Hanoi-based multilevel marketing firm whose leaders were arrested last week, has appropriated a total amount of VND1.9 trillion (US$85 million) from 60,000 people, police said Wednesday, citing the latest investigation results.

-- Nearly 700 Vietnamese people crossed the border in the southern province of Long An to Cambodia for gambling in 2015, the provincial police department said.

-- Vinpearl Safari, the country’s first-ever safari park located on Phu Quoc Island off the southern province of Kien Giang, has borrowed 14 rhinos and several other species from an under-construction zoo in the southern province of Long An, the forest management agency in the latter locality said Wednesday.

-- Nguyen Hoang Son, 20, residing in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, was arrested for allegedly killing a xe om (motorbike taxi driver) to steal his assets on Wednesday.

Business

-- Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Co Ltd, the operator of Dung Quat, Vietnam’s sole operational refinery, has dismissed reports that the facility is suffering from unsold inventories due to slumping oil prices.

-- The first sod was turned at a $130 million Korean-invested wind power project in the southern Vietnamese province of Tra Vinh on Wednesday, with completion slated for September 2017.

-- Vietnam’s consumer price index (CPI) in February rose 0.42 percent month on month, thanks to strong increases in transportation costs and even school tuition, the General Statistics Office said Wednesday.

-- Three pig slaughterhouses in the southern province of Dong Nai have been collectively fined VND25.5 million ($1,138) for operating without a license and violating food safety regulations, the provincial agriculture department said Wednesday.

-- Zalo, the Vietnamese Internet-based free texting and calling app that challenges Viber and Whatsapp, reached 45 million users in February, which is equal to the number of subscribers of Viettel, the country’s biggest mobile carrier.

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