Below are some of the main stories published in the Vietnamese press:

Politics:

-- President Truong Tan Sang received Mayor of the Republic of Korea’s Busan City Hur Nam Sik, who is leading a delegation of businesspeople and intellectuals on a working visit to Vietnam, in Hanoi on Thursday.

At the meeting, the Vietnamese leader asked the RoK government and Busan authorities to further facilitate the Vietnamese in the country to integrate into the local community, and affirmed that the Vietnamese government stands ready to help Korean businesses operate in Vietnam just as in their home country.

Society:

-- Numerous localities have expressed their concerns over the negative effects of hydropower projects on the life of ethnic minority groups at a recent seminar on socio-economic development policy for ethnic groups. At the event taking place in the central city of Da Nang on Thursday, a report showed that 33 hydropower projects which have been carried out in neighboring Quang Nam Province have adversely affected more than 3,000 local households, in which over 1,500 have had to relocate.

-- Pham Thi Thanh Ngoc, a Vietnamese-American, has sued a Vietnamese tabloid for allegedly making up stories that she raped many taxi drivers in the northern province of Hai Duong last year.

-- Authorities in the central province of Thanh Hoa have ordered local health agencies to provide rabies vaccinations to cats and dogs in the province for fear of an outbreak of the disease.

According to the province’s Preventive Medicine Center, 28 were bitten by reportedly rabid dogs and two of whom already died in the first three months of this year.

Business:

-- National flag carrier Vietnam Airlines will increase the number of flights between Hanoi and Dong Hoi (Quang Binh) to 15 per week from May 25 to August 25, instead of 7 flights a week as at present. The number of flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Dong Hoi will also rise to 5 per week.

Lifestyle:

- On April 3, Nguyen Van Hoa, head of the Ho Chi Minh City’s District 10 Department of Civilian Case Execution, said the confiscation of the house owned by seasoned actor Nguyen Chanh Tin has been delayed until September 30 so that the actor could cure his current illness and arrange a new place to live.

Last month, the legal execution department demanded that Tin, 62, hand over his house, on Ba Vi Street in the district, to Phuong Nam (Southern) Bank as his son’s company failed to settle a loan plus interest amounting to VND10.5 billion ($500,000).