Politics

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called Wednesday for more awareness against corruption, the perfection of policies on land use and management, and the supervision of state-owned enterprises at the 18th session of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption in Hanoi.

-- General Neang Phat, Secretary of State for the Cambodian Defense Ministry, is leading a high-ranking Cambodian delegation to visit Vietnam for five days from Tuesday to boost defense cooperation with the Vietnamese side.

Society

-- Tuoi Tre newspaper opened a new office in the southern province of Kien Giang on Wednesday. This is the 14th in the newspaper’s nationwide network of offices.

-- Two ferocious storms are forecast to be closing in on the East Sea.

-- Ho Chi Minh City initiated Wednesday its crackdown on unsanctioned car parking on 11 central business district streets.

Business

-- Tuoi Tre newspaper has uncovered tricks Nguyen Duc Kien, a banking tycoon who was arrested Monday evening for illegal business activities, used to milk huge amounts of money from local banks. Read Tuoitrenews later today for more details.

-- ACB, the Ho Chi Minh City-based bank where arrested Nguyen Duc Kien used to be deputy chairman, said Wednesday it has enough funding to pay depositors at the moment following reports that its customers are flocking to the bank’s branches for mass withdrawals.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City branch of the State Bank of Vietnam has announced it is ready to provide cash for ACB in the worst scenario of enormous withdrawals from depositors, following the arrest of banking mogul Nguyen Duc Kien.

-- Around 65 percent of hybrid rice, produced by crossbreeding different kinds of rice, grown in Vietnam is imported from China, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

-- Domestic gold prices have unusually surged in the last two days while world prices just witnessed a slight rise.

Lifestyle

-- Cultural characteristics of the ethnic groups in the Central Highlands will be introduced from August 28 to September 2 in Hanoi on the occasion of the so-called "Central Highlands Cultural Days."

-- A Vietnam-Japan cultural exchange festival will be held on Friday in Hoi An Ancient Town, a World Heritage Site in the central province of Quang Nam.

Sports

-- A soccer tournament for Southeast Asian police opened Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City.