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

Politics:

-- Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and Japan-Vietnam Special Friendship Ambassador Sugi Ryotaro have been presented the title of Honorary Citizenship of Hanoi for their contributions to the Vietnamese capital city’s development and to foster the friendship, people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two nations at a ceremony to confer the title in Tokyo.

-- The first ASEAN Development Forum, themed "Build Mutual Trust and a Community of Common Destiny", was opened in Hong Kong on Saturday with the participation of government officials, experts and business leaders from the 10 ASEAN countries and China attended the forum to exchange views on issues of common concerns.

-- A delegation from the National Assembly (NA)’s Law Committee, led by Chairman Phan Trung Ly, is making a working visit to the UK from December 8-14 to study the operational model of the UK Parliament by joining many working sessions with a number of UK parliamentary agencies to learn about legislative process, and the role and authority of the parliamentary committees in law making and supervision.

-- Chief justices and senior members of judiciaries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries on Saturday gathered at the fourth ASEAN Chief Justices’ Roundtable on the Role of the Judiciary in Environmental Protection, co-organized by the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in Hanoi to discuss ways to step up their cooperation in addressing environmental challenges.

Society:

-- Kyle.B. Bond, Director of the Laboratory Program at the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Vietnam, has been honored with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health’s insignia “For the Health of the People” of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health handed over by Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Xuyen at a recent ceremony in Hanoi.

-- HCMC will need around VND1.4 trillion to build a 2.7-km road linking Vo Van Kiet Street to HCMC- Trung Luong Expressway under Build-Operate-Transfer model (BOT).

Business:

-- The State Treasury has raised over VND195 trillion ($9.2 billion) through the selling of Government bonds since the beginning of this year with the most recent successful bond sale worth VND2.185 trillion ($104 million) at Hanoi Stock Exchange on Thursday last week.

-- The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho was ranked first in Vietnam for providing comprehensive, easily accessible land-related information through its website, followed by Central Thua Thien Hue Province, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City, according to Land Transparency Study which was released by the World Bank  at a recent ceremony on December 12 in Hanoi.  

Lifestyle:

-- An exhibition titled “Martine, a friend from Europe”, co-organized by the Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation to Vietnam in collaboration with the Kim Dong Publishing House, has been opened in Hanoi on the occasion of the publication of the Vietnamese version of the comic series “Martine” comprising 20 episodes.

Sports:

-- A leader of the General Police Department for Crime Prevention and Suppression under the Ministry of Public Security on Saturday confirmed that the agency has launched investigation on possible betting and match-fixing committed by Vietnamese football players after the questionable loss of the national football team in the match to Malaysia in the second leg of the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup semifinal at My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi last Thursday.