Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today, December 13, in Vietnamese media.

Politics

-- Vietnam and China concluded their sixth round of talks on the sea area beyond the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin in Beijing on December 12. During the three-day meeting, the two sides worked to implement the common perception of the two countries’ high-ranking leaders on accelerating negotiations on the demarcation of maritime boundaries in the waters off the mouth of the Gulf of Tonkin.

-- The Vietnamese Presidential Office on Friday announced eight laws that were adopted at the National Assembly last month. These laws include the Laws on Civil Status, Investment, Enterprise, Occupational Education, and Management and Use of State Capital in Production and Business, and the Laws on amendments and supplements to some articles of the Laws on Civil Judgment Enforcement, Taxation, and Special Consumption Tax.

Society

-- The construction of the four-floor below-ground section of the terminal of the first metro system in Ho Chi Minh City started in District 1 on Friday by about 200 Japanese and Vietnamese engineers and workers. The deepest floor of the structure is 36 meters underground. Construction of the terminal is expected to be completed in 2017.

-- Eight tax and customs officers in the southern province of An Giang were arrested on Friday on charges of “abusing positions and/or powers while performing official duties.” These officials have been found helping others appropriate a huge amount from the state coffers through fraud in VAT refund procedures, local police said.  

-- Doctors at Can Tho General Hospital in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, on Friday performed an emergency operation on a 34-year-old man whose rectum was ruptured after another person put a bicycle pump into his anus and then pumped air into the organ as a joke. The patient has recovered after the operation.

-- The People’s Court of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on Friday sentenced a local man, 21-year-old Pham Nguyen Anh Huy, to seven years in prison for trafficking in women. Huy was arrested in April 2014, two years after he sold a 19-year-old woman to a brothel in China for VND19 million (US$890). Huy sent the woman to China after lying to her that she would have a good job in a restaurant or hotel there.

-- Police in the southern province of Tien Giang are hunting for the culprits who snatched a bag containing money and other assets worth VND700 million ($32,800) from a woman. The theft occurred early Friday when the woman and her relatives were taking a break on hammocks at a garden cafe in Cai Lay District on the way from the southern province of Hau Giang to Ho Chi Minh City. 

Business                                                   

-- As of July 1, 2015, businesses will be allowed to operate in lines of business that are not prohibited by the laws of Vietnam. This regulation is included in both the Enterprise Law and the Investment Law, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said at a press briefing in Hanoi on Friday.

-- Ho Chi Minh City targets GDP growth of at least 9.5 percent in 2015, the same as that set for 2014, according to a resolution adopted by the city People’s Council at its Friday meeting. The local People’s Committee said in late November that the city will strive to reach 9.7 percent GDP growth this year, 0.2 percentage points higher than the target.   

Sports

-- Arsenal will host Newcastle at Emirates Stadium at 12:30 am on Sunday, December 14 (Vietnam time), in an effort to win and improve the shaken image of their coach, Arsène Wenger. The Gunners have endured mixed fortunes in recent weeks, but bounced back from their 3-2 defeat at Stoke with a superb 4-1 win at Galatasaray in the Champions League in midweek.

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