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

Politics:

-- The Vietnam - Germany Friendship Association hasheld its fourth congress in Hanoi on to decide tasks for 2012-2017.

-- Senior officials of ASEAN and China have agreed to fully and effectively implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) at the end of a recent two-day workshop to mark the 10th anniversary of the signing of the DOC in Phnom Penh.

 Society:

-- -- The anti-smuggling force of the Ministry of Public Security has coordinated with the traffic police team of Tan Son Nhat Airport under Road Traffic Police to discover two 15-seat minibus carrying 750 high-value mobile phones, including 550 iPhone 4, 4s and iPhone 5, without any valid papers. The driver has been detained for investigation.

-- The government has planned to allocate VND8.2 trillion ($390.5 million) to develop healthcare facilities on the country's islands, according to the Ministry of Health. The ministry is currently drafting a plan to outline activities through 2020.

-- The difference in sex ratio at birth has increased rapidly, especially in the last two years, making the sex ratio at birth reaching 112.3 boys to 100 girls in 2012, up from the ratio of 111.9 boys to100 girls in 2011, said Duong Quoc Trong, General Director of the Population Department, at a national workshop on gender imbalance at birth held by the Ministry of Health in Hanoi.

-- According to the announcement of Yahoo! Southeast Asia, the digital content service providers will discontinue providing the comment functionality on Yahoo! News as "there were so many abusive comments". Yahoo! said it is committed to protect and promote the privacy and freedom of expression worldwide, but as there are more and more comments with abusive nature in the comment section, Yahoo! decided to close this function.

Business:

-- Results of the 9th quarterly EuroCham Business Climate Index survey, conducted in October 2012, has shown that business confidence and outlook among European businesses in Vietnam continues to drop to a record low with only 45 points and released today, according to European Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EuroCham).

-- Tiger Vietnam Co Ltd, a Japanese invested company, has inaugurated its first home electric appliance plant with charter capital of $12 million in Amata industrial park in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nai.

-- Dang Van Thanh, former chairman of the board of directors of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank), is under investigation, said the bank’s new chairman Pham Huu Phu.

-- The resignation of Dang Van Thanh, founder-cum-chairman of the board of directors of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank’s (Sacombank), caused a VND22.25 trillion ($1.07 billion), a 3.13 percent, market capitalization loss on Friday.

-- Pham Khac Khoan, deputy general director of Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank, has been appointed as the acting general director of the unlisted Kien Long Commercial Joint Stock Bank as the former CEO has been promoted. 

Sports:

-- Vietnam's top chess player Le Quang Liem has moved up five places from 46th to 41st in the world rankings, according to the latest announcement of the World Chess Federation.

-- Top Vietnamese badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh has dropped one step to 11th place in the latest world rankings, announced by the World Badminton Federation.