Enjoy your breakfast while reading this summary of important news items:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Chung Hong-Won agreed to conclude the negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement by the end of this year during a meeting on Thursday, according to the Vietnam News Agency. The two countries hope to achieve the target of US$70 billion in two-way trade by 2020.   

-- The United States on Thursday partially lifted a long-time ban on lethal weapon sales to Vietnam to help it improve maritime security, Reuters reported.

-- Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Hua Ngoc Thuan on Thursday received Hungarian Chief Prosecutor Peter Polt who is in Vietnam for a working visit, the Vietnam News Agency said.

Society

-- A Vietnamese Buddhist monk has been reprimanded after a video capturing him unboxing an iPhone 6 and photos displaying his extravagant lifestyle surfaced online last week.   

-- A Vietnam-India friendship association has been established in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang.

-- A Vietnamese fishing boat exploded off the coast of southern Vietnam on Thursday, killing one person and leaving two others missing.

-- The Government Inspectorate has launched an inspection of the state-owned Vietnam Railways Corporation which is now stuck in a graft allegation related to a Japanese-ODA railway project in Hanoi.

-- The Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs warns Vietnamese citizens against coming to areas where protests are ongoing in Hong Kong to avoid troubles, ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh said Thursday at a regular press conference in Hanoi.

-- The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has just unveiled a draft decree that bans transport firm from using sleeper buses to carry tourists from January 1, 2016. The ministry is pooling feedback on the draft document. 

-- Vietnamese police said Thursday that they had busted a ring transporting 161 bricks of heroin on Wednesday.

Business

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung called for transparency in the power, coal, and fuel sectors at a meeting with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Thursday.

Lifestyle

-- A Taiwanese bought the “Giu Bien” (Defending Seas) painting of a Vietnamese artist that was displayed at an exhibition lasting from September 19 to 30 in Ho Chi Minh City. This painting was created to oppose China’s illegal positioning of an oil rig in Vietnamese waters from early May to mid-July.

-- Over 177,000 books were purchased during the 2014 Hanoi Book Festival that closed on Thursday.

Sports

-- Vietnam earned one silver medal and two bronzes on Thursday at the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea. Team Vietnam now stands at 21 in the medal table with one gold, 10 silvers, and 24 bronzes.