Good morning from Vietnam!

Politics

-- Leaders of the ten-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have failed to come up with a clear and long-term resolution to disputes at the East Vietnam Sea after the bloc’s three-day summit concluded Thursday in Vientiane, Laos.

Business

-- Construction of a new VND4 trillion (US$178.57 million) international terminal began on Thursday at Cam Ranh International Airport in the southern province of Khanh Hoa and is expected to be finished in 18 months, after which the airport will be able to handle a further eight million passengers every year.

-- The Vietnamese subsidiary of Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Group, which was responsible for mass fish deaths in central Vietnam earlier this year, has installed fish tanks in its wastewater treatment plants to monitor water quality, the company’s representative said in an inspection visit on Thursday led by Vietnam Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha.

-- Cam Ranh International Seaport, which was inaugurated in March, received its first cruise ship on Thursday when around 1,800 tourists, most of whom Chinese and South Korean, and 740 crew members arrived on the MS Legend of the Seas, a cruise ship operated by Bahamas-based Royal Caribbean International cruise line.

Society

-- Entertainment activities inside caves in Vietnam’s UNESCO-recognized heritage Ha Long Bay will no longer be allowed beginning October, chairman of Ha Long City People’s Committee Pham Hong Ha said on Thursday in a press meeting to address public concerns surrounding the issue.

-- Vo Van Minh, who was last December sentenced to seven years behind bars for extorting money from a local beverage manufacturer after discovering a fly inside one of the brand’s unopened energy drink bottle, had his appeal rejected on Thursday by Ho Chi Minh City Senior People’s Court, which upheld the judgment of the Court of First Instance.

-- Heavy rains are in the forecast this weekend from northern Vietnam to the central city of Hue, with some areas experiencing extreme downpours and occasional whirlwinds, while small floods are to be expected in rivers in northern mountainous regions, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

-- A new bus route, numbered 84, connecting Ho Chi Minh City’s Cho Lon area in District 6 with Binh Chanh District, was inaugurated on Thursday with a fleet of 17 new buses, raising the total number of new buses being introduced in the city to 200, according to Director of the city’s public transport authority Dau An Phuc.

Sports

-- Vietnam smelled its first-ever Paralympic medal early this morning when 32-year-old weightlifter Le Van Cong, who was among Vietnam’s medalist-hopefuls in Rio, broke world record and snatched gold in an intense men’s 49-kilogram weightlifting event at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in Brazil.

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