Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today, January 24, in Vietnamese media.

Politics

-- As part of his visit to Vietnam, Cardinal Fernando Filoni, the Vatican’s Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, visited the Da Nang Diocese in the central city of Da Nang on Friday, extending greetings on the 400^th anniversary of the evangelization and the 50^th founding anniversary of the diocese. He also expressed his hope that local Catholics will continue contributing to the country’s socio-economic development.Society

-- The late chief of the Vietnam Railway Authority, Nguyen Huu Thang, 60, who was found hanging dead in his office in Hanoi on Thursday evening, could have killed himself by hanging, police said on Friday after examining the marks likely caused by strangling left on Thang’s neck and finding a plastic wire on the scene. The Ministry of Transport, which governs the VRA, has yet to confirm this assumption.

-- Police in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau said on Friday that they had handed over to their South Korean counterparts six South Korean nationals who were arrested in the province’s Vung Tau City on Wednesday for setting up gambling websites for about 4,000 people in South Korea, with the total money involved amounting to 20 billion won (US$18.6 million).   

-- Vietnamese police on Friday commenced legal proceedings against 36 people in a gambling ring that was busted by the Ministry of Public Security in July 2014. The gambling ring operated on the website M88, with total gambling money reaching VND1.4 trillion ($65.5 million).

-- The Hanoi Department of Transport will cut down 146 century-old trees along Nguyen Trai and Tran Phu Streets in the capital city for the sake of traffic safety, a department official said on Friday. These large and tall trees are leaning toward a railway line nearby, posing a threat to people and vehicles as they can fall at any time, the official explained.  

Business

-- Vietnamese exporters shipped a record volume of over 1.3 million metric tons of fragrant rice in 2014, much higher than the 216,000 metric tons exported in 2010, the Vietnam Food Association recently reported, adding that this kind of rice is in demand in many foreign markets including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and the U.S.

-- VietJet Air, a low-cost airline in Vietnam, will open a direct route between Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Hoi, the capital city of Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam, in late April this year, provincial authorities said on Friday.        

Education

-- The Asian Development Bank and the State Bank of Vietnam have signed a $165 million credit agreement to fund a secondary education universalization project intended for ethnic minority people in the poorest areas in Vietnam and to provide more capital for another project to upgrade rural infrastructure in six central Vietnamese provinces. 

Lifestyle

-- The 2015 Tet (Lunar New Year) Flower Street in Ho Chi Minh City will open at 7:00 pm on February 16, three days ahead of Lunar New Year’s Eve, and last until 10:00 pm on February 22, said Saigontourist, the organizer of the event. The flower street will stretch 580 meters from Quach Thi Trang Roundabout to the intersection of Ho Tung Mau and Ham Nghi Streets in District 1.

Sports

-- Manchester City will host Middlesbrough at Etihad Stadium in a match of the fourth round of the Football Association Challenge Cup at 10:00 pm on Saturday (Vietnam time). This is a chance for the Citizens to recover their image after their poor performances in recent matches, experts said.