Have a fabulous weekend and enjoy these brief news items on Tuoi Tre News today, April 12.

Society

-- According to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, drought and water scarcity will continue to rage across the south-central region spanning from Khanh Hoa Province to the northern area of Binh Thuan Province. The drought is considered severe and likely to last until mid-September.

-- Environmental police in Dong Nai Province, which borders Ho Chi Minh City, said on Saturday that they are working with the drivers of two trucks and Vedan, a foreign food producer, for illegally dumping over 50 tons of unprocessed mud at a plot in Bien Hoa City, the province’s capital, on Thursday.

-- The Southern Airports Authority has just slapped a fine of VND7.5 million (US$350) on a 35-year-old female passenger for assaulting a Vietjet Air male staffer. After checking in for a flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, the passenger was requested by the Vietjet Air staffer to weigh her hand luggage again as he thought the luggage might exceed the cap of seven kilograms. The passenger then smacked the staffer on the face though she did put her luggage on the scale. -- According to police in Thuan Nam District, located in Phan Rang-Thap Cham City, the heart of the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, around 8:00 am on Saturday, a car belonging to a convoy of speeding terrain race cars ran over a 27-year-old woman who had just fallen off her bike after bumping into a pile of construction materials on a street in Phuoc Dinh Commune. The accident leaves the woman seriously injured.

-- Lieutenant Colonel Luu Duc Binh, head of the Tan Phong Ward Police in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, said on Saturday that they have prepared records of Tran Thai Hoa, vice general director of Viet A Bank, based in the city’s District 1, pointing a rubber-bullet gun at the face of a female staff of Mai Linh Co., a taxi operator, around 8:00 pm on Friday.

Business

-- The Vietnam Railways on Saturday announced discounts on train fares to be applied for 23 consecutive days in celebration of the upcoming six-day public holiday, which is from April 28 to May 3. The discounts will be offered from April 11 to May 3. Prices of roughly 11,000 tickets on a total of 90 trains will be down by 20-30 percent.

-- Vietnam Airlines has just offered 50 percent discounts on its Rach Gia-Phu Quoc- Rach Gia flights. The localities are scenic spots located in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang, with Phu Quoc being a famous paradise-like island. The airline has also adopted one single fare rate on this route since April 1. The carrier will also offer one-way tickets from Rach Gia to Phu Quoc and the other way round at a mere VND550,000 ($26) from April 8 to May 8 in celebration of the public holiday.

Education

-- Huynh Ngoc Thien An, a student of Gia Dinh High School in Ho Chi Minh City, beat four strong contenders during the Saturday finale of the “Thuc Hien Uoc Mo” (Realizing Dreams) contest to bring home a whopping award totaling VND1.3 billion (US$60,583), including a AUD75,000 scholarship to study at an Australian university. Jointly organized by the city’s Department of Education and Training, the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, and Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, the contest offered high school students opportunities to plan out how to realize their dreams and interview experts in different areas.