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

Politics:

-- The ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) Retreat, which just wrapped up in Bagan, Myanmar, focused on ASEAN’s priorities for 2014, especially the guarantee of an environment of security, peace, stability and development in the region, said Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Quang Vinh in a press meeting on the outcomes of the event. It is the first regional meeting of its kind in the year.

Society:

-- Four fishermen in a fishing vessel from the central province of Thua Thien- Hue have died after their ship capsized offshore due to rough sea. The local salvage force has found the bodies of two of them.

-- Vietnam is trying to prepare all necessary legal frameworks and policies for the rights of disabled people and plans to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2014, according to the National Report on Human Rights under the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Vietnam signed the CRPD 5 years ago and issued the Law on Persons with Disabilities in 2010.

-- Specialties from all parts of the country for the coming Tet, or lunar New Year holiday, are stocked up and transported to Ho Chi Minh City en masse, but prices are expected to hike in the days to come due to rising demand and limited supply.   

Business:

-- There will be averagely 23, 10, and 8 daily flights between the capital city of Hanoi and the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City respectively offered by Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air and Jetstar Pacific within 4 days with high demand, from January 25 to 29, 2014. Almost all night flights of Vietnam Airlines during the period have not yet been booked, said Vietnam Airlines representative.

-- A direct air route from the airport of the central city of Da Nang to Japan’s Narita Airport will be launched in July this year, according to Mai Dang Hieu, deputy director of the municipal foreign affairs department. It is expected to create a better environment for boosting tourism, trade and investment between the two countries, in general, and two regions, in specific.

-- Chief Vietnamese negotiators and their European counterparts have reached a deal to complete discussions for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) by the year-end, said Truong Dinh Tuyen, Former Minister of Trade and Advisor to the Government negotiation delegation. The two sides are set to conclude negotiations in September after ending the recently-concluded sixth round of talks for the FTA in Brussels.

-- The domestic production of refined vegetable oil this year is projected to reach 774,000 tons, up 7.8 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The ministry also forecasts the 2015's output to rise 9.8 percent year on year to around 850,000 tons.

Lifestyle:

-- Copies of 54 works by renowned Russian painter Nicholas Roerich which were completed from 1903 to 1947, have been on display at an exhibition that has been opened at the Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam’s Ethnic Groups (MCVE) in northern province of Thai Nguyen. “The master of mountains” Roerich, who died in 1947 at the age of 73, left more than 7,000 wooden, fabric and oil works on landscapes and the life of people in Middle Asia, India, Tibet, China and Mongolia.

Sports:

-- With 39 gold medals, the Vietnamese team remained at the third place after Thailand and Indonesia at the ongoing seventh ASEAN Para Games in Myanmar after earning seven more golds on Saturday morning with four in track-and-field and three in swimming.