Check out what is in the news today:

Politics

-- France will support Vietnam in defending its air space and seas, the European nation’s President François Hollande asserted at a joint press conference in Hanoi on Tuesday, following his talk with Vietnam State President Tran Dai Quang as part of his three-day state visit to the Southeast Asian country.

-- Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte delightedly received Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s invitation to pay an official visit to the nation during a bilateral meeting following the opening ceremony of the 28th and 29th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summits, taking place from Tuesday until Thursday in Vientiane, Laos, according to the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Society

-- Vietnam is currently home to between 4,000 and 5,000 transgender people of three types, ranging from receiving no medical intervention, adopting cross-sex hormone therapies, to undertaking sex reassignment surgeries, according to Nguyen Huy Quang, head of the Department of Legal Affairs under the Ministry of Health.

-- Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has decided to drop a proposal to build a hydroelectric plant in Yok Don National Park, which spans of Dak Lak and Dak Nong provinces in the Central Highlands.

-- The Government Inspectorate of Vietnam announced on Tuesday a decision to probe a deal that took place earlier this year in which state-run Mobifone, one of the country’s leading mobile network operators, acquired nearly the entire stake of Audio Visual Global (AVG), a local pay TV operator.

-- A survey conducted and announced by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday revealed that 15.6 million Vietnamese adults spent VND31 trillion (US$1.37 billion) on smoking, including conventional, electronic and chewing cigarettes, in 2015. The percentage of smokers last year inched down compared to 2010. 

-- The Ministry of Information and Communications ordered on Tuesday that four journalists at two local newswires have their reporter cards revoked following multiple violations.

-- Tran Vinh Tuyen, deputy chair of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, on Tuesday presided over a session to ink a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between local software companies in establishing the e-government.

Business 

-- The State Audit of Vietnam has released its report on a project to build Co Chien Bridge, which links the Mekong Delta provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh, proposing that the investor’s profits be trimmed by more than VND433 billion ($19.1 million).

-- Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Van Tuan told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday that a recently released policy to raise visa fees will apply only to tourists from the U.S. market. He added his agency, whose consent had not been sought regarding the fee hike, will propose the policy be reconsidered.

-- At a meeting on Tuesday, Le Phuoc Vu, chairman of Hoa Sen Group, a giant corrugated sheets producer, reassured shareholders that pollution concerns sparked over his plan to develop a US$10.6 billion steel complex in a coastal area in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan mostly comes from envious and ill-meaning individuals.

Lifestyle

-- The administration of Ha Long City, the heart of the northern province of Quang Ninh, will maintain a number of “unique”, costly entertainment activities, including dining and partying, which have sprung up within the UNESCO-recognized Ha Long Bay recently, as no damage has been found being made to the caves, its chairman confirmed on Tuesday.

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