Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today, June 6, in Vietnamese media.

Politics

-- Vietnam’s National Assembly (NA) on Friday conducted a close-door meeting to hear a report delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh about the East Vietnam Sea situation for about one hour. The report’s contents were the same as those previously published in the mass media, many NA deputies told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, adding that the report focused on China’s illegal building of artificial islands atop some reefs belonging to Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago.  

Society

-- The chief judge of the Supreme People’s Court, Truong Hoa Binh, on Friday said the court had apologized to Nguyen Thanh Chan, a 54-year-old man of northern Bac Giang Province, and will pay him VND7.2 billion (US$333,000) as damages for his being wrongfully sentenced to life on murder charges in 2003. After 10 years in jail, Chan was temporarily released in 2013 for a re-investigation, which resulted in a conclusion that he was innocent.

-- Competent agencies at most border gates in Vietnam on Friday began asking visitors coming from MERS-CoV-stricken countries and territories to fill out heath quarantine declarations as a mandatory procedure for their entry. This measure has been taken under a new regulation by the Ministry of Heath to prevent the possible penetration of the fatal disease that has spread to 26 countries, affecting nearly 1,200 people and killed over 440 of them.

-- People in Ward 12 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District have contributed about VND900 million ($41,600) to purchasing and installing 250 cameras on 22 streets in the ward for security purposes, local police said. This new model should be multiplied not only in the city but in other provinces and cities nationwide, Deputy Minister of Public Security Bui Van Nam said when he visited the ward on Friday.   

Business

-- China’s cargoes are allowed to be in transit in Vietnam for no more than 30 days, but the duration can be extended three times that last 30 days each, according to a newly-issued circular of the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade. The new rule also requires that the Chinese goods in transit be transported by Vietnamese citizens.  

-- The Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties under the Indian Ministry of Trade and Industry has began to investigate the anti-dumping suit over MDF wooden sheets imported from Vietnam and Indonesia, the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said on Friday. The plaintiff in the suit is Greenply Industries Ltd and Mangalam Timber Products Ltd. Vietnam ranked second among the exporters of this commodity to India in 2014.

Lifestyle

-- A ceremony to launch activities to mark the World Environment Day (WED) (June 5) took place in Cam Pha City in the northern province of Quang Ninh on Friday. The event was jointly organized by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and local authorities, under the topic of “Consume with Care for a Sustainable Earth.” The global theme of this year’s WED is “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care.” 

Sports

-- The 28th Southeast Asian Games Opening Ceremony took place at National Stadium in Singapore on Friday evening, June 5. Final torch bearer Fandi Ahmad, 53, a former Singaporean national footballer, and his 17-year-old son Irfan, a Singaporean footballer, lighted the 19.2-meter-tall Southeast Asian Games cauldron that is in the shape of DNA structure. An art performance program under the theme of friendship, solidarity, and respect for young people lasted for 40 minutes at the event.