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

Politics:

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has joined his Japanese, Cambodian and Lao counterparts, the President of Myanmar and the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand at the ongoing Mekong – Japan Summit, which is held to mark the 40^th anniversary of ASEAN-Japan dialogue ties, in Tokyo.

-- Senior state officials from Ho Chi Minh City authorities and their counterparts from the German city of Leipzig have discussed the possibility of multifaceted cooperation in the future , especially in culture, health care, education-training and sports, at the recent visit of Burkhard Jung, Lord Mayor of Leipzig city, to the southern city.

-- Vietnam and Korea are eyeing a potential of becoming the strategic partnership of one another, as further upgrade of bilateral ties to a new height is the consensus and strong will by the Vietnamese State and people Vietnamese, said Pham Huu Chi, Vietnamese Ambassador to the Republic of Korea at a recent banquet celebrating the 21st anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic ties in Seoul.

Society:

-- Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Viet Tien has warned about huge challenges the country’s population and family planning work as well as the health sector may face in the future given the current state in gender imbalance at birth at a recent exchange in response to the National Action Month on Population.

-- Drug addicts in Vietnam spend an estimated VND54 billion (US$2.56 mln) a day on drugs, according to figures released at the Hanoi-hosted photo exhibition, titled “Get Out and Go On”, presented stories of former drug addicts who have been successfully treated by Methadone.

-- The Red River Delta region attracted 35 million tourists this year, a 15% rise over last year, and brought in revenues of VND35 trillion, up 16% year-on-year, according to the figures announced at the closing ceremony of the National Tourism Year 2013 program themed “Red River Civilization” held in the northern city of Hai Phong.

Business:

-- The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has sold all 15,000 taels of gold at VND35.37-35.42 million per tael to 13 local credit institutions at the latest gold auction session in Hanoi.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City’s labor market in 2014 will have 265,000 jobs, 130,000 of which are new ones, according to Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the HCMC Labor Market Information and Job Forecasting Centre.

Lifestyle:

-- The France Year in Vietnam can be consider as an successful story given the fact that thousands of locals have gathered to enjoy an impressing performance of music and light at HCMC’s Unification Palace and the French food at gourmet event Le Bon Marché held at 23/9 Park in HCMC downtown.

-- An Argentina Culture Week has begun in Hanoi with a wide range of typical cultural and artistic features held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. It comes after the Vietnam Culture Week, which was held in Argentina in September this year.

Sports:

-- Saturday has become a tough day for Vietnam at the ongoing 27^th SEA Games Myanmar 2013 as the country lost their second place position with 85 medals, including 29 golds, 23 silvers, and 33 bronzes, while Thailand jumped to take the top post from host Myanmar.

-- Vietnamese shooters, Nguyen Minh Chau and Le Thi Hoang Ngoc, have won two more gold medals for the country at the ongoing SEA Games in Myanmar with the highest and third highest score of 195.6 and 174.8 points, respectively. Earlier, they beat their rivals at the women’s 10m air pistol team event to reach the top position.