Below are some of the main stories published in the Vietnamese press

Politics:

-- “The East Sea Research Foundation,” aiming to support studies on the East Sea, was launched in Hanoi on Thursday. It was co-founded by the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV), former Deputy Foreign Minister Le Cong Phung, and former Vietnamese Ambassador to Singapore and Canada Nguyen Duc Hung. The foundation has more than VND5 billion (US$235,849) at the begining.

-- On March 27, French ambassador to Vietnam Jean Noel Poirier granted the Legion of Honour to Vietnamese Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoi for her non-stop contribution to the health sector as well as charity events, which have been jointly carried out by French humanitarian organizations during the last 27 years.

Society:

-- Five members of a Vietnam Airlines flight crew were suspended Thursday after Japanese media reported a day earlier that Japanese police had arrested a Vietnamese flight stewardess for getting involved in alleged smuggling. Vietnam Airlines (VNA) cabin attendant Nguyen Bich Ngoc, 25, was captured “on suspicion of attempting to smuggle stolen goods into Vietnam,” according to Kyodo News.

-- Bulgarian Eduard Kaprelove Nersezov, 46, and Romanian Iulian Dumbrava, 26, were caught red-handed Wednesday for stealing customers’ account information at an ATM machine in the central city of Nha Trang. The two werer found installing video cameras on purpose at many ATM machines around the city. Police are investigating this case.

-- Fifty percent of Vietnamese children from 6 months old to 6 years old suffer vitamin A, B1, C, D and iron deficiencies, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoa, vice chair of the Ho Chi Minh City Association for Food and Nutrition, quoted a recent study on children in Southeast Asia at a press conference on Thursday.

Business:

-- The 2014 Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival kicked off Thursday at 23/9 Park in District 1. The event is held by the city’s Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism in collaboration with the HCMC Tourism Association and HCMC Tourism Promotion Center. The festival is attended by around 150 booths providing information on accommodation, flying, and tour services. The festival will run through Sunday.

-- Jaruwan Suwannasat, exhibition and event director of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, said Thursday that Thailand wishes to have more connections with enterprises from ASEAN, including Vietnam, through international exhibits. The bureau will work harder to improve the quality of these exhibitions, Suwannasat said..

Lifestyle:

- An exhibition featuring photos taken by ethnic minority students is expected to be held on the occasion of Children’s Day, June 1, in Hanoi.

The event is part of “Photovoices,” a program launched by the Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSEE) in October last year.

The program aims to draw public attention to ethnic minority groups by offering cameras to children and teaching them how to use the devices in order to capture life around them in the most vivid and honest way.