Politics:

-- Thousands of Vietnamese people are gathering Sunday at the Embassy of China in Hanoi and the Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City to protest against China’s illegal deployment of oil rig HD 981 to Vietnam’s waters in the East Sea since May 1. The deployment has violated international law and infringed upon Vietnam’s sovereignty.

-- Overseas Vietnamese people living in Russia on Friday drafted an open letter that will be sent to Vietnamese State leaders at a meeting of the Vietnamese Association in the European country to express their protest against China’s latest violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty at sea and pledge help to their home nation in defending its stance in the East Vietnam Sea.

-- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday voiced his concern about the escalating tensions in the East Vietnam Sea between China and Vietnam, Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said during a noon-briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators, including Robert Menendez, Marco Rubio, Ben Cardin, Jim Risch, and John McCain also issued a joint statement condemning China’s recent provocative acts in the East Vietnam Sea on the same day.

Society:

-- Pham Phuong Thao from Chu Van An Secondary School in the northern city of Hai Phong has been awarded the first prize of the 43rd Universal Postal Union (UPU) International Letter Writing Contest in Vietnam with a letter writing about a violin whose owner became more optimistic in life when making music. Her letter will be translated into French before being sent to the Swiss-based UPU for the international round.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Flood Control Operation Center has said the city will build new lakes or enlarge old ones in local parks to bring their total area to 300 hectares by 2014-2015. This is to turn them into reservoirs able to regulate floodwaters to ease the flooding situation and improve the environment in eight districts in the city by 2015.  

Business:

-- After the Ministry of Finance began tightening management on the prices of milk powder for children under 6 years of age last month and said it will impose a price ceiling on those products soon, many dairy businesses have been reported to try to evade the regulations by discontinuing their old products and starting to sell new ones with reduced weight.

Sports:

-- Vietnam’s women football team has a great opportunity to join the coming Women's World Cup, coach Tran Van Phat said during a late afternoon training session on Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City. This is the first training session of the national team after returning to Vietnam to prepare for the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2014 which will kick off on May 14.

Lifestyle:

-- The 2014 UN Day of Vesak on Saturday wrapped up in the northern province of Ninh Binh with the adoption of a statement highlighting three sustainable development pillars.