Check out the news you should not miss today, October 16:

Society

-- Around 2,000 primary school teachers and students in Hanoi joined officials and delegates from international organizations at a meeting in celebration of the Global Handwashing Day on Sunday.

-- A cold spell hit northern Vietnam on Sunday night, lowering temperatures in some mountainous areas to 10-12 degrees Celsius.

-- Five children, including four primary school students, drowned when going fishing on a river outside Hanoi on Sunday.

-- Tropical Storm Khanun has weakened into a tropical depression on Monday morning and is expected to be just 130km south-east of Vietnam’s Bach Long Vi Island by 4:00 pm the same day.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will launch a comprehensive inspection into all bars and discotheques citywide from now to the end of this year, after several establishments have been caught with multiple violations in recent raids.

-- Vietnam’s heaviest baby, weighing 7.1kg, was born to a healthy mother on Saturday, doctors at a district’s general hospital in the northern province of Vinh Phuc said on Sunday.

-- Vietnam suffered 250 flash flood-caused landslides from 2000 to 2015, with 646 people killed and missing and total property damages estimated at VND3.3 trillion (US$145.37 million), experts said at a conference on Saturday.

-- The Ariyana Da Nang Exhibition and Convention Center, a key project to serve the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Week scheduled to take place from November 6 to 11, was put into use in the central city of Da Nang on Sunday, following an inauguration ceremony attended by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Business

-- Tourism boat operator Greenlines DP is completing procedures to launch new routes bringing tourists in the Mekong Delta provinces of Ben Tre and Tien Giang to the southern coastal city of Vung Tau by speedboat.

-- Following Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, ride-hailing apps Uber and Grab are facing fresh objections from the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, with the provincial transport department complaining that the tech-based taxis are luring drivers from conventional taxicab firms to work for them.

-- The Saigon Railways has sold out 15,784 train tickets for the 2018 Lunar New Year (Tet) travel season, which begins in February, raking in VND23.1 billion ($1.02 million), during its first day of official booking on Sunday.

Sports

-- Many Vietnamese women in Ho Chi Minh City are embracing a new fitness trend known as piloxing, which combines the physical fitness system Pilates and boxing.

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