Check out what is in the news today, October 4

Politics

-- Nguyen Phu Trong, chief of the Communist Party of Vietnam, on Tuesday received Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith in Hanoi, as part of the latter’s visit to Vietnam from October 2 to 6.

Society

-- Government Decree No. 105/2017 on liquor sales, set to take effect on November 1, will maintain the country’s policy of regarding the sale of alcoholic beverages to underage people, along with several other actions, as illegal. However, experts have expressed doubts over the feasibility of the law.

-- Three people were killed and 25 others were hospitalized in a mass food poisoning after joining a party on Sunday in Vi Xuyen District in the northern province of Ha Giang, the provincial Bureau of Food Safety and Hygiene has confirmed.

-- The public security department in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho has revealed they were cracking down on 193 Chinese-run facilities housed at local supermarkets and recreation centers that offer illegal gambling activity under the disguise of an arcade game.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has tasked the municipal Department of Transport with studying the feasibility of banning light trucks from operating in daytime on congestion-prone streets.

-- The Department of Health in Dong Nai Province, neighboring Ho Chi Minh City, has confirmed they had requested units to adopt prompt measures in preventing outbreaks of dengue fever and hand, foot and mouth disease after thousands of contraction cases, including three deaths, had been reported as of late September.   

Business

-- Vietnam's annual economic growth rate quickened to a spectacular 7.46 percent in the third quarter of 2017, Minister Mai Tien Dung, head of the Government Office, announced at a press conference on Tuesday.

-- Delegates at a conference on Tuesday raised concerns that bottom ash and plaster released from thermoelectricity power plants in the Mekong Delta provinces may amount up to 13.67 million metric tons per year in the time to come, posing high environmental risks if going without proper processing.

-- Air passengers have complained about the cancellation of several flights, including those on the Ho Chi Minh City- Da Nang- Hanoi route by budget carrier Jetstar Pacific, over the past few days.

Lifestyle

-- The three-day Nghinh Ong (Whale Worshipping) Festival, which has been around for more than 100 years, opened on Tuesday in the outlying district of Can Gio, Ho Chi Minh City. 

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