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

Politics:

-- A workshop on water and river basin management, Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), has concluded in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. Many proposals on assisting member nations to shift to a sustainable development model, further Asia-Europe cooperation in water resource protection - sustainable management of river basins, and green growth has been made at the event.

Society:

-- Road and Railway Traffic Police Department (C67) under the Ministry of Public Security has sent written requests to its provincial arms across the country to check so that they can seize more than 510 cars and motorcycles bearing the wording NG and NN (for diplomats and foreigners) on the registration panels as the office terms of their owners in Vietnam have expired.

-- After some information about Vietnamese green grapes which are sold at Big C The Garden in My Dinh in Hanoi’s Tu Liem District bearing Chinese flag, Nguyen Ngoc Dung, director of Big C the Garden, told in a written reply to Tuoi Tre that by the incident was due to the negligence of the workers there in the packing process.

-- The German Reconstruction Bank will provide financial and technical support for a number of Vietnam’s vocational schools, including Viet Bac–Vinacomin vocational training school and four others in the provinces of An Giang, Long An, Ninh Thuan and Bac Ninh, under a recent program launched in the southern province of Ninh Thuan.

-- Some 401 MW of power, equivalent to VND576 million ($28,800), has been saved by switching off lights during the 2013 Earth Hour lasting from 8.30pm to 9.30pm on Saturday night, according to the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN). The campaign, launched by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in February, was designed to raise social awareness about energy conservation and urge individuals to change their lifestyles into a more sustainable ways in the face of climate change.

Business:

-- March consumer price index (CPI ) inched down 0.19 percent against February due to declining demand for goods and services after the Lunar New Year, or Tet, festival, according to the General Statistics Office. With the new figure, CPI in Q1/2013 rose 2.39 percent from December 2012 and 6.91 percent the same period last year.

-- Innovative Engineering Ventures (IEV) has said it would enter the renewable energy business through biomass production in Vietnam, as a part of its efforts to explore opportunities in the Asia Pacific region. The Singaporean firm is planning to establish its first plant to manufacture pellet forms of rice-husk biomass in the Mekong Delta, the main rice-growing region of Vietnam, according to its press release.

Lifestyle:

-- Con Dao prison relic, which imprisoned tens of thousands of Vietnamese and witnessed some 20,000 died during the war against the French colonialists and American invaders, has been recognized as special national relic. The prison was set up by the French in 1862 and then used by the United States and the Saigon government as a favorite place to detain patriotic citizens before 1975.

-- “Don’t burn”, a film based on a diary kept by army doctor Dang Thuy Tram of the Liberation Army during the most violent wartime on the battlefield in the central province of Quang Ngai, has won the hearts of Argentinean audiences after it was screened at the third Political Film Festival in Buenos Aires. It is directed by Dang Nhat Minh in 2008.

-- The Vietnamese history and people is one among many themes discussed at a workshop recently held within the of the “World Culture Day” in the city og Gretz-Armainvilliers in France with the participation of the city’s Mayor Jean-Paul Garcia and Deputy Mayor Christian Bourdeille, and Vietnamese Ambassador to France Duong Chi Dung.