Briefs on some of the leading news stories published Tuesday (February 18) in Tuoi Tre newspaper that will be carried today on tuoitrenews.vn:

Politics:

-- Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Ho Chi Minh City Party Secretary Le Thanh Hai, who are both members of the Politburo, yesterday approved the draft plan of a pilot program to apply a new city administration model in Ho Chi Minh City.

-- The Prime Minister has issued a decision to allow scientific associations and institutes to criticize major projects and their effects on the community.

Society:

-- Planning authorities in Nha Trang have been blamed for ‘interfering in the rule of nature’ and ‘going against the public welfare’ at a meeting held yesterday in the city.

-- The bird flu epidemic has spread to 11 provinces in Vietnam, according to the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

-- A cold spell is forecast to affect northern Vietnam as of February 18 and it may last for three or four days, according to the Central Hydrometeorology Center.

-- Major general Nguyen Van Khanh, director of Dong Nai Province's police department, suggested Monday he should be ‘reprimanded’ for his responsibilities in a scandalous shooting among local traffic policemen at the Suoi Tre station last year.

-- The gateway to travel to southwestern provinces from Ho Chi Minh City has been ‘overloaded’ due to the tardiness of road construction projects of national highways 50 and 1 and other roads to connect to the expressway Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong.

-- The southern province Binh Duong will move its administrative center to its new center, 7km from Thu Dau Mot, since February 20.

-- Hanoi has issued a regulation to ban people from or over 60 years old from operating passenger boat.

Business:

-- Many big banks in Vietnam have announced their financial loss in the last quarter of 2013. The pre-tax profit of Techcombank and Eximbank fell from VND4.2 trillion (US$202 million) and VND4.056 trilion ($195 million), respectively, in 2011 to VND1.017 trillion and VND2.851 trillion in 2012, and VND878 billion and VND827 billion in 2013.

-- Rice farmers in the Mekong Delta have a bumper harvest of the Winter-Spring crop, with the productivity of 8-10 tons a hectare while the average level is 6.5 tons per hectare.

-- Gold price in Vietnam has increased VND670,000 ($32) per tael, up to VND36.78 million ($1,800) a tael.

Lifestyle:

-- Three ancient trees in the Voi Phuc Temple in Hanoi’s Tay Ho District will be cut down next month because they have died for months. The trees were listed as ‘the Trees of Heritage’ by the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment.

-- Authorities of Lam Dong Province will coordinate with institutes to study architectural building sites in Cat Tien Holy City to prepare for restoring them for travel and historical researches. The holy city was dated in the 7th – 8th century.