Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today, November 1, in Vietnamese media.

Politics -- Regarding the case in which a 22-year-old Vietnamese female student was reportedly gang-raped by three people, including a Malaysian police officer in Malaysia’ Johor Bahru City on October 25, deputy spokesperson of the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry Pham Thu Hang said on Friday that Vietnam strongly condemns all actions that harm the bodies and lives of Vietnamese citizens. Vietnam urges Malaysian agencies to take measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Vietnamese citizens in the country and strictly punish the culprits, Hang said.Society -- The Vietnamese Ministry of Transport has asked transport departments, traffic infrastructure projects, and traffic safety management boards in all provinces and cities to organize activities to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (November 16). In the first nine months of this year, 18,697 traffic accidents occurred nationwide, killing 6,658 people and injuring 17,835 others, the ministry said. -- Four men, aged 25-34, in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong were seriously injured when the gunpowder they were handling suddenly exploded on Friday evening. They were taken to nearby Dak Lak Province General Hospital in critical condition, with their faces, chests, arms, and legs severely wounded. -- In two separate events, strangers threw several large stones to two coaches that ran through the Central Highlands provinces of Lam Dong and Dak Lak on Friday, breaking parts of the windows of the vehicles and causing great worry to passengers. Nobody was injured in the attacks. -- A well-known Vietnamese poet and cải lương (a kind of modern folk opera in Vietnam) composer, Kien Giang, whose real name is Ha Huy Ha, passed away at 6:30 am on Friday, October 31, 2014, in Ho Chi Minh City, at the age of 87.  -- Many health facilities in Ho Chi Minh City have conducted regular medical checkups on civil servants and workers in such a perfunctory manner that a doctor could complete an examination on a person in only 45 seconds, Dr. Trinh Hong Lan, from the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, said at a seminar on Friday.   Business -- Gas prices in Vietnam have decreased by about VND40,000 (US$1.88) per 12-kg cylinder, said gas traders in Ho Chi Minh City. Accordingly, starting November 1, the price of a 12-kg gas cylinder in the city goes down from VND353,000 to VND341,000, traders said. -- Taiwan’s E-United Group will take the place of Japan’s JPE Group to carry out a project to build a steel plant with a capacity of 5 million tons of steel per year in the central province of Quang Ngai, at an estimated cost of $4.5 billion. The JPE Group has recently decided not to engage in the project after two years of studying it, the provincial authorities said. -- The People’s Committee of the south-central province of Binh Dinh on Friday had a meeting with the representative of Hokugan, a Japanese company based in Okinawa, to discuss a project that will be developed by the company to build a plant for canned tuna and other seafood products in the province.Education -- The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training has worked with its Japanese partners on launching a program to train 100 Vietnamese bachelors in nuclear power at a number of universities in Japan in 2016. The program is part of the efforts to create qualified human resources for the Ninh Thuan 2 Nuclear Power Plant, to be constructed in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, the ministry said.    Sports -- Newcastle will play Liverpool at St James’ Park Stadium in the first match of the 10th round of the English Premier League at 7:45 pm on Saturday (Vietnam time). Many observers predict that the game would be exciting, with many goals to be scored.

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