Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today, January 23, in Vietnamese media:

Politics

-- Nguyen Thien Nhan, President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, and Rolf Rosebrock, Chairman of the German federation of social equality, on Thursday agreed to increase bilateral exchanges between their member organizations in a meeting in Hanoi. The two sides also discussed future coordination to promote the friendship and strategic partnership between Vietnam and Germany.

-- Members of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association (VCFA) and Vietnamese who have ever studied in Cuba on Thursday gathered at a friendship meeting co-organized by the VCFA, the club of Vietnamese alumni in Cuba, and the Cuban Embassy in Hanoi as part of the activities to mark 55 years of diplomatic ties (1960-2015).

-- Vietnam will send US$200,000 in aid to Mozambique via Movitel, an affiliate of Vietnamese telecom giant Viettel in the African country, to buy food and basic commodities for 6,000 households in the province of Zambezia, who are suffering from the worst flooding since 1971, according to the Vietnamese Embassy in Mozambique.

-- Bui Khac Son, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations, and a delegation from the Argentina-Vietnam Cultural Institute on Thursday discussed ways to enhance the friendship between the two countries at a meeting in Hanoi.

Society

-- Nguyen Huu Thang, head of the Vietnam Railway Authority, was found dead in his office in Hoan Kiem District in Hanoi on Thursday afternoon. No statement about the cause of his death has been made by any state agencies so far.

-- An ancient bronze bell weighing over 200 kilograms was found in a field in An Thi District in the northern province of Hung Yen on Wednesday. The bell, 102 centimeters tall and 60 centimeters in diameter, may have been made during the Ly-Tran Dynasty, according to initial examinations by the provincial Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

-- Authorities of the northern province of Ha Giang on Thursday returned the bodies of three men who died on Tuesday while working for China’s Zhejiang Co. on the construction of the Thuan Hoa hydropower plant in Vi Xuyen District to Chinese authorities.  

Business

-- Electricity prices will not be hiked before the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, following a directive from a government task force, said Bui Quang Vinh, Minister of Planning and Investment. The electricity price in Vietnam is lower than that in many other regional countries, Vinh said.

-- The General Department of Taxation will cut the tax payment time in Vietnam to the ASEAN average rate of 171 hours by the end of this year, following an order of the Prime Minister, Hoang Thi Lan Anh, deputy head of its Reform and Modernization Department, said at a conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

-- Vietnam has removed numerous technical barriers for its agricultural products to penetrate foreign markets such as the U.S., Japan, Australia and the Republic of Korea following significantly positive results from negotiations to deal with these barriers in 2014, according to the Plant Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The talks paved the way for litchi, dragon fruit, and mangos to enter the U.S., New Zealand, and South Korea, the ministry said.