Enjoy your breakfast while skimming these news items on Tuoi Tre News today, March 22:

Politics

-- The Central Committees of the Ho Chi Minh Communist and the Vietnamese Student Association on Saturday started building a national flag pole to reiterate the country’s sovereignty on Tran Island, located in Co To District off the northern province of Quang Ninh. 

Society

-- Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) on Saturday began work on an 18.7-kilometer section, which costs US$636 million, of the expressway project of Ben Luc-Long Thanh. The expressway will connect the highway grid in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta province of Long An with sea ports in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, some 100 kilometers from the city, and  Long Thanh International Airport in southern Dong Nai Province, which will be under construction soon.

-- Nhan Dan 115, Cho Ray, and Pediatrics 2 Hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City jointly organized a ceremony on Saturday morning to honor 403 humanitarian organ donors. The ceremony was also meant to encourage more to donate their organs to meet the country’s huge demand for organ transplant.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport has just proposed the Ho Chi Minh City Taxi Association build a code of conduct for taxi drivers, Le Hoang Minh, vice director of the department, said on Saturday. The move is an attempt to curb drivers’ misbehaviors, including physically abusing clients who request short-distance rides. The transport department has also proposed taxi companies complete the installation of black boxes, which record information on routes, speed, and drivers’ working time, by July 1.

-- According to Nguyen Van Tam, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Kien Giang Province, dozens of sampans have been seen on a daily basis in recent times on the coastline of the province’s Rach Gia City. The sampans are installed with high-capacity equipment to scoop out almost all aquatic products irrespective of how young they are.

-- Representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, announced on Saturday that 16 fourth graders at a school in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong had been tested positive for influenza A H1N1. The representatives confirmed the test results and the students’ symptoms are indicative of a flu outbreak.

Business 

-- Real estate conglomerate Vingroup on Saturday inaugurated four VinPro electrical appliance, hi-tech shopping centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Education

-- Over 4,000 students partook in a counseling program for university admissions and career orientation at a university in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on Saturday morning. The program was jointly run by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the provincial education department.  

Sports

-- The 2015 VTV-Binh Dien International Women’s Volleyball Tournament kicked off at a multipurpose sports hall in the central province of Quang Tri on Saturday afternoon.