Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today, May 20, in Vietnamese media.

Politics

-- U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told a Tuesday press meeting in Ho Chi Minh City that President Barack Obama is really looking forward to Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong's first-ever visit to Washington. Blinken paid a four-day visit to Vietnam starting Saturday last week to get ready for a clutch of meetings between the two countries' leaders this year, including General Secretary Trong's visit.

Society

-- An official of Tan Binh District police confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday afternoon that the police will set up a counseling council and let Huynh Thi Anh Hong, who discovered a treasure worth 5 million yen (US$41,700) hidden in a dumped loudspeaker last year, have the entire sum. The district police also rejected an appeal filed by another woman who appeared at the last minute and claimed that her South African husband owned the money. The man was later found to use forged papers.

-- Police in the central Vietnamese province of Ha Tinh on Tuesday took into custody two South Korean men, aged 62 and 43, who are head manager and worker supervisor at a construction site in the Taiwanese-invested Formosa Industrial Park in Ha Tinh, for their violation of labor safety regulations. Before a scaffold weighing hundreds of metric tons collapsed in late March, killing at least 13 Vietnamese and injuring 28 others, many workers had fled the site after feeling it shaking but these two Korean men forced them to return to work.

-- Le Hoang Quan, chair of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, has recently proposed that the municipal Department of Transport consider a proposition on renovating and expanding a section of National Highway 1 which spans from the Tan Kien Intersection to the boundary with Long An Province in the Mekong Delta. The project, to be implemented under the BOT (build-operate-transfer) model, is expected to cost around VND750 billion (US$34.95 million).

-- The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has announced a hot spell which has hit the northern region will end on Thursday, when a cold front is expected to enter the region, resulting in downpours and possible flashfloods. Hot, sunny climate will linger in provinces and cities in the central region in the days to come, but is forecast to show signs of abatement.

-- During a routine sea diving trip on May 14, a resident in Loc Ha District, located in the central province of Ha Tinh, spotted and recovered a large metal lump, which is thought to be a component of a warplane.

Business

-- South Korea’s Samsung Electronics on Tuesday started work on its $1.4 billion Samsung Consumer Electronics Complex at the Saigon Hi-Tech Park, Ho Chi Minh City’s tech hub. The mega-project currently has the largest foreign investment in the park.

-- The Tan Cang-Hiep Phuoc Port, located in the outlying district of Nha Be in Ho Chi Minh City, came into operation on Tuesday. The port covers an area of some 20 hectares and has a wharf area of around 420 meters. 

Education

-- Vietnamese students bagged three gold medals at the Asia Pacific Olympiad in Informatics for the first time ever, the Vietnamese General Department of Education Testing and Accreditation under the Ministry of Education and Training announced. The Vietnamese team also garnered two silvers and one bronze at the contest, which was hosted by Indonesia. This is Vietnam’s highest result since it first sent students to the contest in 2013.

Sports

-- The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism on Tuesday held a ceremony to see off the Vietnamese team of 570 members, including 392 athletes and 133 coaches, to the 28th SEA Games, which will run in Singapore from June 5 to 16.