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

Politics

-- The Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago is an integral part of Vietnam and its waters have long been the traditional fishing ground of Vietnamese fishermen, Le Hai Binh, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, said Thursday at a regular press conference in reply to reporters’ questions about Vietnam’s response to China’s unilateral ban on fishing in the East Vietnam Sea. Vietnam will intensify the management of, and closely monitor, its fishermen’s activities in the country’s waters in order to timely cope with any problem, he added.

-- General Secretary of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon begins a two-day visit to Vietnam on Friday, his second one to the Southeast Asian country since he took office in 2007. The visit aims to boost the relationship and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and the UN and increase the effectiveness of UN aid in implementing the post-2015 Development Agenda, particularly in mitigating the impacts of climate change.

-- Vietnam gives high priority to the combat and prevention of drugs and will work closely with the UN and Mekong sub-regional nations at both bilateral and multilateral levels to stop the global peril, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at a reception on Thursday for state officials from regional countries and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, who attended the Ministerial Meeting of Signatory Countries of the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding on Drug Control in the Greater Mekong Sub-region in Hanoi.

Society

-- Vietnam adds 100,000-150,000 cancer cases and has 70,000 deaths relating to the disease annually, according to figures a research group of the Military Hospital 175 released at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday. The number of new cancer cases has risen so fast recently, as the Ho Chi Minh City Oncology Hospital, one of the top medical treatment facilities for cancer in the southern region, has recorded 13,000 new cases in the first five months of the year, Dang Huy Quoc Thinh, deputy director of the infirmary, said, adding that the number of new cancer cases in 2014 was 12,000.  

-- Rescuers on Thursday recovered the bodies of two miners who died when their coal mine in Uong Bi City of Quang Ninh Province in the north collapsed one day earlier.

Business

-- The Steering Committee for the Central Highlands has instructed the regional localities to develop strategies, including training high-quality human resources and reforming administrative procedures, in an effort to draw more foreign direct investment (FDI) to boost socio-economic development and improve local living conditions. The region has 148 FDI projects with a total registered capital of around US$819 million.

-- A $26-million Budweiser beer plant, operated by Anheuser-Busch InBev Vietnam Brewery Co. Ltd., was fully operational in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park 2 in the southern province of Binh Duong on Thursday. The factory with an annual capacity of 100 million liters will meet domestic consumption demand as well as make beer for export to Southeast Asian markets, said Ricardo Vasques, General Director of AB InBev Vietnam.

-- Vietnamese business owners gathered at a workshop in Hanoi on Thursday to learn about more details of the recently-signed Vietnam–Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement so that they can reshape their business strategies in anticipation of the opportunities ahead.