Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today in Vietnamese media.Politics -- Discussing the draft amendments to the Penal Code on Tuesday, most Vietnamese National Assembly deputies agreed to reduce the number of crimes subject to capital punishment, tighten conditions for the application of the death penalty, and expand the categories of convicted people exempt from execution. According to an amendment, capital punishment is proposed be scrapped for seven crimes including plundering property and destroying important national security works and/or facilities.Society -- A Vietnamese fishing boat from the central province of Quang Ngai on Tuesday reported that a Chinese ship attacked it when it was operating off Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago on June 14. The Chinese attackers took away all the property, including aquatic products, from the local ship, causing damage totaling VND300 million (US$13,780). This has been the third attack by Chinese ships on Quang Ngai’s fishing boats since June 9, local authorities said. -- The Ministry of Health’s Department for Medical Examination and Treatment Management has set up a hotline at 0984371919 to receive information related to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) caused by the coronavirus, which has spread to 25 countries, affecting nearly 1,300 people and killing over 450 since September 2012. -- A conflagration broke out about 5:30 pm Tuesday in an old film studio containing inflammable materials on the premises of national broadcaster Vietnam Television on Nguyen Chi Thanh Street in Dong Da District, Hanoi. The blaze was put out around an hour later, with no casualties reported.    -- Police from the Ministry of Public Security have asked the Supreme People’s Procuracy to prosecute two officers at the Forest Protection Sub-Department of the central province of Thanh Hoa for taking a bribe of VND100 million ($4,600) from a company whose smuggled precious wood was seized by these officers in 2014. -- About 30 million Vietnamese people, or one-third of the country’s population, are using Facebook and 27 million of them get access to the social networking site via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, Facebook said on Tuesday, adding that three-fourths of the Vietnamese Facebook users are aged 18-34.Business -- Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has issued a license for mangos grown in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai to be imported into the East Asian country, the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has said. -- Many commercial banks in Vietnam have increased short-term deposit interest rates in recent days. For example, HDBank has raised the interest rate for one-month accounts from 4.7 percent to five percent per year and that for 12-month accounts from 6.5 percent to seven percent per year. At DongA Bank, the rate for 9-month deposits has increased by 0.4 percent to six percent per year.Lifestyle -- The Hanoi People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Department of Education and Training, and authorities of districts and towns to take measures to combat the bad practice of using foul language that is on the rise among students, singers, masters of ceremonies, and others in public places.Sports -- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has tasked the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism with coordinating with relevant agencies to prepare a project to organize the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) in Vietnam in 2021. The 28th SEA Games closed in Singapore on Tuesday evening after more than 10 days of competition.

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