Here are the leading news stories about Vietnam you should not miss today, March 4, 2016.

Politics

-- Vietnam takes a consistent stance on supporting peace, stability, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, and non-proliferation and disarmament of nuclear weapons there, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said on Thursday, following the UN Security Council’s adoption of a resolution proposing sanctions against North Korea.

-- Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang and his spouse will pay State visits to Tanzania, Mozambique and Iran from March 9 to 15.

Society

-- A solar eclipse is expected to begin in Ho Chi Minh City at 6:32 am, and in Hanoi at 6:57 am, on March 9, according to NASA.        

-- Four forest protection officers in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai have been suspended from work for investigation after they reportedly assaulted a family of shrimp farmers and destroyed their property, the provincial agriculture department said Thursday.

-- A new species of the endangered gray-shanked douc langur, with some 500 individuals, has recently been found in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum, the Fauna and Flora International told the media in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday.

Business

-- Saigon Trading Group and other businesses should try to keep the domestic retail market from being ‘taken over’ by foreign firms, Dinh La Thang, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, said on Thursday, as Vietnam risks losing the market to Thai retailers.

-- Vietnam’s largest fuel wholesaler Petrolimex said on Thursday it enjoyed an enormous pre-tax profit of VND3.76 trillion (US$167.86 million) in 2015, more than ten times the 2014 figure of VND321 billion.

-- The Chinese contractor of the infamous Cat Linh – Ha Dong urban railway project in Hanoi has admitted that it is heavily indebted to some sub-contractors, which led to the sluggish progress of the $868 million megaproject.

Sports

-- ‘Iron’ defender Nguyen Huu Thang, who was on the national team from 1996 to 2002, signed on Thursday a two-year contract to lead the Vietnamese national squad, with a target of advancing to the finale of the 2016 AFF Championship, to be held in Myanmar later this year, and winning the gold medal of the men’s football category at the 2017 Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia.

-- Vietnam will face three-time Asian champions North Korea at the ongoing 2016 Olympics Asian women's football final qualification round in Japan this afternoon, March 4.

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