Politics

-- Forty-six out of 48 self-nominated National Assembly candidates in Hanoi have been disqualified from entering the national election after the third consultative conference that ended on Friday morning.

Society

-- Vietnamese comedian Minh Beo (‘Fatty Minh’) denied all charges against him in the arraignment late Friday at Department CJ1 Orange County Men’s Jail in Santa Ana, California, following his prosecution on March 25 for sexually abusing a minor.

-- Provinces in central and southern Vietnam are experiencing a severe hot spell as the peak of the dry season nears, with the highest temperature of 41 degrees Celsius recorded in the central province of Quang Ngai.

-- Buses in Ho Chi Minh City will undergo a major facelift by 2020 with the introduction of magnetic stripe tickets and new fleets of environment-friendly vehicles, as part of the city’s effort to encourage more residents to use public transport.

Business

-- Vietnam Television (VTV) may divest its capital of K+, a cable TV station where it holds 51 percent of the charter capital, if losses persist, the national broadcaster said.

Lifestyle

-- Vietnam enters a national holiday on Saturday in commemoration of the death of the Hung kings, considered the founders of the Southeast Asian country. The holiday falls on the tenth day of the third month in the lunar calendar every year.

Education

-- The Francophone University Association (AUF) opened its Ho Chi Minh City Campus on Friday to offer distance learning courses and consultations on the development plans of member universities.

Sports

-- German football club Borussia Dortmund held a summer camp for Vietnamese junior fans on Friday in Ho Chi Minh City, where around 70 kids learnt football skills and engaged in a match under the supervision of Dortmund junior coach Christian Diercks.