Here are the leading news stories about Vietnam you should not miss today, July 19:

Politics

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico both pledged to improve the efficiency of the Vietnam-Slovakia Joint Committee on Economic Cooperation and increase trade and investment promotion when they met in Hanoi on Monday.

-- The Vietnam News Agency said on Monday it was empowered to refute untruthful coverage by the Chinese press, which distorted the statements on the East Vietnam Sea issue Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc made during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit in Mongolia on Thursday.

Society

-- A court in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday upheld the death sentence for Vu Van Tien, one of the three men involved in the killing of six people of a family in the southern province of Binh Phuoc in July 2015. Tien lodged an appeal after he and the mastermind behind the plot Nguyen Hai Duong were sentenced to death at a first-instance trial in December that year.

-- The signal of a local radio station in the central city of Da Nang was interfered by an unknown source that aired a Chinese-language program for a while on Monday afternoon.

-- The Northern Airport Authority on Monday slapped a VND2 million (US$89) civil fine on a passenger for taking out a life jacket without the consent of the flight attendants on board a plane bound for Ho Chi Minh City from the north-central city of Vinh last week.

-- Five Chinese nationals have been found arriving in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang on tourist visas, but illegally staying to work as tour guides and accountants.

Business

-- U.S. companies are excited to use their latest technology to invest in Vietnam’s water infrastructure development, Arun Kumar, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets, said as he led a mission of nine American water firms to visit Ho Chi Minh City on Monday.

-- Ho Chi Minh City hopes to receive more investment from Singaporean businesses in transport, urban development and anti-flooding, the city's chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said as he received Singaporean Senior Minister of State Josephine Teo on Monday.

-- A local man in the northern province of Lang Son was arrested by police after taking captive a ten-year-old boy at gunpoint, and later used the gun to 'steal' a taxi on Monday.

Education

-- The 2016 Asian Students Environment Platform (ASEP) is poised to take place in Japan between August 3 and 8, attended by 84 college and graduate students from reputable universities in six countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia, including Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Lifestyle

-- Do Duong Tung, 27, founder and chairman of the Vietnam Fingerstyle Guitar Organization, will represent his country at the 2016 International Finger-Style Guitar Festival, which kicks off on June 29 and runs through July 23, with 16 concerts to be held in seven countries.

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