Check out what is in the news today, March 1

Politics

-- Vietnam’s deputy State President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh on Tuesday welcomed Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in Hanoi, whose five-day visit to Vietnam marks a significant landmark in the two nations’ ties.

Society

-- Over the past week, the administration of northern Lang Son Province has adopted multiple measures, including setting up makeshift guard posts along trails and shortcuts on the Vietnam-China borderline in a bid to combat poultry smuggling and prevent the spread of the deadly H7N9 avian influenza virus strain from its neighbor.

-- Authorities in Hanoi have decided to cease fish keeping at Tay (West) Lake, one of the capital’s icons, to tackle water pollution and facilitate its renovation into a tourist attraction.

-- A fisherman in Cao Lanh District in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap on Tuesday caught a rare 71-kilogram ca ho (Siamese giant carp,) which was later bought by local restaurant for VND120 million (US$5,260).

-- The administration of Hoan Kiem District in downtown Hanoi has announced they had scrapped the proposition of setting up a ‘Walk of Fame’ contouring the city’s signature Hoan Kiem (Sword) Lake over mixed public reactions.

-- The Vietnam People's Navy on Tuesday organized a flag-hoisting ceremony at Cam Ranh Military Port, located in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, to mark their admission of the two Kilo-class submarines, the last pair out of the six underwater vessels that Vietnam bought from Russia.

-- On Tuesday, 47 passenger buses owned by transport firms in the northern provinces of Thai Binh and Nam Dinh were driven empty to Hanoi in protest of the municipal transport department’s decision to move the buses to a new station since earlier this year, thus inflicting heavy losses on the businesses.

-- Police in the northern province of Bac Ninh on Tuesday dispersed a throng of almost 2,000 people who gathered in front of an under-construction Samsung factory in Yen Phong District following a scuffle between security guards and workers, with one ending up in hospital.

Business

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department is considering proposing the General Department of Taxation adopt electronic tax refund procedures to better tackle the mounting number of small-value applications.

-- Representatives of the Vietnamese unit of the world's largest carmaker Toyota confirmed at a Tuesday seminar that they will produce less car lines and models this year over concerns about domestic car makers’ damp sales as the automobile import tax rate will drop to zero percent in 2018.

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