Check out the news you should not miss today, May 16:

Politics

-- China on Monday issued a joint communiqué, which hails the Sino-Vietnamese friendship as a valuable asset of the two countries’ Parties, States and peoples, as Vietnam’s State President Tran Dai Quang wrapped up his May 11-15 visit to Beijing.

Society

-- Vietnam's lawmaking National Assembly on Monday issued a resolution, approving the request for Vo Kim Cu, a former top provincial official who was among those punished by the government for their roles in the notorious Formosa environmental disaster, to step down as a legislator. Many had expected Cu to be stripped of his lawmaker status, instead of leaving the post of his own volition.

-- Many streets in Ho Chi Minh City quickly turned into 'rivers' after an hours-long downpour on Monday afternoon.

-- A court in the central city of Da Nang on Monday sentenced three to a total of seven years in jail for killing two endangered red-shanked douc langur individuals.

-- Vietnamese national Hoang Duc Binh, 34, was arrested in the north-central province of Nghe An on Monday and will be detained for 90 days for resisting on-duty officers and abusing democratic rights.

-- No more sand dredging projects should be permitted in the Mekong Delta, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung ordered on Monday, at a time when many areas across the region have suffered subsidence.

Business

-- No credit institutions under the Vietnamese banking system have been hit by the WannaCry ransomware, the IT division under the State Bank of Vietnam confirmed on Monday. 

-- Vietnam’s economy is expected to grow only 6.3-6.5 percent in 2017, falling behind the 6.7 percent target, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly said at a meeting on Monday.

-- Many investors have been duped by dishonest brokers into buying land plots in District 9 or District 2 in Ho Chi Minh City, only to be taken to projects in nearby Dong Nai Province when they asked to examine the properties first-hand.

-- Vietnam’s inflation is projected to increase at the rate of 4.3 percent in 2017, much higher than the 4-percent target set by the government, research company Market Intello said in a report on Monday.

Lifestyle

-- Singer Son Tung M-TP and three other Vietnamese artists will participate in the Viral Fest Asia 2017, scheduled for June 3 in Bangkok, Thailand.

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