Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan and a delegation of high-ranking officials joined a meeting with authorities of Tsukuba City in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture on Monday, as part of their business trip to the East Asian country from March 17 to 25. 

Society

-- The state funeral of late Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was scheduled to begin at 8:00 am on Tuesday and conclude at the end of Wednesday. His body is kept at the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City during the period.

-- An explosion occurred at a two-story grill restaurant in the north-central province of Nghe An at 0:30 on Tuesday, causing severe damage to the facility. Casualties are still unclear.

-- A truck driver in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa has been fined VND10 million (US$400) for letting his 10-year-old nephew drive the vehicle. His wrongdoing was caught on camera and the video has been uploaded to social media.

-- A pregnant woman and her three-year-old son were killed after their motorbike collided with a truck in Nghe An Province on Monday afternoon. Her husband, who was riding the motorcycle, suffered serious injuries.

-- A firefighting police officer has succumbed to his wounds after a fire engine and a coach crashed into each other along a highway in southern Hanoi on Monday evening. The other eight victims are still being treated for their serious injuries.

-- The Nghe An Province Department of Health confirmed on Monday that 30-year-old V.T.K. had died after allowing a local woman, who does not have any medical degree, to carry out her abortion last week.

-- Three people in Ky Son District, Nghe An Province have died after drinking alcohol containing Koumin, a substance that can be found in a locally notorious type of poisonous leave.

Business

-- Businesses in Vietnam are worried that the country’s famous pangasius fish would not be able to be exported to the United States after the Department of Commerce applied an anti-dumping duty worth $7.7 per kilogram on the product.

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