Read what is in the news today, July 11!

Politics

-- The Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership in various fields was highlighted during the 10^th strategic dialogue in Moscow on Tuesday between the countries’ diplomatic missions headed by Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and his Russian counterpart Igor Morgulov.

Society

-- Heavy rains and thunderstorms are in the forecast today, July 11, across all regions of Vietnam as a tropical convergence zone ramps up its activity, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

-- Representatives from Vietnam’s Embassy in Cambodia, headed by Ambassador Vu Quang Minh, on Tuesday visited Vietnamese families affected by a Phnom Penh blaze which took place early morning the same day, destroying 58 houses inhabited by Vietnamese Cambodians.

-- Police on Tuesday raided a fruit processing establishment in the southern province of Dong Nai and found nearly 14 metric tons of durians soaked in an unknown yellowish substance, suspected to be a harmful chemical that helps speed up the fruit’s ripening process.

-- The US$322 million Van Don International Airport in the northern province of Quang Ninh, Vietnam’s first privately-invested airport, is set to be launched in the third quarter of 2018, shortening travel time from Quang Ninh to regional hubs in Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Business

­-- Over half of Vietnam’s foreign-invested enterprises are reporting losses despite the fact that many of them continue to expand operations in the country, raising suspicion of widespread transfer pricing.

-- Vietnamese police have arrested and launched legal proceedings against Le Nam Tra, former chairman and general director of local telecoms company MobiFone, and Pham Dinh Trong, head of enterprise management at the Ministry of Information and Communications, for violations in the management and use of public investment related to a scandalous deal where MobiFone tried to buy a 95 percent stake in AVG, a pay-per-view TV firm.

-- Vietnam is bracing for an influx of pork imported from the U.S. as the North American country’s top importers of the livestock product – China and Mexico – are forecast to significantly lower their intake due to increased tariffs as part of an ongoing trade war among the countries.

-- Ho Chi Minh City-based Nguyen Kim, one of Vietnam’s leading electronics retailers, has insisted it is not in the wrong and said it would challenge a request from the municipal taxman asking the company to pay VND148.33 billion ($6.42 million) worth of fines and tax arrears for reducing the amount of personal income tax its employees had to pay.

-- The average room rate at five-star hotels in Vietnam has increased by 4.2 percent this year compared to the last, from $89.3 to $91.8 per night, with the most remarkable growth reported at hotels in the central region where Vietnam’s famous resort cities are located.