Read what is in the news today!

Politics

-- Vietnam suggests that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) continue assisting the Vietnamese government in institutional reforms and state governance, including building an e-government, Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said during a working session with the agency’s leaders in Washington D.C. on Thursday.

Society

-- A local man has been arrested by police in the northern Vietnamese province of Quang Ninh for attempting to smuggle an entire tiger skin and tiger bones into China, officers said on Thursday.

-- Four were killed when a seven-seater Lexus crashed into a funeral procession in the south-central province of Binh Dinh on Thursday.

-- Japan plans to install modern equipment using bio-nanotechnology on the bed of the To Lich River in Hanoi to help clean up this heavily polluted waterway, Dr. Tadashi Yamamura, an environmental specialist of the United Nations, said as he led a delegation to meet with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in the Vietnamese capital on Thursday.

-- More than 100 Vietnamese and Dutch scientists, experts and business owners in the field of water resources and the environment, along with leaders of departments and universities in Ho Chi Minh City, and 13 cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta gathered at the Water Business Dialogues held by the Netherlands Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday.

Business

-- President Donald Trump’s trade war with China has U.S. companies shifting purchases of tariff-targeted products like furniture, refrigerators and car tires to countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, and Mexico, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a new analysis by trade data firm Panjiva.

-- Coffee prices in Vietnam fell this week, with farmers in the Central Highlands selling the beans at VND30,900-31,800 ($1.33-$1.37) per kg on Thursday, down from VND31,600-32,500 last week, after the International Coffee Organization raised global surplus forecasts.

Lifestyle

-- Vietnam’s Book Festival 2019 is slated to take place at the Hanoi Library on April 19, as part of a series of activities to mark the Vietnam Book Day (April 21) and the World Book and Copyright Day (April 23), the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has announced.

-- The Third Wife, a film by Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair that won the NETPAC award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2018, will hit theaters in Vietnam from May 17.

Sports

-- Da Nang will be the first Vietnamese city to ever host the 5th Ironman 70.3 – Asia Pacific Championship, scheduled for May 9 - 12, with the participation of nearly 2,200 triathletes, including 40 professionals, from 50 countries and territories, the government portal reported on Thursday.

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