Read what’s in the news today.

Politics

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with leaders of the Russia-Vietnam Friendship Association and the association of former Russian military experts who helped Vietnam during the wartime, in Moscow on Thursday as part of his ongoing official visit to Russia.

-- China’s organization of the seventh Sinan Cup Regatta sailing competition in late April at the area of Duy Mong island belonging to Vietnam’s Hoang Sa archipelago has seriously infringed upon Vietnam’s sovereignty over this archipelago, spokesperson of the foreign ministry Le Thi Thu Hang said at a regular ministry press conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

-- Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh will visit Japan from May 29 to 31, during which he will co-chair the 11th session of the Vietnam-Japan Cooperation Committee with Japanese foreign minister Kono Taro.

Society

-- Border guards from the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri and police from the central Lao province of Savannakhet said on Thursday they arrested three Laotians the same day for trafficking meth pills into Vietnam.

-- Customs at a seaport in the southern Vietnamese province of Ba Ria - Vung Tau on Thursday discovered more than five metric tons of pangolin scales inside a container declared as cashew shipped from Nigeria.

-- Police in the northern province of Hung Yen said on Thursday they have busted an online gambling ring that handled more than VND2 trillion (US$85.8 million) in wagers and arrested 19 young gamblers.

Business

-- Vietnam’s rice prices edged down from last week as supplies are building up amid an ongoing harvest in the Mekong Delta region, Reuters reports.

-- Vietnam should approve a trial run of mobile money, a technology that allows people to receive, store and spend money using a mobile phone, Minister of Information and Communication Nguyen Manh Hung said at an international workshop in Hanoi on Thursday.

-- VinCommerce, the retail arm under Vietnamese conglomerate VinGroup, on Thursday announced the launch of its VinMart 4.0 virtual store, a collection of QR-scannable images of more than 100 product groups placed in public spaces for customers to scan and order with their smartphones.

Lifestyle

-- Some 160 artists from Vietnam and six other ASEAN countries will gather at the ASEAN Music Festival 2019 to take place in the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong from May 25 to 31, aiming to enhance cultural cooperation among members of the ten-country bloc.

-- A program featuring Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony is slated to be presented by the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO) at the Saigon Opera House on May 26.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!