Read what’s in the news today.

Politics

-- German Ambassador to Vietnam Christian Berger was presented the State President’s Friendship Order in Hanoi on Friday for his active contribution to Vietnam – Germany relations and cooperation, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Society

-- Thousands of candles lit up the martyrs’ cemetery in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday evening as Vietnamese youths commemorated the country’s War Invalids and Martyrs Day (July 27).

-- Vietnam’s Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu called for stronger determination and actions and continuous efforts to confront corruption, as he addressed a meeting of the Central Steering Committee on Corruption Prevention and Control in Hanoi on Friday.

-- Some 1.4 million residents in eight Red River Delta provinces in northern Vietnam have so far benefited from World Bank-funded Program for Results of rural water supply and sanitation, it was announced at a conference on Friday.

-- Diplomatic officials of Vietnam and South Korea convened in the central city of Da Nang on Friday to discuss measures to prevent the phenomenon of Vietnamese brides being beaten by their South Korean husbands.

-- A Vietnam Airlines flight that bound for the north-central city of Vinh, which departed from Ho Chi Minh City on Friday morning, had to make an emergency landing in the central city of Da Nang after a female passenger had her chest bleeding, which was later identified as the result of a complication of her breast implant surgery.

Business

-- Vietnam’s top tour operator Vietravel has plans to raise VND700 billion (US$30.17 million) from a bond sale to fund its project to launch an airline, news website VnExpress reported on Friday.

-- A twin-body, double-decker speedboat, reportedly the largest of its kind in Vietnam, was launched on Friday from Tran De port in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang to Con Dao Island in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau by its operator, Phu Quoc Express Company.

Lifestyle

-- Russia’s famous orchestral works including Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number 5, Sergei Rachmaninov’s The Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini and Aram Khachaturian’s Adagio will be played at the Saigon Opera House tonight, July 27.

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