Read what is in the news today.

Society

-- Traffic is banned on streets downtown Ho Chi Minh City in areas around the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the headquarters of the People’s Committee of District 1, and limited on Hai Ba Trung Street, Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Nam Ky Khoi Nghia Street, and Nguyen Du Street from 6:00 am to 10:00 am on Saturday and Sunday for fire drills.

-- An exam to recruit public workers in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap has caused controversy as the scores on ten out of 12 test papers were changed after they were reevaluated.

-- Traffic police officers in the south-central province of Binh Thuan detected and seized nearly 800 bottles of wine with unknown origins of several different brands, worth about VND1 billion (US$42,952), on a semi-trailer truck traveling on National Highway 1 on Friday.

-- A 23-year-old man from Northern Ireland was arrested on Friday in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals in a lorry trailer in Essex last month, increasing the number of arrests in the investigation to six, according to UK police.

-- Authorities in the central city of Da Nang are looking for a 52-year-old Canadian who went missing in the Son Tra Peninsular after leaving what appears to be a suicide note.

Business

-- Vietnamese people's spendings on high-end goods are forecast to increase by 20-25 percent in 2020 compared to how much they spend currently, Dang Thuy Ha, director of consumer behavior research at Nielsen Vietnam, said at the Vietnam Business Outlook 2020 event in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, quoting the market research company’s data.

Lifestyle

-- A qualification round to find seven finalists representing southern Vietnam to compete in the final of a cooking contest searching for the best 'pho' chefs in the country took place on Saturday morning at the headquarters of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper in Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City.

-- Veteran Vietnamese actress and film producer Truong Ngoc Anh was designated on Friday as a member of the board of judges at the Vietnam Film Festival 2019 taking place in the southern province of Ba Ria – Vung Tau from November 23-27.

Sports

-- The Vietnamese national under-22 men’s and women’s football teams arrived in Manila, the Philippines, on Friday night to take part in the SEA (Southeast Asian) Games 2019 with their first matches scheduled to take place on November 25 and 28, respectively.

-- Three Real Madrid Foundation coaches from the namesake Spanish football club will train 300 underprivileged children in Hanoi on Saturday and Sunday under the third return to Vietnam of the YKK Asia Group Kids Football Clinic program.

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