Here are today’s leading news stories.

Politics

— The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday sent a document to authorities in Vietnam’s coastal cities and provinces, reiterating that China’s fishing ban from May 1 to August 16 is invalid in Vietnamese waters.

— The EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) is expected to be ratified by the National Assembly on May 20, the first day of the 14th NA’s ninth session, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Society

— The number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in Vietnam is still 288 as no new case was reported on Tuesday morning. A total of 249 patients have recovered, while no death from the disease has been confirmed.

— Police in Ho Chi Minh City confirmed on Monday they had arrested four suspects from an illegal ring that smuggled drugs from Cambodia into Vietnam. Officers also confiscated six kilograms of crystal meth, 900 pills of ecstasy, a pistol, 20 bullets, and three home-made explosives.

— The deputy director of the Vietnam Expressway Corporation has been apprehended for multiple violations regarding an expressway project connecting the central city of Da Nang with neighboring Quang Ngai Province.

— A 28-year-old man in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho was sentenced to nine months in prison on Monday for posting defamatory information about the Vietnamese Party and state, as well as fake news on the COVID-19 epidemic, on Facebook.

Business

— More than 18,600 household businesses in Ho Chi Minh City had to cease operation within the first four months of this year, mostly because of the COVID-19 epidemic, according to the municipal Department of Taxation.

— Honda Vietnam’s motorbike and automobile sales in April plunged by 72 percent and 52 percent year-on-year, respectively, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Nguyen Huy Trung, head of its External Relations Division.

Lifestyle

— The President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi has been reopened to the public from Tuesday following a temporary shutdown from March 23 due to the COVID-19 epidemic, according to the mausoleum's management board.

World News

-- The novel coronavirus has infected over 4.25 million people and killed more than 287,100 around the globe as of Tuesday morning, according to statistics. More than 1.52 million patients have recovered from COVID-19.

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