Here are today’s leading news stories:

Society

-- Firefighters and local residents had to stay up all night on Monday to put out a fire at two forests in Dien An and Dien Phu Communes in Dien Chau District, located in the north-central Vietnamese province of Nghe An.

-- A newborn baby who was found abandoned in Hanoi in early June passed away on Monday afternoon despite relentless efforts of doctors at Xanh Pon Hospital over the past 21 days.

-- Seven men were sentenced to a combined 32 years in prison for poisoning ten hectares of pine tree forest in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the provincial People’s Court announced on Monday.

-- Police in Hai Ba Trung District, Hanoi have initiated legal proceedings against a 65-year-old man for allegedly molesting an eight-year-old boy inside an elevator of an apartment building on June 17.

-- Officers in Ho Chi Minh City are verifying a viral video showing a man beating a young boy believed to be his step son in a house in Tan Phu District.

-- Two eighth-grade students drowned and another went missing after having a swim in a stream in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong on Monday afternoon.

Business

-- About 7.8 million laborers in Vietnam lost their jobs or had to be furloughed, while 17.6 million people saw a decrease in their salary due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic, according to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs.

-- Vietnam’s export turnover in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries was estimated at $18.81 billion in the first half of 2020, a year-on-year decline of 3.4 percent, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported.

World news

-- The novel coronavirus has infected over 10.4 million people around the world while killing more than 507,500, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Health’s statistics. Over 5.6 million patients have recovered from COVID-19.

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