Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received UN Resident Coordinator Kamal Malhotra and the chief representatives of UN organizations in Vietnam on Monday. He also met Country Director of the World Bank in Vietnam Carolyn Turk on the same day.

-- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh chaired the ASEAN-United Nations Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday evening.

Society

-- The Ministry of Health recorded three imported COVID-19 cases from Russia and Angola on Wednesday evening and another imported case from Angola on Thursday morning. Vietnam’s COVID-19 tally stands at 1,145, with 1,046 having recovered.

-- Tropical Storm Saudel was located at 470 kilometers east of Vietnam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago early on Thursday morning, with winds at 90-100km per hour, and is forecast to become stronger as it travels northwest in the next 24 hours.

-- The funeral of 22 soldiers from Economy-National Defense Delegation No. 337 who were killed after a landslide hit their station on Sunday was organized in the north-central province of Quang Tri on Thursday morning.

-- A man was killed and another in a critical condition while dredging a sewer at a market in Bac Lieu City, located in the namesake Mekong Delta province, on Wednesday evening.

-- Two 16-year-old boys drowned after they took a swim at a beach in Quy Nhon City, located in the south-central province of Binh Dinh, despite strong waves on Wednesday afternoon.

Business

-- Vietnam’s e-commerce market is forecast to climb 20 percent in the last quarter of this year and reach US$12 billion by year end if the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be kept under control in the country.

-- Authorities in the central city of Da Nang have approved an investment proposal by Japan’s Fujikin Incorporated for a $35 million R&D center at the Da Nang High-Tech Park.

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