What you need to know in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Vietnamese State President Vo Van Thuong hosted U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Marc E. Knapper in Hanoi on Monday, during which the state leader affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to the two countries’ cooperation and considers the U.S. as one of its leading partners.

Society

-- Three people in a family were killed after their motorbike was hit by a truck in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai on Monday.

-- Medicines for severe hand, foot and mouth disease cases will be shipped to Vietnam next month in response to Ho Chi Minh City pediatric hospitals’ shortage of drugs, the Drug Administration of Vietnam under the Ministry of Health informed.

-- Police in Hanoi are discovering the cause of an incident in which a garage in Nam Tu Lien District burst into flames on Monday, damaging eight cars and part of another.

-- A 77-year-old woman was hospitalized after being beaten by her neighbor as the latter thought that her cow entered his watermelon field in Quang Ngai Province, central Vietnam on Wednesday last week, local authorities told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Monday.

-- Police in Khanh Hoa Province, south-central Vietnam on Monday issued a decision to hunt for a 37-year-old man who killed his wife and two others last Friday.

-- The Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the northern mountainous province of Dien Bien on Monday reported a suspected human anthrax case, a two-year-old child who did not come in contact with disease resources. The province had earlier detected three outbreaks of human anthrax disease with 13 cases.

Business

-- The investor of the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong Expressway, which links Ho Chi Minh City with its two neighboring provinces of Long An and Tien Giang, has proposed expanding the road to 10 lanes, including two emergency lanes, from the current six lanes, with an estimated cost of some VND9.7 trillion (US$416 million).

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport on Monday launched the EMV Open-loop payment system on buses in the city, allowing commuters to use their bank cards or e-wallets to make payments for bus tickets instead of using cash or registering new cards.

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