The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Việt Nam Youth Union yesterday launched a writing contest on Việt Nam’s sovereignty over its sea and islands for young overseas Vietnamese.

Motorbikes were the main cause of traffic accidents in Hồ Chí Minh City in the first six months of the year, a meeting on traffic safety heard yesterday afternoon.

The HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has said it will step up checks of service establishments that are likely to surreptitiously employ sex workers to combat prostitution.

When a local official informed her last year that her family was no longer poor, the 42-year-old woman in Ward 15 in HCM City’s District 8 was not happy.

This was because her family would no longer get subsidised health insurance or education for her children besides other benefits.

The People’s Committee of HCM City has told relevant agencies that they would be held fully responsible for illegal demolition of century-old villas.

An outbreak of diphtheria in the past week in the central province of Bình Phước has resulted in three deaths, a health official said.

The number of electrical breakdowns in the south in the first six months this year increased sharply compared with the same period last year, said the Safety Department under the Southern Power Corporation of Vietnam Electricity (SPC EVN).

Supporting domestic airline firms and taking advantage of membership of the ASEAN Single Aviation Market to launch more international routes in the block and run direct flight routes from Việt Nam to the United States by the national carrier Vietnam Airlines are targeted as the major goals of the transport sector’s international co-operation activities during 2016-20.

HCM City plans to step up enforcement against smuggling, trade fraud and counterfeit goods to better cope with the rising number of violations that have been occurring this year.