Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News — July 24

Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- President of the Senegalese National Assembly El Malick Ndiaye hosted an official welcome ceremony for visiting Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man and a high-level Vietnamese delegation in Dakar on Wednesday.

-- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son hosted a reception in Hanoi on Wednesday for Cuba's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerardo Penalver Portal, who is visiting Vietnam from Tuesday to Friday for a political consultation, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Society

-- The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee on Wednesday issued a plan to implement compensation, support, and resettlement work for the North-South high-speed railway project and another project to tap land resources in the areas surrounding railway stations and depots.

-- A section of Le Loi Boulevard in downtown Ho Chi Minh City is closed to cars from now until Monday next week for the organization of the Vietnam-South Korea friendship cultural festival.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Public Security announced on Wednesday that investigators had filed charges against 247 individuals for allegedly trading, storing, and organizing the use of narcotics, following an expanded probe into a drug-related criminal network linked to three bars: F5 Club in Dong Hoa Ward, part of former Binh Duong Province, Six T Club in An Phu Ward, part of former Binh Duong Province, and TGT Disco Club in Vung Tau Ward, part of former Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province.

-- Torrential rain and flooding triggered by storm Wipha, the third storm to hit the East Vietnam Sea this year, which made landfall in Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa Provinces on Tuesday afternoon, left three people dead, four injured, and more than 3,200 homes submerged in Nghe An Province, an official said on Wednesday.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control on Wednesday issued a warning about the rising number of dengue fever cases, with signs of rapid and wider spread across the city. As of July 13, the city had recorded 15,538 cases of dengue fever, a year-on-year surge of 159.4 percent, and a total of 10 deaths.

Economy

-- Costing nearly VND1.4 trillion (US$53.5 million), the Phu Tho circus and multi-purpose performing center complex project, located on Lu Gia Street in Phu Tho Ward, Ho Chi Minh City is scheduled for completion and operation in August.