Get ready for the New Year’s Eve tonight but don’t forget to read the news items in brief on Tuoi Tre News today, December 31, 2014.

Society

- A blaze broke out at 9.20pm and raged in the next two hours on Tuesday at a karaoke parlor facing Le Van Sy Bridge in District 3’s Tran Quoc Thao street. Five houses were engulfed in the blaze, which also killed one man.

-  The Ministry of Information and Communications on Tuesday imposed a fine of VND15 million (US$706) on Vietnam Television (VTV), which has been previously penalized a few times during this year. The latest fine is applied on the national broadcaster for its  inaccurate information regarding the real age of Cong Phuong, an outstanding Vietnamese under-19 striker.

- All the three proposals, including collecting road use fees on motorbikes, submitted by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee were approved by the city’s People’s Council at a Tuesday meeting.

- Deputy Health Minister recently signed  a document instructing hospitals and medical units that the Medical Insurance Fund will continue to pay 80-100% of four expensive cancer medicine costs from January 1, 2015 on.

- An official of the Vietnam Embassy in Seoul told Tuoi Tre on Tuesday that the South Korean agencies are launching a search for four missing sailors, including two Vietnamese men, following a fire on a fishing boat which happened earlier the same day.

Business

- A ploy called “Ong chu Viettel” (Viettel uncle) is one of the three most popular Facebook scams in Vietnam in 2014, according to the result released by a local internet security company on Tuesday. - Vice CEO of state-run Vietnamese electricity giant Vietnam Electricity (EVN) announced at a Tuesday press meeting that there won’t be a hike on electricity rates from now to Tet holiday (traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year.)

- Chair of Board of Members of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, commonly known as PetroVietnam or PVN, told a Tuesday press meeting that the group will cut down on or cease exploitation activities on oil fields with costs exceeding crude oil prices.

 Lifestyle

- HCMC is ready for its pyrotechnic and light shows for tonight- New Year’s Eve, including the US$1.5 million French-technology fireworks show, which will be held at the city’s iconic Bitexco Financial Tower, a 68-story skyscraper at 45 Ngo Duc Ke Street, District 1.

Education

- Construction work on the Student Culture House at the HCMC National University kicked off on Tuesday. The structure is built on a 3.55 hectare plot in Binh Duong District in southern Binh Duong Province.