Check out what is in the news today!

Politics

-- Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Le Hai Binh announced on Tuesday that Vietnam has resolutely refuted wrongful points in Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei’s statements regarding China’s test flights on January 1 and 6 to a reef in Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago, which have endangered aviation safety in the region, while reiterating the Southeast Asian country’s sovereignty over Truong Sa and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos.

Society

-- Police in the Mekong Delta province of Long An have admonished eight Chinese nationals holding visa tourists and forced them to leave Chau Thanh District for buying dragon fruits in bulk in a shady attempt to manipulate the market.

-- A Vietnamese school training air force officers, which is based in Nha Trang City, the heart of the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, on Tuesday conferred degrees on the first-ever batch of naval pilots.

Business

-- Nguyen Quoc Khanh, general director of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, commonly known as PetroVietnam, has said that the group would incur a revenue loss of up to VND5.4 trillion (US$237.07 million) if global oil prices plummet by $1 per barrel. Prices on Tuesday fell to a 12-year low of approximately $30 per barrel.

-- According to the Vietnam High-Quality Product Association, rampant fake goods and items with no clear origin, including gas cylinders and drugs, pose a serious risk to consumers’ health and hurt righteous enterprises.

-- Dao Minh Tu, deputy governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), told a meeting on Tuesday that like three previous years, the SBV will not issue new banknotes with denominations lower than VND5,000 for the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) to save expenses, as bills with such small face values are being used as donations, not as a means of payment.

Education

-- Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup has decided to provide VND30 billion ($1.3 million) for a scholarship fund intended for students of the National Economics University in Hanoi after the two sides inked a cooperation agreement on Tuesday.

Charity

-- Australia’s Lifestart Foundation has committed more than AUD600,000 ($418,746) for Hoi An City and Dien Ban Town, located in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam, in a project meant to provide scholarships and vocational training for the needy and physically-challenged.

Sports  

-- The People's Committee of the central city of Da Nang held a press meeting on Tuesday to announce that the city will be among 17 destinations for the biennial international yacht race which kicked off in London in late August 2015 and will take place in Da Nang from February 17 to 27.