Have a nice Sunday!

Society

-- Severe flooding raging in central provinces from mid-October has left 111 dead and missing, injuring 121 others and devastating nearly 100,000 hectares of crops, according to the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control. The National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting has also warned of more downpours and floods at the end of this month.

-- Doctors from three hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City acted promptly in unison to save a 33-year-old woman who suffered fatal post-natal complications after giving birth to her son at an infirmary in Cu Chi District on Friday.

Business

-- More than a thousand flower farmers in several central provinces, including Binh Dinh and Thua Thien-Hue, face hefty losses in crops meant for the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) due to the havoc that a series of unseasonal floods have wreaked in the past two weeks.

-- Following the success of Aussie beef, mostly produced from live cattle imported from Australia, a trend that emerged in Vietnam’s big cities some years ago, more imported meat has flooded local supermarkets and retail stores in recent times.

Lifestyle

-- Richard Marx, a famed American pop/rock singer, songwriter and musician, will enthrall fans in Hanoi with his everlasting oldies and new hits at a Christmas concert on Monday (December 19), the event organizers has confirmed.

Education

-- Vietnam is poised to launch a locally produced satellite, the LOTUSat-1, in 2019, and proceed with the catapult of its successor, the LOTUSat-2, in 2022, according to Pham Anh Tuan, director of the Vietnam National Satellite Center. The two synthetic-aperture devices, designed to weigh 600kg each, are expected to save trillions of dong (VND1 million is equivalent to US$44) annually by minimizing natural calamity-caused damage, and are indicative of the country’s satellite building strides.

-- A free-admission exhibition of industrial fine arts and interior décor products designed by students from industrial garbage is taking place until December 25 at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture. The items are part of a project jointly conducted by the university and Australia’s University of Sydney.