Have a great New Year's Eve celebration and Happy New Year, readers!

Society

-- All streets leading to Tan Son Nhat International Airport were filled with people on Friday as they rushed to take flights to hometown or tourist areas on the occasion of the New Year.

-- Vietnam’s traffic safety was improved in 2016 with decreases in all the numbers of accidents, deaths and injuries, according to data released at a national conference in the central city of Da Nang on Friday.

-- A court in the northern province of Quang Ninh on Friday sentenced to death six of 26 convicts in the smuggling case of more than 5,000 packs of heroin, while handing life imprisonment to six others.

-- An 18-year-old man in the southern province of An Giang has been arrested for selling firecrackers, which have been banned in Vietnam for more than two decades, on Facebook.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City transport department is expected to consider odd-even rationing policy, which allows cars that have an even last number of their license plates to be able to drive on roads in even days, and vice versa, in a bid to curb congestion in 2017.

Business

-- The Vietnam Cooperative Alliance’s Cooperative Union of Agricultural Consumption and Israel Chamber of Commerce and Technology in Southeast Asia and IVA Corporation of Israel signed Friday a deal to develop a supply chain of clean agricultural products using Israeli technology in Hanoi.

-- All hotels in such famous tourist attractions in Vietnam as Da Lat, Nha Trang and Vung Tau have been fully booked as local people started a three-day New Year holidays ending January 2.

-- A race to develop horseracing venues is underway in Vietnam as the government is slated to legalize betting for the sports.

Lifestyle

-- The downtown area in Saigon is sparkling with light decorations in many major streets, ready to welcome the New Year.

-- Vietnam will apply a new movie rating mechanism on January 1, 2017, allowing x-rated movies to be screened to adult viewers above 18. Currently, movies falling to that category have to be cut to suit audience of at least 16 years old.

-- The annual Countdown Party 2017 will take place tonight at six major cities, Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho. 

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