Here are the news stories you should not miss today:

Politics

-- Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Hong Xiaoyong received the Friendship Order, a noble distinction of the Vietnamese state, from Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung during a ceremony in Hanoi on Monday.

Society

-- Ho Chi Minh City authorities have had action plan ready to deal with storm Sanba, the second to hit Vietnam in 2018, which is expected to reach a location some 450km of Truong Sa Island in Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea by February 15, the Lunar New Year’s Eve.

-- Hundreds of employees of Haksan Vina, a South Korean shoemaker based in the southern Vietnamese province of Binh Duong, were hospitalized over alleged food poisoning after having lunch on Monday.

-- Thousands of passengers were left ‘stranded’ at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday as their flights were repeatedly delayed in an predicted incident during this Tet travel rush, when internal migrants in big cities return to their hometowns.

Business

-- Vietnam’s gold price on Monday jumped to VND36.9 million a tael, up VND110,000 a tae from a day earlier, in line with the global trend.

-- Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Monday handed out a decision to appoint Nguyen Hoang Anh, former Secretary of Cao Bang province Party Committee, to the post of chairman of the special committee to manage state capital at enterprises, ordering that the agency join hands with relevant agencies to chalk out concrete measures to prevent corruption, losses and waste.

-- A number of ATMs in Vietnam have become out of order or run out of cash as withdrawal demand soared ahead of the Lunar New Year, or Tet, that begins this Friday.

-- Only ten cars with nine or less seats were imported to Vietnam in the first week of February, sending the total number of such vehicles shipped to the country in the year to date to a meager 27 units, the Vietnam Customs said Monday.