Tuoi Tre News wishes our readers and contributors the best of luck, happiness and success in this new lunar year, the Year of the Dog!

Society

-- Fireworks lit up the sky in over 20 provinces and cities across Vietnam at midnight on Friday as the country rang in the 2018 Lunar New Year, or Tet, the biggest public holiday of the year when locals celebrate kinship and the family spirit.

-- Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang wished for peace and prosperity for Vietnam and the world as he addressed his people in a televised Tet message broadcast on national television during the first minutes of Friday, a yearly tradition observed by Vietnamese heads of state.

-- Police are investigating a suspected mass murder of five people in a family in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City, who were found dead on Thursday evening after a relative discovered a foul smell coming from their house and notified law enforcement.

-- Nearly 30 men, armed with guns and machetes, were arrested by police in Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province on Thursday evening after they engaged in a violent gang fight outside a local entertainment facility, as dozens more who had fled the scene are being hunted.

-- No casualties were reported when a 45-seater passenger bus transporting 29 foreign tourists from Da Nang City to Hue City in central Vietnam was burnt down completely while passing the Hai Van Pass on Thursday morning in a fire that had reportedly broken out from the luggage compartment.

-- Northern and central Vietnam are forecast to continue to experience a cold spell and foggy weather on the first day of the 2018 Lunar New Year, with temperatures expected to drop to 14-18 degrees Celsius in lowland areas and under 13 degrees Celsius in the mountains.

-- One Vietnamese fisherman was killed and three others still missing at sea after their fishing vessel, carrying 12, capsized on Thursday nearly 100 nautical miles from the southern city of Vung Tau, sending all men aboard to the rough waters.

-- A 28-year-old police lieutenant in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province was killed on Thursday in what police say was an accident, in which the officer had slipped and shot himself in the head with a loaded gun while cleaning the firearm.

Lifestyle

-- Many foreign visitors to Vietnam during this holiday season have opted for tours that explore Tet traditions and allow them to immerse in the local way of celebrating the biggest holiday of the year, according to local tour operators.

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