Read what’s in the news today, March 2.

Politics

-- Hosting the summit between North Korea and the United States was a big success for Vietnam, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said as he chaired a regular government meeting in Hanoi on Friday.

-- Vietnamese Party chief and State President Nguyen Phu Trong welcomed visiting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Friday, hailing the visit as a new and important milestone in the history of the two Parties and countries.

-- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Friday that his talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi had been “substantive,” while saying that he felt “great to be back from Vietnam, an amazing place.”

Society

-- The administration of the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Giang held a ceremony on Friday to receive 100 cherry blossom trees presented by the Japan-Vietnam Friendship Association of Chukyo region.

-- A traffic police officer of the northern province of Bac Giang was crushed to death by a speeding train as he was moderating traffic at a level crossing on the Hanoi - Dong Dang route on Friday.

-- Police in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa said on Friday they are detaining 36 suspects for their role in a large-scale gambling ring that was busted two days earlier, when officers seized more than VND1 billion ($43,000) in cash and a loaded improvised gun.

-- The high-level People’s Court in Hanoi has announced that it will open the appeal trial on an online gambling case involving huge amount of money mounting to trillions of dong and two former generals in the public security sector on March 5. (VND1 trillion = $43 million)

Business

-- The Blue Whale gas field project, the largest of its kind in Vietnam and which is located off the central province of Quang Nam, is expected to be launched this year with the first flow of gas brought ashore by late 2023, Tran Sy Thanh, chairman of the member council of the state-run Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, said Friday.

-- Hong Kong was Vietnam’s biggest foreign investor in the January-February period with a total investment of $4.3 billion USD, making up 51 percent of the new foreign direct investment inflow into the country, according to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Lifestyle

-- The sixth Ao Dai (Vietnamese traditional dress) Festival in Ho Chi Minh City is slated to begin tonight, March 2, with a number of activities set to run in various tourist spots of the southern metropolis through March 17.

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