Read what is in the news today:

Politics

-- Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong chaired a get-together on the occasion of Tet, which is Vietnam's Lunar New Year festival, on Wednesday with veteran revolutionaries, current and former leaders of the Party, State, Vietnam Fatherland Front, and overseas Vietnamese.

Society

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed a decision to recognize Pleiku City as a first-tier provincial city under the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai on Wednesday.

-- A 23-year-old man and his companion in Dau Tieng District in the southern province of Binh Duong were fined for multiple violations of traffic safety on Wednesday after a video which captured the two men showering themselves with water from a bucket while riding a motorbike went viral on the Internet.

-- A total of 1,300 traffic accidents occurred nationwide in the month to January 14, which killed 591 people and injured 968 others, according to the National Committee for Traffic Safety.

Business

-- The State Bank of Vietnam on Wednesday told commercial banks to accord top priority to supplying cash at automatic teller machines (ATMs) during Tet.

-- Flower sellers at several Tet flower markets in Ho Chi Minh City are worried as sales go down although it is just two days before the new lunar year begins on Saturday.

Lifestyle

-- Nguyen Hue Flower Street, an annual event held in Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate Tet, was officially opened to visitors in District 1 on Wednesday evening.

-- More than 60,000 book titles, along with various valuable photos and documents, are being introduced at a book street festival that kicked off in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday.

World News

-- The Chinese city of Wuhan, the source of an outbreak of a new flu-like virus, is closing its transport networks of bus, subway, ferry, and long-distance passenger transportation services and advising citizens not to leave the city, Reuters quoted a report by China’s state media on Thursday.

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