Read what is in the news today:

Politics

-- Party General Secretary and State President Nguyen Phu Trong sent best wishes to all of the Vietnamese people, both inside and outside the country, on the traditional Lunar New Year.

Society

-- An unusually big rain before Lunar New Year's Eve caused flooding in some areas in the capital city of Hanoi, while hails hit different locations in the northern provinces of Phu Tho and Bac Kan on Friday afternoon, damaging hundreds of households.

-- Firecrackers have made an illegal comeback and been blatantly set off across many localities in Vietnam during this Tet, or Lunar New Year, 25 years since the nationwide ban on the explosives took effect in 1995.

-- A police officer was killed by two men who have a criminal record while he was on duty to ensure public order and safety at Lunar New Year festivities in Ninh Kieu District, located in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, on Friday afternoon.

-- Thousands of bunches of gladiolus flowers were thrown away by sellers at several flower markets in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, the very last day before the new lunar year, as consumption plummeted beyond anticipation.

-- Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific are offering free refunds for flight tickets to people traveling to China after a new coronavirus breakout there has killed at least 25 people and infected more than 800 others.

-- An Irish court on Friday approved the extradition of one of the two Northern Irish men charged with manslaughter over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people found in the back of a truck near London last year, Reuters reported.

World News

-- France confirmed on Friday its first three cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, with two patients being hospitalized in Paris and the other in the southwestern city of Bordeaux, according to Reuters.

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