Read what is in the news today:

Politics

-- U.S. President Donald Trump has invited ASEAN leaders to meet next month in Las Vegas, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday, after a summit last year was scrapped.

Society

-- A group of 20 South Korean tourists who refused to be quarantined as a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) precaution after arriving in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang on Monday were sent back to their country on a Vietjet flight from Da Nang to Incheon at 11:55 pm on Tuesday.

-- Six people died after a wherry carrying ten capsized on the Vu Gia River in the central province of Quang Nam Province on Tuesday afternoon.

-- Measures to control the COVID-19 epidemic must go in tandem with completing national socio-economic targets set by the lawmaking National Assembly, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said on Tuesday as he chaired a meeting of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council in Hanoi.

-- About 30 laboratories across Vietnam are capable of testing for the novel coronavirus at present, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday. The facilities are based in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Thua Thien - Hue, Dak Lak, Quang Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Ha Tinh, and Lao Cai.

-- Police in Ba Thuoc District in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa on Wednesday morning launched legal proceedings against and arrested a local man, 50-year-old Truong Van Ly, for stockpiling and trading wild, rare animals. Officers previously found the carcasses of a loris and 16 striped hog-nosed skunks at his residence in Ba Thuoc.

Business

-- The Vietnam Tourism Association said on Tuesday it has asked travel firms to stop receiving tourists from countries hit by COVID-19 in the face of new complicated developments of the disease in South Korea and Japan.

-- Vietnam’s wood exports to the European Union is likely to reach US$1 billion after the recently ratified EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) takes effect, which will see 90 percent of Vietnamese wood products shipped to the EU being subjected to a zero percent import tax, according to market watchers quoted by the Vietnam News Agency.

Education

-- The Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City has proposed that all middle and high school students in the city be back to school from March 16, with the exception of those in grades 9 and 12, who will resume school from March 2. The department also suggested that students in their final years of kindergarten and elementary school go back to class from March 16 as the rest continue to enjoy the weeks-long COVID-19 break until further announcement.

World News

-- Over 80,500 people have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 2,711 killed globally as of Monday morning, according to the South China Morning Post. The number of confirmed cases in South Korea has reached 1,146, with 11 deaths.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!