Merry Christmas, readers!

Politics

-- General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam and State President Nguyen Phu Trong has sent a message of congratulations to the National Council of the French Communist Party (PCF) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the PCF and the Congress of Tours, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Society

-- Six elementary school students were hospitalized in Dong Thap Province, located in southern Vietnam, on Thursday after drinking milk tea their teacher had bought them as Christmas gifts.

-- Police said on Thurday that they had arrested a 41-year-old man for repeatedly destroying forests on Phu Quoc, dubbed a 'paradise island' off Kien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.

-- A Ho Chi Minh City court on Wednesday sentenced Pham Minh Huy, 24, to 12 years in jail for raping a child and impregnating her between December 2016 and May 2017.

Business

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the agriculture sector to strive for the target of US$44 billion from exports in 2021 during a teleconference on Thursday to review the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s performance this year and set tasks for next year, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Lifestyle

-- Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to celebrate Christmas on Thursday.

-- Famed Vietnamese reform theater artist He Sa died of old age at his home on Friday, his family confirmed the same day. He was 79 years old.

Sports

-- South Korea LS Holdings will be the main sponsor of Vietnam's top football tournaments V-League 1 and V-League 2 in the 2021 season following a deal they inked with the Vietnam Professional Football company on Thursday.

World News

-- "The British government on Wednesday said huge swathes of England would be placed under its strictest COVID-19 restrictions as a highly infectious virus variant sweeps the country, pushing the number of cases to a record level," Reuters reported.

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