Check out what is in the news today!

Society

— Nine Vietnamese repatriated from Russia, Germany and Canada in December 2020 were confirmed as new cases of COVID-19 in Vietnam on Friday, bringing the patient tally to 1,474, with 1,325 recoveries and 35 virus-related deaths.

— Border guards across Vietnam had detected 180 cases of illegal entry into the country on Friday, as of 6:00 pm.

— Authorities in the southernmost province of Ca Mau are investigating a case where a 11-year-old girl was sexually abused by six men in December 2020.

— Police in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang started legal proceedings against five locals for organizing the illegal entries of a group of nine people from Cambodia into Vietnam on December 24, 2020, of whom four tested positive for COVID-19.

— Police in the northern province of Bac Ninh busted an online football gambling ring, which performed transactions totaling VND65 billion (US$2.8 million) within two months.

— Large volumes of traffic resulted from people traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region forced the tollgate at the Rach Mieu Bridge, a major bridge connecting Ben Tre and Tien Giang Provinces over the Tien (Front) River, to shut down intermittently to alleviate traffic congestion on Friday.

— A large number of age-old peach blossom trees have been traded from the northern mountainous region to northern Hai Phong City in recent days, despite the Prime Minister’s ban announced last month from cutting down the same kind of trees, which grow naturally in the wild, for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations.

— Nearly 360 Vietnamese citizens were flown home from the U.S. on a Vietnam Airlines flight at the arrangement of Vietnamese and U.S. agencies between Thursday and Friday, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Lifestyle

— Despite higher ticket prices, people flocked to the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday, the first day of the ongoing three-day New Year holiday, in an effort to help the Vietnam’s oldest zoo raise ticket sales that have been hit severely by COVID-19.

— A market fair showcasing products of the northern mountainous region held in the Culture-Tourism Village for Vietnamese Ethnic Groups in Hanoi’s outskirts district of Son Tay from Friday till Sunday unexpectedly attracted up to 7,000 visitors on its first day.

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