Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- The National Assembly Standing Committee convened the 52nd session on Monday, chaired by Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, to prepare for the election of deputies to the 15th National Assembly and all-level People’s Councils for the 2021-26 tenure.

-- Vietnamese Party chief and State President Nguyen Phu Trong has sent a message of congratulations to newly-elected General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea Kim Jong Un.

Society

-- A 31-year-old Russian woman and her one-year-old daughter have re-tested positive for the coronavirus after they were given the all-clear and completed quarantine in Khanh Hoa Province on January 7.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Public Security on Monday initiated legal proceedings against a 28-year-old flight attendant, who is COVID-19 patient No. 1,342, for “spreading contagious disease to others.”

-- Officers in the central city of Da Nang confirmed on Monday they had arrested and initiated legal proceedings against two men for transporting four Chinese border jumpers in late December.

-- Tens of thousands of students in multiple northern and north-central provinces were allowed to stay home on Monday as temperature dropped to below 10 degrees Celsius due to the effect of a strong cold spell.

-- A middle school student was killed and another hospitalized after burning coal to keep themselves warm while sleeping at a house in the north-central province of Quang Binh.

-- The Hai Van Tunnel 2, the longest road tunnel in Southeast Asia linking north-central Thua Thien-Hue Province and central Da Nang City, was open to traffic on Monday.

-- Chinese authorities on Monday handed over 20 Vietnamese border jumpers to border guard officers in the northern province of Ha Giang.

Business

-- The Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) has racked up a loss of VND1.32 trillion (US$56.8 million) due to the COVID-19 pandemic and flooding in the central region, said VNR chairman Vu Anh Minh.

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