Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- The 15th plenum of Vietnam’s12th Party Central Committee, which is scheduled to take place in Hanoi from January 16 to 18, continues to finalize personnel matters in connection with the Party Central Committee, Politburo, and Secretariat, as well as key leading positions in the 13th tenure. 

Society

-- The Ministry of Health on Saturday evening confirmed one imported COVID-19 case – a Nigerian expert arriving from Qatar, raising the country’s tally to 1,537, with 1,380 having recovered and 35 deaths.

-- Authorities in the north-central province of Quang Binh have discovered 22 troops of rare François' langur near residential areas in several communes in Tuyen Hoa District and are planning on protecting their habitat.

-- Several snakes broke free on board a coach traveling from the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho to the Central Highlands city of Da Lat on Saturday after a passenger secretly carried them in his backpack. The driver had to pull over and let all passengers out to search for the snakes.

-- Police in the northern province of Thai Binh confirmed on Saturday they had broken up an illegal drug ring run by a 75-year-old woman.

-- Search and rescue units in the southern province of Tay Ninh were able to find the body of a seven-year-old girl on Saturday after her mother committed suicide with two young children in a local canal on Thursday. The bodies of the mother and the other child had been found on Friday.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City had been able to relocate five out of more than 10 monkeys that have been vandalizing a neighborhood in District 12 as of Saturday.

-- Officers in the northern province of Lai Chau are investigating a case where a 28-year-old man stabbed to death his parents and injured his younger brother before killing himself early on Saturday morning. A rapid-result test showed that the murderer was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Business

-- The construction of a VND10 trillion (US$432 million) wind power project was initiated in Dam Doi District, located in the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau, on Saturday.

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