Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Society

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism on Monday joined hands with the Tan Son Nhat International Airport authority to hold a ceremony to welcome the first foreign travelers to the city by air in 2024. The city gave special gifts, including crafts, vouchers, and return air tickets, to the passengers.

-- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Monday attended a ground-breaking ceremony for the first phase of a project to build an expressway connecting the two northwestern border provinces of Lang Son and Cao Bang. The 121km expressway carries a price tag of nearly VND23 trillion (US$947.6 million), the Vietnam News Agency reported.

-- Many entrances leading to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi were crowded with vehicles on Monday afternoon as thousands of people came back to the cities after their three-day New Year holiday, lasting from Saturday last week to Monday this week.

-- Police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested two 22-year-old women for allegedly running a prostitution brokerage racket involving beauty queens, photo models, students, and actresses who sold sex for VND14-50 million ($577-2,060) per session. 

Business

-- The total assets of Vietnam's six richest people were valued at $12.6 billion as of the end of 2023, falling over $5 billion over the preceding year, according to Forbes’ latest update.

Lifestyle

-- The Sa Dec Flower Ornamental Festival, hosted in the city of the same name in Dong Thap Province, southern Vietnam, is scheduled to last from last Saturday to this Friday. According to the local administration, as of Monday, the event had already drawn in approximately 140,000 visitors.

Sports

-- Vietnamese runners Nguyen Thi Oanh and Hoang Nguyen Thanh on Monday broke national records in the men's and women's 21-kilometer distances at the Vietnam International Half Marathon 2024 held in Hanoi.

World News

-- “Dutch police on Monday said more than 200 people had been arrested on New Year's Eve during riots throughout the country, in which dozens of police officers were injured,” according to Reuters.

-- "At least eight people have died in an earthquake that struck Japan on New Year's Day as authorities on Tuesday struggled to assess the full extent of a disaster that wrecked buildings and roads and left thousands without power in freezing temperatures," Reuters reported

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