Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Business

-- Hanoi plans to put the Nhon – Hanoi Station metro line, the second of its kind in the Vietnamese capital city, into commercial operation in June this year, a local official told a meeting on Friday.

-- Power Generation Corporation 2, or EVNGENCO2 and its Chinese business partner China Southern Power Grid Company proposed developing a 500MW pumped storage hydropower plant in Quang Tri Province, central Vietnam during their recent working session with the provincial administration.

-- Vietnam attracted more than $2.36 billion of foreign capital in the year to January 20, soaring 40.2 percent against the same period last year, according to data released by the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Society

-- The Vietnamese government has passed a development master plan for Thua Thien Hue Province until 2045, with a goal of transforming this central Vietnamese locality into a municipality by 2025 on the basis of preserving and promoting values of ancient capital’s heritage and Hue cultural identities, the provincial administration announced on Friday.

-- Two local fishing boat captains in Khanh Hoa Province, south-central Vietnam have been fined VND175 million (US$7,118) each for fishing at Hon Mun Nature Reserve, located in the provincial city of Nha Trang, a local official confirmed on Friday.

-- Vietnam’s 25 tourism businesses were honored with awards in six categories at the ASEAN Tourism Awards ceremony held in Laos on Friday evening, as part of the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2024 taking place from January 22 to 27 in Vientiane.

-- The administration of Uong Bi City, Quang Ninh Province, northern Vietnam said on Friday that it has levied an administrative fine of VND7.5 million ($305) on Most Venerable Thich Truc Thai Minh, the abbot of the Ba Vang Pagoda, for his failure to inform local authorities of the pagoda’s highly-controversial display of a relic known as the ‘Buddha hair sarira’ in late December last year.

World News

-- Yemen's Houthi rebels on Friday stepped up attacks on vessels transiting the Red Sea, including a hit that sparked a fire on a fuel tanker operated on behalf of trading firm Trafigura, Reuters reported.

-- Reuters cited U.S. President Joe Biden as saying on Friday that the border deal being negotiated in the U.S. Senate was the "toughest and fairest" set of reforms possible and vowed to shut down the border the day he signs the bill.

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