Read what is in the news in Vietnam today:

Society

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) on Saturday commenced work on the city's second metro line, which links Ben Thanh Market in District 1 and Tham Luong Depot in District 12. The 11.2-kilometer route carries a price tag of over VND47.9 trillion (US$1.95 million).

-- The authorities and residents in a commune in Ha Tinh Province, located in north-central Vietnam, have completed collecting oil clumps that washed up along 500 meters of coastline in the commune, a local official said on Saturday.

-- Traffic police in Khanh Hoa Province, south-central Vietnam fined a driver VND5 million ($204) and revoked his driver’s license for three months after he was caught driving a passenger bus in the wrong direction on a National Highway 1 section in the province on Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security's Traffic Police Department said on Saturday.

-- Vietnam welcomed 1.5 million international tourist arrivals last month, surging 73.6 percent year on year, according to the General Statistics Office.

-- Taiwan-based Era Travel, the operator of We Love Tour, which is involved in a case in which nearly 300 Taiwanese tourists were left stranded on Phu Quoc Island off Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam, said it could neither compensate the tourists nor fulfill related obligations, Taiwanese news site NOWnews cited Taiwan’s tourism association as saying on Saturday.

Business

-- A total of VND2,750 trillion ($41 billion) went into the Vietnamese property market in 2023, an increase of 6.75 percent in comparison to 2022, the Vietnam News Agency reported, citing the State Bank of Vietnam.

Lifestyle

-- Thousands of residents and tourists gathered along the Dinh River in Khanh Hoa Province on Saturday to enjoy a flower boat festival and boat race with the participation of 28 flower boats.

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