Check out the latest news in Vietnam today:

Business

-- A new speedboat service linking Ho Chi Minh City’s Nha Be District with Con Dao Island off the southern province of Ba Ria - Vung Tau for around five hours will be launched next month, according to the city’s transport authority.

-- Vietnam exported nearly US$750 million worth of aquatic products in January this year, surging 64 percent against the same period in 2023, with Japan and China the biggest buyers of Vietnam’s aquatic items last month, said a representative of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) on Friday.

-- More than 6,950 cars worth over $145 million were imported into Vietnam last month, both plunging 51.8 percent in volume and 53.7 percent in value versus the same period in 2023, according to data recently released by the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

-- Two-way trade between Vietnam and China surpassed $16.43 billion in the first month of 2024, said the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

Society

-- A 20-year-old man in Ha Nam Province, northern Vietnam has been charged with allegedly lending his motorcycle to a friend ineligible for riding the vehicle. The friend, borned in 2007, did not have a driver’s license, drove under the influence, and died after crashing into a roadside tree in late December last year, local police confirmed on Friday.

Lifestyle

-- The organizing committee of the upcoming Formula 1 powerboat race F1H2O Grand Prix and Aquabike Grand Prix, scheduled to kick off next month in Binh Dinh Province, south-central Vietnam, will offer 10,000 tickets priced between VND500,000 ($20) and VND3 million ($122) each, according to the outcome of a press briefing held in the province on Friday.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 11 kicked off its first-ever Nguyen Tieu Festival on Friday evening in celebration of Tet Nguyen Tieu, which falls on the 15th of the first lunar month. 

World News

-- The moon lander dubbed Odysseus is "alive and well" but resting on its side a day after a white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the United States since 1972, Reuters cited the company behind the vehicle as saying on Friday.

-- United Airlines on Friday became the third major U.S. airline to hike checked baggage fees for customers traveling in North America after American Airlines and JetBlue Airways announced similar increases, Reuters reported.

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