Catch up on the news in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed doubling two-way trade between ASEAN and Australia in the next 10 years, heard the 2024 ASEAN - Australia Special Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday. Trade between the Oceanian country and the bloc reached nearly US$101.1 billion in 2022.

-- PM Pham Minh Chinh met with leaders of the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Timor Leste, Australia, New Zealand, and the ASEAN Secretary-General on the sidelines of the ASEAN - Australia Special Summit in Melbourne, Australia on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Society

-- A new cold spell is forecast to sweep through northern Vietnam, lowering temperatures in many parts of the region to 10 degrees Celsius on Thursday, while the southern region will continue to experience a heatwave, according to the national weather center.

-- Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam had reported three monkeypox cases in the year to late February, the provincial Center for Disease Control announced on Wednesday.

– A woman in Hanoi lost VND5.4 billion ($219,250) within five days after dating a man on dating app Tinder and buying cryptocurrency, police said on Wednesday.

-- The central government gave the green light to develop two proton radiotherapy systems worth VND4.2 trillion ($171 million) at the Vietnam National Cancer Hospital in Hanoi and Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Deputy Minister of Health Tran Van Thuan announced on Wednesday.

Business

-- The prime minister will chair a conference in mid-March to work with commercial banks and the central bank to remove obstacles, spur credit development, and reduce lending rates.

-- Vietnam exported $4.78 billion worth of rice in 2023, up 36.6 percent in value year on year, marking a record high in outbound rice shipments in several years, heard a conference held in Da Nang City on Wednesday.

-- Some 438,000 metric tons of Vietnamese coffee worth $1.38 billion was shipped overseas in the first two months of 2024, surging 85 percent in value year on year, according to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

World News

-- A Houthi missile attack killed three seafarers on a Red Sea merchant ship on Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said, the first fatalities reported since the Iran-aligned Yemeni group began strikes against shipping in one of the world's busiest trade lanes, reported Reuters.

-- Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump are scrambling to win over supporters of Nikki Haley, a constituency that could be crucial to sending either man back to the White House. Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential nomination contest on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

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