Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport has put on ice a proposal by the Mekong Delta province of An Giang to call for investment in a local airport project, citing low demand.

Crop and fruit farms in a southern Vietnamese province have continuously been destroyed by a herd of wild elephants, causing hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million = US$4,403) in damages.

Smog that has appeared frequently in Ho Chi Minh City, with the most recent recorded on January 3 morning, shows that local air pollution is now at an alarming level, an expert has said.

The use of herbal medicine is on the rise among Vietnamese in recent years, but concerns about management and arbitrary pricing are growing, too. 

The Franco-Vietnamese (FV) Hospital plans to invest US$5 million in building a “hi-tech medical centre” in the central city of Da Nang.

The Asia-Pacific Getaway (APG) submarine cable from Vietnam to Singapore, which was crashed on December 23, 2017, will be fixed from January 6-7, according to an Internet services supplier in Vietnam.

The Vietnam Red Cross Society (VRC) will host a charity show, to be broadcast live by Vietnam Television, on January 7 to raise funds for the poor and Agent Orange/dioxin victims on the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet). 

Police in the northern province of Dien Bien has announced that its Drug Crime Investigation Office on January 3 arrested two persons transporting 489 bricks of heroin, weighing 171kg and worth US$3 million.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung has asked for strict implementation of the Zero Hunger Action Programme of Vietnam by 2025 after it is approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. 

Ten infectious diseases are entitled to compulsory vaccination under an expanded national vaccination programme (NEVP) that started on January 1.

The Food Safety Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City has established 12 groups to inspect food safety during the Lunar New Year and Spring Festival 2018 across the city.

The Southern Power Corporation (SPC) of the Electricity of Vietnam has said it will supply up to 66.154 billion kWh of electricity for commercial use in 2018, or a 9.74 percent increase from 2017. 

A tropical pressure in the East Sea has developed into a storm, with it set to be the first storm to hit Vietnam this year. 

The south central coastal province of Ninh Thuan has implemented measures to improve living standards of ethnic minority citizens.

A group of reporters from the Nhan Dan (People) newspaper and one from the Nguoi lam bao (The Journalists) magazine have won the top prizes at a national press contest promoting the fight against corruption and wastefulness in the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh launched the Year of Traffic Safety 2018 during a ceremony in Hanoi on January 3. 

More than 350 international and domestic experts from different sectors met to discuss sustainable tourism development at a workshop held in Long Xuyen city, the Mekong Delta province of An Giang on January 2.

A seven-year-high growth rate, being listed among the world’s top 10 cities with fastest tourism growth, and breakthroughs in administrative reforms were some of Hanoi’s achievements in 2017.

Eight more villages in Me Linh and Phu Xuyen districts in Hanoi have recently been recognised as craft villages by the municipal People’s Committee.

VOV.VN -Seven adults were injured and two children killed in the early morning of January 3 by an explosion from a scrap warehouse in the northern province of Bac Ninh, according to local authorities.

The US Consulate General in HCM City is joining hands with Student Exchange Vietnam, an educational organization with a mission to promote student exchange programs for Vietnamese and international youths, to host an American Abroad conference in mid-January in the City.

A car struck and killed five road workers in the northern province of Ha Giang on January 2, a tragic incident that has prompted a top government leader to push for investigation.

Vietnam plans each year to send 100,000 to 120,000 labourers to other countries by 2020, according to Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs.

Ho Chi Minh City will expand the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology this year for surveillance of infectious diseases, such as hand-foot-mouth, throughout the city after successfully piloting it for dengue fever, deputy director of the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre, said.

Craft workers in the southern province of Ben Tre, the "land of coconuts", have created a variety of unique souvenirs for tourists from the fibre surrounding the fruit. 

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has advised the central province of Thua Thien-Hue to turn tourism into a spearhead sector to spur its economic development by tapping historical and cultural heritage of its former imperial Hue city.

Customs officers at Noi Bai International Airport on January 2 reported that they have uncovered a case of transporting African ivory tusks and African ivory tusk products from Hanoi to Thailand.  

VOV.VN - The Ministry of Information of Cambodia presented the Order of Cooperation and Friendship to 12 Vietnamese diplomats and press correspondents at a ceremony in Phnom Penh on January 2.

The Labour Federation of southern Dong Nai province will offer 500 free coach tickets, worth 1.2 million VND (52.8 USD) each, for poor migrant workers to go back home for the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

VOV.VN - A fishing boat caught fire at 1pm on January 1 while it was docked at Sa Can seaport, Binh Thanh commune in the southern central province of Quang Ngai, according to an announcement from a local official on January 2.