The Drug Crime Investigation Department (PC47) under Ho Chi Minh City Police said on January 5 that they had recently cracked down on a large drug trafficking ring.

 Four automatic water environment monitoring stations, produced by the Da Nang Centre Of Integrated Circuits (CENTIC) were put into operation in the central city of Da Nang on January 6.

 Conductor Le Phi Phi will return to Vietnam from Macedonia to conduct a classic concert entitled “Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich” in Ho Chi Minh City on January 9.

 Saigon Securities Inc. (SSI) was the biggest brokerage on the Hanoi Stock Exchange’s derivatives market last year with a 28.28 percent market share, according to an exchange report on the derivatives market.

 A 17-day workshop that ended on January 6 taught safe driving skills and encouraged university students to promote traffic safety among their peers and in the community.

 New faculties will be opened at universities during the 2018-2019 academic year, according to the Ministry of Education and Training’s new catalogue on training programmes in higher education.

 The property market will continue to grow this year, the HCM City Real Estate Association (HoREA) predicts.

 Lucia and the Ice Mountain, a fairy tale musical co-produced by young musicians and producers from ASEAN countries, premiered in HCM City on January 6.

 H’Hen Nie, a 25-year-old model from the Ede ethnic minority group in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, was crowned Miss Universe Vietnam 2017 in the grand finale on January 6.

 The Hanoi People’s Court will open proceedings in the trial of Trinh Xuan Thanh and his accomplices accused of wrongdoings at PetroVietnam and its subsidiary PVC on January 8. 

 Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh has approved a plan to develop Vietnam’s maritime industry and trade to 2025, with a vision to 2035.

 The Vietnam Embassy in Indonesia is working with local authorities to send home 71 Vietnamese fishermen, who were captured for violating Indonesia’s waters, within January.

 Vietnam’s commercial banks reported solid results for 2017 with the total after-tax profit estimated to grow 44.5 percent from the previous year, according to an independent report of the National Financial Supervisory Commission.

 As Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday approaches, firecracker smuggling is again "hot" in the border areas. Several tonnes have already been seized by customs authorities as they head across the border into Vietnam.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Most people know now that HIV/AIDS cannot be transmitted easily.

 Nguyen Khanh Duong, Comicola’s founder and script writer for the Phong Duong Comics duo, has been pioneering the Vietnamese historical comic movement with the ongoing hit series Holy Dragon Imperator

 VietNamNet Bridge – The year 2017 saw the rise of young actresses on the big screen, proving their talent and impressing audiences.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Farmers in Ben Tre Province’s Thanh Phu District have earned high profits from rotating rice and shrimp cultivation in the same rice field.  

VietNamNet Bridge - According to CafeF, 51 Vietnamese have stock assets of VND1 trillion and more. 

 A recent survey conducted by Vietnam Report revealed that finance and banking stocks would be the ones to watch out for in 2018 as a number of reputable financial institutions (FIs) schedule to hold their initial public offering (IPO) next year.