Good morning from Vietnam!

Students across Ho Chi Minh City could receive a four-day break for the 2026 New Year holiday from January 1 to 4, 2026, according to the municipal Department of Education and Training.

SIPIROK, Indonesia - Before the deadly landslides and floods hit Indonesia about two weeks ago, Amran Siagian, 39, frequently met Tapanuli orangutans on a hill in the region of Sipirok, North Sumatra province.

TOKYO -- Fewer companies are going public in Japan in 2025 than in the previous year apparently because stock prices fell sharply in early April amid concerns about high U.S. tariffs.

BANGKOK -- A 15-year-old junior high school girl from the northeastern Japan city of Yamagata has become the youngest-ever professional Muay Thai competitor in Thailand, where the martial art is a national sport.

Vietnam has become a top choice for international families planning their year-end holidays, with searches for stays in the country rising sharply year on year, according to digital travel platform Agoda.

SYDNEY -- Australia is set to become the first country to implement a minimum age for social media use on Wednesday, with platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube forced to block more than a million accounts, marking the beginning of an expected global wave of regulation.

BUENOS AIRES - Hundreds of golden retrievers packed a Buenos Aires park on Monday as the South American country looks to break the world record for the largest number of the silky golden-haired dogs gathered in a single place.

The yen held steady in early Asian trading after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Japan's northeast overnight, adding to a risk-off mood ahead of several policy decisions from central banks including the Federal Reserve.

A four-year-old girl suffered deep facial wounds after being attacked by a large dog while playing at a coastal square in Phuoc Hai Commune, Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday evening.

As air pollution blankets Vietnam’s capital, many residents have little choice but to brace themselves and work through the smog.

WOLVERHAMPTON, England -- Manchester United climbed to sixth in the Premier League on Monday as captain Bruno Fernandes scored twice to help them claim a comfortable 4-1 victory at bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers whose calamitous season gets bleaker by the week.

A tragic collision between a 16-seater passenger van and a tractor-trailer on Da Nang - Quang Ngai Expressway, central Vietnam left three people dead and multiple others injured early on Tuesday morning.

Ho Chi Minh City will temporarily ban all vehicles from passing through the Saigon River Tunnel from 11:00 pm on December 19 to 4:00 am on December 20 to ensure traffic safety and security during the operations of the tunnel’s automatic fire-extinguishing system.

Good morning from Vietnam!

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Thipadei Hun Manet jointly inaugurated the Tan Nam–Meun Chey pair of international border gates on Monday, linking Tay Ninh Province in Vietnam with Prey Veng Province in Cambodia.

Magnum Ice Cream Company traded at 12.96 euros per share in its Amsterdam debut on Monday, implying a market capitalisation of 7.93 billion euros ($9.24 billion), as it finalised a long-awaited spinoff from Unilever.

TOKYO -- Housing loans with repayment periods of up to 50 years, far longer than the standard 35-year term for long-term mortgages, are gaining popularity in Japan particularly among people in their 20s.

Ca Mau, the southernmost province of Vietnam, has planted nearly 1,880 hectares of trees in coastal areas from 2021 to 2025, becoming the country’s top province for coastal forest planting, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment said at a review conference held on Monday in Ca Mau.

A seven-day wedding of an Indian billionaire couple has welcomed 1,131 guests to a resort, entertainment, and convention complex in Phu Quoc Special Zone, an island off An Giang Province in southern Vietnam.

The Aeon-Beta joint venture between Japan’s Aeon Entertainment and Vietnam’s Beta Media on Sunday launched its first cinema complex in Vietnam under the Aeon Beta Cinema brand, marking the Japanese operator’s formal entry into the country’s fast-growing movie exhibition market.

Good morning from Vietnam!

A recent fatal fire at a four-story building on Tran Hung Dao Street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City has once again revealed a deadly urban hazard: tube houses with a single escape route are easily blocked by smoke and flames, according to the city’s fire and rescue police division.

Controlling a spouse’s income, making him or her dependent financially or emotionally, is now recognized as a form of economic domestic violence in Vietnam and shall be fined VND20-30 million (US$760-1,140).

Cardiovascular disease continues to be a major public health challenge in Vietnam, accounting for over 30 percent of all deaths in the country, comparable to the global average of 32 percent.

Vietnam secured its first badminton victory at the 33rd SEA Games, held in Thailand, on Sunday morning thanks to a hard-fought performance from player Nguyen Thuy Linh.

Vietnam’s exports in the first 11 months of 2025 surged to over US$430 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of more than $20 billion, according to a recent report by the National Statistics Office of Vietnam under the Ministry of Finance.

Sri Lankan authorities issued fresh landslide warnings on Sunday with rains lashing areas already devastated by a powerful cyclone, as the death toll rose to 618.

At least 23 people died after a fire at a nightclub in India's Goa state, the chief minister of the state said on Sunday as videos on social media showed ambulances lining up to help the injured.

Good morning from Vietnam!

As urban consumers become more selective about what appears on their family dining tables, many are willing to pay more for services such as clean vegetable subscription boxes and remote vegetable growing.

A delegate of the National Assembly (NA) has recently proposed waiving hospital fees for cancer patients and those requiring dialysis as soon as possible, well before the current target of 2030, to reduce the financial burden on patients with life-threatening and chronic illnesses.

A commune official in Lam Dong Province, Vietnam’s Central Highlands, has been detained for allegedly transferring nearly US$19,000 from the commune’s public funds into his personal account, according to local authorities.

The creativity of local chefs has given rise to a unique dish that pairs Ca Mau’s famous seawater crabs with traditional Vietnamese dessert elements: a sweet soup (che) featuring crab filling that brings together savory and sweet notes.

Several parents in Hanoi have sent air purifiers to classrooms and kept vulnerable children at home as air pollution in the capital reached unhealthy levels this week.