Here are today’s leading news stories:

Politics

-- The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam officially opened in Hanoi on Tuesday morning, with the participation of 1,587 delegates. It is slated to conclude on February 2.

Society

-- The Ministry of Health on Monday evening recorded one imported COVID-19 patient – a 47-year-old Vietnamese woman returning from Indonesia, raising the country’s tally to 1,549, with 1,425 recoveries and 35 deaths.

-- One fisherman was killed while seven others have been brought to safety after their boat was allegedly hit and sunk by a cargo ship amid bad and foggy weather off Vietnam's north-central province of Nghe An early on Monday morning.

-- The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam has ordered Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, and Bamboo Airways to stop selling more tickets than the number of approved slots ahead of the Lunar New Year.

-- Police in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City are investigating a case where three people were attacked by four knife-wielding men over loud karaoke noise on Friday night.

-- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City will organize an exhibition at Lam Son Park in District 1 from February 2 to 28 to mark the 91st anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (February 3, 1930).

-- Officers in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City have launched an investigation after Do Huy Du, head of Binh Tan District’s office for civil judgment enforcement, fell to his death from the eighth floor of an apartment building on Monday afternoon.

Business

-- Up to 205 traders in Vietnam had been permitted to export rice as of January 18, following a list released by the Agency of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.