CULTURE AND SPORT

The ranks of America's poorest poor have climbed to a record high — 1 in 15 people as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places.

A Japanese film festival themed “Love” will be held in Phu Yen and Ho Chi Minh City in November.

Greek PM George Papandreou insisted he will not resign in the face of a growing party revolt, state television NET reported.

The leaders of the world's most powerful economies confronted a new financial crisis as they began a G20 summit with markets plummeting.

One fifth of Bangkok is now under water as Thailand's worst floods in half a century spread through the capital, an official said.

Vietnam’s chess team is set to win at least three gold medals at the 26th Southeast Asia Games in Indonesia this November.

Miss International Beauty 2009 Vu Hoang Diep has announced that she’d sashay off the catwalk if she got married.

European leaders drew a line in the sand for Greece, saying its referendum on a hard-won bailout deal will decide whether it stays in the eurozone.

China said on Wednesday it hopes Europe will stick to a bailout plan reached at last week's debt crisis summit.

Seven Vietnamese artists are performing in the US at the invitation of the School of Music under the Brigham Young University.

The death toll from Thailand's floods surged above 400 as public anger simmered over the authorities' handling of the crisis.

South Korea's second largest automaker Kia Motors said Wednesday it would build a new plant in China to meet growing demand in the world's fastest-growing car market.

Thousands of anti-capitalists poured into the French Riviera city of Nice for a march against corporate greed ahead of the G20 summit in nearby Cannes, echoing protests worldwide.

Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou called for a confidence vote and a referendum on last week's EU debt deal.

Libya's interim rulers elected a technocrat and businessman to head a transitional government as NATO ended the air campaign.

More than 600 athletes, coaches and officials took part in a ceremony to send off Vietnam's 26th Southeast Asian Games squad on October 31.

Vietnam is to feature in a popular English-language travel programme on Bulgarian national television called No Luggage.

The US said on Monday it had stopped funding UNESCO following its vote to grant the Palestinians full membership.

China said it successfully launched an unmanned spacecraft on Tuesday to carry out a key docking mission, taking its next step towards the goal of building its first space station by 2020.