CULTURE AND SPORT

Vietnam has entered its bid to host the Asian Games in 2019, according to an official from the Vietnamese Olympic Committee.

The OPEC oil cartel meets in Vienna this week, widely expected to hold production levels unchanged as it balances a weak economic outlook.

The damage bill from massive floods which hit northeastern Australia this year will likely be US$7.3 billion, an official said.

It was a monumental project with modest beginnings: a small group of scholars and some index cards.

An outbreak of killer E. coli that has spread to 12 countries and killed 19 people may be linked to a Hamburg festival in May, according to new reports.   

The former U.S. senator was charged with using $925,000 in under-the-table campaign contributions to hide his pregnant mistress during his 2008 run for president.

Climate change is on track to disrupt lifeline food crops across large swathes of Africa and Asia already mired in chronic poverty, a study said.

Cuban artists will perform at the 2011 Sea Festival in Nha Trang from June 11-16.

A bomb outside a mosque in central Iraq followed by a suicide attack against a hospital where victims were being treated killed at least 21 people.

Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded when dissidents shelled a mosque in the presidential compound.

Thousands of residents were fleeing the Yemeni capital on Friday as deadly clashes between dissident tribesmen and loyalist troops raged.

US aerospace giant Boeing is under "continuous" cyber attack but there has been no breach of its databases, a senior executive said.

Vietnam will begin constructing its largest badminton centre in Hanoi by late this year, said an official from the Vietnam Badminton Federation.

Third World countries and notably those of the Congo basin face an uphill challenge in looking after their forests.

Science fiction film "Endhiran" was made in the south Indian language Tamil, but it pulled in huge profits from across the country and abroad.

The World Health Organisation warned Europe was seeing the first outbreak of a lethal bacteria, as it has killed 18 people.

Russia banned the import of fresh vegetables from European Union countries because of a deadly bacteria scare.

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan survived a no-confidence vote Thursday after pledging to step down. 

HIV infections among the world's youth dropped by 12 percent over the last decade, a UNICEF report said on Wednesday.