CULTURE AND SPORT

Defense lawyers were Thursday to fight for IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn to be freed from a notorious New York jail.

Japan's service sector activity shrank by the fastest pace in 22 years in March as the massive earthquake and tsunami hampered trade.

Chinese factories are facing curbs on electricity use as coal prices soar and a severe drought hits hydropower plants.

The fifth biennial Nha Trang Sea Festival, themed "Nha Trang – Coastal Destination" this year, will be held next month.

NASA is preparing to launch a satellite to observe levels of salt on the surface of the world's oceans and effects of salinity to climate.

The United States and the European Union may within days take further steps against Syria over its crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Al-Qaeda has chosen a former Egyptian Special Forces officer as interim leader of the violent extremist group, CNN reported.

Ming Ming, the world's oldest panda, has died of old age, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday. She was 34.

Vietnam will send seven films to the third International Documentary Film Festival, to be held in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City from June 8-14.

The maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her is suffering "extraordinary" trauma, her lawyer said, as the IMF chief remained locked up in Rikers Island jail.

British inflation leapt to 4.5% in April, hitting the highest level for two and a half years, boosted by rising travel costs.

Hoang Quy Phuoc has become the first swimmer of Vietnam to secure a ticket to the 2012 London Olympic Games

Vodafone's annual net profit sank 7.8 percent, on a huge impairment charge for its operations in debt-ravaged nations in southern Europe.

Rosneft has pulled out of its strategic alliance with BP and will look for new partners in Arctic oil exploration.

A bomb was defused near Dublin ahead of a historic state visit by Britain's Queen Elizabeth to Ireland starting Tuesday, Irish police said.

Thirty lacquer paintings by Vietnamese-German artist Khai Doan are on display in an exhibition entitled Dipolar at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn denied sexually assaulting a New York hotel chambermaid, but the judge turned down his $1 million bail offer.

Physicist Stephen Hawking believes there is no God and that humans should seek to live the most valuable lives they can.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung kicked off construction of two parts of the southern coastal corridor road project.