VIETNAM TODAY

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved Hanoi's proposal to increase administrative fines for smugglers and manufacturers of fake products.

Around 1,000 Overseas Vietnamese will join the programme 'Xuan Que Huong' (Homeland Spring) 2015 which is scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City on February 7-8.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh has paid a two-day visit to the Philippines and co-chaired a meeting of Vietnam-Philippines Joint Working Committee on Strategic Partnership.

China's education minister has vowed to ban university textbooks which promote "Western values", state media said, in the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping.

The Ministry of Health has kicked off a national effort to develop and produce at least 12 vaccines for human use, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has assured the nation that Vietnam’s gross domestic product and inflation are still under control and are expected to hit their targeted 6.2 percent and 5 percent, respectively, despite the plunge in oil prices

Some 150 workers at Bay Nguyet Garment Company Ltd have been abandoned by their boss, who has disappeared owing them hundreds of millions of VND in unpaid wages.

Ground crew at Tan Son Nhat Airport have been arrested in connection with the theft of thousands of litres of aviation fuel amid a crackdown by the Minister of Transport.

Islamic State's Egypt wing claimed a series of attacks that killed at least 27 security personnel on Thursday in some of the worst anti-government violence in months, after commemorations around the anniversary of the 2011 uprising turned deadly in

Hanoi People's Committee has given the green light to a construction department scheme to chop down 6,700 aged trees in 10 districts and replace them with new ones.

The Russian Embassy in Hanoi on January 30 gave a reception to mark the 65th anniversary of Vietnam and Russia diplomatic ties.

A deadline of sunset Thursday for a possible prisoner swap purportedly set by the Islamic State group holding a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian military pilot passed with no sign of whether the two men were still alive.

The Animals Asia Foundation has launched a campaign to stop Bac Ninh Province's traditional pig slaughter during Nem Thuong Festival amid growing official concern about the barbarity of the practice.

The world's longest three-rope cable-car system, extending from Lao Cai Province's Sapa Town to Fansipan peak, is expected to open in April.

The EU and Vietnam are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2015.

The State Bank of Vietnam has instructed credit institutions to continuously cut the annual interest rate for medium and long-term loans by one to 1.5 percentage points to help businesses.

Environmental police in central Nghe An Province have arrested a local man for illegally trading wild and rare animals after a raid that uncovered 48 dead monkeys inside freezers.

During the coming new lunar year festival (Tet), the calligraphy writing street at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi will be organised at Literature Lake in the temple, an official said.

An extensive survey of birds in Myanmar has revealed nearly two dozen not known to have existed in the country, including a large black seabird with a ballooning red neck sack and a tiny black and white falconet with