VIETNAM TODAY

Outstanding short stories and cartoons submitted to a writing contest for children, in the framework of a project on supporting literature for children between Vietnam and Denmark, were honoured at a ceremony in Hanoi on December 17.

Retired basketball star Dennis Rodman will return to North Korea for a third time on Thursday, despite political tension surrounding the execution of leader Kim Jong Un's uncle, trip organizers said.

Vietnam Airlines plans to increase its Vietnam-Moscow flights using A330 aircraft to seven a week in summer and eight in winter.

Nguyen Duc Kien, one of Vietnam's most powerful financial figures, may face life sentence for violating state regulations on economic management.

Amid difficult economic times, many leaders of companies have been looking for ways to provide Tet bonuses to their employees this year.

Snowfall in Sa Pa Town in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai, which began Sunday, has caused serious damage to farms.

Five-thousand-year-old cat bones found in a Chinese farming village have raised new questions about man's complex rapport with domestic felines through history, said a study out Monday.

Dutch Minister of Infrastructure and the Environment Schultz Van Hagen has handed over the “Mekong Delta Project” to Vietnam at a High level meeting on a shared framework for Mekong Delta Development.

A Japanese beauty queen said Monday she has been barred from a ceremony where she was to hand over her crown to a successor after she refused to sign with a major talent agency.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh has affirmed that Vietnam treasures its ties with the US and suggested the two sides increase the exchange of delegations at all levels.

The Hanoi People’s Court has sentenced two former executives of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) to death.

Vietnam will cooperate closely with the US on the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks process for a balanced deal, said PM Nguyen Tan Dung.

Vietnam and the US have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on bilateral cooperation to surmount the consequences of unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from the war in Vietnam.

Many people working on the streets in Hanoi had to start fires to keep themselves warm during the chilly weather.

Several local mobile service providers, including Viettel and VinaPhone, now are switching to the e-payment segment in the context that their revenues from basic mobile services such as call, text and value added services have declined.

A 24-minute film entitled Picture. Perfect by American director Winston Tao has won the highest prize, the Golden Heart Award, at the Vietnam international YxineFF 2013 online short film contest, which screened 76 films selected from 200 entries worldwide.

Twenty-two people were killed when a commuter bus plunged from an elevated highway onto a van in the Philippine capital Manila on Monday, police said, warning the death toll could rise.

A project aiming to strengthen national capacity to develop sound policies relating to natural resources management and environment protection was launched yesterday in Hanoi.

A Danish-funded programme has helped to cut poverty rate in five targeted mountainous provinces in Vietnam from 25% in 2007 to 10%-12%.