VIETNAM TODAY

The education chief of an Indonesian city sparked outrage Wednesday after proposing that teenage schoolgirls should undergo virginity tests to enter senior high school.

Deputy PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc will lead a Vietnamese delegation in working visit from August 21-30 to the US where he will attend the Vietnam Executive Leadership Program in Harvard University.

A new regulation that requires people to ask for permission before photographing or filming traffic police is facing public objection.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is expected to build a factory to produce intergrated circuits and electronic components in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.

A large number of votive paper offerings are sold in the streets on the Amnesty of Unquiet Spirits Festival, bringing traders big profits.

Vietnamese player Le Quang Liem’s excellent performance held the Chess World Cup defending champion, Peter Svidler from Russia, to a draw in the first leg match of the tournament’s fourth round on August 20.

A large fire broke out at a Taiwanese-invested firm in HCM City named Pou Yuen Vietnam Ltd. Company early this morning.

Human activity is almost certainly the cause of climate change and global sea levels could rise by several feet by the end of the century, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report leaked to media.

Deputies of Vietnam's National Assembly yesterday grilled several government ministers during an online Question and Answer session as part of the Standing Committee's 20th session.

Four Vietnamese sailors jumped off a Taiwanese shipping vessel off the shores of Panama because of alleged labour abuses.

The MoNRE adressed Vietnam's evolving land use issues, acknowledging that some regulations are out-of-date.

Danang City is currently hosting an ASEAN conference on promoting the rights of women and children, running from August 20-22.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met secretly in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a senior Palestinian official said, a week after US-brokered peace talks were relaunched in the Holy City.

Ho Chi Minh City’s August consumer price index nudged up 0.31% from July’s figure and 3.17% on the equivalent timeframe in 2012.

The second property exposition and trade fair will get underway in Hanoi from October 18-20, a move expected to shore up a long-time sagging property market.

Fishermen uncovered one more sunken ship located about 50 metres from the coast of Binh Chau commune, Binh Son district, the central province of Quang Ngai on August 19.

Hanoi police have decided to prosecute 10 members of the staff of Hoai Duc District’s General Hospital in an incident involving the falsification of blood test results.

The domestically-owned Cong Ly Company has received support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to sell electricity from its Bac Lieu wind power project at a price higher than regulated by the government.

China, the United States and Qatar were accused of environmental plunder on Tuesday as green activists marked "Earth Overshoot Day," the date at which mankind has exhausted a year's budget of natural resources.