VIETNAM TODAY

Major U.S. retailers including Gap Inc declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire safety backed by Europe’s two biggest fashion chains, a trans-Atlantic divide that may dilute garment industry reform efforts.

Lip syncing and "inappropriate" outfits in liveshows that have generated controversy over the past several years have reduced of late, officials said at a recent meeting in HCM City.

The fifth ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, focusing on green growth and poverty reduction for sustainable development, wrapped up on May 13 in Da Lat city, in the Central Highlands of Lam Dong.

The Vietnam Asset Management Company may be exempt from taxes, according to the NA Finance and Budget Committee.

The government has requested that the State Bank of Vietnam reduce the gap between deposit and lending interest rates.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on May 13 inspected the progress of Vietnam’s Kilo-class submarine, which is being tested in Kaliningrad, Russia.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man crew returning from a five-month mission to the International Space Station landed safely Tuesday on the steppes of Kazakhstan.

More than 300 delegates are gathering for the first ASEAN international conference on geology and natural resources in Vietnam’s Ba Ria-Vung Tau province on May 13-14.

Ngan Nguyen, a Vietnamese high school student in the US city of Bloomington, Minnesota, has been awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship, which will provide full tuition for her tertiary studies.

A multilateral training course opened in the northern port city of Hai Phong on May 13 to improve law enforcement capacities and coordination at sea for attendees from the four Gulf of Thailand countries of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia.

Western countries should temper their disdain for eating insects and boost research into using them to feed livestock, the UN and FAO said.

The Court of Appeals at the Ho Chi Minh City Supreme People’s Court on May 13 commuted Lo Thanh Thao’s prison sentence from three and a half years to two years.

The air defence forces of Vietnam and Japan should broaden cooperation in the areas of flight safety, aviation medicine, and disaster relief in the time to come.

The government should pay proper attention to agriculture and rural development instead of only concentrating on industrial and urban development, one expert has said.

More than 300 artists from 11 troupes from Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan have registered to take part in the 3rd Vietnam International Choir Competition in Hoi An City on June 20-21.

Vietnamese and French doctors, scientists and experts gathered in Hanoi on May 13 to attend a Vietnam-France Conference on Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The State Bank of Vietnam has cut key interest rates by 1 percent, applicable since May 13.

Taiwan has issued an ultimatum to the Philippines to make an official apology to the family of a Taiwanese fisherman who died in a fatal shooting by the Philippine Coast Guard in waters off the northern Philippines or pay

Lesbian and gays in Vietnam are not threatened by strangers on the streets but from their very own families, an expert said.