VIETNAM TODAY

The government has requested the SBV to continue cutting lending interest rates, along with corporate income tax and VAT.

A music project to encourage young composers of Vietnamese traditional music instruments has been launched by US-based artist Vo Van Anh.

An air strike in Afghanistan carried out by NATO forces has killed 11 children in the eastern part of the country, officials said. Afghanistan’s president condemned the loss of civilian lives.

Vietnam’s rice exporters are facing tough price competition in foreign markets this year due to large inventories and low demand.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the Air Defence-Air Force to heighten vigilance and preparedness as it continues to build a regular air force to fulfill all assigned tasks.

Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria has hailed Vietnam as a success in meeting millennium development goals (MDGs) and taking new approaches to social cohesion and poverty reduction.

A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded 60 in a crowded election campaign tent in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Saturday, police and medics said.

One patient from Yen Bai has been killed by H1N1 virus two days after being admitted to the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

Nearly 2,000 photos taken by an US solider during his duty in Vietnam provided a previously unseen view into the war and life in the US Army.

The Vietnam Red Cross signed a programme in Hanoi on April 6 to forge partnerships in humanitarian activities with nine agencies and businesses for the 2013–2018 period.

Vietnam’s private entrepreneurs association was established at a congress in Hanoi on April 6.

With the aim of boosting people-to-people links between the ASEAN and the US, the 5th US- ASE AN Joint Cooperation Committee Meeting has announced the first seven recipients of the Fulbright US-ASEAN programme.

The head of the research group managing a project to monitor state officials' incomes has announced the results of a report, which contained suggested anti-corruption measures.

HCM City's Nutrition Programme for 2013-15 will focus on combating obesity and non-communicable diseases among primary school students, a conference heard on April 5.

The country's macro-economy had not improved as much as expected after a year of restructuring and the process needed a strong boost, said economists at the Spring Economic Forum.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Indonesia's mountainous West Papua province on Saturday but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Former soldier and sculptor makes the bust of a 96-year-old Vietnamese woman who lost her husband and four sons on the battlefield.

The last murderer of five aloe wood hunters, a Lao national, was finally caught on April 5, said Colonel Nguyen Trong Tieng, chief of border guard force in the central Province of Quang Tri.

The death toll from a collapsed building in India's financial centre Mumbai rose to 72 on Saturday, as an injured woman trapped for 36 hours was freed from the rubble of the illegal and half-constructed building.