VIETNAM TODAY

Vietnam's first official forces to specialise in overseeing operations in the country's seas will be set up early next year.

Nearly 200,000 people were homeless and 475 confirmed dead after the Philippines' worst typhoon this year, officials said.

Coca-cola has continuously reported losses in the last decade of operations in Vietnam despite its increasing revenue.

Five more countries – Bolivia, Comoros, Guinea Bissau, Kuwait and Yemen – have signed up to an international declaration promising to end the use of child soldiers, officials said.

Vietnam ranked the 123rd among 176 countries surveyed in Corruption Perceptions Index 2012.

Ethnic people in the Central Highlands bury their dead with jewels and antiques since they believe the person would need them in the afterlife, only for the graves to be destroyed by thieves.

Nearly 6,500 tonnes of stranded ores and other hazardous industrial waste have been piling up around the port of Haiphong.

HCMC's authorities requested a freeze on the bank account of the Melior Vietnam Company after their school closed suddenly.

Vietnam has been approved for participating in the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement as an observer.

Children in My Yen Commune, Thai Nguyen Province, have 10 new classrooms as a result of a project jointly funded by local authorities and the Boeing Company.

Five demonstrators died overnight in the worst violence since Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president in June.

Caves in central Thanh Hoa Province have provided soil evidence of climate change from end of the glacier age, plus tools and an ancient cemetery dating back more than 10,000 years.

The arrest of banking mogul Nguyen Duc Kien indicated the difficulties of Vietnam’s economic situation to investors, one expert said.

Vietnam Fashion Week will kick off at the Hanoi Daewoo Hotel on December 6, with a taste of 19 collections by veterans and emerging designers to be shown during the week.

NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung has said the Vietnamese NA, Government and people highly value the friendship and cooperation with Japan.

Over half of Vietnam’s leading companies believe that the economy will not improve considerably in 2013, a report said.

Greece has scored the worst ranking of all 27 EU nations in a global league table of perceived official corruption, according to anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International's report.

The number of new phone subscribers reached over 11.2 million, bringing the total figure to 135.9 million by November 2012, including 120.9 million mobile subscribers.

An international gastronomy festival featuring the cuisine of 25 countries and territories will take place next week in HCM City, said one official.