VIETNAM TODAY

A young woman wearing a dress made only of lettuce walked around Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake to urge people to go vegetarian.

Despite a ban on the products, so-called aphrodisiacs or “love-potions” can easily be found in HCM City.

Militants armed with guns and rocket launchers stormed a Pakistani air force base before dawn on Thursday, sparking heavy clashes that left eight people dead, officials said.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has instructed cities and provinces to re-examine and monitor foreigners working in Vietnam.

Finnish telecom giant Nokia and Microsoft plan to unveil a smartphone equipped with the US software giant's Windows 8 operating system on September 5, a report said.

More than 10,000 primary and secondary school students in Kon Tum province have been screened for vision problems under an eye care project supported by the US Government.

Vietnam and Cambodia pledged to continue working closely in fighting and preventing drug trafficking and drug-related crimes across the common border.

Buildings in HCMC are using their ground floors for other purposes, driving their residents into parking their vehicles outside.

China urged Japan to immediately release 14 Chinese nationals held over a protest landing on the two countries' disputed islands.

Fans of Elvis Presley are flocking to his Graceland estate for Thursday's 35th anniversary of his death, and their enthusiasm for the king of rock 'n' roll is undiminished by the years.

An ASEAN Secretariat delegation has visited India to promote bilateral ties at the invitation of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of ASEAN-India Dialogue Relations.

By 2020, it will have cost almost 1.8 billion USD to shorten the travelling time by train from Hanoi to HCM City, said a team of specialist advisors from JICA.

Tropical storm Kai Tak will move to the northeastern area of the East Sea and may strengthen, the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Center has said.

Standard Chartered has settled allegations that it helped Iranian clients dodge US sanctions, announcing a fine of $340 million from a New York banking watchdog.

Transport fees are expected to increase at least 5% after the Ministry of Finance decided to raise petrol and oil prices.

A record number of people will sing and dance together in the name of peace and love at My Dinh Stadium Square on October 7 for a programme called Hay Cung Hat Vang (Let's Sing Along).

The preservation of animals seized from illegal wildlife trading cases has remained substandard, leading to significant waste, experts have said.

Suicide rates can rise by between eight and 15 percent in times of economic hardship, according to studies that separately probed the effects of Europe's economic crisis and of droughts in Australia.

Dinh Quang Tuyen from the Hanoi University of Technology was announced as the winner of the 2012 Asia Pacific UniSim Design Student Challenge at the Honeywell Users Group Asia-Pacific Symposium.