VIETNAM TODAY

Seventeen Vietnamese children, believed to be victims of human trafficking, have vanished from Australian immigration facilities since mid-2011.

Temperatures have plunged to new lows in Europe where a week-long cold snap has now claimed more than 220 lives.

Hanoi guesthouses have turned to renting out rooms on a monthly basis as the by-the-hour hotel sector suffers a slump.

A delegation from the Party Central Committee, National Assembly, Government, Vietnam Fatherland Front and the State President Office paid tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in the capital city.

Australia's flood crisis deepened as authorities braced for waters to peak in Queensland where one woman is missing after being swept away while elsewhere thousands remain stranded by the surge.

The Ministry of Health will sign a circular with the ministries of Finance, and Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to hike prices of 220 health services, said minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.

Vietnam imported 3,000 complete built unit automobiles in January, down 49.8 percent from the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office.

Mortar fire killed 105 people and left hundreds injured in a "massacre" in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

By the end of 2012, about VND130 billion would be funneled to the pilot program on making teaching aids for nursery and general schools nationwide.

Japan's Panasonic on Friday warned it would see its worst-ever net loss of 780 billion yen ($10.2 billion) for the year to March, blaming the strong yen, flooding in Thailand, and acquisition costs.

Vietnam’s Nguyen Hoang Thien and his Hong Kong partner Wong Chun Hun won the men’s doubles event at the U18 International Tennis Federation (ITF) Tournament (Grade 4).

High methanol content was detected in two of 27 petrol samples sold in five cities and provinces.

The Lepironia articulate grass field in Phu My commune, Kien Luong district, the southern province of Kien Giang, has received the first flocks of red-headed cranes.

More than 2000 fowl were destroyed in Trieu Son District, Thanh Hoa Province as authorities battle to contain H5N1 influenza.

Vietnam is speeding up a USD201 million project to upgrade an inland waterway corridor in the Red River Delta region.

A Toyota engineer has proposed that the Prime Minister look into technical flaws which he alleges exist in the company’s cars after his findings were rejected by the company leaders.

Many universities are offering new subjects for study in the next academic year to meet human resources demand in different sectors.

The biggest exhibition on Vietnamese ceramic products entitled “Dragon and lotus” is taking place at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama, USA.

Europe's cold snap has claimed 164 lives, as countries from Ukraine to Italy struggle with temperatures that plunged to record lows in some places and with more cold weather forecast.