VIETNAM TODAY

Western and Arab nations called for Syria's Bashar al-Assad to be given a deadline to meet the terms of a peace plan.

The 16th ASEAN finance ministers' meeting closed in Phnom Penh on March 30, with an agreement to boost regional financial integration, to make the ASEAN Economic Community a reality by 2015.

Domestic coffee businesses continue hit snags as farmers still speculate products and sell them based on rumours.

Vietnam saved 546,000 kWh of electricity, equivalent to 712 million VND by switching off lights during Earth Hour on March 31, according to the Electricity of Vietnam.

Pham Thanh Binh, former chairman of Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on March 30, for intentionally violating state regulations that resulted in serious consequences.

The Government requested the restructuring of Vietnam Development Bank to heighten efficiency.

China attaches great importance to developing the friendly and neighbourly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation with Vietnam in all areas, says Vice Premier Li Keqiang.

New York's Empire State Building and the Sydney Opera House were plunged into darkness for the annual Earth Hour campaign, leading a global effort to raise awareness about climate change.

The High Command of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces held an inauguration ceremony for the Cambodia-Vietnam Army Friendship House in Phnom Penh on March 30.

High-ranking officials offered incense to the Hung Kings, the nation's legendary founders, at the Hung Kings Temple complex in the northern province of Phu Tho.

China holding a yacht race to the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago, seriously violates Vietnam’s sovereignty, said Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Luong Thanh Nghi.

Three bomb attacks minutes apart killed 10 people and wounded more than 100 on Saturday in the main town in Thailand's insurgency-hit far south.

The headmistress at a high school in Gia Lai Province may face dismissal for alleged embezzlement.

Maryland lottery officials announced early Saturday that their state sold what could become the world's largest lottery payout of all-time.

Rampant illegal trafficking of coal, minerals and petroleum have dramatically affected State revenues and impacted national energy security.

The southern province of Binh Phuoc on March 29 broke ground at Hoang Dieu border crossing for the construction of the Song Mang Bridge, to link the province to the eastern province of Mondulkiri in Cambodia.

3,259 businesses were dissolved or temporarily ceased operations in the first two months this year.

Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai ordered coastal areas to remain vigilant ahead of an "abnormal" storm, the first to appear before April in 40 years.

President Truong Tan Sang met with Sergey Kirienko, General Director of State Atomic Energy Corporation “Rosatom” of Russia, on Mar. 30 in Hanoi.