VIETNAM TODAY

Japan's Sony is nearing a deal to buy out Swedish telecom firm Ericsson's stake in their mobile phone joint venture, according to the Wall Street Journal.

New colleges will receive permission to be established if at least 15% of its lecturers have MA degrees and higher.

SBV allowed five banks and Saigon Jewelry Co to reopen offshore gold trading accounts to help narrow the gap between domestic and international prices.

An online forum entitled “UK Education - The best bang for your buck”, is going live right now on DTiNews.

The NA's Standing Committee Wednedsay considered giving one more day off for the Tet, or Lunar New Year, holiday as it discussed the Labor Code and the Law on Trade Union.

The Ministry of Transport will seek public opinion on restricting private means of transport in inner Hanoi and HCMC.

HCM City has launched different programmes to develop its tourism sector, including “river tourism”, “HCM City- 100 interesting things”.

Vietnam will aim to keep the exchange rate stable until the end of the year, allowing it to move within a 1 percent band, the central bank said.

Over a half of the medical waste incinerators in Vietnam have been left unused, because their owners do not have money to pay for fuel.

Tackling the gender imbalance among the country's population was a contentious discussed at a conference in Hanoi.

Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer, who has been called a master of mysticism, won the 2011 Nobel Literature Prize.

Tour companies have raised concerns about poor-quality services of a centre that supports tourists climbing Fansipan Mountain in Lao Cai Province.

Transport Minister has culled the head of an airport terminal project’s management board due to the slow pace of construction.

The National Assembly Standing Committee stated that salaries should reflect the quality of the work done and be dictated by market forces.

The UPS Foundation has donated USD30,000 to help improve educational quality in the Mekong delta provinces of Dong Thap and Kien Giang.

The State Bank of Vietnam has requested that commercial banks slash lending interest rates for the production sector to from 17%-19% per year.

Although graffiti has coloured the walls of large cities all over the world, it is still an incipient trend in HCM City.

Nearly 30,000 households from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang have been evacuated to flood-proof residential clusters.

South Africa lost 'enforcer' Bakkies Botha from the World Cup as England and Wales all announced their teams for this weekend's quarter-finals.