VIETNAM TODAY

Queen Elizabeth II's eldest granddaughter Zara Phillips and her fiance Mike Tindall threw a party on a yacht with Prince William and wife Catherine.

Vietnamese commercial banks have announced huge profits in the first six months of the year despite a 20% credit growth cap.

US lawmakers set the stage for a frantic beat-the-clock effort to avert a catastrophic debt default.

Vietnam looks set to spend a hefty USD42.5 billion over the next 10 years developing tourism infrastructure and products to prop up the industry.

The World Tiger Day will be held by World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network on July 30 for the 1st time in Vietnam.

NASA plans to launch a solar-powered spacecraft called Juno that will journey to Jupiter in search of how the huge, stormy giant was formed.

The Union of Science for Sustainable Tourism Development plans to promote salt parks to tourists as an environmentally friendly attraction.

British pay-TV giant BSkyB said that James Murdoch will remain chairman despite the phone-hacking row at main shareholder News Corp.

A local private publishing house plans to sue some foreign language centres, private bookstores and universities in HCM City for book piracy.

Hunting shark for their fins is popular in the central coastal province of Binh Dinh because Vietnam has not prohibited the practice.

The world’s number 27 Le Quang Liem of Vietnam held his higher-ranked Hikaru Nakamura of the US, number 6th in the world, to a tie on July 28.

Over 90% of Vietnam’s population face dental problems with a higher rate recorded among the elderly, one official said.

Vietnamese travellers once selected China as their favourite destination, but now they tend to go to Thailand, Singapore, Japan or South Korea.

A group of 18 Vietnamese piano students aged 9-24 have excelled at the sixth Asia International Piano Academy Festival.

Vietnam saw modest economic growth in the second quarter of 2011 due to tight monetary policies, an ADB report said.

Vietnam has displayed resilience in restoring their footballing pride when they won Qatar 2-1 in the 2nd leg of the 2014 World Cup qualifying round.

The death toll in the Philippines from tropical storm Nock-ten climbed to 41 on Friday after a week of heavy rain, officials said.

Tropical storm Nock-ten is expected to enter the Gulf of Tokin this evening (July 29) and sweep through Vietnamese coastal areas.

Norwegian police said they will question Anders Behring Breivik again on Friday as prosecutors said he would not go on trial before 2012.