VIETNAM TODAY

In many years, the encroachment on riversides, waterways, and trenches in HCM City has been rapidly increasing.

Embattled Greek PM George Papandreou picked a team of battle-hardened political veterans to carry out deeply unpopular austerity measures.

HCM City hopes to reduce number of homeless children by at least 95 percent from the current 1,450 by 2015, a city social affairs official said.

Over the last 14 years Nguyen Van Minh Tien has fought crime on the streets of HCM City, with no uniform.

FIFA had approved the fourth phase of a project to nurture football in Vietnam, a source from the Vietnam Football Federation said.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou axed his finance minister Friday amid the country's crippling dead crisis, a spokesman said.

The State Bank of Vietnam has requested commercial banks to strictly conform to regulations on VND deposit interest rates.

The United States Agency for International Development has helped refurbished 25 pre-schools in Kon Tum Province.

Teachers face enormous pressure to give their students a good record of academic achievements, a teacher, has written to Tuoi Tre to complain.

Vinacomin’s recent import of coal is to ensure national energy security, an official from the company said.

Harry Potter fans were excited after creator JK Rowling launched a mysterious website counting down to the announcement of a new project.

HCM City attracted more than 1.65 million international visitors in the first half of this year, up 10 percent against the same period last year.

85 percent of urban and 40 to 50 percent of rural solid waste is set to be processed, in accordance with environmental standards, by late 2015.

The Ministry of Transport has proposed a ban on consumption of alcohol in public offices during working hours as well as lunch and other breaks.

Al-Qaeda named Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri to succeed Osama bin Laden and the US promptly vowed to kill him just like his predecessor.

Sea and island tourism development was top priority of Vietnam’s tourism sector, said an official from Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.

Cha Lum Village in Nghe An Province is notorious for its large number of drug addicts.

BBC is planning to make a documentary about Son Doong, the world’s largest cave, in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Binh.

Two Greek government lawmakers quit over their party's austerity policies as Prime Minister George Papandreou was to name a new government.