VIETNAM TODAY

About 250 children from 15 provinces nationwide took part in the National Traffic Safety Contest for Primary School Pupils in HCM City on April 2-3.

The Vietnam Southern Food Corporation has assured Ho Chi Minh City it will ensure sufficient supply of rice to keep its prices stable.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to raise minimum wage for state employees to VND830,000.

Vietnamese audience will have the opportunity to enjoy the first Hollywood 3D cartoon dubbed in Vietnamese “Rio” as from April 8.

After a halt of nearly two weeks for equipment checks, Dung Quat oil refinery has resumed operations since April 2.

The five-star cruise liner SuperStar Aquarius with 2,200 foreign tourists and crew aboard docked at the world’s natural heritage, Ha Long Bay on April 3.

Hanoi authorities have decided to study the building of eight overpasses in places with high congestion.

French and UN helicopters fired at the Ivory Coast presidential palace and bases of strongman Laurent Gbagbo.

President Barack Obama urged supporters to rebuild the energetic grass-roots powerbase in a subdued launch to his 2012 reelection bid.

The island district of Truong Sa off the central province of Khanh Hoa has become the first district in Vietnam to go green in the use of energy. 

An centre to support the disabled will be set up in Vietnam soon with the assistance of an international organisation.

President Barack Obama on Monday formally announced his 2012 re-election bid, saying the country needed "to protect the progress" it had made. 

Hanoi has begun stronger enforcement on illegally-traded houses for low-income earners and strictly deal with the violators.

Nghe An police on April 4 launched a criminal investigation into the rockslide in Len Co quarry, which killed 18 people.

Japan's nuclear crisis has fuelled public unease in India over ambitious government plans to ramp up nuclear power capacity.

Up to 101 out of 439 'black spots' that have seriously polluted the environment  are yet to be cleaned up, eight years after the Prime Minister's decision.

Hanoi plans to spend more than VND2.7 trillion (USD129.1 million) on arranging overhead wires on its 312 streets from now to 2015.

The United States agreed to extend air strikes in Libya into Monday as the oil town of Brega saw heavy fighting.

Greece-flagged vessel Lissos carrying 1,015 Vietnamese labourers from Libya anchored at the Cai Lan Port in Quang Ninh Province on April 4.