The Embassies of the UK and Australia in Vietnam have launched a new visa application centre in the central city of Da Nang on December 13.

 The Hanoi People’s Committee on December 13 decided to continue maintaining walking streets surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake and its nearby areas in 2017, and increasing measures to make them trimmer.

 Students from northern mountainous Tuyen Quang and Lao Cai provinces swept the first prizes in the Green Creativeness Contest held to unearth outstanding environmental protection ideas and models.

Asia shares crept cautiously higher on Wednesday while a hush settled on the U.S. dollar as investors felt certain the Federal Reserve would raise rates for the first time in a year, but were less sure what it might herald for 2017. 

 The Vietnamese Party, State and Government always pay special attention to Vietnamese communities abroad, including those in the Macau Special Administrative Region, a diplomat has said.

 Vietnam pursues a consistent policy of treating all investors, both domestic and foreign ones, equally, President Tran Dai Quang told Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem – Group Chairman and CEO of the UAE’s DP World, on December 13.

 Minister of Public Security To Lam and Troy Grant, Minister of Police and Justice of Australia’s New South Wales state agreed to expand cooperation between the two agencies in fighting crimes at their meeting in Sydney on December 13. 

 The World Bank (WB) is willing to assist Vietnam in reforming State-owned enterprises (SOEs), WB Country Director for Vietnam Ousmane Dione told Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.

 The Vietnam Post has protested against China’s recent issuance of a collection of postage stamps featuring five lighthouses it has built on Chau Vien, Gac Ma, Si Bi, Chu Thap and Vanh Khan reefs on Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago. 

 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc heard a number of recommendations from domestic and foreign experts for the country’s future development at a roundtable conference in Hanoi on December 13.

Vietnam and the European Union (EU) have held their annual human rights dialogue in Brussels, exchanging viewpoints and sharing experience and good practices in promoting and protecting human rights.

 Oil prices fell on Wednesday following a reported rise in U.S. crude inventories and an estimate that OPEC may have produced more crude in November than previously thought, potentially undermining a planned output cut.

Vietnamese officials underlined the importance of border and territorial issues to relations between Vietnam and China at the two countries’ governmental-level negotiation on border and territory in Beijing, China, on December 12-13.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese customers will often order 10 or more products online, but then only pay for one item because of a late change they make to their order.  

 Book lovers’ week held in HCMC, Vietnam strives to provide primary health care to all people, HCMC leader prompts parking lot construction for Tan Son Nhat Airport, Robots upgrade surgery quality for Vietnamese

 Hospitality real estate continues to be the property market with the highest potential in 2016 and into 2017, a property analyst has forecasted.

 Hai Duong province has long been famous for Thanh Ha lichi, Ke Sat gac (baby jackfruit) dried pancake, and Thanh Mien Gai (black leaf cake). But Hai Duong green bean cake is its most famous specialty.

VietNamNet Bridge - The heads of the Ministry of Health had doubts that the producer Nanogen had made a special drug -- until they saw how it was made. 

VietNamNet Bridge - The implementation of a series of projects on the beach dunes near Hoi An will create challenges for Hoi An in its path for sustainable development.

Nobel literature laureate Bob Dylan will perform in Sweden in April, offering the singer a chance to give the lecture that is a requirement for getting the $870,000 prize. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese students and alumni of Harvard disagree with the book ‘Harvard 4:30am - Harvard University's Gift to Young People’ by Wei Xiuying, which says that excessive studying occurs, even at 4am.

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese manufacturers have found it difficult getting a foothold in the cosmetics market, valued at VND15 trillion (nearly $700 million) with a high growth rate of 20 percent per annum.  

VietNamNet Bridge – Exports of high-tech goods with low added value put the country at the bottom of the smiling curve, according to a Fulbright Vietnam University report.

VietNamNet Bridge – Heart Beat Saigon, a HCMC-based group of DJs from different countries, will host its 4th birthday party at The Observatory in HCMC’s District 4, on December 16 from 9 p.m. onwards. 

 A TV programme broadcasted last week revealed that hundreds of people, including small children in Lo Son Commune, Hoa Binh Province, have to walk across an almost entirely destroyed bridge.