CBU car imports down in July; Bloomberg highlights Vietnam’s edible bird spit industry; VietJet Air signs technical deal with German company; Footwear sector cashes in on bulk orders

 VietNamNet Bridge – The race to develop industrial parks in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta has led to thousands of hectares of arable land lying uncultivated and unused.

 Apple has asked its Taiwan-based supplier to begin shipping two new versions of the iPhone next month, including a lower-cost model, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnamese Embassy in Egypt is making emergency plans to protect the safety of the Vietnamese community, with violence in the country escalating.

VietNamNet Bridge – Grandmaster Le Quang Liem successfully thrashed his much stronger opponent World No.4 Alexander Grischuk 1.5-0.5 in their tiebreak of two rapid matches on August 19 to enter the Chess World Cup 4th round.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The State, in an effort to encourage the development of private schools in a program on education socialization, promised to offer some investment incentives. However, the schools complain they have to pay overly high taxes.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee met in Hanoi on August 19 to comment on the draft Law on Reception of Citizens, as part of its 20th session.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Economists believe that it’s now the right time for Vietnam to cut down the rice growing area, especially when farmers now tend to give land back to the State.

VietNamNet Bridge – Top Vietnam’s badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh was unexpectedly beaten by Indian rival Ajay Jayaram in his third match for Pune Pistons club in India’s first badminton league (IBL) tournament on August 19.

VietNamNet Bridge – As an event in the Vietnamese - French cultural exchange program, senior fashion designer Minh Hanh and two young designers will take 100 designs to the show at Chambord castle on September 7.

 VietNamNet Bridge - The navy of the 10 ASEAN member states and 8 countries (U.S., Japan, China, Russia, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand) will participate in a joint exercise in the East Sea next year.

 Another victim died in hospital on Tuesday morning after being attacked by a knife-wielding man on a bus in central China's Henan Province Monday, bringing the death toll to three.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The number of foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) reporting loss accounts for 50 percent of the total operational FIEs in Vietnam. A lot of the business owners have run away.

 VietNamNet Bridge – 70 photos about children by 21 photographers touched the viewers in the opening of the photo exhibition titled “Childhood” in HCM City on August 18.

 US authorities are probing whether banking giant JPMorgan Chase manipulated US energy markets, the Wall Street Journal reported.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Children’s Hospital of Thanh Hoa Province on August 15 picked up a 20 cm long leech living in the bladder of a 13-year-old boy in Tinh Gia District.

 VietNamNet Bridge - After discovering a 30kg seal in his fishing nets, about 3 km from Da Nang’s shore, a fisherman asked the local authorities for VND3 million ($150) of compensation for the torn net and for bringing the animal to shore.

VietNamNet Bridge – As many as 72 charter flights will be taking Russian tourists to Vietnam each month from October 20 to next April under the joint arrangement between Russia-based Pegas Touristik Co. and Anh Duong Co.

 VietNamNet Bridge - At midnight, Vietnamese police discovered in the luggage of a Nigerian man, dozens of plastic bags containing white crystalline solids, which was then determined as narcotics, totaling 3.2kg.

 VietNamNet Bridge - Many films that made the public boo and are classified as "catastrophic" and "super bullshit" are eager to compete for the Gold Lotus award at the National Film Festival this October, in Ha Long City, Quang Ninh.

 The supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, has been arrested in Cairo, Egyptian officials said on Tuesday.

VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City People's Supreme Court on Friday, Aug 16, announced reduced sentences for Dinh Nguyen Kha and Nguyen Phuong Uyen who had "conducted propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam".

 VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam turns out to be not a good land for many bank foreign CEOs. Many of them have to leave after a short time in Vietnam, ceding their positions to Vietnamese.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Canadian rock band ‘Japandroids’ will arrive in Ho Chi Minh City for a performance at the Cargo Bar on August 21.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Traffic deaths in the first seventh months of 2013 rose by 4.86 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released by the National Committee for Traffic Safety.