Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva has voiced support for the country's centre-right coalition government and rejected calls for snap elections to resolve a political crisis shaking the bailed-out nation.

 At least 19 people were killed when two shallow earthquakes struck northwest China early Monday, a local government official said as rescuers battled to reach survivors.

 VietNamNet Bridge - Mr. Nguyen Hong Thanh, Chairman of Song Lam Nghe An (SLNA) FC has confirmed that Vietnam’s top striker Le Cong Vinh will play for Japanese FC Consadole Sapporo from August 2013.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Authorities are set to demolish next month most of the 500 houses illegally built in HCM City, especially in Binh Chanh District, a People's Committee meeting heard on Friday.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Commercial banks have made a volte face, refusing to buy government bonds because the offered interest rates are lower than their expected levels.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Enterprise owners are now required to hold a regular dialogue with their employees at least once every three months and organise an annual workers meeting to hear their opinions and discuss issues.

 NA Chairman meets OVs in RoK; Ceremony marks Cuba’s 60th anniversary of armed uprising; Communist Review delegation visits UK

According to the Environment Police Agency, Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest rate of morbidity and mortality from cancer in the world. Recent studies show that 70 percent of cancer cases in the country are due to unsafe diet.

VietNamNet Bridge – Illegal sand exploitation by local residents and authorities along the Dong Nai River has increased rather than diminished in the last decade, despite efforts to ban it.

 VietNamNet Bridge – It is highly possible that the Vietnam’s GDP growth rate in 2013 would be 5.1-5.2 percent.

CMC Telecom and FPT Telecom have complained about the lack of IPv4 addresses to develop new subscribers, saying that the reserved addresses do not correspond to the current growth and the broadband market share.

The announcement about the petrol price increase to VND25,000 per liter, plus the excursion fee increases at most of the tourist sites, have dealt a strong blow on travel firms which have been sparing every dong to stimulate the demand.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Spelling mistakes have been discovered everywhere, on university degrees, and at the traffic signboards or at the airports. The mistakes, in the eyes of educators, are odd and unacceptable.

 VietnamNet Bridge – The low inflation rate in the first months of the year is believed to be a good condition for Vietnam to launch a new bailout, worth 100,000 billion to have the national economy escape the current gloomy situation.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The first Vietnam-ASEAN UNESCO Heritage Festival 2013 will be held in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong from December 27-31.

 VietNamNet Bridge - Lacking of comprehensive services for the development of tourism, many historical monuments and beauty spots like Ba Gioc waterfall, Truong Son - Ho Chi Minh trail are out of reach of many Vietnamese people.

 Food producers find ray of hope in byproducts; TKV says higher tariff hinders coal export; Cai Mep-Thi Vai port to be leased in 30 years; One-fifth of firms eye expansion

 VietNamNet Bridge – Nurturing the idea of bringing McDonald's to Vietnam for 10 years, Nguyen Bao Hoang opened his own company, kept contact with the partner and scheduled to open the first store in the first quarter of next year in HCM City.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Planning and Investment has asked the Prime Minister to implement an independent evaluation of large scale foreign direct investment (FDI) projects before giving them the go-ahead.

VietNamNet Bridge – When Ngan Nam Ao Mu, a book documenting 1,000 years of Vietnamese dress, was released last month, experts described it as the most comprehensive research ever undertaken on the subject.

 VietNamNet Bridge – While traveling in Da Nang city, a Korean female tourist was hospitalized for bee stings, but she did not survive.

VietNamNet Bridge – Twenty-year-old Le Van Son was recently washing his customers' motorbikes with enthusiasm. His ability to move so quickly, soaping, cleaning and drying the motorbikes made it heard for many people to believe

 VietNamNet Bridge – Some 2.04 million people in rural areas will be getting job training in three years, from 2013 to 2015 under a major scheme for vocational training for the rural labor force,

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Transport may have to pay compensation of VND155 billion (over $7 million) to the Japanese contractor due to slow site clearance.

 VietNamNet Bridge – State budget revenue collection was a difficult task in the first half of the year, with some VND356.5 trillion collected, or only 44% of the estimate for the whole year,