‘Supernatural girl’ may need psychiatrists' help

VietNamNet Bridge – After nearly one week of making an investigation at the house of the HCM City’s girl who is capable of making fires, scientists from the HCM City-based Hong Bang University did not realize any abnormal thing.

3rd Belgian-Vietnamese Comic Festival to be held in Hanoi

VietNamNet Bridge – The 3rd annual Belgian-Vietnamese Comic Festival will take place in Hanoi from June 1 to 10 on the occasion of International Children's Day.

Vietnam's telecom market saturated

Dominated by three telecom giants, Viettel, VinaPhone and MobiFone, the Vietnamese mobile market had over 116 million subscriptions at the end of 2011.

Viet Nam win gold at Asian chess event

VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's men's chess team have won a gold medal in the blitz event at the ongoing Asian Team Chess Championships in China.

SOCIETY IN BRIEF 22/5

Quang Binh takes soft drinks from shelves; Hanoi CPI up 0.16 percent in May; Flooding to appear in northern region; Vietnamese people association opens office in RoK

VN acrobatic primates edge closer to extinction

A group of acrobatic primates living, and swinging from tree branches, in Vietnam are not faring so well, with three of the six species inching closer to extinction, finds a new report, released on May 21, on these primates called crested gibbons.

HCM City requests for licence to be revoked from illegal dredger

The People's Committee of HCM City has asked the Prime Minister to instruct the Ministry of Transport to revoke licences that allow the Hiep Phuoc Maritime and Investment Joint-Stock Company to dredge river beds

Artist mixes colours of a disappearing life

VietNamNet Bridge – An artist hailing from the northern province of Nam Dinh evokes beauty, nostalgia and a sense of sadness for disappearing scenes and traditions in an exhibition now open in HCM City.

SpaceX to launch first commercial spacecraft to space station

Private spaceflight company SpaceX will try to launch its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on Tuesday morning, U.S. space agency NASA announced Monday.

Sea port developers experiencing dark days

VietNamNet Bridge – Foreign invested sea port developers have got bogged down in a competition of reducing loading and unloading fees to scramble for clients, thus facing the risks of incurring heavy losses.

Predicting a Mitt Romney foreign policy

VietNamNet would like to introduce a series of articles about the presidential election in the US, by G. Calvin Mackenzie, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of Government at Colby College  and currently a Fulbright scholar in Vietnam.

High school students thirsty for career information

VietNamNet Bridge – When asked what they are taught in the career guidance curriculum, most of 10th graders kept… quiet. No answer could be given by 11th and 12th graders as well.

Scantily-clad performers could be banned 6 months

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism has proposed to the government a new decree under which scantily-clad stage entertainers could be banned from performance for a period of between three and six months.

Living in pollution, dieing of pollution

VietNamNet Bridge – The warning about the heavy price people would have to pay for the rapid industrial production development was given many years ago. However, no improvement in the living environment has been made so far.

Dutchman Nederlof grabs stage win

VietNamNet Bridge – Lex Nederlof of the Netherland's CCN team won the third stage of the International Cycling to the Northern Delta Tournament yesterday, May 21.

US$4 million for drug detoxification by methadone in HCM City

The HCM City government has approved of the drug addiction treatment plan using Methadone with around VND80 billion to be set aside to treat 14,000 drug addicts in the 2012-2015 period.

GOVERNMENT IN BRIEF 22/5

President bids farewell to Hungarian Ambassador; VUFO receives Ho Chi Minh memorabilia from India delegation; Viet Nam, Ukraine trade unions discuss ways to cement ties

Six left dead after quarry explosion

VietNamNet Bridge – Six labourers are dead and four injured after an unexpected explosion at a quarry in Lai Xuan Commune, Thuy Nguyen District in the northern port city of Hai Phong at 10am yesterday, May 21.

Wartime bomb shelter officially opens

Nearly 40 years after the end of the war in Vietnam, for the first time an old wartime bomb shelter of Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel opens to the public today, almost one year after its discovery.

Mekong Delta aims for sustainable wetland usage

VietNamNet Bridge – The fourth forum on natural resources and cultural preservation, towards the sustainable development of the Mekong Delta, took place in the southern province of Dong Thap on May 21.

Firms urged to ready for EU pact

Experts have urged domestic enterprises to change the structure of products exported to the EU market to enjoy more benefits when the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) goes into effect.

Government: Signs of declining economic growth have emerged

In a government report on the implementation of the socio-economic plan for 2011, the government observed signs of declining economic growth, with many enterprises declaring themselves bankrupt.

SPORTS IN BRIEF 22/5

Men's chess team beat Mongolia; Hosts Khanh Hoa pound Binh Thuan; AVC publishes draws for 2012; Military players win doubles title

Rare trees protected by ‘concrete skirts’

VietNamNet Bridge – Building ‘blockhouses’ by concrete or iron fences are among measures to protect sua trees (Dalbergia tonkinensis Prain) in Vietnam.

Greek conservative parties join forces ahead of June elections

Greek conservative parties the New Democracy and the Democratic Alliance announced on Monday that they will join forces ahead of the critical June 17 national polls, the second in two months, that could determine