Minister sees craft villages as essential to development

VietNamNet Bridge – Craft villages are vital to the country's sustainable development in rural areas, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat.

Province builds on successes in family planning

VietNamNet Bridge – Nguyen Manh Thao of northern Hoa Binh City is happy that he has two daughters.

Australian tourists favour Viet Nam

VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam's status as Southeast Asia's fastest growing tourism destination is reflected in new statistics that show Australian visitors are flocking to the country like never before.

Solar power to be generated in Quang Binh

VietNamNet Bridge – Schneider Electric Viet Nam has completed its renewable energy pilot project in the central province of Quang Binh.

Vietnam Airlines to add over 580 flights for Tet holiday

Vietnam Airlines will have 583 more flights to meet rising travel demand of Vietnamese people who want to get back to their families across the country for celebrating the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, in early February.

ART & ENTERTAINMENT IN BRIEF 15/12

Uncle Ho's palm leaf testimony recognised; German textbooks gifted to National Library; Embroidery depicts famous poem of Zen master; TV personalities set for Miss Charming Television

Cuba launches Wikipedia-style online encyclopedia

Cuba Tuesday launched the ECURED, its own Wikipedia-style open online encyclopedia with 19,345 items of reference articles, biographies and academic works.

Italian premier wins confidence vote in Senate

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Tuesday won a confidence vote in the Senate.

China, U.S. start trade talks in Washington

China and the United States on Tuesday kicked off their annual trade talks in Washington D.C..

U.S. stocks rise modestly after Dow hits 2-year high

The U.S. stocks on Tuesday ended slightly up with the Dow Jones industrial average hitting its intraday high in two years.

GOVERNMENT IN BRIEF 15/12

Laos honours outstanding Vietnamese; NA delegation visits Cambodia; CPV delegation attends Party congress in Chile; Russia shares public asset management with Vietnam

Mining, civil service, consumer laws issued

VietNamNet Bridge – President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday, Dec 14, promulgated three new laws including the Law on Consumer Rights Protection, the amended Law on Minerals, and the Law on Public Officials and Civil Servants

War memorabilia goes on display in Ha Noi

VietNamNet Bridge – Many never return from war. Through keepsakes and photographs, however, it is possible to keep their memory alive.

Greece gripped by new protests over draft bill on labor market reform

Greece was gripped once again by a wave of protests on Tuesday over a draft bill on the labor market reform due to be ratified by the Greek parliament later this evening.

Swimmer tastes freestyle gold

VietNamNet Bridge – Swimmer Vo Thanh Tung clocked a time in 35.56sec to win a gold in the men's 50m freestyle at the Asian ParaGames for disabled athletes in Guangzhou, China, yesterday, Dec 14.

WWF offers apology and removes tra fish from their consumer red list

VietNamNet Bridge - WWF has admitted that tra pangasius was unfairly placed on its 2010-2011 consumer red list, pledging to remove it immediately.

Vietnamese housewives scared of Chinese fruit

VietNamNet Bridge – Many housewives no longer purchase fruit that originate from China, especially fruit with eye-catching color and appearance.

Southern music seeks UNESCO recognition

VietNamNet Bridge - Efforts are being to compile a national dossier on ‘Nghe Thuat Don Ca Tai Tu’ (Southern amateur music) to be nominated to UNESCO as a mankind intangible cultural heritage.

MOC attempts to set higher capital requirements for real estate developers

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Construction is planning to set up higher requirements on the legal capital that real estate development companies have to have, in an effort to stabilize the market.

Dong Thap bird sanctuary doubles as abattoir

VietNamNet Bridge - Visitors to a state-run bird sanctuary aimed at preserving wildlife in the Mekong Delta can enjoy nature up close as well as sample in storks and other rare birds which could be directly sourced in-house.

Leading cellist to join Hanoi’s concert

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s top cellist Ngo Hoang Quan will join the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in a concert entitled “A night of Dvorak”.

Two young designers to represent Vietnam at Hong Kong Fashion Week

VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Thi Diem My and Ha Nhat Tien, the winners of the Aquafina Pure Fashion 2010 competition, will participate in the Hong Kong Fashion Week 2011. 

Rapid-fire orders coming to garment companies

VietNamNet Bridge – The year 2010 will end only in two weeks, but garment companies have reported that they have had enough jobs to do until the third quarter of 2011.

WWF officials in Vietnam over tra catfish spat

A six-member World Wide Fund for Nature delegation led by its global seafood coordinator Mark Powell began discussions with Vietnamese aquaculture officials Wednesday about the assessment and classification standards used for Vietnamese catfish.

General Dong Sy Nguyen deems letter fake

VietNamNet Bridge – General Dong Sy Nguyen  stated that he didn’t write the letter that was recently published on some websites.