A series of cultural activities themed ‘Traditional crafts and contemporary arts’ have kicked off in ancient towns in Hanoi.

Tan Loc, Ngoc Anh and Ngoc Khai join dance troupe Arabesque to present a contemporary dance Suong Som (Early Dew) at 8 p.m. at HCMC Opera House on July 25 and 26.

VietNamNet Bridge – Japanese artists will demonstrate a traditional sword performance at the Japanese Bridge in the annual Hoi An-Japan Cultural Festival next month.

Clashes and skirmishes continued Monday for the second straight day in a number of southern neighborhoods of Syria's capital Damascus, witnesses and media reports say.

VietNamNet Bridge – Amateurs throwing heart and soul into their performances impressed judges more than trained counterparts from art and music schools at the Viet Nam Idol reality show auditions for the northern region.

VietNamNet Bridge – An artwork by the late Vietnamese painter Bui Xuan Phai is to go up for auction in Singapore on July 28.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has signed a decision to set up the East Sea Institute, a new affiliate of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, on July 12 that will effectuate on September 1, 2012.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada, the first drug approved to reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals who are at high risk of infection and who may engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners.

The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has asked police to check on the accuracy of the data on five million prepaid mobile-phone subscribers in HCM City.

More original content and reduced subscription fees – these are two immediate tasks for Viet Nam's pay-TV industry if it is to build on its success over the last decade, experts say.

VietNamNet Bridge – Two senior officials and four accomplices in southern Soc Trang Province would be imprisoned for gambling, the board of the province's court said yesterday, July 16.

VietNamNet Bridge – Trinh Duc Tam of ADC-Vinh Long Television 1 won the second stage of the Return to Truong Son cycling tour yesterday, July 16.

VietNamNet Bridge – As the world No 11, Vietnamese athlete Nguyen Tien Minh will be seeded in the badminton event at the upcoming London Olympics.

U.S. stocks closed lower on Monday on slightly negative retail sales despite better-than-expected Citigroup earning report.

Construction of the city's Metro Line 1, the first in the country, will begin on August 28, according to the HCM City Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR).

VietNamNet Bridge – The ninth session of the National Assembly Standing Committee opened in Hanoi on July 16, reviewing the outcomes of the third sitting of the 13th NA and discussing preparations for the next meeting scheduled for late this year.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Presidential Office on July 16 made public the laws that were approved at the 13th National Assembly session in May and June 2012.

VietNamNet Bridge – Temperatures up to 38 Celsius degree have been predicted for the north and centre of Viet Nam today. The hot spell would last two days across wide areas of the north and the centre before rain took over the two regions,

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday cut the projected world economic growth rates of this year and the next, as downside risks to the global growth loomed large, and it urged global policymakers to take bold action to boost growth.

Bat Trang pottery, Ha Dong silk craft villages have been flooded with Chinese goods. Meanwhile, the Dong Ho painting village not only has lost its traditional career, but lost its name as well.