Stocks opened the new week in negative territory on both stock exchanges yesterday as investors continued to unload shares on fears of steeper declines.

The tourism sector is looking to cash in on a proposal from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to give Government workers an extra long Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday next January.

The global ratings firm Standard&Poor’s has downgraded the long-run credit rating of three domestic banks BIDV, Vietcombank and Techcombank from BB – to B+.

A recently released survey by Yahoo showed that Vietnam tops Southeast Asian countries in spending on mobile internet services, with an average of $24 per month.

The Pa Co ethnic minority people in Vietnam hold the Ada festival after harvest to thank Heaven and prepare for the next crop.

HCM City is expected to generate 265,000 new jobs next year, 57.7 percent of which are for female workers, said Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of National Centre of Labour Market Information and Forecasting.

VietNamNet Bridge – Wild animals in the mountainous districts of Mekong Delta An Giang and Kien Giang provinces are facing a serious extinction threat because of local hunters looking for meat to sell at local pubs.

Denying the information about slashing the ceiling deposit interest rate to 13 percent, but the State Bank of Vietnam has affirmed that the interest rate would be lowered in the time to come.

The 13th National Assembly Standing Committee began its 4th session in Hanoi on December 13.

The current performance of the foreign currency market shows that the State bank of Vietnam is trying everything it can so as to fulfill its commitment not to adjust the dong/dollar exchange rate by more than one percent until the end of the year.

Countries meeting in Durban, South Africa, have delivered a breakthrough on the future of the international community's response to climate change, while recognizing the urgent need to raise their collective level of ambition to reduce . . .

VietNamNet Bridge – Senior consultants, overseas ambassadors and foreign-affairs officials gathered in Ha Noi yesterday, Dec 12, for the first meeting of the week-long 27th diplomatic conference.

VietNamNet Bridge – Army captain Phan Cong Thoi from central Quang Nam Province’s Border Guard Unit was awarded a certificate of merit on Sunday for returning VND137 million (US$6,520).

Three critically injured students died in hospital in east China's Jiangsu Province early Tuesday, the government said, bringing the toll of Monday's school bus overturn to 15.

Kfir Damari, a communication systems engineer, has a dream: to land a miniature spacecraft on the moon sometime in 2013.

VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam needs to focus on developing high quality human resources to ensure that the process of integrating into the world economy can be sustained, experts said at a conference held recently in HCM City.

The European Union (EU) is keen to promote trade ties with Vietnam, said new EU Ambassador and Head of the EU delegation in Vietnam, Franz Jessen, at a meeting with the media in Hanoi on December 12.

The United States and Iraq are building a long-term and comprehensive partnership, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday after meeting with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the White House.

Pham Viet Muon said that he cannot see any problems that may arise if EVN Telecom is taken over by Viettel and Jetstat Pacific is put under the control of Vietnam Airlines.

Le Yen Quyen is the first woman who could perform unicorn dances on poles of 7m high. She is also the first female unicorn dancer in the world who can perform “Mai Hoa Thung”, the most dangerous item of the unicorn-lion-dragon dancing art.