In interviews with the Indian news agencies, Miss Earth Nicole Faria was lavish in her praises to Vietnam, the host country of the Miss Earth 2010 pageant.

Just several hours after a clip featuring a wedding party of two girls in Hanoi was uploaded on Facebook, it became a big controversy on online forums in Vietnam.

Senior painter Bui Quang Ngoc will display 32 oil paintings, including portraits of famous people and nude paintings at an exhibition at 43 Trang Tien, Hanoi from December 16.

While the gas prices have been increasing sharply, some big gas suppliers unexpectedly reduce the retail prices. The move by the suppliers has been criticized as anti-competitive behaviour and believed to trigger a “gas price war”.

Experts have pointed out that the State Bank of Vietnam still has not found the proper monetary solution, therefore, interest rates are still escalating.

Vietnam consumers are more optimistic about economic growth and new jobs next year than their counterparts in other fast-growing emerging economies in Asia, according to a survey by TNS Vietnam.

Despite the criticism about the low quality of in-service training, the training model is still expanding. Universities are opening more in-service training courses, because they are the main bread earners for them and for university lecturers.

The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) has agreed to immediately remove Viet Nam's tra (pangasius) fish from the red list of its consumer guidance manual.

The fact that consumers are tightening their belt in the year-end shopping season has caused headache to manufacturers.

Vietnam has been developing open source software for the last 10 years, but it has witnessed no considerable progress so far, according to the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC).

VietNamNet Bridge – Despite deciding that information technology (IT) will play a very important role in the development of the knowledge-based economy, Vietnam still looks puzzled in preparing the labour force for the industry.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Construction has asked the Government to continue to give preferential treatment to enterprises that are implementing housing projects for workers in industrial zones and low-income families in urban areas.

VietNamNet Bridge – An epidemic has killed about 100 buffalo and other cattle in Phong Tho District in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau since September.

VietNamNet Bridge – Fishing nets and fish cages along rivers and canals in the Cuu Long (Mekong) delta have caused waterway accidents, said deputy director of the Southern Inland Waterway Administration Dong Huu Phong.

VietNamNet Bridge – The owner of an iron ore mine in the highlands of northern Cao Bang Province is struggling to remove debris left after a tailings dam was destroyed in a landslide more than a month ago.

VietNamNet Bridge – The lighting system installed on the HCM City – Trung Luong Highway is responsible for damaging rice crops of a special variety, and the project investor should compensate farmers for losses suffered, officials say.

VietNamNet Bridge – Concrete and appropriate policies are needed to ensure ethnic minorities participate fully in the nation's economy, said Be Truong Thanh, vice standing chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs . . .

VietNamNet Bridge – There are far more poor people in HCM City than in Ha Noi when a multi-dimensional poverty approach is adopted, despite higher average incomes in the southern city.

Strengthening Vietnam-Mongolia cooperation; Denmark helps upgrade flood-destroyed road; Vietnam attends Asia-Middle East dialogue forum; Indonesian assembly chairman to visit VN

VietNamNet Bridge – President Nguyen Minh Triet promulgated Viet Nam's first Environmental Tax Law as well as new Insurance Business an and Securities Laws yesterday, Dec 15.