VietNamNet Bridge – Viet Nam’s Saigon Heat lost to defending champions Westports Malaysia Dragons 94-81 at the ASEAN Basketball League at the CIS Arena in HCM City on Saturday.

Viet Nam’s top chess player, Le Quang Liem, defeated Andyka Pitra of Indonesia in HCM City on Sunday during the first round of the masters category of the seventh HDBank Cup International Open Chess tournament 2017. 

 Representatives from Vietnam’s tea-growing localities and famous tea firms took part in a recent seminar in New York, to seek opportunities to enter the US market.

 Overloaded vehicles are once again being spotted on roads and highways across the country, despite the Government crackdown.

 Life had become difficult for Ho Nguyen Hoang of Nghe An Province ever since he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and began treatment at the National Cancer Hospital in Hanoi.

 The central province of Quang Binh has planned to organise tours to the set of the film “Kong: Skull Island”, which is expected to bring huge revenue for US filmmakers and great benefits to tourism in countries where the film was shot. 

The Trang An tourism Complex, located in the northern province of Ninh Binh, was recognised as a world cultural and natural heritage site by UNESCO in 2015 thanks to its natural and cultural values.

 The People’s Committee of the central province of Quang Tri has announced a project to open the Con Co island tourism route.

More than 1,000 voluntary students and two ambassadors of the Earth Hour 2017 campaign on March 11 rode bicycles on several streets in the HCM City’s centre to call on residents to switch off lights and unnecessary electric appliances to save energy.

 The authorities of the central province of Quang Nam will spend over 128 billion VND (5.6 million USD) on a project to establish an elephant conservation area. 

 The health ministry has asked Hanoi and HCM City to expand specialised inspection on food safety to 100 percent of its districts and communes after successful trial implementation of this model.

 A shocking statistic in 2013 showed that each Vietnamese person read only 0.8 book per year on average. Since then, concerted efforts have been exerted to revive reading culture. 

 A powerful storm caused flooding, landslides and blackouts in New Zealand on Sunday, leaving thousands of homes without power, emergency services officials said.

As many as 305 badminton players from 16 countries are expected to compete in the Ciputra Hanoi-Yonex Sunrise Vietnam International Challenge 2017, the organisers said on March 10.

 A lacquer painting exhibition featuring the Vietnamese practices related to belief in Mother Goddesses is taking place in Hanoi’s Fine Arts Museum.

 Mobile operator Vodafone will create 2,100 new customer service jobs across Britain in the next two years as part of an investment drive to improve operations in its home market.

  The 20th Francophone Day of the Mekong Delta came back to Can Tho city on March 11-12 in celebration of the International Francophonie Day (March 20).

 American blockbuster “Kong: Skull Island” has set a new record in box office revenues in Vietnam after snagging 18.2 billion VND (798,200 USD) from the opening day on March 10 and early screenings on March 9 night.

 Disgraced South Korean leader Park Geun-hye left the presidential Blue House on Sunday, two days after a court dismissed her over a corruption scandal, facing life as a private citizen and the possibility of jail.

Despite facing challenges, Vietnam has great opportunities to sustain its high economic growth rate, a seminar heard in HCM City on March 9.