As high-end shopping malls continue to face difficulties attracting customers, some retailers are combining two business models, modern merchandising and traditional markets.

 A lack of exercise could be killing twice as many people in Europe as obesity, a 12-year study of more than 300,000 people suggests.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has threatened to revoke operation licenses of hydropower investors who have not planted forests to compensate for forestland they used to build their projects.

 VietNamNet Bridge – National favourites Hoang Anh Gia Lai will meet the bottom placed Da Nang in the Toyota V.League 1's fifth round in Pleiku Stadium in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai today, Jan 25.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Remittance inflows into Vietnam are expected to continue increasing this year, as overseas Vietnamese look to put their savings to work.

 Nearly 100km from Ho Chi Minh City from the north-west, Tay Ninh is an ideal getaway for holidaymakers at the weekend.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Pham Thi Vui has had a "steady job" for the last 20 years, collecting garbage from the Khanh Son dump in Da Nang.

Da lat is located on the Langbian Plateau, about 1,500 m above sea level. It is a popular tourist destination with many attractive sites. Following are the top ten destinations in the city:

 VietNamNet Bridge – The Government's first Resolution in 2015 carries a strong can-do spirit that should benefit the business community, VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc tells the Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) Newspaper.

Vietnamese software firms have signed many contracts worth millions of dollars with US partners.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Dominic Scriven came to Vietnam more than 20 years ago and immediately fell in love with the propaganda paintings he saw around the country. His love grew into a great passion

Authorities bust traffickers for transporting firecrackers; Vietnam attends Global Young Scientists Summit; Luggage theft plagues Vietnam airports; American prepackaged caramel apples not yet registered in Vietnam

 Retailers face foreign competition; Firms urged to prepare for AEC; VN Steel Corp to withdraw from non-core sectors; Rubber industry faces falling prices; SBV looks set to resolve weak banks in 2015

PM Nguyen Tan Dung last week officially signed a decree forbidding the parent company Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) in using its capital to invest and acquire shares in real estate project, banks and insurance companies.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The 8km canal that runs through seven districts in HCM City may becoming polluted again as local people are throwing tons of rubbish into it every day.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Every five days, a person falls into the river in Quang Nam province in central Vietnam while crossing the Ba Ren pontoon bridge.

The Vietnamese public, who are known as the biggest beer drinkers in the world, as optimists about their future, and as big spenders on luxury goods despite modest incomes, curbed their expenses in 2014 more than in the past.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Four inspection teams have been set up by the Ministry of Transport to supervise transport fees among transport enterprises as fuel prices continue to drop, already two times in the first month of the year.

VietNamNet Bridge – Efforts to prevent local residents from living on houseboats in Ha Long Bay have largely failed due to a lack of aquaculture planning and management.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Ministries and sectors should rework ineffective poverty reduction policies, Son Phuoc Hoan, Vice Chairman of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, told Nong Thon Ngay nay (Countryside Today).