Chinese military aircraft on June 20 flew at a low altitude above Vietnamese law enforcement vessels operating near the place where China illegally places its drilling rig HD-981 inside Vietnam’s waters.

  The UN Human Rights Council (UN HRC) has approved Vietnam’s Universal Periodic Review on human rights in the second cycle, acknowledging the country’s progress in protecting and promoting fundamental human rights.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Nguyen Anh Tu, a Vietnamese student in Aachen, Germany, took photos of 1,000 people he met in Europe in one year. Below are some of his photos.

 VietNamNet Bridge – More than 400 drivers of transport firms have tested positive for drugs and 1,400 others are not sufficiently healthy to drive, according to the Vietnam Road Administration.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Only 20 percent of ethanol can be sold in the domestic market, while the other 80 percent is being exported to Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The poor English speaking skills of high school graduates is a recognised problem, but educators and legislators disagree on the causes.

 Hanoi has been cited as one of the top five most budget-friendly destinations for a short getaway excursion for two people, according to a recent survey by TripAdvisor – the world’s largest tourism website.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee has decided that there will be only two options - confidence and low confidence - in votes of confidence on those officials elected or approved by the NA or people’s councils.

 VietNamNet Bridge - Van Nien Pagoda is located on Lac Long Quan Road to the west of the West Lake in Hanoi. The thousand-year-old pagoda is considered one of the most famous ones in the old capital of Thang Long.

 VietNamNet Bridge - Peaceful negotiation is the only way to resolve the dispute over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos (Paracel - Spratly Islands).

 VietNamNet Bridge - On his personal website (tamingthecentaur.com), freelance photographer Robert Anderson showcases beautiful and unique portraits of Vietnamese people taken during his trip to Vietnam.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s Truong Sa Archipelago (Spratly Islands) has a lot of beautiful, strange and rare creatures. Here are some unique species listed in Vietnam’s Red Book.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Despite escalating tensions in the East Sea, foreign shipping firms are still optimistic about Vietnam’s economic growth.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Deforestation in the Central Highlands has reached at an alarming level in the Chumomray National Park and Ngoc Linh Natural Sanctuary where farmers have cut down trees to plant cassava, analysts have said.

 VietNamNet Bridge – The V-League schedule should have avoided a clash with the FIFA World Cup, allowing coaches and players to enjoy the latter to the full, V-League coaches have said.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Pac Ngoi – a small tourist village located in Ba Be National Park – is home to the Tay minority ethnic community and a popular venue for foreign and local tourists to experience homestay.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Three bilingual poetry collections by Vietnamese poet Mai Van Phan are among the top-selling collections of their kind on amazon.com, the poet was informed by UK's Page Addie Press publisher.

 East Sea tensions were hotly debated at a recent workshop in capital Vienna where scholars shed light on the current situation and suggested solutions to the territorial dispute.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Economic power is second only to "violence" and Official Development Assistance (ODA) is one of the tools demonstrating this great power.

International scholars say China’s placement of HD-981 in Vietnam’s territorial waters is a step towards legalising the nine-dash line ambition in the East Sea, but warn its land reclamation in the Spratly is a serious threat to regional security.