Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

Provinces and cities in Vietnam should take drastic measures to further the fight against corruption, focusing on seven major fields in 2010, according to Vietnam news agency.

HANOI — Vietnam released one of its leading democracy activists from prison Monday after the dissident Catholic priest spent three years and suffered two strokes in solitary confinement, his lawyer and sister said.

Four hundred striking workers at a South Korean-owned garment factory returned to their jobs Friday in Vietnam after the company accepted most of their demands, but another 400 continued to hold out for back pay.

Vietnam Airlines (VNA) has recently sent a petition to prime minister opposing the investment cooperation (under any ways) between cheap air carrier-Air Asia (Malaysia) and VietJet Air Aviation Joint Stock Co (VJA) to establish VietJet AirAsia-a cheap aviation carrier.

A murderer awaiting execution in Vietnam has applied to donate his body to science, but authorities said Wednesday they may not be able to fulfil his wish due to legal uncertainties. Fisherman Nguyen Van Hai, 30, pleaded guilty to killing a man and stealing his boat in August 2008.

Construction of the 220km Vietnamese segment of a transnational highway linking the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) will begin in the second quarter of the year, says Duong Tuan Minh, general director of the My Thuan Project Management Unit.

PARIS - Nuclear energy is expected to account for a remarkable proportion in Vietnam's power generation in the future, Vietnam news agency reported, citing to Minister of Science and Technology Hoang Van Phong, as saying.

Some 400 Vietnamese living abroad, or Viet Kieu, gathered at the Sunrise City complex project in HCM City's District 7 last week for a meeting, with many of them showing keen interest to buy houses or invest in the property sector in Vietnam.

HCM CITY - A number of provinces around the country plan to concentrate on growing bananas for export, due to increasing world demand.

Vietnam's largest mining company wants to begin mining huge coal deposits in the Red River delta, one of the country's most-populated agricultural areas, officials said Monday.

HANOI — A Vietnamese human rights lawyer has been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for spreading propaganda against the state.

Occupational accidents and deaths are on the rise in Vietnam because the fines for safety violations are inadequate, a Vietnamese official said Thursday.

HANOI - Every year, even at the peak of Vietnam's dry season, when the Red River is at its lowest, Hanoi's skilled captains manage to negotiate their flat-bottomed boats through its shallow waters.

HANOI - More than two decades after doi moi – the “renovation” that opened Vietnam to the outside world – some conservative elements in the Communist party are rattling foreign investors by trying to put the brakes on reform.

WASHINGTON — Vietnam needs to improve its human rights record if it wants to build a close relationship with the United States, a senior US envoy said Wednesday ahead of a visit to the region.