Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

Tourism to Vietnam was up sharply in January as the industry recovers from a severe downturn in 2009, an official at the General Statistical Office said Friday.

Vietnam has protested a new Chinese law aimed at protecting the nation's islands, including the disputed Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, local media reported Wednesday.

Hanoi - Vietnam has asked China to stop detaining its fishermen and to return fishing boats it seized in the South China Sea in recent months, the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan reported Wednesday.

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has demanded that China investigate "brutal" treatment of Vietnamese fishermen who sought shelter during a typhoon in disputed South China Sea islands, where officials allege they were beaten and robbed by Chinese personnel.

Hanoi - Thich Quang Do, the dissident monk who heads the banned Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), is calling for a Vietnamese boycott of Chinese goods, UBCV sources said Tuesday. The Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau, which handles press for the UBCV, said 80-year-old Do had sent a letter calling for the boycott from the Thanh Minh Zen Monastery in Ho Chi Minh City, where he has been under intermittent house arrest for over two decades.

Authorities have fined the editor of the official Communist Party Web site for running an article that seemed to endorse China's position in a sensitive territorial dispute that has stirred nationalist passions in Vietnam.

HANOI - Vietnam has freed a detained blogger and a journalist who were critical of government policies towards China and involved in a plan to distribute anti-China T-shirts, the blogger and a lawyer said on Sunday. The releases came ahead of a Sept. 6-9 visit by Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh to Australia and New Zealand, where he is sure to face protests and pressure over human rights.

A bridge spanning the Red River and linking Kim Thanh Commercial - Industrial Park in the Vietnamese province of Lao Cai to Beishan Zone in the Chinese province of Yunnan opened to traffic on September 1.

Vietnam's state-controlled media Monday August 17 denounced China's claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea, suggesting the government is taking a stronger tack on the territorial dispute.

A US official voiced concern Wednesday about tensions between China and Vietnam over the resource-rich South China Sea and pledged to defend US oil companies operating in the region.

HANOI - China's Hainan Airlines will soon launch a direct flight between Haikou, capital of China's southern Hainan province and the Vietnamese capital city of Hanoi, an official of Hainan province said here on Thursday.

If there was a need to identify a consensus among Vietnamese across the spectrum from domestic to overseas, it must be the uneasy feeling towards China. The Vietnamese mentality regarding national security from time immemorial has been that of vigilance on China.

Hanoi - Vietnam has removed articles promoting Chinese claims to disputed maritime territory from a joint Vietnamese-Chinese website, but will not shut down the website, officials said Tuesday.

A Vietnamese drug dealer and her four Chinese accomplices have been captured by police in the middle of last month in southwest China trafficking 11 kilogram of heroin, police said Monday.