Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

HANOI — Vietnamese riot police fired warning shots and tear gas to break up a protest by hundreds of angry farmers against a forced eviction on the outskirts of the capital Hanoi on Tuesday, witnesses said.

In recent years, many farmers in Da Lat in Lam Dong Province have actively invested billions of dong to establish plant tissue culture laboratories and create high quality, disease-resistant breeds of plants for export.

Hanoi - When police went to evict Doan Van Vuon's family from their fish farm in northern Vietnam, they were not expecting to be resisted with guns and land mines. The shootout left six officers injured and four men in jail on charges of attempted murder.

When local police arrived in riot gear to evict the Vuon clan, family members were ready with homemade land mines and improvised shotguns. In a guerrilla-style ambush reminiscent of a Vietnam War battle, they wounded six officers.

Shootout in Tien Lang : this is the second of a three-part series on corruption Vietnam's land ownership by David Brown, a retired US Foreign Service official who served in several posts throughout Southeast Asia.

HANOI - When around 100 police and local officials came to seize their land outside the northern port city of Haiphong, the family of farmer Doan Van Vuon was ready and waiting, with shotguns in hand and improvised explosive devices planted in the ground.

HANOI — A court in Vietnam has sentenced three land rights activists from the same family to up to seven years in jail for spreading anti-government propaganda, according to state media.

The hard work that farmers expend on their fields is being undermined by fake fertilizers, pesticides and animal feed that they are lured into buying at cheaper prices.

Vietnam's government plans to use up to US$1 billion to subsidise interest on bank loans to farmers as part of efforts to boost domestic consumption and the economy, state media reported on Thursday.

HANOI - The global financial crisis is beginning to hurt Vietnamese farmers and agricultural exporters, officials said Monday.