Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

HANOI — A Vietnamese lawyer and dissident vowed on Wednesday to carry on her struggle for democracy days after leaving jail, where she spent three years for challenging the Communist authorities.

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.

HANOI — An imprisoned Vietnamese Catholic priest, whose release has been sought by US legislators, is in worsening health, his sister said Tuesday.

There has been a spike in human rights issues in Vietnam but dialogue, not harsher measures, is the way to respond, the United States ambassador said Wednesday.

PHNOM PENH - The leader of Cambodia's main opposition party, Sam Rainsy, skipped his court date on Wednesday, eluding an arrest warrant issued for allegedly uprooting border markers on the frontier with Vietnam.

Observers from a global association of lawyers were barred last week from a controversial Vietnamese trial at which four dissidents were jailed, the group said Saturday.

Hanoi - A Vietnamese court has banned the used of recording devices and computers by media covering the trial of four democracy activists scheduled to begin Wednesday.

A Vietnamese court has sentenced pro-democracy activist Tran Anh Kim to five-and-a-half years in prison for subversion against the communist state.

EU, Other Donors Should Condemn Officials’ Complicity in Pagoda Siege

Hanoi - The Vietnamese government rejected a US call for it to 'immediately and unconditionally' release nine dissidents sentenced to prison last week for criticizing the government, state media reported Friday.

HANOI — The United States has condemned Vietnam's recent conviction of nine democracy activists, the arrest of a writer and the expulsion of Buddhist monks from a monastery where they practiced the teachings of a renowned Zen master.

HANOI - Vietnam jailed six people on Friday for advocating democracy after similar sentences to three others earlier in the week, moves that analysts say look choreographed to deter dissent in the run up to a major Communist meeting.

A court in Vietnam has sentenced a man to three years in prison for hanging a banner over a bridge in Hanoi which called for multi-party democracy.

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 Vietnamese blogger who criticized the Communist Party's policies has been detained by police, his close friend said Monday, days after another popular blogger was fired from his job at a state-controlled newspaper.