Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

HO CHI MINH CITY — There had been some safe-sex campaigns in Vietnam before: university students walking around campus dressed up as condoms, a video game by U.S.A.I.D. teaching men to use protection with prostitutes and even a stylish condom dress designed for World AIDS day.

United Kingdom authorities have introduced a new initiative in Vietnam, aiming to protect the nation’s children from child sex offenders convicted in the UK who may be travelling or working overseas, according to the British Embassy in Hanoi.

The only Vietnamese transgender person to have her gender reassignment officially recognised has heard that the decision will be revoked and she will once again be officially considered male.

They grabbed the paper, read it enthusiastically, but put it away quickly. The article about the government mulling over whether to allow same-sex couples to legally cohabitate failed to excite a group of gay men in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam will free about 900 sex workers in 2013 from compulsory rehabilitation centres across the country, state media reported on Thursday.

HANOI — Dinh Thi Hong Loan grasps her girlfriend's hand, and the two gaze into each other's love-struck eyes. Smiling, they talk about their upcoming wedding — how they'll exchange rings and toast the beginning of their lives together.

Pretty young girls, mainly around 19-20 years old, play the role of hosts at the restaurants. They are hired to receive foreign men in secluded rooms for karaoke singing and then join the men in their homes after 23:30pm.

HANOI — A United Nations-appointed expert is urging Vietnam's government to close down rehabilitation centers for drug users and sex workers following criticism of abuses by an international rights group, calling them "counterproductive."

Middle-aged Vietnamese women have replaced their Chinese counterparts in offering sex to elderly men and retirees along Chinatown.

A coastal hamlet in the central province of Binh Thuan has the dubious distinction of attracting abandoned women who do sex work for a living.

Hanoi - The HIV virus is spreading among sex workers in Vietnam because agencies are not pulling together to fight the disease, state media said Thursday.

Authorities in northern Vietnam have demoted five policemen for filming the arrest of two naked prostitutes after the footage was posted on the Internet, police said Tuesday.

Sex ratios at birth are becoming increasingly imbalanced in Vietnam, with far more boys being born than girls, the UN Population Fund says.

Vietnam's ruling Communist Party has expelled a provincial governor from its ranks for soliciting prostitutes.