Viet slammed for jailing Chien

In May this year Chien (pictured) and another journalist were arrested, and they were convicted last month, along with their police sources, in a case that sent a chill through the country’s state-controlled media industry. –PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

HANOI – FOREIGN diplomats at a meeting on Friday criticised Vietnam for punishing graft-busting journalists and urged [...]

Death toll rises in central Vietnam post floods

Hanoi – A week of heavy rains and floods have left 20 people dead and thousands in central Vietnam without food and water, Vietnam’s main disaster agency reported Friday. “Heavy rains have lessened but the water levels in the rivers remain high,” said Dam Vinh Loi, Deputy Head of the Committee for Flood and Storm [...]

Vietnam still slack on anti-graft: int’l donors

International donors are concerned there’s not enough being done to fight corruption in Vietnam, a meeting on anticorruption measures in Hanoi heard Friday.
The Counselor of the Dutch Embassy, Van Loosdrecht, said despite a turn around in anti-graft in the country the fight was mostly being targeted at corruption at the grassroots level.
Donors at the meeting [...]

Hanoi’s policy: eliminate Catholics

by Thanh Thuy
There is a fundamental lack of understanding on the part of the authorities of the very idea of religion behind the choice of oppression and discrimination as seen in the trial against the parishioners of Thai Ha.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) – There is a failure to understand the very idea of religion on the part [...]

Foreign donors slam Vietnam for jailing graft-busting journalist

Foreign donors criticised Vietnam Friday for punishing graft-busting journalists and urged the communist government to instead go after the “big fish” in its anti-corruption drive.
Diplomats speaking at the annual Anti-Corruption Dialogue meeting focused on the jailing last month of newspaper journalist Nguyen Viet Chien who had helped uncover a major corruption scandal three years ago.
Swiss [...]

Vietnam asserts sovereignty rights over islands

09:35′ 28/11/2008 (GMT+7)

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung.

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam possesses sufficient historical evidence and a legal basis to confirm its indisputable sovereignty and sovereignty rights over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos, as well as Viet Nam ’s waters and continental shelf, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said on Nov. 27.

Replying to [...]

Floods kill 13 in central Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam: Officials say floods and landslides triggered by several days of heavy rain have killed 13 people in central Vietnam this week.
Disaster official Le Viet Binh of Quang Ngai province says rains have stopped but water levels remained very high Friday, hindering rescue efforts. Floods and landslides have claimed four lives in the province.
“We [...]

Hanoi authorities want no one to attend Thai Ha Catholics trial

Anyone who wants to attend the proceedings must submit a written request. The trial itself will not be held in a courthouse but on the 4th floor of the People’s Committee building. On the same day that the trial starts the capital’s auxiliary bishop is consecrated.
Hanoi (AsiaNews) – Increasingly the trial that Hanoi authorities [...]

Government acts to prevent economic slump

07:29′ 28/11/2008 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said it is necessary to focus on preventing an economic decline or a stagnation in production and trade so as to maintain economic growth, considering this to be the first and most important task for the government throughout December and next year.

PM Dung put [...]

Vietnam PM Puts Together Measures To Avert Recession

HANOI -(Dow Jones)- Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has put together a package of measures to help prevent the economy falling into recession but the government has yet to detail what those measures will be.
The prime minister, who met with officials from various ministries late Thursday, said the impact of the global financial crisis [...]