As of 2012, the VPF company will organize professional football tournaments to improve the quality of domestic footballers and help young players hone their skills through more competitions.

Vietnam’s 3D animated TV series “Under the shade of the trees” has won a Golden Heart award at the Yxine Film Festival 2011.  

The Vietnam Match Play Championship is set to kick off at the Montgomerie Links golf course in central Quang Nam Province on December 22.

A play with a French and Vietnamese cast will be performed at the Hanoi Opera House on December 14-15 and will then tour France in 2012 and 2013.  

The French quartet Limousine will give a special performance in Hanoi in early 2012, playing the music that has made the band famous.

Saigon FC, a new football club, made its debut in Ho Chi Minh City on December 12.  

The Vietnamese band “Tuxedo va Ao Dai”  came in second at the 2011 K-Pop Singing Contest in the Republic of Korea, from December 5-9, with their outstanding performance: “Love oh Love” by Davichi.  

World bronze medalist Phan Thi Ha Thanh has bagged home a gold medal for Vietnam at the Tokyo International Gymnasium Tournament in Japan.

Director Pham Nhue Giang’s latest film, Tam Hon Me (Mother’s Soul) will be screened among other Vietnamese films during the 17th National Film Festival on December 15-17. 

Nguyen Thi Quynh Anh from Zhongshan University has been crowned Miss Vietnamese Student in China.

The new book entitled ‘Vietnam and the East Sea’ aims to help the domestic and international public better understand the real situation in the East Sea, around Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) islands, as well as Vietnam’s views on solving related disputes.

The ancient royal city of Hue will host the 2012 National Marathon Championship on March 26.

A project to build a cultural and tourism village showcasing Vietnamese ethnic groups was introduced to overseas Vietnamese and French investors at a roundtable in Paris on December 10.

The contest has provided Vietnamese people an opportunity to show their Korean speaking skills as well as giving a chance for students from the Republic of Korea (RoK) to speak Vietnamese friends’ mother tongue.

Trieu Thi Ha, 19, an ethnic Nung girl from the northern mountainous province of Cao Bang, has become Miss Ethnic Vietnam 2011.

The Pa Co ethnic minority people in Vietnam hold the Ada festival after harvest to thank Heaven and prepare for the next crop.

Twenty-four tennis players, including eight women, seeded from 9th to 16th in the national ratings, are competing in the VFM Cup tournament that opened in Danang on December 10.

Two Venezuelan musicians, Maurice Reyna and Yoko Yoshizawa, will perform in Vietnam from December 12-19.

Judoka Van Ngoc Tu has officially won a ticket to compete at the London Olympics next August, according to the International Judo Federation (IJF).  

Certificates of National Heritage were awarded to the Hanoi Opera House and August Revolution Square in downtown Hanoi during a ceremony held on December 9 to mark the centenary of the historic theatre.

Vietnam’s top badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh has held on to his 7th position in the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) rankings for eight weeks.  

An international workshop on cultural policy and management in the context of globalization will take place in Hanoi on December 15-16.

V-League defending champions Song Lam-Nghe An will play National Cup winners Navibank-Saigon on December 17 to kick-start a new football season.

 Vietnamese badminton is hoping that its two players will qualify for the Olympic Games in London.  

The organizing board of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup 2012 has finished dividing thirty-two clubs into eight groups for qualifying rounds.

German conductor Christian Schumann of the Munich-based Bavarian State Opera will perform at the HCM City Opera House on December 9 this week, accompanied by the HCM City Ballet Symphony Orchestra and Opera (HBSO).

Piaggio Vietnam announced there will be an exhibition of Vespa motorbikes in the Thang Long Royal Citadel from December 8-10.

World renowned tenor Adrian Ward from the UK will perform Symphony No.9 in D minor Op. 125 together with three Vietnamese singers at the Hanoi Opera House on December 7 and 8.

The fourth National Sports Festival for Disabled Students will take place in the northern delta province of Thai Binh from December 7-14.

Seventeen Hanoi artists are presenting a group exhibition at the HCM City Museum of Fine Arts.