A promotion campaign for the Miss Universe World Contest 2008 will begin one month before the final crowning night scheduled for July 14.

A Vietnam Cultural Festival will be held in Singapore from now until December of this year to mark the 35th anniversary of the cultural cooperation between Vietnam and Singapore.

US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael W. Michalak inaugurated the first American Centre in Hanoi on April 3.

The Nyacha band from Mozambique will perform in northern Vietnam from April 8-15.

The Department of Fine Art and Photography, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, launched a competition on April 3 to select best photographs for the 25th national photographic exhibition “The beauty of Vietnamese land and people”.

Festival Hue 2008, entitled “Cultural Heritage with Integration and Development”, will officially take place from June 3-11 this year with the participation of a wide range of traditional and contemporary art troupes from 27 countries in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Oceania.

A seminar on the Vietnamese language has been held at the Paris University in France with the participation of Vietnamese and foreign researchers and lecturers.

About one billion people in 160 countries and territories will watch Miss Universe 2008 taking place in July in Nha Trang City, south central Khanh Hoa province, through live broadcasts on NBC channel.

Art performances will be held during the fifth United Nations Day of Vesak slated for May 13-17 in Hanoi, with Lord Buddha’s life as the main theme.

A cherry blossom festival will be held in Hanoi on April 6 to mark the 35th anniversary of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties.

Vietnam will send six samples of cloth made from natural fibre to a fashion festival to be held in Warsaw, Poland, in June by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) as part of the International Year of Natural Fibre.

A beauty contest entitled “Miss Hoa Lu 2008” will take place in the ancient capital of Hoa Lu in northern Binh Binh province from April 8-14.

Two speculator firework displays delivered by two teams from Malaysia and Canada on March 29 ended the two-day 2008 Da Nang International Firework Competition.

A special documentary film on the legendary Mekong named “Sharing a river” made its debut in Hanoi on March 28.

Philip Jones Griffiths, a British photojournalist widely known for his coverage of the Vietnam war, has been awarded the “For Peace and Friendship among Peoples” insignia, the highest distinction of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations.

The Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Hanoi coordinated with Centre for East-West Cultures and Languages on March 27 to organise a ceremony to award honourary certificate from the Russian Writer’s Association to translator Thuy Toan to record his contribution to translating Russian literature.

More than 20 lacquer paintings by street children in Ho Chi Minh City are on display at an exhibition in London.

The “Tien Sa dance” began on the Han River in central Da Nang city on March 27 with firework displays by the two Vietnamese and Hong Kong teams.

Over 500 artists representing 29 ethnic minority groups took part in the Ethnic Cultural Festival 2008 in Gia Nghia district, central highland Dak Nong province from March 23-27

The Hue Conservatoire of Music made its debut in the central city of Hue on March 26.

A traditional ethnic cultural festival took place in the border commune of Krong Na, Buon Don district, Dak Lak province from March 24-26, with the participation of 400 artists from 17 ethnic minority groups.

Thirty movies from Vietnam and other Francophone countries are being screened at a film festival that opened in Hanoi on March 24.

One hundred and four laureates including students who gained the highest scores in the 2007 entrance exams, attained excellent results in the first term of the 2007-2008 school year and won gold medals in the 2007 international Olympics have been honoured.

As many as 21 countries have registered to take part in Hue Festival 2008, an increase of 10 countries compared to the festival two years ago, according to the event organisers.

A Vietnamese Cultural Festival, organised by Vietnamese students studying in Russia, took place at the Timiryazev Russian State Agricultural University in Moscow on March 21 to mark the 77th anniversary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union.

Model Chung Thuc Quyen will represent Vietnam at the Miss Tourism Queen International 2008 Beauty Contest, which will take place in China on April 12. It will be the fifth time Vietnam has sent a representative to this contest.

Thirty Vietnamese and German academics will attend a forum on cultural heritage management and tourism development in ancient Hoi An town of central Quang Nam province from March 23-24.

Vietnam has pledged to continue boosting cooperation with the Francophone community.

Youths in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province and Cambodia’s Mondunkiri province held a friendship exchange in the Central Highland city of Buon Ma Thuot on March 9.

Vietnamese cultural expert Huu Ngoc will be presented with the “Award of Embassies, Delegations and Francophone Institutions” at a ceremony to mark Francophone Day on March 20.