VOV.VN - President Tran Dai Quang has underscored Vietnam’s unswerving policy of respecting and protecting citizens’ rights to freedom of belief and religion.

VOV.VN - A group of Hanoi youth wearing Santa Claus outfits have ridden motorbikes to deliver Christmas meals and gifts to poor people every Wednesday evening in December from 11:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

President Tran Dai Quang asked the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital in particular and the health care sector in general for strengthening scientific research, technological application, and personnel training to improve services.

The tourism sector has recorded positive changes in 2016 thanks to close coordination between ministries, sectors and localities.

The 97th birth anniversary of the founder of Hoa Hao Buddhism, Prophet Huynh Phu So, took place at An Hoa temple in Phu My township, Phu Tan district, the southern province of An Giang on December 23.

The Prime Minister is continuing to encourage Thai people to exercise regularly, by leading government officials in a weekly workout session.

Newly-appointed Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Pereric Högberg on December 21 gave Ho Chi Minh City book lovers a closer look into the life of world-renowned Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as well as the culture of the Nordic country.

The Hanoi Department of Health has sent doctors, nurses and medical workers from central level hospitals to district level facilities to help share advanced professional techniques.

After years of discussions and negotiations, the central city of Danang city and its neighbouring Quang Nam province on December 21 inked an agreement on integrated management of the Vu Gia-Thu Bon river basin and Quang Nam-Danang coastline.

A delegation from the women’s union in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had meetings with its Vietnamese counterparts in the northern provinces of Cao Bang, Lang Son and Quang Ninh on December 21 and 22.

Disabled children and Agent Orange/dioxin victims in the central province of Thanh Hoa have received 60 wheelchairs donated by a Japanese-based charity. 

Officials have shared the Christmas joy with Catholics and Protestants nationwide, offering the best wishes to them on this occasion.

Vietnam plans to boost cooperation in skilled labour and health care privatization, which is a good chance for Japanese firms, said Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung at a meeting with representatives from more than 100 trade unions of Japan in Tokyo on December 22.

A Russian research vessel arrived in the south-central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa on Wednesday after carrying out a one-month biodiversity study in the East Vietnam Sea.

Half of the country's labor exports, who are mostly low skilled, headed to Taiwan this year, followed by Japan and the Republic of Korea.  

Impressive internet connectivity and the broad expansion of mobile phone usage could create a digital content boom.

Chinese-invested Italisa Vietnam Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Boway Group, relapsed into environmental violations in Song Khe-Noi Hoang Industrial Zone of the northern province of Bac Giang.

Many young Vietnamese couples seem to deliberately avoid pre-marital health screenings for fear that these will find health problems and ruin their budding marriages, a survey found.

Authorities of the five tourism hubs along the downstream Mekong River area have determined to build transport routes and develop tourism products that connect at least two of the group.

Vietnamese and Russian scientists met in a conference in Nha Trang city in the south central province of Khanh Hoa on December 22 to review their one-month voyage to survey marine biodiversity in the sea of Vietnam’s central region.

The Taiwanese business association in the central city of Danang handed over 170 gifts to old people and children being cared at the local social support centre on December 22.

The Prime Minister has decided to allocate VND165 billion (US$7.2 million) as relief aid to seven central localities from Nghe An to Quang Nam and northern Quang Ninh province which have been hit by recent devastated floods.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on December 22 had a working session with leaders of the northern coastal province of Quang Ninh on the socio-economic development situation of the locality and orientations for its robust growth in the future.

VOV.VN -  A special arts performance and exchange program was held in Hanoi on December 21 to mark the 72nd anniversary of the Vietnam People’s Army (VPA) and the 27th anniversary of National Defense Day.

A total of seven enterprises have been selected to join a pilot voluntary programme on economical and efficient energy use under the Vietnam Energy Efficiency and Cleaner Production project funded by the World Bank and the Global Environment Fund. 

VOV.VN - Vice State President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh has ceremoniously presented the Labour Order (third class) to Siddhartha Kaul and Helmut Kutin, the current and prior president, respectively, of the SOS Children’s Villages.

The Hanoi People’s Court pronounced on December 22 the death penalty for seven defendants and life imprisonment for two others involved in an inter-provincial drug trafficking ring.

The Power Company of the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong (PC Dak Nong) has spent VND168.2 billion (US$7.3 million) in 2016 to upgrade and expand the provincial grid, said Director Tran Van Thuan.

A project on community-based disaster risk management is benefiting thousands of people in rural and urban areas of Quang Binh, a central province prone to natural disasters.

The staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia laid a wreath at the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Monument in Phnom Penh on December 22 on the occasion of the 72nd founding anniversary of Vietnam People’s Army and the 27th anniversary of All People’s National Defence Festival (December 22).