News on Vietnam

CORRECTION Vietnam Dissident Released

2010-03-15T23:16:02Z

FILE - In this March 30, 2007 file photo taken of a close-circuit TV, set up in a separate room of the court, Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, lower center, is seen in a courtroom in Vietnam's central province of Thua Thien Hue. Vietnam released Ly, a leading democracy activist, from prison Monday, March 15, 2010, afte...

Vietnam releases leading dissident from prison

2010-03-16T04:15:20Z

<div id="subtitle">Vietnam releases leading dissident who suffered 3 strokes while in prison</div><div><p>One of Vietnam's leading democracy activists said Tuesday that he was released from prison because he has a brain tumor and suffered three strokes while in custody.</p><p>The Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, 63, said communist authorities free...

Vietnamese bank says ANZ to withdraw stake

2010-03-16T01:15:35Z

<div><p>Australia's ANZ Banking Group is looking to pull out of a tie-up with Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank, the Vietnamese bank said, after opening a wholly-owned local unit in the communist state.</p><p>...

Dissident Vietnam priest freed on medical grounds

2010-03-16T00:15:48Z

<div><p>A dissident Vietnamese Catholic priest jailed for spreading propaganda against the communist state said Tuesday he had been temporarily released from prison to undergo treatment for a brain tumour.</p><p>Nguyen Van Ly, whose release has been sought by US lawmakers and who was labelled a prisoner of conscience by the US lawmakers and who was labelled a prisoner of conscience by the European Parliament, was let ...

Vietnam frees ailing dissident priest: lawyer

2010-03-15T16:16:08Z

<div><p>Vietnam on Monday freed a Catholic priest who has been an outspoken democracy advocate after he suffered debilitating strokes in his nearly three years in prison, his lawyer said.</p><p>Vietnam has been on the receiving end of international appeals to release Nguyen Van Ly, who was sentenced in March 2007 to eight years in prison after prosecutors said he helped...

Developing world has launched 'arms race': think-tank

2010-03-14T11:15:26Z

<div><p>Developing countries have embarked on a dangerous "arms race" with huge sums ploughed into combat aircraft in unstable parts of the world in the past five years, a top defence think-tank has said.</p><p>The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in an annual report to appear Monday that global arms sales had soared ...

Fitch puts Vietnam on ratings watch on dong concerns

2010-03-12T09:16:00Z

<div><p>International ratings agency Fitch Ratings said Friday it had placed a negative outlook on Vietnam's debt rating, citing deteriorating confidence in the dong currency and growing inflation risks.</p><p>The agency said it had placed the country's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default rating of BB minus on watch for a possible downgrade.</p><p>...

Vietnam dissident vows to carry on struggle after prison

2010-03-10T10:15:49Z

<div><p>A Vietnamese lawyer and dissident vowed on Wednesday to carry on her struggle for democracy days after leaving jail, where she spent three years for challenging the Communist authorities.</p><p>Le Thi Cong Nhan, 30, told AFP she would not let up in her campaign for democracy despite already having been called in by police for breaking the terms of her house arrest since leaving prison on Saturday.</p>...

Researchers back cancer-fighting properties of papaya

2010-03-09T12:18:52Z

<div><p>Researchers said Tuesday that papaya leaf extract and its tea have dramatic cancer-fighting properties against a broad range of tumors, backing a belief held in a number of folk traditions.</p><p>University of Florida researcher Nam Dang and colleagues in Japan, in a report published in the Journal of E...

Sentencing delayed for LA songbird smuggler

2010-03-08T13:46:08Z

<div id="subtitle">Sentencing postponed for man who smuggled songbirds into Los Angeles in his pants</div><div><p>A man who smuggled songbirds into Los Angeles from Vietnam by hiding them in his pants had his sentencing postponed.</p><p>Sony Dong of Garden Grove was scheduled to be sentenced Monday in Los A...

Hanoi archbishop hospitalised in Rome: report

2010-03-08T11:15:59Z

<div><p>Hanoi's controversial Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet has been admitted to hospital in Rome for "chronic insomnia and stress", the Asianews religious news agency said Monday.</p><p>Kiet, who was hospitalised here on Friday, came to Rome for additional care after receiving treatment at the Chau ...

Vietnam releases human rights lawyer from prison

2010-03-08T05:30:37Z

<div id="subtitle">Vietnam human rights lawyer freed after 3 years in prison for calling for multiparty system</div><div><p>A Vietnamese human rights lawyer has been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for advocating for a multiparty government in Internet posts.</p><p>Le Thi Cong Nhan was released Saturday from Prison Number 5 in northe...

Court backs EU anti-dumping duties on Chinese shoes

2010-03-04T11:17:33Z

<div><p>A European court has ruled that a decision to impose anti-dumping measures on shoes from China and Vietnam was sound, a court statement Brussels said on Thursday.</p><p>Beijing has filed a complaint with the Wo...

Vietnam needs to improve rights: US envoy

2010-03-03T16:16:30Z

<div><p>Vietnam needs to improve its human rights record if it wants to build a close relationship with the United States, a senior US envoy said Wednesday ahead of a visit to the region.</p><p>Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for Asia, told a hearing of the Vietnam of relics of the Buddha from India.</p><p>A delegation of 147 monks and Vietnamese Buddhist disciples had left Hanoi early Wednesday on a swift return trip to India to pick up the precious relics, the Buddhist Church of Vietnam said in a statement.</p><p>The...

Marti Leimbach heads to Vietnam in latest novel

2010-03-02T19:15:27Z

<div><p>SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - When American writer Marti Leimbach's fascination with female reporters taken captive during the Vietnam War became obsessive, she knew she had her next book in the making.</p><p>Her sixth novel "The Man From Saigon," released ...

EU to launch trade talks with Vietnam

2010-03-02T10:16:56Z

<div><p>The European Union said it would start negotiating a free trade pact with Vietnam after the bloc's trade commissioner met Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Tuesday.</p><p>"The EU and Vietnam have agreed to launch bilateral free trade agreement negotiations," the EU's executive arm, the European Commission has a "very solid case" in its imposition of antidumping measures against shoes from China and Vietnam, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said Tuesday.</p><p>Beijing has f...

Malaysia ASEAN Economic Ministers

2010-02-28T09:15:47Z

From left, Brunei's Second Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Lim Jock Seng, Cambodia's Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh, Indonesia's Minister of Trade Mari Elka Pangestu,