A 35-year-old man in Hue City is the owner of an antiques collection that makes the national museums envious.

Nguyen Huu Hoang, a resident of the former imperial capital city of Hue, is an antiques collector. But what makes his collection different from most is that he specializes in collecting a rare kind of porcelain: Nguyen Dynasty’s Custom-made pattern porcelains.

Nguyen Dynasty’s Custom-made pattern porcelains, also known amongst historians and collectors as: “Blues de Hue” (Hue’s blue-enamel porcelains), were special limited edition pieces designed for the royal court, ordered and finished overseas to exacting specifications. They were usually made in small numbers, sometimes as a lone piece.

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A festive week to celebrate Thai cuisine and culture will take place in Hanoi from December 1 to 6 to celebrate Thailand’s National Day, which falls on December 5.

The “Thai Culinary and Culture Delight Week” is jointly organized by the Royal Thai Embassy and the Hanoi Melia Hotel, which will play host for the festival.

The week will present an abundance of Thai specialties made with hand-picked spices and herbs by two Thai chefs, Aek Charttrakul and Chutchanok Boonchai, The Saigon Times Daily reported.

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Distinguished Japanese violist Nobuko Imai will return to Vietnam for two symphony concerts to be held in Hanoi on November 26 and 27.

Imai will collaborate with local artists from the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO) to perform some renowned compositions, including “La Valse” by French composer Maurice Ravel and “Symphony No.3” by Claude Debussy.

The concerts mark the third collaboration between the Japanese artist and VNSO. Imai was invited to perform with the orchestra in the capital city in 2005 and 2007.

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The cuisine of 24 countries will be showcased at the annual food festival “Taste of the world 2009” to be held in Ho Chi Minh City from December 3 to 6.

La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, told Tu Van va Tieu Dung (Consultancy and Consumer) magazine the participating countries include South Korea, Japan, China, Italy, Russia, Germany, France, the U.S. and Brazil.

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World number one Roger Federer squeezed into the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals on Thursday despite a 6-2 6-7 6-3 defeat by Juan Martin del Potro but Briton Andy Murray literally missed out by a fraction.

The final round-robin action in Group A had players, tournament organizers and journalists scratching their heads as all three contenders ended with virtually identical records.

Del Potro summed up the confusion, admitting later that he did not even know he had joined Federer in the semi-finals until 25 minutes after their match had ended while Murray posted a Twitter entry simply asking "Anyone know what's going on?"

Murray's 6-4 6-7 7-6 victory over Spain's Fernando Verdasco meant any win for Federer later would have sent the Scot through but Federer suffered badly again at the hands of the giant south American who beat him in the U.S. Open final in September.

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It seems hard to believe that only six months ago Andre Agassi was predicting Rafa Nadal would complete a calendar grand slam in 2009.

Agassi's statement proved to be the kiss of death for Nadal's season as instead of emulating the feat last achieved by Australia's Rod Laver 40 years ago, his winning run instantly dried up and he failed to win a title since May.

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Nicolas Anelka's second-half header earned Chelsea a 1-0 win against Porto Wednesday and guaranteed the English side will win Champions League Group D with one match still remaining.

The goal came from a simple move in the 69th minute. With the Porto defenders static, Yuri Zhirkov fed Florent Malouda on the left wing and the Frenchman crossed for his compatriot Anelka to head in unchallenged.

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SINGAPORE - It is often said that God works in mysterious ways, and travel guide Lonely Planet has come up with a list of the holiest places in the world where the faithful believe the handiwork of the divine is evident.

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SINGAPORE - Going on holiday is back on the cards again despite the recession, with a global survey showing one in five people plan to travel overseas, even if it's largely within their region.

The survey by credit card firm MasterCard asked over 10,600 people in the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific about their travel priorities for the next six months, and the findings are likely to cheer the global travel industry which has had a rough year in the wake of the global financial crisis.

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Thailand - Thai police promised to get tough with criminals who steal historic artifacts for the international market after a spate of thefts from the old capital of Ayuthaya outraged the public in the Buddhist country.

At least 20 heads of Buddha statues have recently been reported stolen from temples in the World Heritage province of Ayuthaya, which was the kingdom's capital from 1350 to 1767, said deputy national police chief Jongrak Juthanond.

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Vietnam's telecommunication utility provider has committed several wrongdoings in equitizing several of its affiliates, causing losses worth billions of dongs to the state budget, inspectors say.

Members of the Government Inspectorate said apart from the equitization process, the wrongdoings also extended to how the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) has managed its land holdings and investments. They estimate the total losses to the state budget at more than VND89 billion (US$5 million).
Between 1999 and 2005, the Prime Minister had approved for VNPT to equitize its 42 state-owned affiliates. But the group had only managed to turn 39 of them into joint stock companies by this August, the inspectors found.

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Good luck trying to use a pavement for its actual intended purpose in Ho Chi Minh City; that was the verdict of an urban development meeting held in the city on Tuesday.

Statistics by the HCMC Institute of Development Studies showed the 1,000 roads and 4 million square meters of sidewalk have been occupied by small businesses, vendors or as makeshift parking lots.

In addition, around 250 bridges, especially the cavalcades under bridges, have been turned into markets or homes for street vendors and the homeless.

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Ho Chi Minh City should not rush into installing an electronic toll system downtown. Both the city’s infrastructure and its citizens are simply not ready for it.
A city proposal to implement Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) for cars in HCMC’s downtown has drawn criticism from the public, the National Assembly and outside analysts – just about everybody except for the company set to earn a profit on the project.

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Overseas Vietnamese hope that the encouragement they receive from the Vietnamese government in laws and polices does not remain on paper.

This was the general sentiment among more than 900 overseas Vietnamese, known as Viet kieu, attending the first ever national conference for the Vietnamese diaspora that opened in Hanoi on Saturday.

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The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Thursday awarded the Kalinga prize to a Vietnamese American professor for his contribution to popularizing science.

A famous astronomer with many publications in French that have been translated into English and now a professor at the US University of Virginia, Trinh Xuan Thuan shared the Kalinga Prize with Indian Professor Yashpal.

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There is no peace for those who live in one of the world’s most heavily-bombed areas.


Nguyen Van Troi slept through the afternoon, not common practice for a farmer who usually tends fields all day. His neighbors in Quang Thach Commune in the central province of Quang Binh were all working, but Troi, 56, could not.

A sudden cold front had exacerbated the pain in his chest and left hand. They were all injured seven years ago when Troi was digging to plant cassava.

“I heard an explosion and felt as if my body was being torn apart,” Troi told Thanh Nien Weekly during a visit arranged by the UK-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), an organization that clears the remnants war in former conflict areas worldwide.

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The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group faces “political” hurdles in its vision to form a region-wide free trade area, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

The 21 APEC economies will step up efforts to achieve their “long-term” goal for the Free Trade Area of the Asia- Pacific, or FTAAP, leaders including China’s Hu Jintao and Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama said in discussions in Singapore Friday. US President Barack Obama, who arrived in Singapore last night, will meet his counterparts Sunday.

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Controlling currency levels is a form of protectionism that policy makers must avoid “by all means,” said the incoming chair of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Business Advisory Council.

“Foreign-exchange rates are a crucial factor in global trade, and guiding them to benefit a certain country is protectionism,” said Gempachiro Aihara, who’s also the current co-chair of the APEC business group and counselor to Mitsui & Co. “We want policy makers to reject such policies.”

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India, the world’s second-largest rice grower, may become a net importer for the first time in 21 years in 2010, potentially sparking the kind of “panic” that sent prices to records in 2008, a rice expert said.

India may import as much as 3 million metric tons next year after the wet season harvest plunged, Samarendu Mohanty, a senior economist at the International Rice Research Institute, said in an interview. The nation is forecast to export up to 2.5 million tons of higher-priced basmati rice, he said.

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Asia-Pacific leaders said the economic recovery isn’t on a “solid footing” yet, pledging to maintain stimulus measures until there is “durable” growth.

Economies must shift toward a more balanced expansion strategy in the aftermath of the global crisis and cannot return to “growth as usual,” the leaders from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group said Sunday in a statement. APEC will also take steps and determine ways to realize its vision of a regional free trade area, they said.

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Ho Chi Minh City has reported at least 10 young measles cases every day this month due to an inadequate supply of shots for the disease, doctors said.

There were only twelve measles cases recorded in Ho Chi Minh City for all of 2008.

Tran Thi Thuy, deputy head of the Infectious Diseases Department at Children’s Hospital No.2, was quoted Friday as saying that this year’s measles rate was the highest in the past ten years.

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Australian actress Jessica McNamee visited the central province of Quang Nam early this week to see first hand the free eye surgery program funded by Fred Hollows Foundation (FHF) at work.

The star of Packed to the Rafters, an Australian family-oriented comedy-drama television series, on Monday visited 86-yearold Pham Thi Thong of Que An Commune in the province’s Que Son District.

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National carrier Vietnam Airlines said its daily Ho Chi Minh City-Bangkok service will become twice daily starting December 1 as the carrier plans for more passengers from Thailand next year.

Do Khoi Nguyen, Vietnam Airlines representative in Bangkok, told Thanh Nien that the new schedule, with one flight in the morning and the other in late afternoon, would be good for the tourist market.

The airline wants to prepare for more Thai tourists next year, when Vietnam celebrates Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary and the 2010 Hue Festival, he said.

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Victoria Radochinskaya from Russia won the world’s leading international beauty pageant for married women held in Vietnam on Sunday.

Vietnamese Hoang Thi Yen was named the second runner up after her question and answer round response was lost in translation.

Mrs. America Andrea Robertson, meanwhile, took the first runner up position at the competition’s finals in the southern coastal town of Vung Tau.

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International gong festival disappoints with pop-style concert that neglects tradition.

Traditional gong music was the first casualty of the neon lights and blaring synthesizers that invaded the first International Gong Festival in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai November 12-15.

According to the organizers, more than 58 gong troupes from Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines performed at the event in front of 20,000 local and international visitors.

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Former players of English Premier League clubs Liverpool and Manchester United arrived in Hanoi Wednesday for a friendly tournament.

At the Masters Cup on Thursday and Friday, they will play Vietnam’s former stars like Huynh Duc, Hong Son, Cong Minh and Minh Chien.

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V-League club Binh Duong scored a 2-1 victory over China’s Super League club Lifan in the opening match of the Number One BTV Cup in Binh Duong on Friday.


On home soil at Go Dau Stadium, Binh Duong looked the stronger side from the very beginning. They opened their account after 30 minutes when Elenildo De Jesus took a neat pass from Huynh Kesley Alves and fired in a powerful shot.

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V-League club Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) has decided to end its contract with Vietnamese American Lee Nguyen on disciplinary grounds, club chairman Doan Nguyen Duc said on Thursday.

HAGL sent Lee to the English Premier League club Arsenal in early September to practice with the Gunners’ second team for three or four weeks to help him maintain his form after the V-League season ended in August.

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Aggrieved Vietnamese nationals of foreign origin say they have raised football standards in the country and should not be treated like second-class citizens.

It’s touch and go between leveling the playing field and raising the playing level.

The Vietnam Football Federation’s latest move to give local players more opportunities to play and ensure that the nation’s youth are trained well has run into some criticism, particularly from those affected most – foreign players who have been granted Vietnamese nationality.

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University students will assess their lecturers as part of moves to improve higher education quality, the education ministry has said.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) will issue regulations on related standards so that students can start assessing all their lecturers from this school year’s second semester, usually starting in January, Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan told an education conference on Saturday in Hanoi.

Lecturers, meanwhile, will evaluate school management boards, Nhan added.

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Vietnam ranks ninth among the top ten countries and territories sending students for higher education in the US, moving up from the 13th place last year, according to a report released on Monday.

The Open Doors 2009 report, an annual report on international academic mobility, is published annually by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in Washington, D.C. with support from the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, using data based on a comprehensive survey of about 3,000 accredited US higher education institutions.

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Vietnam’s biggest information technology and telecommunications exhibition of the year opened in Hanoi Wednesday, offering fresh 3G (third generation) insights.

Visitors to the Vietnam Comm & Vietnam Electronics 2009 will be introduced to different models of 3G cell phones, as well as 3G infrastructure solutions, local newswire Vietnamnet reported.

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The World Wildlife Fund for Nature said on Friday it had found the traces of the extremely rare and endangered Vietnamese Javan Rhinoceros, of which no more than a dozen are thought to exist.

Seven dung samples found on the five-day search launched by the WWF in cooperation with local rangers will be sent to Canada-based Queen’s University for analysis, the non-governmental organization said on its website.

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A train crashed into a passenger bus in Hanoi Sunday morning, killing a motorist on the road and five bus passangers.

The bus was crossing the railway at around 10:30 a.m. when it’s tail end was hit by the southbound train. The bus was pushed into a motorbike, killing the driver before it turned over several times.

Three bus passangers were killed on the spot.

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The bodies of two of three students who slipped and were swept away by rapids as they played at a waterfall were found Saturday in Dong Nai Province.

Police in Dinh Quan District, not far from Ho Chi Minh City, said several eighth-graders from the Ngo Thoi Nhiem Junior High were on an excursion at the Cay Si Falls on Friday when Nguyen Thi Hao and Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong slipped and were swept away by the strong currents.

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Nearly 500 fishermen from the Mekong Delta’s Ca Mau Province are in custody overseas after entering the waters of neighboring nations, according to an official report released Saturday.

The Ca Mau Department of Natural Resources and Environment said nearly 500 crewmen on 43 fishing boats caught this year are detained in Malaysia and the Philippines. More than 200 of these are serving jail terms in Malaysia because their families didn’t manage to pay the fines, the report said.

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Vietnam’s inflation accelerated to the highest level since May, driven by faster-than-targeted credit expansion, quicker economic growth and higher oil prices.

Consumer prices increased 4.35 percent in November from a year earlier after gaining 2.99 percent in October, according to figures from the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.55 percent in November from October.

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Vietnamese lenders are facing a shortage of funds to meet rising demand for loans because gains in gold and the dollar are deterring people from putting money in the bank, according to a government statement.

Commercial banks have had to raise deposit interest rates to as high as 9.99 percent over the past week and offered gifts and bonuses to depositors to lure them back, the statement on the government’s website said.

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Dung Quat crude oil refinery produced a total 935,938 metric tons of products by Nov. 17, Vietnam Oil&Gas Group said in an e-mailed statement Monday.

The 148,000 barrel-a-day facility, which started commercial output in February, imported 1.45 million tons of crude oil in the period, according to the statement. Dung Quat refinery also sold 803,387 tons of its products, including LPG, propylene, gasoline, kerosene and diesel to the market, the company said.

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Vietnam’s five-year bonds fell on speculation a shortage of cash at local banks will curb demand for the securities. The dong gained.
“Demand for government bonds is relatively low these days because banks have to set aside funds for business payments during the year-end period,” said Luu Hong Hue, deputy manager of treasury and bonds at Agribank Securities Joint-Stock Co., the country’s second-biggest bond brokerage.
The yield on the five-year note climbed one basis point to 11.21 percent, according to a daily fixing price from banks compiled by Bloomberg. It reached a one-year high of 11.29 percent on Nov. 19. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

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Sumitomo Corp., Japan’s third- largest trading house, will build a 200 billion yen (US$2.2 billion) low-emission coal power plant in Vietnam as part of its plans to expand overseas.

The plant in southern Vietnam’s Khanh Hoa province will have 1,320 megawatt capacity and start operating in 2015, Sumitomo said in a statement on its Web site. The so-called super-critical plant will be designed to increase the amount of power generated per unit of coal, thereby lowering emissions.

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Actions taken by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to stabilize fuel, oil and steel markets will be scrutinized by the government inspectorate next year.

Other targets will include the education ministry’s handling of the establishment of new universities, and the Ministry of Science and Technology’s investment in major laboratories, the inspectorate said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

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National Assembly representatives on Saturday voiced their disagreement with the annual house tax proposed by the finance ministry, saying it would cause adversely impact many citizens.

“The draft’s regulations will significantly affect the society,” representative Dieu Kre from the central province of Dak Nong said. “I’m afraid that people won’t agree to pay housing tax under the (proposed) regulations.” According to the draft submitted early this month, homeowners would have to pay an annual house tax of 0.03 percent of the assessed value, which is based on total construction costs. Houses built for VND500 million (US$27,901) or below will be exempt from this tax.

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A pedestrian walks past a Phuong Dong Bank banner.
Vietnam’s economy may grow between 7 percent and 8 percent annually from 2011 to 2015, according to a statement on the government’s website that cited draft measures from the ministry of planning and investment.
The Southeast Asian nation expects the economy to expand 5.2 percent this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Nov. 19. The $91 billion economy grew 6.2 percent in 2008 and 4.6 percent in the first three quarters of this year.

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A new draft law has proposed the introduction of lethal injection as an additional execution method to death by firing squad, but many legislators feel the country should have only one.
All those given the death penalty are now executed by shooting. Under the new bill discussed a National Assembly session Friday, lethal injection would be used as a new execution method.
It also says the firing squad will be used "in cases that need heavy suppression of crimes, in wartime or state of emergency or when injection is not applicable."

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