Many pawn shops in Hà Nội are operating around the clock during the World Cup to serve customers who have lost money betting on football. "Last weekend, at 6am, a 40-year-old man riding on motorbike came to the shop and pulled out his wife’s degree from his pocket with his identity card, trying to pawn it. But I refused,” Kiên, owner of a pawn shop in Đặng Dung Street said.

The World Cup is finally here again. Vietnamese people are just as in love with the sport as any other country, and many people’s lives will revolve around the ball for the next month.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, and neither do houses, but enough money may get you a house, as some shopkeepers in Việt Nam recently discovered.

The World Cup kicks off in a few days time, but fans of the beautiful game here in Việt Nam can get their hands on the trophy - well almost.

The building in the central province of Hà Tĩnh has become home to bovine civil servants.

The Thái Bình Province's Steering Committee for Flood and Storms Prevention and Control has proposed to use VNĐ300 million (US$13,300) from the provincial budget to buy 300 sets of raincoats for leaders.

Students of Hoằng Trường Primary School in the central province of Thanh Hóa were excited to get a new swimming pool where they can splash and chase away the summer heat. Each parent had to donate VNĐ100,000 (US$4.4) for the pools construction.

There is a common belief in Việt Nam that when a person is met with death, only their physical body dies, and their spirit lives on in another world.

University entrance exams are approaching for 12^th graders nationwide, and if the kids thought they had any chance of forgetting their impending doom for but a fleeting second, they had better think again.