Brake failure was ruled the cause of a road accident in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng that killed at least eight people and injured 30 others on Sunday, an initial investigation revealed.

The HCM City People’s Court handed down sentences ranging from five years to life to five Vietnamese defendants on charges of misappropriating assets and violating loan provision regulations at a trial on May 31.

The shortage of micronutrients in Việt Nam has decreased, but the rate of decrease is slow, experts from the health ministry's Institute of Nutrition said.

Vietnamese and foreign residents no longer have to visit the headquarters of authorised agencies to get their international driving permits issued thanks to an online service which began operations yesterday.

HCM City Preventive Medicine Centre today confirmed the first fatality caused by meningitis since the beginning of this year. The victim was a five-month-old baby girl.

A flood control and prevention project proposal for downtown HCM City, worth VNĐ20 trillion (US$900 million), has been rejected by municipal leaders and irrigation experts.

A volume of untreated waste water discharged from some industrial workshops and sewage from residential quarters in Tây Ninh City and Châu Thành District were confirmed as the main cause of Vàm Cỏ Đông River’s water pollution, a government official said.

The Vietnam URC Company Limited has been fined VNĐ5.8 billion (US$264,000) for its lead-contaminated beverages.

A worker died yesterday morning while installing the spans at the Ghềnh Bridge in Biên Hòa City of southern Đồng Nai Province.