Information on 24,000 HSBC customers with Swiss accounts has been stolen, the British bank said Thursday, potentially exposing large numbers of international clients to prosecution by tax authorities in their home countries.

Representatives from twenty businesses from Kansai, Japan paid a three-day visit to Ho Chi Minh City in an effort to seek business opportunities in the country’s largest city.

Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City will hold various events to celebrate the 2010 International Francophone Day which is scheduled to run from mid March to early April this year.

A book entitled “Traces of Indian culture in Vietnam” by Indian writer G.Sharma has been made available to the Indian public.

The Ascending Dragon Music Festival will kick off this week in Hanoi with musicians from the Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music orchestra and members of the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM).

Accor, the largest international hotel operator in Viet Nam, announced yesterday, March 10, its strategic expansion plans including additional hotels within the Novotel, Mercure hotel brand, launching of the ibis brand and MGallery label.

An Ninh Thu Do (Capital Security) newspaper talked with the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hoang Tuan Anh, about tourism prospects for this year.

I told a man in nearby Sin Ho Township that not long ago a British travel company (Gecko Travel) rated this place as one of the top five trekking destinations in Southeast Asia. He looked doubtful.

The experimental tour by electric cars around Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter was not launched in the first quarter of 2010 as scheduled because the imported electric cars are not yet licensed to run.

When Hollywood blockbusters Avatar and Transformers were released in Viet Nam at the same time as their world premieres last year, it marked a major breakthrough for the local cinema industry.

The launch party for Cosmopolitan Magazine of Vietnam was held at the Intercontinental Hotel on March 9. Attending the event, there were magician Ngo My Uyen, Former Miss Vietnam Ha Kieu Anh, actress Do Hai Yen, model Duong Yen Ngoc and others. Cosmopolitan will release its first edition on March 15, 2010.

Buiret, a 3-member rock band from South Korea, will rock HCM City on the evening of March 19.

The Ascending Dragon Music Festival will kick off this week in Hanoi with musicians from the Grammy Award-winning Southwest Chamber Music orchestra and members of the Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM).

“The decision to import 170,000 tonnes of salt when the year has just started and the salt season has not yet come has to be reconsidered," Mr. Pham Nang Phong, Vice General Manager of Vietnam National Salt Corporation told DTiNews.

Carlos Slim Helú of Mexico beat Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the United States to lead the rankings in 16 years.

Auto sales of the members of Vietnam Automobile Manufaturers’ Association (VAMA) in February fell by 34% over the same period last year to 4,394 units.

Despite having donated much money to building bridges in Vietnam, many members of the VK, a group of golden-hearted overseas Vietnamese, have never been present at any honouring or bridge-opening ceremonies.

The film “Choi voi” (Adrift) , directed by Bui Thac Chuyen, has won the Bronze Taiga at the 8th international film festival in Khanty-Mansiysk city, Russia.

The Overseas Vietnamese Association in Poland has raised £1,700 for orphans in Vietnam at a concert to celebrate the Lunar New Year and to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi.

A number of provinces around the country plan to concentrate on growing bananas for export, due to increasing world demand.

Construction of the first private hospital for mothers and children invested by an overseas Vietnamese family in Laos started on March 6 in Vientiane.

Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd (JAC), an auto producer based in Hefei, will start construction on its first overseas plant to produce trucks in Vietnam in April, the company chairman said on Tuesday.

A wide range of cultural and sport activities will be held in the northern province of Phu Tho to mark the Hung Kings’ death anniversary and the Hung Temple Festival in 2010.

A celebration of Vietnamese cinema has been planned for next week to honour Vietnamese film talents.

Around 10 provinces will attend the 7th Culture, Sports and Tourism Festival for Ethnic Groups in the Northwestern Region to be held in the northern province of Phu Tho from April 14-17.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade granted quotas allowing local companies to import a total of 170,000 tonnes of salt into Vietnam however, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam is not short on salt.

Choi voi (Adrift), directed by Bui Thac Chuyen won the Bronze Taiga at the 8th international film festival in Khanty-Mansiysk city, Russia.

Tourism and airline representatives from HCMC and China’s Sichuan met on Monday at the Kim Do hotel in HCMC to discuss opening an air route that would link the two cities to promote tourism between both destinations.

Cai luong (reformed theatre) is struggling to keep its audiences, whose interests in the art form are being lost to modern entertainment in the cradle of its birthplace, the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, where it began in the early 20th century.

The member of this unique unicorn dancing troupe in Luong Hoa commune are old women over age 70. The oldest is 83 years old.