Hanoi - Motorists in southern Vietnam are being shortchanged at the pump as more and more petrol stations are cheating customers, state news reported Saturday.

Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology estimated that customers are being cheated out of 32 million dollars a year, the report said.

Much of the fuel losses occur because the petrol is adulterated or substandard, Vo Viet Ha, a city inspector told a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday.

Hanoi - Vietnam's central bank on Thursday cut its benchmark interest rate by 1 percentage point to 11 per cent in its third reduction in a month and reduced the reserves that banks must have on hand by 2 per cent to counteract the ill effects of the global financial crisis.

"The rate cut was made to actively prevent the negative effects of the financial crisis and the risks of recession from the world economy," the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement. "It is also to stabilize the macro-economy and ensure social welfare."

Hanoi - Heavy rains and winds from Tropical Storm Noul unexpectedly changed course and spared Vietnam's most populated city but left four people dead, disaster officials said Tuesday.

Noul had been forecast to hit Ho Chi Minh City on Monday night. City officials breathed a collective sigh of relief when the storm weakened and changed direction.

The storm moved northward, dumping rain on six provinces in the south-central region. One of the areas hardest hit was the beach resort town of Nha Trang, the capital of Khanh Hoa province, where the deaths were reported.

The rains subsided Tuesday but water levels in some areas were still rising from swollen rivers, according to Pham Chu Chinh of the Central Committee for Storm and Flood Control.

Hanoi  - Heavy rains that have caused 12 deaths in Vietnam's southern and central regions are making way for a tropical storm expected to hit the Mekong Delta provinces Tuesday, disaster officials said Monday.

Phan Phu Chinh of the Central Committee for Storm and Flood Control said that as of Monday morning, floods had killed 12 people and left one missing in south-central Khanh Hoa and Phu Yen provinces. Thousands of homes have been submerged.

Hanoi- A Chinese Navy warship will visit Vietnam next week, only the second such visit since Vietnam and China normalized relation in 1991, Vietnam's government spokesman confirmed Thursday.

The Chinese Navy training vessel Zheng He, which carries more than 400 military personnel, will dock at the port of Danang from November 18-22.

The "friendly visit" of the Chinese warship to Vietnam, government

Hanoi - Vietnamese National Assembly deputies Thursday criticized the government's poor handling of rice exports in early 2008, continuing three days of sharp queries over the issue.

Vietnam's government, worried about food security, capped rice exports in March just as prices were soaring on the world market, leading to large losses in export revenue and financial difficulties for millions of farmers. The issue arose repeatedly at the National Assembly over the last three days, with deputies questioning the ministers of agriculture and trade and, Thursday, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.