Hanoi - Police in Vietnam have arrested five men accused of kidnapping an Australian man of Vietnamese origin and asking for a ransom of 36,000 dollars, police said Wednesday.

Hanoi  - Vietnam's government was urged Wednesday by human rights campaigners to allow members of a banned church to organize and attend a funeral for their leader without government interference.

Hanoi - As Vietnam attempts to clean up its streets by limiting street vendors, some downtown patrons questioned on Wednesday how much of an improvement the new laws will make. 

Hanoi - Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security has teamed up with a Russian mobile phone operator to set up the communist country's seventh mobile phone network, an official said Wednesday.

Russia's second largest mobile phone operator, Vimpelcom, signed an agreement to set up the network with the Global Telecommunications Corporation under the public security ministry on Tuesday in Hanoi, said the official.

The joint venture jumps into the market alongside the Ministry of National Defence, which currently owns the largest mobile network, Viettel, with more than 40 per cent market share.

Hanoi - Followers of an outlawed Buddhist group in Vietnam were permitted to pay their respects on Monday to their former leader who died over the weekend while under house arrest, according to Vietnamese authorities.

Members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam were allowed to enter the Nguyen Thieu Monastery in Tuy Phuoc since Monday morning.

The Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang had been under house arrest since 2003 after he and his deputy Thich Quang Do, 79, attempted to hold a nationwide congress of the sect's monks.

Quang's funeral began Monday at the monastery where he died on Saturday at 87 years old. The official ceremony is planned for Friday, according to Binh Dinh provincial chairman Vu Hoang Ha.

Hanoi - The Vietnamese government has urged domestic banks to provide loans for the country's energy industry to continue construction of electricity plants amid power shortages, local media said F