Hanoi - A court in Vietnam Friday convicted 29 people of stealing dozens of ostriches, porcupines, pythons and other animals from enclosures at animal centres and selling their meat to restaurants.

"They confessed and repented for their crimes, so the court gave them reduced sentences," said Le Thi Huong, chairwoman of the People's Court of the southern province of Dong Nai.

The leader of the group, Huynh Van Khau, was sentenced to five years in prison, while 28 other defendants got one and two years in prison.

Hanoi - Police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested a stockbroker and two accomplices on charges of kidnapping the man's girlfriend to pay for his stock market losses, a police official said Thursday.

"He lost a lot of money on the stock market, so he kidnapped his girlfriend for ransom to pay his debts," said Mai Van Tan, director of Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Social Order Crime Investigation.

Hanoi - Vietnamese police arrested a former Ministry of Foreign Affairs official for using forged foreign documents to defraud investors of more than 3 million dollars, local news reports said Wednesday.

Lt Col Ho Ngoc Ngai, head of the Hanoi Police Department's division for economic security investigations, said agents arrested Nguyen Thanh Ha, 50, director of the Thanh Ha company, on Monday.

Hanoi - Vietnamese officials Monday said rising numbers of Chinese workers in the country may be costing some Vietnamese jobs.

But some officials and economic experts said there were good reasons for Chinese firms carrying out projects in Vietnam to employ Chinese workers, even though many such workers lack proper visas.

Beijing  - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung Friday to discuss trade, economic cooperation and a territorial dispute in the South China Sea, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

There was dialogue but no sign of a resolution on the three archipelagos that both countries claim ownership to there.

Hanoi - Vietnam's efforts to resettle villagers displaced by the massive Son La hydroelectric project have been slow and inadequate, government officials said Thursday.

Most of the villagers displaced by the dam in the mountainous northern province of Son La belong to ethnic minorities. National Assembly member Ksor Phuoc, an ethnic Jarai who heads the assembly's Committee on Nationalities and its Group for Resettlement and Supervision of the Son La Hydroelectric Plant, said those resettled felt insecure in their new homes.