Hanoi - Vietnamese officials said Monday that government representatives will sign an agreement tomorrow resuming aid from Japan to Vietnam.

Japan had suspended all aid to Vietnam in December due to a corruption scandal on a Japanese-funded transportation project.

Hanoi - A Hanoi court Friday upheld the convictions of eight Catholic parishioners for damaging property during protests last year over a land dispute between the church and the Hanoi government.

Hundreds of supporters of the parishioners who had gathered outside the courthouse shouted their opposition when the verdicts were announced. Protestors carried signs reading "justice, truth, and peace," and applauded defendant Nguyen Thi Nhi when she passed by.

Hanoi - Vietnam's economic growth rate dropped to an annualized 3.1 per cent in the first three months of 2009, but local experts said Thursday that they were happy with the figure.

The new gross domestic product (GDP) figures released by Vietnam's government Wednesday were much lower than the 7.4-per-cent growth recorded in the same quarter in 2008.

Hanoi - Vietnamese police have arrested four fishermen for killing an oyster diver while illegally fishing with explosives, a police official said Wednesday.

Nguyen Ngoc Liem, head of the Phu Cu District police department in the central province of Binh Dinh, said the fishermen were on their boat Monday morning when they spotted bubbles and movement in the water.

Hanoi - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Vietnam will launch an aircraft component assembly factory in Vietnam in June, local media reported Wednesday.

The state-run newspaper Lao Dong quoted Stanley A Deal, Boeing's deputy chairman of Asia-Pacific sales, as saying the factory would produce wing flaps for Boeing 737 aircraft.

The company is a subsidiary of Japan's Mitsubishi corporation.

The 7-million-dollar factory, located 15 kilometres north of Hanoi, has been under construction since January 2008.

Hanoi - Local analysts were divided on the reasons for Vietnam's decision to widen the trading band of the dong against the US dollar from 3 per cent to 5 per cent effective Tuesday.

The move effectively devalues the dong against foreign currencies. The government reference rate remained unchanged from Monday to Tuesday at 16,980 dong to the dollar, but the wider trading band allowed banks to raise their rates from 17,489 to 17,700 dong to the dollar.