Hanoi (Vietnam), March 16 : Archaeologists have found more than 4,000 ancient artifacts of stone and bone in an archaeological site in Vietnam.

The treasure trove of artifacts was discovered at the Xom Trai archaeological site in Tan Lap commune, Lac Son district in northern Hoa Binh province, by archaeologists from the Hoa Binh Museum and the Southeast Asia Prehisory Centre.

According to VOV News, scientists said that Xom Trai Cave, recognized as a national archaeological site in 2001, is believed to be a tool workshop as well as a habitat for people of the Hoa Binh civilization.

Hanoi  - A bus carrying 24 Russian tourists plunged into a ravine in southern Vietnam, killing at least 12, local media reported Saturday.

The accident occurred Friday evening as the bus with the Russians and three Vietnamese aboard was descending the Dai Ninh pass on its way from the hill resort of Dalat to the coastal town of Mui Ne, the news website Vietnamnet reported.

Rescuers were still trying to free at least nine passengers from the bus Saturday morning. Eight of the casualties died at the scene 150 kilometres south of Dalat while another four died after being admitted to a nearby hospital.

Hanoi  - Vietnam has protested new moves by China and the Philippines asserting sovereignty over the disputed Spratly and Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, local press reported Friday.

China announced recently it would allow a tourist agency to offer trips to an island in the Spratly archipelago known in Vietnamese as Phu Lam.

"This act seriously infringes upon Vietnam's territorial sovereignty and is harmful to bilateral negotiations to seek a fundamental and durable solution to the sea issues between the two parties," the Vietnam News Agency quoted government spokesman Le Dung as saying Thursday.

Hanoi  - Taiwanese-owned condiment company Vedan has agreed to compensate Vietnamese farmers for damage from pollution it illegally discharged into a Vietnamese river for more than a decade, the company and farmers said Thursday.

"On the basis of our humanitarian responsibility to society, Vedan has offered a solution to share the farmers' losses to some extent," said Vedan lawyer Hoang Nhu Vinh.

Vinh said farmers would have to agree never to sue Vedan in order to receive payouts from the company.

Vedan representatives spent Monday and Tuesday negotiating with Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province farmers' associations over the settlement.

Hanoi  - Police in central Vietnam have arrested three men for killing five rare langurs, a forest warden said Wednesday.

The men were arrested Monday in the Hon Ba Nature Reservation in the central province of Khanh Hoa. Forest wardens said they found the men, armed with hunting guns, carrying five dead black-shanked Douc langurs out of the forest.

Phan Huy Thang, head of Khanh Hoa province's Forest Warden Department, said the men had been turned over to district police for prosecution.

Hanoi  - One construction worker was killed and another seriously injured in Ho Chi Minh City when a span of the bridge they were building collapsed, a doctor said Wednesday.

The accident occurred Tuesday at the 500-meter-long Cho Dem Bridge on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.

Tran Van Thanh, 26, suffered badly broken legs and died of blood loss in hospital.

"We mobilized all our forces, but we could not save his life," said Dr Pham Van Nghiem, a senior official in the Ho Chi Minh City Health Department.