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Tuoi Tre News - Red-tailed vipers have appeared in large quantities with unknown causes and bitten over 1,000 people in various localities in Vietnam so far this year, local authorities reported.  There are no immediate reports of mortality by far, as all the victims received treatment timely. These venomous snakes, with scientific name trimeresurus albolabris, have attacked people in many central provinces, including Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Quang Nam, and Quang Ngai, and a number of provinces in the south, including Tien Giang, Vinh Long, Can Tho and Hau Giang.

An Uber taxi was stopped and fined by HCMC inspectors on Le Hong Phong Street in District 5 on Friday.  Thanh Nien News - Shortly after the low-cost taxi app launched in Ho Chi Minh City, five Uber drivers were fined by traffic cops. A team of inspectors from the municipal Transport Department and traffic police officers launched an inspection into Uber on Friday morning,  Tuoi Tre  (Youth) newspaper reported.   The team fined the drivers for operating an unlicensed taxi business.   Uber launched in HCMC, its second Asian city after Hong Kong, last June. The company's arrival in Vietnam pitted it against the Malaysian GrabTaxi app, which entered the country last February.   Ta Long Hy, CEO of Vinasun, a major Vietnamese taxi operator, and chair of the HCMC Taxi Association, told  Tuoi Tre  that Uber’s work in the city has so far been illegal. Hy says the company's private drivers can only afford to offer their unreasonab...

A Vietnamese joint stock commercial bank has finally agreed to repay the deposit and interest for a savings book a Ho Chi Minh City customer made back in the 1980s, nearly a month after the depositor was told her money had  disappeared . But it is unclear whether Le Thi Bich Thuy is happy or upset with what she received, a mere VND4,385 (roughly 20 U.S. cents), for a deposit equivalent to five months' salary for a civil servant in 1983, when she opened the savings at the Socialist Saving Fund under the State Bank of Vietnam then. In 1983, Thuy deposited VND270, the face value at the time, at the Ba Chieu branch of the Socialist Saving Fund, in answer to a saving campaign to support national building. Gold was priced at around VND1,200-1,300 per tael (37.5 grams) at that time, when an extended family could afford life for months with such an amount of money.

A wild elephant spotted wandering on a paddy field in Dong Nai Province. Photo credit: Dong Nai Forest Protection Department  (Thanh Nien News) DONG NAI  - Friday, November 28, 2014 16:35 -  Vietnam's government has approved a US$3.46-million project that will take urgent measures to conserve the wild elephant herd in the southern province of Dong Nai, VnExpress reported.   The project will be implemented next month in the districts of Vinh Cuu, Tan Phu and Dinh Quan, home to vast natural forests where wild elephants were usually spotted.   

(Thanh Nien News) The Malaysia-based company behind taxi-booking app GrabTaxi has launched a new service hosting motorbike drivers that you can call from your smartphone in Ho Chi Minh City.   GrabBike, which is available in the GrabTaxi app, allows users to order a  xe om  (motorbike taxi) via the popular iOS and Android app.   A GrabTaxi representative said Vietnam is the first market to roll out the GrabBike service. It will pilot the service in HCMC before extending it to other cities or countries.   Using GrabBike will be safer than hailing a traditional  xe om , as information about the driver, his photo and the bike’s license plate will be displayed. Users will no longer have to worry about haggling or being ripped off as the estimated fees will be displayed on the app.   Those who sign up to become drivers must provide full personal information such as a state ID, drivers’ license, residency certificate and such.   GrabTa...

After entering the East Sea on Friday morning, the depression that formed south of the Philippines has strengthened into a tropical storm and will likely hit south-central Vietnam late Saturday night, the Vietnamese national weather center has warned.

(TuoiTreNews) - Vietnamese pop singer My Tam received the "Asia's Music Legend" award at an event titled “Top Asia Corporate Ball 2014” held Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.