Hanoi - Vietnam's prime minister cancelled the construction of a luxury hotel inside a popular Hanoi park, local media reported Wednesday. The online newspaper Tien Phong said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Monday ordered Hanoi's People's Committee, the city's governing body, to find another spot for the project and to compensate investors for expenses.

The cancellation came after months of criticism from a broad-based citizens' coalition that said the hotel violated zoning rules and would degrade one of Hanoi's few large parks.

Hanoi - Experts offered different explanations Tuesday for a widening gap between the official and black-market exchange rates of the Vietnamese dong. The dong dropped to 18,070 to the dollar on the black market Tuesday, while the official benchmark rate stayed at
16,936 to the dollar. The government allows banks to vary their rates up to 5 per cent from the official benchmark, so commercial banks were selling dollars for 17,783 dong.

Hanoi - Vietnam's stock market soared Monday, with some investors expecting it will soon regain the 400-point level. The VN-Index ended the day up 4.6 per cent, or 14.96 points, to close at 340, the largest one-day gain since October 14, 2008.

Market volume was low at 24.3 million shares, valued at 599 billion dong (39 million dollars).

The Vietnamese market is up 21 per cent this month, after gaining 15 per cent in March.

Hanoi - The protests that forced the cancellation of the ASEAN summit in Thailand last weekend will likely lead Vietnam to move slower on political liberalization, experts said Monday. "Thailand used to be one of the democratic models for Vietnam, but these incidents in Thailand certainly will make Vietnamese leaders more cautious about democracy," said Professor Trinh Duy Luan, director of Vietnam's Institute for Social Studies.

Hanoi - Vietnamese scientists and actvists have called on the government to cancel a massive bauxite mining plan in the country's Central Highlands for environmental reasons, scientists confirmed Friday. The scientists said the calls came at a seminar organized by Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade, its Federation of Technical and Science Associations, and the state-owned Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group (Vinacomin).

Hanoi  - Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested a man for running an illegal marriage brokerage that matched Vietnamese women and South Korean men, a policeman said Thursday.

Ly Toan Chan, 30, was arrested Wednesday as he was parading 23 women in front of a South Korean man and his sister, said Luu Cong Tai, the head officer on the case.

Tai said the South Korean man's passport was being held to prevent him from leaving the country and that police were recommending the local government fine him 15 million dong (847 dollars).