Manila  - The Asian Development Bank said Friday that it was extending a 151-million-dollar loan to help Vietnam expand and improve electricity services in poor and remote communities.

The Manila-based bank said the loan would fund a project to develop up to 10 mini-hydropower plants to serve communities in mountainous areas in north and central Vietnam.

It would also provide financial support to the government's ongoing rural electrification programme.

The internet companies – Google, Microsoft and Yahoo – are being pressed by a group of US legislators to resist to pressure from communist government of Vietnam. The group of a dozen of US lawmakers is urging these internet giants to resist strongly to the “communist Vietnam's "aggravating" drives to curb online freedom of political expression”.

The group of twelve US lawmakers is comprised of eight Democratic Representatives including Loretta Sanchez, James Moran, Michael Honda, Madeleine Bordallo, Maurice Hinchey, Hank Johnson, Neil Abercrombie, and Niki Tsongas, and four Republican Representatives including Joseph "Anh" Cao, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the House, Daniel Lungren, Ed Royce, and Thaddeus McCotter.

Hanoi  - A hotel project in a popular Hanoi park is to be relocated following a public campaign, Vietnamese press said Wednesday, but city officials would not confirm the reports.

An article in the state-run Thanh Nien newspaper said construction of a Novotel hotel located inside Hanoi's Reunification Park would not be completed and that the Hanoi People's Committee, the city's governing body, was reviewing alternative sites for the project.

Hanoi  - Vietnamese authorities Wednesday ordered Taiwanese-owned condiment company Vedan Enterprise Corp to halt operations at one of its factories and fix pollution problems, making the second Vedan plant charged with environmental violations.

Last year, government inspectors found Vedan's factory in the southern province of Dong Nai was discharging untreated waste water through concealed pipes for at least 10 years, destroying the ecosystem along a stretch of the Thi Vai River.

Hanoi  - A Vietnamese government official Tuesday regretted Egypt's decision last week to temporarily halt imports of Vietnamese catfish.

"I am very sad about this decision," said Luong Le Phuong, deputy minister of agriculture and rural development in charge of aquatic products. Phuong said the sudden decision had been taken on the basis of "information from the media, instead of from scientific sources."

Hanoi - Vietnamese authorities Tuesday criticized India's decision to impose anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese textiles.

"This decision is unfriendly and unreasonable," said Nguyen Thanh Bien, Vietnam's deputy minister of trade and industry.

India on Friday imposed anti-dumping duties on thread and fabrics imported from China, Thailand and Vietnam.