A woman of small business has made a contribution to founding the overseas Vietnamese Group and opening a Vietnamese school in Cambodia. When getting older, she opened a Vietnamese newspaper stall in Phnom Penh and became a sponsor for Vietnamese misleading girls.

Poverty alleviation is Vietnam's overriding concern and the Government's approach to this issue has been praiseworthy, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) has said in a report on March 30 of the results of its economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific in 2006.

The Associated Press (AP) on April 2 carried an article saying that the poignant wartime diaries of a Vietnamese military surgeon, named Dang Thuy Tram, have reconciled the US and Viet Nam after a US intelligence officer saved them from being burned.

In the 1950s, there were only few Vietnamese language classes in America. Since then, several Vietnamese Studies Departments have been established at famous US universities and have educated many scholars in Vietnamese studies. In recent years, many of these scholars have visited Vietnam on study tours.

Visitors to the first international photo festival opened in Sarcelles city, 20 km east of Paris, France, on April 8, signed their names into a petition, expressing their support to Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin victims in the lawsuit against US chemical producers.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has decided to provide Vietnam with US $15 million to help in contagious disease control.

The Roever Educational Programme of the US, REAP International, has presented 40 scholarships, each worth 600,000 VND, to poor students in southern Binh Thuan, Ben Tre, Dong Nai and Tra Vinh provinces.

A get-together was held in Hanoi on April 7 to celebrate the traditional New Year festival of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, drawing a crowd of diplomatic corps, officials and students of these nationalities.

The Vietnamese State and Government always helps facilitate the overseas Vietnamese community in Laos in conformity with Lao legal regulations.

Vietnam's water puppetry has attracted almost 1,000 French children to each show presented at the on-going Imagine Festival in Paris, said the festival's organising board.