A rights group is warning that Vietnam is increasingly using broadly worded laws to arrest activists, dissidents and others seen as threats to Communist Party rule.

An internal document reveals Vietnam's military is preparing for a possible American war of aggression, viewing the U.S. as a "belligerent" power.

Russia and Vietnam have developed a mechanism to conceal arms deal payments to avoid American and other Western sanctions, using profits from joint energy-sector ventures to pay for defense contracts, according to internal Vietnamese documents obtained by The Associated Press.