China, Vietnam agree to 'properly handle' disputes

The leaders of China and Vietnam agreed on Thursday to "properly handle" their disputes, China's official Xinhua news agency reported, amid tension over a territorial spat in the South China Sea. China's increasingly assertive moves to press sovereignty claims in regional waters have rattled its neighbors and aroused concern in the United States, though Beijing says it has no hostile intent. China's deployment of an oil rig last year, in what Vietnam called its exclusive economic zone and on its