By Chris Nicholson, The Australian 7 Nov 2008

HOP Dang's legal career has been incredible. He started by running errands in Allen's Hanoi office, became a senior associate and was recently awarded an Oxford doctorate.

Dang was hired by Allens' Hanoi office partner Bill Magennis in 1994 to do photocopying, deliveries and translation. But he picked up the legal language in English so quickly that Magennis realised he had a real legal talent. “I asked where he learnt English and he said from Beatles songs in the rice fields and that was sufficiently colourful to get me intrigued and it went from there,'' Magennis says. sparked,Dang completed a law degree in Hanoi. In 1996, Allens sent him to Bond University on the Gold Coast and on to Melbourne to do his articles. In Melbourne, he was an associate to judge Alex Chernov and gained a masters degree at the University of Melbourne.

Dang returned to Allens in Hanoi but in 2005 taught at the National University of Singapore, where the law faculty included a visiting professor who invited him to do a doctorate at Oxford. Dang jumped at the chance. A question Magennis had posed years earlier became his thesis topic. “Bill and I had advised a number of clients here and there was this burning question that Bill put to me and we never got to a satisfactorily answer,'' Dang says. “The question was: if a contract with the government has in it a clause that says the contract is governed by international law, what does that mean?'''

For Magennis, seeing Dang complete an Oxford doctorate left him overwhelmed. “`I got a copy of Hop's thesis when I was in a little hotel in Zurich and it was late one night and by about 5am or 6am I had finished reading his thesis with the odd tear in my eye of pride and disbelief,'' Magennis says. “I thought it was a magnificent piece of writing and way, way above anything I could have done or contemplated doing and that gave me a great thrill. It makes legal practice worthwhile when you see people come up to that level.''

Rather than pursue an academic career, Dang has just returned to work at Allens in Hanoi. His goal now is to become an expert in infrastructure investment and to help companies that want to invest in Vietnam. Dang wants to take young lawyers under his wing just as Magennis did for him. Magennis has put him in charge of training the office's Vietnamese staff. “He's very happy there and seems to want to take on the whole of Hanoi and identify people outside and encourage them, nurture them and teach them law,'' Magennis says.

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Bernama 7 Nov 2008

Vietnam will need some US$48 billion for the construction of 20 highways with a total length of over 5,870km, according to a proposed scheme to develop the country's highways network between now and 2020 and beyond, which have been scrutinised by the Government. Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported Friday that at a seminar held here on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said developing the domestic road network, including the highways, is considered a matter of great importance for Vietnam to create impetus for socio-economic development.

Under the master plan, the trans-national express system will include two routes, the systems in the north and south will have six routes each, the system in the central and central highlands region will have three routes and there will be three routes in the beltways in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The target of the plan, formulated by the Ministry of Transport, is to form a network of modern national highways linking key economic hubs, main border gates and important traffic points that is able to coordinate with other modern modes of transport. The plan is expected to help tackle the issue of traffic jams, as well as effectively reducing traffic accidents, initially in big cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. According to the plan, highway routes connecting key economic zones, major cities and their beltways, and big sea ports will be prioritised for investment.

Vietnam now has 18 highway projects in the pipeline, including six under construction or to begin construction next year. Many of these projects have received funding from international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the German Reconstruction and Development Bank (KFW) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA). At the seminar, Deputy PM Hung called on international donors to give more assistance, both financial and technological, in order to develop Vietnam's traffic network to meet increasing demand, reduce traffic accidents and minimise the impact on the environment.

The World Bank (WB) Acting Country Director in Vietnam Martin Rama pledged to increase levels of assistance to Vietnam in developing its transport infrastructure and to mobilise all available investment resources. Martin Rama said the WB is ready to partner Vietnam in this area, financing and sharing experiences related to forming sustainable management and financial mechanisms. According to a recent World Bank survey, Vietnam's rapid economic growth associated with a high-speed urbanisation process and an increasing number of transport facilities, has put unrelenting pressure on the existing road systems. In addition, poor infrastructure and the high rate of traffic accidents are additional factors influencing Vietnam in its decision to build new roads.

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AFP 7 Nov 2008

Russia wants to take part in Vietnam's planned nuclear energy program, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov said Thursday following talks with Vietnam's Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem in Hanoi. "We know that such plans were made in Vietnam, very daring and far-reaching plans. We hope that Russia will be among those who will work with Vietnam in this hi-tech area and continue the traditions of our cooperation," Denisov said in an interview to the ITAR-TASS news agency.

Last week, Russia and Vietnam signed oil and gas deals after trade talks in Moscow between the countries' presidents, as part of a broader effort by Russia to regain Soviet-era influence in the region. While trade between Russia and Vietnam has grown in recent years, Russia's clout in the Southeast Asian country is still a shadow of Soviet-era levels. Russian trade turnover with Vietnam was set to reach 1.5 billion dollars in 2007, Medvedev said, a figure dwarfed by the annual trade turnover between Vietnam and the United States of over 10 billion dollars.

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The head of the Hanoi chapter of the Communist Party has apologized for controversial comments he made while visiting people in flooded areas on Sunday, a senior Hanoi Party official confirmed Thursday. On Sunday, Hanoi Party boss Pham Quang Nghi told a reporter from the news website VietnamNet that while out checking the situation on the ground, "I found that unlike in the old days, people rely a lot on the state. They just wait for the government to supply this, support that, they don't try their best to do it themselves."

The comments sparked widespread controversy. On Thursday, Nghi's secretary Hoang Minh Dung Tien, confirmed his boss had apologized to VietnamNet.

VietnamNet quoted Nghi as offering his "sincere apologies to readers and to the people for my remarks, which have drawn criticism and made people angry."

Vietnamese bloggers and private citizens sharply criticized Nghi's remarks. "His comments were irresponsible and showed a lack of political sense," said Hanoi lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu. "As the city's top leader, Nghi should have done his best to take care of his people." Several Vietnamese bloggers said Nghi's remarks were an insult to the memory of the over 20 Hanoians who have died in the floods.

Since October 30, Hanoi has seen its worst flooding in 37 years. Over 800 millimetres of rain fell on the city between Friday and Tuesday, leaving streets and surrounding farmland submerged in up to a metre of water. On Thursday evening, residents of neighborhoods near the Red River and other waterways were preparing to evacuate their homes if water levels rise. Water pouring downstream from mountainous areas in Vietnam's north-west is still threatening to overflow the river's banks, though the rain in Hanoi itself had abated by Thursday morning. According to Vietnam's National Committee for Storm and Flood Control, heavy rains and flooding in central and northern Vietnam had caused 59 deaths and left seven missing through Thursday evening, though independent counts put the numbers somewhat higher.

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AP 05 November 2008

Hanoi: The former warden of the "Hanoi Hilton," the prison where John McCain was held as a POW during the Vietnam War, expressed his condolences Wednesday morning for his former captive's loss in the US presidential elections. Retired colonel Tran Trong Duyet said he would have liked to vote for McCain as president.

"I share in McCain's loss, and I sympathize with him very much," Duyet said. "I would like to advise him that as a senator, he should still do his part to boost relations between Vietnam and the US."

Interest in the US elections has been widespread in Vietnam. Many Vietnamese tuned to international news channels Wednesday morning to see whether the former pilot once shot down over their city would become the next US president. Several dozen Vietnamese and over a hundred Americans turned up for an election party hosted by the US Embassy at the Hanoi Hilton - the actual hotel, that is, not Duyet's prison. Many Vietnamese present expressed warm feelings for McCain, due to his efforts to normalize relations between Vietnam and the US in the 1990s. Some were anxious that an Obama presidency might mean protectionist trade measures that would hurt Vietnamese exports to the US, a key element of economic growth here over the past seven years."If Obama wins, he will make a policy of protection," said Mai Thuong, a reporter for the Vietnam Army newspaper. "It will affect economic relations between the US and the world."

But most of those in the room, Vietnamese and Americans, supported Obama. "He's young, he's attractive, persuasive, and I think he gives a new, different image to the US," said Do Hoang An, who works for the Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative, a program funded by the US government aid organization USAID. "To all of us, even Asians, an African-American president seemed impossible. But like my friends told me, America will surprise you." The Obama campaign's powerful get-out-the-vote organization had a significant presence in Vietnam, and appeared to have garnered more votes in the country. There did not appear to be any corresponding effort by Republicans. "We think there's about 50,000 Americans that live in Vietnam, and I think in Hanoi there's about 20,000," said Aaron Pervin, a volunteer organizer for Democrats Abroad Vietnam. "My field director said we probably got 60 or 70 percent of that."

While young Vietnamese were enthusiastic about Obama, older Vietnamese had favoured McCain. War veteran Mai The Chinh, an official at the Vietnam Victims of Agent Orange Association, said a McCain presidency would have been better for Vietnam. "If Senator McCain was elected, he would have made bold moves to boost relations between Vietnam and the US," Chinh said. "I am not sure that Obama can make bold moves towards Vietnam. We will have to wait and see."

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AP 5 Nov 2008

Pumps ran nonstop in the Vietnamese capital Wednesday to clear water following the city's worst rainfall in 35 years, in storms that sparked flooding across large sections of the country and left 92 people dead. Life in metropolitan Hanoi was slowly returning to normal after a halt in the rains, with floodwaters receding and residents cleaning up their homes. Another seven bodies were found in northern Vietnam, including two more in the capital, bringing the death toll in Hanoi to 22 and the overall toll to 92, authorities said.

Forecasters said rain over the weekend was the heaviest Hanoi has experienced in 35 years. At the height of the flooding, more than 100 Hanoi neighborhoods were under at least a foot of water, but by Wednesday only five neighborhoods were still submerged, said Nguyen Anh Tu of the city's drainage company. "Our main pump station is running 24 hours a day, pumping 4 million cubic meters (141 million cubic feet) of excess water a day," he said. "We hope the water will recede completely from metropolitan Hanoi in the next two days."

Hanoi residents meanwhile continued to clear out the mud, debris and garbage that was washed into their homes by the floods. Nguyen Van Hai, 34, and his family of three moved back to their home Wednesday after spending five days with his in-laws. He had taken the day off the clean his house. "Our first floor is covered with 10 centimeters (4 inches) of mud," he said. "It's so smelly." More than 37,000 evacuees in two rural districts of Hanoi cannot yet return to their homes, disaster officials said. Le Thi Kim Thuy, a disaster official in Hanoi's My Duc District, said more than 12,000 people there abandoned homes when the rain started last Thursday. "Their homes are still up to three feet (one meter) under water," Thuy said. "They is a shortage of everything from food to water." In the neighboring district of Chuong My, the homes of more than 25,000 villagers remained submerged, disaster official Nguyen Dung Trung said. Trung said the flood water level had dropped only a few inches over the past two days and that four villages remained surrounded by water and were accessible only by boat.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES Editorial

This is one of those moments in history when it is worth pausing and reflecting on the basic facts:

An American with the name Barack Hussein Obama, the son of a white woman and a black man he barely knew, raised by his grandparents far outside the stream of American power and wealth, has been elected the 44th president of the United States.

Showing extraordinary focus and quiet certainty, Mr. Obama defeated first Hillary Clinton, who wanted to be president so badly that she lost her bearings, and then John McCain, who forsook his principles for a campaign built on anger and fear.

Mr. Obama won the election because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens. He promised to lead a government that does not try to solve every problem but will do those things beyond the power of individual citizens: to regulate the economy fairly, keep the air clean and the food safe, ensure that the sick have access to health care, and educate children to compete in a globalized world.

Mr. Obama spoke candidly of the failure of Republican economic policies that promised to lift all Americans but left so many millions far behind. He committed himself to ending a bloody and pointless war. He promised to restore Americans’ civil liberties and this country’s tattered reputation around the world. With a message of hope and competence he drew in legions of voters who had been disengaged and voiceless.

Mr. Bush’s legacy is terrible. The nation is embroiled in two wars — one of necessity in Afghanistan and one of folly in Iraq. Mr. Obama is right that Afghanistan is the real front in the war on terror and that the Pentagon will not have the resources it needs to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban until American troops begin leaving Iraq. His challenge will be to manage an orderly withdrawal without igniting new regional conflicts.

The campaign began with the war as its central focus. By Election Day, Americans’ minds were on the economy and the government’s failure to prevent this collapse fed by greed and an orgy of deregulation. Mr. Obama will have to move quickly to impose control, coherence, transparency and fairness on the Bush administration’s jumbled bailout plan.

His administration will also have to identify all of the ways that Americans’ basic rights and fundamental values have been violated and rein that dark work back in. Climate change is a global threat, and after years of denial and inaction, this country must take the lead on addressing it. The nation must develop new, cleaner technologies, to reduce greenhouse gases and its dependence on foreign oil.

Thankfully, the campaign veered away from its early nasty focus on undocumented workers. Mr. Obama will have to rally sensible people to come up with a solution that is consistent with the values of a nation built by immigrants and refugees.

There are many other urgent problems that must be addressed. Tens of millions of Americans are without health insurance, including some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens — children of the poor and the working poor. Other Americans can barely pay for their insurance or are in danger of losing it along with their jobs. They must be protected.

To overcome Mr. Bush’s disastrous legacy and fulfill his own promises, Mr. Obama will need the support of all Americans. We hope that he will have the support of Mr. McCain and his party. Before this nasty, dispiriting campaign, we respected the Arizona senator, for his long service to this country, and for his willingness to stand up to ideologues and to compromise with opponents.

The nation’s many challenges are beyond the reach of any one man, or any one political party.

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VNB 4 November 2008

Ips across Vietnam had helped change its economic picture but has been causing serious environmental pollution, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang told a recent seminar on models for environmental management at IPs in Nha Trang city of Khanh Hoa province, Vietnamnet reported.

Vietnam now has 200 industrial and export processing zones, which are home to more than 5,500 foreign and domestic investment projects, creating jobs for more than a million people, Quang added. The IPs have been discharging some 225,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day and only 30% of this volume was treated, he noted. This means 160,000 cubic meters of untreated wastewater flows directly into rivers and canals a day. Statistics of a ministry report showed that the IPs nationwide throw away some 30,000 tons of solid and harmful waste, while treatment of the waste is still insufficient, causing pollution in many localities. Up to 79% of the operating companies have not performed thoroughly what they pledge in their approved environmental impact statements and 40% of the country's IPs had no centralized wastewater treatment facilities.

Tran Hong Ky, vice head of the Division of Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones of the Ministry of Investment and Planning, said future IP development plans should be carefully considered in terms of environmental impacts on surrounding areas, especially those adjacent to residential areas.

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Reuters 3 Nov 2008

Vietnam's central bank said on Monday it was cutting its three main interest rates and lowering the compulsory reserves required on bank deposits as part of efforts to stave off an economic slowdown. The benchmark dong base rate would be cut to 12 percent from 13 percent, effective Nov. 5, the State Bank of Vietnam said.

It will be the second reduction in just over two weeks. The Southeast Asian country has battled inflation and a widening trade deficit for much of the year, tightening monetary policy, but officials appear increasingly concerned that the global credit crisis and looming slowdown could drag down growth.

'Clearly, the focus is shifting to growth from inflation,' said Matt Hildebrandt at JPMorgan Chase Bank in Singapore.

Last week Hanoi estimated the economy would grow 6.7 percent in 2008. Earlier in the year, the government had projected growth of as high as 9 percent. The central bank also said the discount rate at which it buys paper from banks would be cut by one percentage point to 11 percent from 12 percent and the refinancing rate would drop to 13 percent from 14 percent. The central bank uses the refinancing rate for loans to commercial banks. In addition, banks would be required from Nov. 5 to set aside 10 percent on non-term dong deposits and those with terms of less than 12 months instead of the current 11 percent, the bank said. The ratio for compulsory reserves on deposits with maturities of 12 months or longer would be lowered to 4 percent from 5 percent, it said.

For foreign currency deposits with maturities of less than a year the rate was cut to 9 percent from 11 percent, and for maturities of 12 months or more it was cut to 3 percent from 5 percent. The central bank also said on Monday that loan growth in January to October slowed to 19.6 percent from 37.73 percent in the same period last year, while growth in bank deposits slowed to 10.59 percent from 32.97 percent. The bank did not provide the value of the loans and deposits. 'The monetary market and banking activities have stabilised, with interest rates in sharp decline and a surplus in dong funds,' it said. 'Deposits and loans to the economy are expected to pick up,' the bank added. State-run banks began cutting rates on dong loans to prime clients by up to 1.5 percentage points to around 15-16 percent following the central bank's announcement. The central bank raised the base rate three times earlier this year to contain inflation, which approached an annual rate of 30 percent before slipping slightly to an estimated 26.7 percent in October from 27.9 percent in September.

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Reuters 2 November 2008

Vietnam's total bad debts in the banking system are unlikely to exceed 4 percent by the end of the year, a central bank official said. Total non-performing debt as of the end of September was 35 trillion dong ($2.1 billion), or 2.92 percent of overall outstanding loans, Deputy Central Bank Governor Nguyen Dong Tien said in a government banking report seen on Sunday. Banks have set aside reserves of 22 trillion dong to deal with bad debts, Tien said.

Tien's bad debt figures are much higher than those reported by state media last week of around 22 trillion dong at the end of September, and forecast to rise to 30 trillion dong by the end of 2008. "No commercial bank is losing its ability to meet payment," Tien said, adding that total deposits have risen more than 16 percent from the beginning of the year.

Last year Vietnam cut its bad debt ratio to 2 percent of loans totalling around $65 billion from 2.65 percent in 2006. Tien said debt relating to real estate projects now was more than 100 trillion dong, 9.15 percent of banks' total outstanding loans. The real estate market was buoyant until early 2008 when the economy slowed. Property prices have since fallen 30 percent or more in some areas, adding to the volume of bad debt. Vietnam's central bank tightened monetary policy in the first nine months of 2008 as it tried to slow credit growth to its 30 percent target after a 54 percent surge last year. Loans grew only 18 percent in the January to September period from the same period last year, slowing from an annual rise of 30 percent in the first nine months of 2007, the central bank has said. In October, the bank cut its three main interest rates for the first time this year to support the economy and limit the impact of the global financial crisis.

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AP 2 November 2008

Much of Vietnam's capital remained under water Sunday as the death toll from the city's worst flooding in two decades climbed to 17, disaster officials and state media reported. Floods caused by heavy rain have killed at least 44 people in the past week across northern and central Vietnam and sent food prices skyrocketing in Hanoi as much of the capital's transportation system ground to a standstill. Rain had stopped falling by Sunday morning and waters were receding in Hanoi, but many of the city's streets remained submerged under up to three feet of water. "I had to stay in my office for two days because I did not want to swim home in dirty water. It is a total nightmare," said Nguyen Ngoc Khiem, 29, a businessman.

More rain was expected in the city in the next few days, according to the national forecaster. Thirteen more bodies were recovered in Hanoi on Saturday, bring the city's death toll from the floods to 17, the VietNamNet news website quoted police as saying. One person was reported missing. Three people were washed away Friday in the northern provinces of Hoa Binh and Phu Tho, disaster officials said. Two were reported missing in Vinh Phuc province. In central Vietnam, the death toll from a week of flooding stood at 24, with one person missing. "Water levels are lower now after a week of inundating thousands of homes. People have begun to return to their homes," said Nguyen Van Vinh, an official in the central province of Nghe An, where 12 people were killed including four children who were swept away while walking home from school. Authorities in the region are rushing food and medicine to villagers in the area, Vinh said.

Vietnam is prone to floods, which kill hundreds each year.

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SteelGuru.com 1 November 2008

Vietnam News Agency reported that the rising cost of raw materials for small and medium sized enterprises has caused companies to cut back on employee recruitment. Mr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam director of marketing & communications at Navigos Group has forecast that the workforce demand would not increase in the last months of the year because of high inflation. Big companies, however, are still in need of workers.

According to the Viet Nam Association of Textile & Apparel, its small and medium sized enterprises this year did not expand production because of rising input material costs.

By the end of June 2008, the Viet Nam Automobile Industry Corporation had dropped its production to 1,400 units, a drop of 600 compared with the first half of 2005. The decline in auto production has led to a redundant workforce as the corporation was forced to reduce staff. Several of its affiliate companies including the May 1 Automobile Factory have suspended signing contracts for seasonal workers.

Mr Le Hoang Chau chairman of the HCM City’s Real Estate Association said that in recent months property transactions had dropped by 80 per cent. The slump in the real estate market has led to dozens of cuts of salespersons, clerks and translators. This has occurred in securities and insurance companies as well.

According to Vietnamworks.com, an online job recruiter, the number of recruitment request has also declined but demand for highly skilled staff remains high, the latter accounting for 67% of the total recruitment in the last two quarters.

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Bernama 1 November 2008

Vietnam is ready to make a decision to establish a nuclear power programme, following careful research, said Head of the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute Vuong Huu Tan. Vietnam news agency (VNA) reported that at a workshop on nuclear power, which took place in Hanoi on Friday, Tan affirmed that developing infrastructural facilities for a nuclear power programme needs to undergo three stages and that actually making the decision is the very first step. According to participants at the workshop, to successfully begin construction of the country's first nuclear power plant and carry out a long-term nuclear power development programme, Vietnam needs to develop human resources, an appropriate legal system and technical infrastructure, with the participation of related ministries and agencies. This also forms part of the national energy development strategy, which runs until 2020, with a vision to 2050 which aims to produce nuclear electricity accounting for 15-20 percent of the country's total power output.

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AP 1 November 2008

Faced with mounting public criticism, Vietnam's Health Ministry suspended a widely ridiculed plan to ban short, thin and small-chested drivers. The ministry had recommended that people whose chests measure less than 28 inches be prohibited from driving motorbikes — as well as those who are too short (less than 4 -foot-8) or too thin (less than 88 pounds). When the media revealed the plan this week, it prompted disbelief and scorn among members of the public, who envisioned the police pulling over drivers to measure their chest. Thursday's state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted ministry official Nguyen Huy Quang as saying the proposal would be suspended.

The proposal is part of an exhaustive list of new criteria the ministry has come up with to ensure that Vietnam's drivers are in good health. As news of the plan hit the media this week, Vietnamese expressed incredulity. "It's ridiculous," said Tran Thi Phuong, 38, a Hanoi insurance agent. "It's absurd."

"The new proposals are very funny, but many Vietnamese people could become the victim of this joke," said Le Quang Minh, 31, a Hanoi stockbroker. "Many Vietnamese women have small chests. I have many friends who won't meet these criteria."

It was unclear how the ministry established its size guidelines or why it believes that small people make bad drivers. An official there declined to comment. The average Vietnamese man is 5 feet, 4 inches (164 centimeters) tall and weighs 121 pounds (55 kilograms). The average Vietnamese woman is 5 feet, 1 inch (155 centimeters) tall and weighs 103 pounds (47 kilograms). Statistics on average chest size were unavailable.

The draft, which must be approved by the central government to become law, would also prohibit people from driving motorbikes if they suffer from array of health conditions like enlarged livers or sinusitis. The rules would cover the vast majority of Vietnam's 20 million motorbikes. It would not apply to drivers of cars or trucks.

Motorbikes account for more than 90 percent of the vehicles on Vietnam's chaotic roads, which are among the world's most dangerous. Nearly 13,000 road deaths were recorded last year, and Vietnam has one of the world's highest rates per 100,000, according to the World Health Organization. The majority of accidents involve motorbikes, which many workers in the nation of 85 million need to do their jobs.

When Nguyen Van Tai, a motorbike taxi driver, heard about the proposal, he immediately had his chest measured. Much to his relief, Tai beat the chest limit by 3 inches (7 centimeters). "A lot of people in my home village are small," said Tai, 46. "Many in my generation were poor and suffered from malnutrition. And now the Ministry of Health wants to stop us from driving to work."

Vietnamese bloggers have been poking fun at the plan, envisioning traffic police with tape measures eagerly pulling over female drivers to measure their chests. "From now on, padded bras will be best-sellers," said Bo Cu Hung, a popular Ho Chi Minh City blogger. Newspapers were inundated with letters on Tuesday from concerned readers who worried that they wouldn't measure up. "I'm not heavy enough, what am I going to do?" Le Thu Huong asked in a letter to Tuoi Tre newspaper. "And what about people whose chests are small? Most of them are too poor to afford breast implants!"

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Canadian News, 1 November 2008

A Canadian couple working temporarily in Vietnam are caught in what they call the worst flooding they've ever seen anywhere. Naomi Sanderson of Toronto says it has been raining heavily in the capital Hanoi for 48 hours, and there's "knee deep water throughout the city." Vietnam's weather forecast centre says 350-millimetres of rain fell Friday, making it the country's heaviest downpour in 24 years. Reports say the rain and floods have killed at least 24 people in the past week. Sanderson says the rain was so heavy at times, it seemed to fall "in circles almost." She says some colleagues of her husband, Mike Godding, went outside Hanoi and found fields under "at least two to three feet of water." Sanderson says many Hanoi businesses and restaurants are closed because of the flooding, although Internet service and power at their hotel have not been affected.

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