Truth and lies about Spratly, Paracel

By Dr. Nguyen Nha. Nha’s Phd dissertation’s title is “The process of asserting sovereignty of Vietnam over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa”. He is the first Vietnamese to earn a Phd on this topic. Vietnamese navy officers looking at maps proving Vietnam's sovereignty over Hoang Sa at a museum in Da Nang on April 29 East Sea issues are escalating in intensity, worrying international scholars at many East Sea conferences who fear a tragedy could occur in Asia, like one that happened to Europe in World War II. The world nowadays does not know or deliberately refuses to know that it is the sovereignty dispute over islands wherein involved parties or party pay(s) no heed to historical truths and to international law that causes intensity to escalate. During...

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Posted in: Asia,Vietnam

Facebook U-turn after charities criticise decapitation videos

By Leo Kelion Technology reporter   Facebook has said it will delete videos of people being decapitated which had been spread on its site. "We will remove instances of these videos that are reported to us while we evaluate our policy and approach to this type of content," it said. Charities warn that watching the video clips could cause long-lasting psychological damage The news came less than two hours after the BBC revealed a member of Facebook's own safety advisory board had criticised its stance. The social network had previously refused to ban the clips. It had said people had a right to depict the "world in which we live". But the US's Family Online Safety Institute (Fosi) said the violent...

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Posted in: Facebook,Technology

Smoking kills 100 people in Vietnam every day

Smoking-related diseases kill over 40,000 people in Vietnam each year and if no measure is taken, nearly 10 percent of the Vietnamese population will have died from smoking-related diseases by 2030, the Ho Chi Minh City Health Education and Communication Center warned. A young man smokes at a café in Vietnam The warning, based on the estimates of the World Health Organization (WHO), was released by the Ho Chi Minh City Health Education and Communication Center to mark the date the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms took effect - May 1. Smoking is one the leading causes of death in Vietnam, with more than 100 people dead from tobacco-related diseases per day, four times higher than the death toll of road traffic accidents. ...

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Posted in: Health,Vietnam

Vietnam welcomes waves of Russian tourists

While the number of tourists from other European countries has been on a decline, common tourism spots around Vietnam are being flooded by Russian holidaymakers. A Russian tourist is seen shopping at Nha Trang Center in Nha Trang April 29, 2013 Around 130,550 Russian tourists visited Mui Ne last year, accounting for 36.7 percent of the total number of foreign holidaymakers, according to Binh Thuan Province’s tourism department. “People usually think Russian tourists tend to practice thrift during their tours, but they in fact can spend up to VND2 million a day, so long as the services are of good quality,” said Nguyen Quoc Khanh, owner of a restaurant at Mui Ne, where groups of Russian-speaking travelers were spotted on April...

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Posted in: Business,Tour in Vietnam

US Charges Three With Hindering Boston Bombing Investigation

Courtroom sketch shows defendants Dias Kadyrbayev, left, and Azamat Tazhayakov appearing in front of Federal Magistrate Marianne Bowler at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston, May 1, 2013. U.S. authorities have arrested and charged three more men in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation.  The suspects are accused of aiding one of the Boston bombers, Dzohkhar Tsarnaev, after the attack by conspiring to obstruct the investigation.    Three newly-arrested suspects appeared in a Boston federal courtroom briefly Wednesday afternoon.  Two of them, Dias Kadyrbayev, 19 years old and Azamat Tazhayakov, also 19 years old, are both nationals of Kazakhstan who entered the United States...

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Posted in: USA,violence

Mississippi Man Arrested in Poison Letter Case

Everett Dutschke works on his mini-van in his driveway in Tupelo, Mississippi, Apr. 26, 2013. VOA news - Federal authorities have formally charged a Mississippi man with sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator, and a judge. The FBI says 41-year-old Everett Dutschke was charged with attempting to use a biological weapon just hours after he was arrested Saturday. He will make his first court appearance Monday and could face life in prison if convicted. Dutschke allegedly sent letters laced with the deadly poison ricin to President Obama, Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and Mississippi state judge Sadie Holland. Mail handling facilities near Washington intercepted the Obama and Wicker letters. Agents...

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Posted in: USA,violence

Lawmaker: Boston Bombing Probe Pursuing 'Persons of Interest' in US

Visitors pause at a makeshift memorial in Copley Square for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, Apr. 27, 2013, in Boston, Mass. VOA news - U.S. lawmakers say federal investigators probing the Boston Marathon bombings are pursuing "persons of interest" in the United States who may have links to the attacks. Speaking Sunday on ABC television, House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers did not provide details. But he said better cooperation is needed with Russia to probe the movements of two suspects with ties to the southern Russian republics of Chechnya and Dagestan. New details have emerged with reports that now-deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev spoke to his mother about jihad in a 2011 telephone call to the region that...

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Posted in: USA,violence

WWI prisoner of war postcard found

The postcard was sent from Limburg an der Lahn in Germany on April 30 1918 A postcard sent home by a captured WWI soldier has come to light 95 years after it was sent from a German prisoner of war camp. Charles Jeffries sent the card from Limburg an der Lahn on April 30 1918 to let his family in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, know he had been taken prisoner. His granddaughter, Pat Nicholls, 78, of Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, had the card in a file of family memorabilia. She is trying to find out more about the role he played in the conflict. The card gives Mr Jeffries' regiment as the Royal Naval Division but does not indicate whether he was wounded. It has been stamped in German and Mr Jeffries - born in 1890...

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Posted in: Entertainment,Society,war

Japan marks 'return of sovereignty' day

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko gave added weight to the event Japan has for the first time marked the anniversary of the end of the allied occupation, which followed its defeat in World War II. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the "restoration of sovereignty day" would give Japan hope for the future and help it become "strong and resolute". The event is seen as part of Mr Abe's nationalist campaign. He is also pushing for a revision of Japan's pacifist constitution to ease tight restrictions on the armed forces. It was during last year's election campaign that Mr Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) proposed the event to mark the day in 1952 when the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect, formally ending WWII and the...

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Posted in: Asia,war