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A French passenger died while traveling from Hanoi to Paris on a Vietnam Airlines flight on Saturday, an airline representative has confirmed. The 60-year-old man, identified only by his initials N.B., had boarded Vietnam Airlines flight VN19 departing Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi in the early hours of Saturday en route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. He was carrying a French passport and accompanied by another passenger who is a medical doctor, according to the carrier. During the flight, the crew became aware that N.B., who occupied seat 5G, had passed away for reasons not released by the airline. The flight captain immediately reported the situation to the airline’s ground service and airport authorities at Charles de Gaulle in accordance with established protocols. The passenger’s family has been notified of his death and received support from the airline in completing paperwork involved to claim the man’s body. According to a Vietnam … [Read more...] about ​French national dies on Vietnam Airlines flight from Hanoi to Paris

People in Vietnam’s Central Highlands and the southern region may have to celebrate the first rainy Tet in years, with the latest forecast on Tuesday showing that typhoon Sanba will approach the East Vietnam Sea right on the Lunar New Year’s Eve. Storm Sanba, which developed off the Philippines on Sunday, is gathering strength as it heads toward Vietnam’s Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago in the East Vietnam Sea, according to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting. The typhoon is expected to make landfall in the southern coast of the Philippines on Tuesday afternoon, packing winds at 60 to 75km per hour and gusts at up to 100km an hour, the center said early the same day. As of Wednesday afternoon, the typhoon is forecast to head to the waters eastern of the Philippine island of Palawan, with the same wind strength, before moving into the East Vietnam Sea, where it becomes Vietnam’s second storm of the year. A map detailing the journey of … [Read more...] about ​Storm Sanba to close in on Vietnam’s Truong Sa on Lunar New Year’s Eve

Internet traffic through the Asia Pacific Gateway (APG) cable system from Vietnam has been restored to normal since Saturday afternoon, more than 30 hours earlier than expected. According to an announcement made by Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), the cable system would experience a temporary shutdown from 12:00 am on Saturday to 10:00 pm on Sunday for its relocation in Singapore. The relocation was reportedly to facilitate a project to expand the city-state’s Changi International Airport. However, the works were finished much sooner than anticipated, and the full capacity of APG was restored as early as 3:45 pm on Saturday, VNPT said. APG, which runs about 10,400 kilometers underwater across the Pacific Ocean, connects Vietnam with mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Singapore. The cable system was launched in 2016 with a traffic capacity of 54.8 terabits per second – the … [Read more...] about Internet cable connecting Vietnam to Asian destinations restored earlier than expected

Social media regulation, particularly relating to Facebook, was an agenda-topping item for various Vietnamese state agencies in 2017, highlighting the country’s apparent maneuvers to counter new threats in cyberspace. With Vietnam’s tax authorities unable to develop a viable strategy to force Internet-based technology giants to pay taxes and the Ministry of Information and Communications’ concern that social media is providing an easily accessible place for publishing "toxic content," a Party-run agency has been created to focus on ‘orienting’ content on certain platforms. Social media as a medium for ideology sharing At a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City late last year to recap its 2017 action plan, Vo Van Thuong, head of the Vietnamese Party’s Central Commission for Propaganda and Education, spent a chunk of his speaking time focusing on issues related to social media content. Thuong said social media can create profound impacts on public sentiment … [Read more...] about Vietnam moves to cope with unconventional challenges on social media

While the risk of explosion at a ‘scrap village’ in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh where a fatal blast occurred this week has loomed for years, local authorities are still working out a feasible way to mitigate the situation. The blast at around 4:10 am on Wednesday at a scarp warehouse in Quan Do Village, Van Mon Commune, Yen Phong District, killed two children and injured seven people. Seven nearby houses were also leveled by the explosion. Nguyen Van Tien, the owner of the facility who was arrested later the same day, claimed the explosion was caused by the seven metric tons of old bullets he had recently bought to extract scrap metal. The bullets were being stored in the warehouse yard when they triggered the blast. Quan Do has long been a notorious ‘scrap village,’ with many residents earning small fortunes from buying and reselling metal.  Unfortunately, the quest for riches has led these entrepreneurs to make several questionable scrap … [Read more...] about ​Authorities powerless to supervise explosives in northern Vietnam ‘scrap village’