News stories by Helen Clark, page 2

Three days may have been a small window of opportunity, but it was enough time to save thousands of lives.

At a ‘tra da’ (iced tea) stand in Hanoi’s Truc Bach area, men in baggy white singlets sit on low plastic stools drinking strong green tea poured from a chipped porcelain tea pot.

The hero of one of Vietnam’s most famous fairytales, Thanh Giong, chased invaders from the nation using a bamboo staff and brought peace and prosperity to the nation.

Drink driving, inadequate use of safety gear and lack of proper infrastructure combine to make for very hazardous roads in Vietnam, where motorbike accidents continue to be a major killer.

Where can Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange get justice? Probably nowhere, after the United States Supreme Court refused to hear, this month, a final appeal by Vietnamese plaintiffs against chemical giants Dow and Monsanto.

As Internet usage grows in communist Vietnam, fostering a vibrant community of bloggers, the government is looking at ways to regulate blogs, particularly those that tend to be political rather than personal.