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World top stories

RUSSIA and GEORGIA signed a ceasefire after five days of war. The deal was brokered by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Georgian forces were pulled out of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, leaving the Russians in control of both breakaway Georgian enclaves. Despite the ceasefire, Russian troops and tanks continued to attack targets inside Georgia proper but, after a stark warning from the Americans, they later pulled back. ]

President GEORGE BUSH condemned the Russian invasion and announced that American aircraft and ships would deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia. Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers agreed to send monitors to supervise the truce. An emergency meeting of NATO was called to review relations with Russia.

At least nine TURKISH soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb apparently placed by rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Fighting between Turkey's army and the rebels has escalated in recent months.

The EURO-AREA economy slumped in the second quarter, with negative growth reported by each of the three biggest economies. The news raised fears that Europe might soon tip into recession.

At least 18 people, including nine soldiers, were killed by a bomb in the northern LEBANESE city of Tripoli, where a revolt by al-Qaeda-linked militants was squashed by the Lebanese army last year. In a sign of warming relations, Lebanon's new president visited his counterpart in Syria's capital, Damascus.

Talks on power-sharing in ZIMBABWE between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, mediated by South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki, appeared to stall. One of the sticking points was how much power a new prime minister, most likely to be Mr Tsvangirai, would have in a new administration if Mr Mugabe stayed on as president.

The African Union suspended MAURITANIA from membership in the wake of last week's coup. But it was unclear whether enough countries, in Africa or elsewhere, would keep up the pressure to persuade General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz to step down.

Mahmoud Darwish, widely regarded as the PALESTINIANS' national poet, who expressed their sense of loss and defiance over the past four decades, died in the United States and was given a grand burial in Ramallah, capital of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

President Pervez Musharraf of PAKISTAN continued to insist he would not resign, despite facing impeachment by parliament. Three provincial assemblies called on him to seek a vote of confidence or quit. Since the army seems unwilling to back him, his days as president look numbered. Clashes with ISLAMIST MILITANTS in Pakistan's north-west are reported to have killed 300 people.

Fighting flared on the Philippine island of MINDANAO after a peace deal between the government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front was blocked by the Supreme Court. Around 160,000 people were displaced, but were returning home by mid-week.

Violence continued in Indian-administered KASHMIR, in both the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley and the Hindu-dominated region of Jammu.

At least 20 people have been killed in the most serious anti-India protests in years.

The OLYMPIC GAMES opened with a dazzling spectacle in Beijing's new National Stadium. Officials were embarrassed when it emerged that a nine-year-old singer was miming to another girl's voice.

Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed prime minister of THAILAND, jumped bail, flying to London with his wife. Mr Thaksin said he would not get a fair trial in Thailand on corruption charges which he says are politically motivated.

JAPAN AND NORTH KOREA agreed to reopen an inquiry into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.

Evo Morales, BOLIVIA'S socialist president, convincingly won a recall referendum. He was backed by two-thirds of the 84% of voters who turned out. The vote paves the way for the approval of a new constitution. But voters also gave their backing to four regional governors from eastern Bolivia who are Mr Morales's main opponents, so the country's regional divide may persist.

MEXICO'S government set up a new police anti-kidnap squad after an outcry over the abduction and murder of a businessman's son in June. More than 430 kidnaps were reported in 2007, many carried out by police officers.

VENEZUELA'S leftist government relaxed some of its price controls, raising the price of beef and bread by up to 50% and lifting controls on some other foodstuffs. This may ease shortages but will boost inflation, which reached an annual rate of 34% in July.

Supporters of Alvaro Uribe, COLOMBIA'S president, delivered to the electoral authority more than 5m signatures calling for a referendum on changing the constitution to allow him to stand for a third consecutive term. Mr Uribe, whose approval rating is above 80% in opinion polls, has not yet said whether he wants a third term.

JOHN EDWARDS, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina and John Kerry's vice-presidential running mate, confessed to an affair with a film-maker, Rielle Hunter. He denied, however, that he was the father of her love-child. His political career was declared over.

The MAYOR OF DETROIT, Kwame Kilpatrick, began a series of court appearances. He was charged in March with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office for having an affair and covering it up. A group of city pastors urged him to quit.

Michael Phelps, an American swimmer, became the MOST SUCCESSFUL OLYMPIAN ever when he won his 11th career gold medal in Beijing.

A report from the Department of Transportation revealed that in the past nine months AMERICANS DROVE 53.2 billion miles less than they did in the same period a year ago. Urban travel dropped by 1.2% and rural travel by 4%.

Global business news

After a four-week-long bounce, financial stocks tumbled back to reality. JPMORGAN indicated that it faced further losses on mortgage-backed securities after a substantial deterioration in trading conditions. Speculation continued to mount that AIG may announce a capital increase. Meanwhile, GOLDMAN SACHS faced a raft of downgrades as analysts worried about a slowdown at its capital markets divisions.

FANNIE MAE successfully sold $3.5 billion of debt to investors. America's biggest mortgage company remains in crisis mode, however. Standard & Poor's, a rating agency, downgraded Fannie's preferred stock and subordinated debt, reflecting the risk that it might be taken into receivership. The company's senior debt, with its near-explicit government guarantee, remains triple-A rated.

UBS, one of the biggest victims of the credit crunch, opened an old can of worms by announcing that it would run its investment bank separately from its wealth-management and asset-management arms. Speculation mounted that the bank may consider a sale of the troubled division, largely formed from acquisitions including O'Connor & Associates, SG Warburg, Dillon Read and PaineWebber.

CREDIT SUISSE was fined by Britain's Financial Services Authority for mispriced trades. The regulator said the bank's traders had been treated with "too much deference".

Despite tricky markets, mergers and acquisitions continued. CONTINENTAL, a German tyre and car-parts maker, said it would carry on talks with SCHAEFFLER, a privately held ball-bearing maker. Schaeffler has controversially accumulated control of over one-third of Continental's shares, mainly using derivatives. VOLKSWAGEN, the two firms' largest customer, supports a tie-up.

Other bid targets put up stiffer resistance. LONMIN, a platinum producer, rejected as "opportunistic" a $10 billion offer from XSTRATA, an acquisitive diversified miner.

UNIONBANCAL rejected a $3 billion offer from MITSUBISHI UFJ FINANCIAL for the 35% of the Californian bank it does not own. UnionBanCal said it was prepared to talk.

ROCHE, a Swiss drug company, also received a frosty reception for its $44 billion bid for the 44% of GENENTECH it does not already own. The directors of the American biotech company argued that the offer fails to reflect the firm's portfolio of cancer drugs. Genentech's share price continues to trade well above Roche's original $89 per share offer, indicating investors expect a revised bid.

Dan Hesse, the new chief executive of SPRINT NEXTEL, America's third-largest mobile-phone company, admitted that it had "miscalculated" by announcing a plan to raise new convertible shares on August 6th. The firm reversed the decision the next day, after failing to get investors' support. Sprint is heavily indebted following the acquisition of Nextel in 2004. It will continue to try to reduce borrowings. Sprint's shares have risen by over a half from their low in March, as investors have placed bets that the company will be sold or broken up.

A fragile ceasefire in South Ossetia helped RUSSIA'S STOCKMARKET to stabilise after a torrid month in which lower energy prices have been compounded by concerns about political risk. In dollar terms, Moscow is the world's third-worst-performing bourse in the quarter to date, after Karachi and Lima. Turkey's stockmarket is the best performer, up by about a fifth.

THE BANK OF ENGLAND struck a gloomy note when its governor, Mervyn King, gave warning of a "difficult and painful adjustment" for the British economy. The central bank is now predicting that growth will stall in the first quarter of 2009. Perhaps as a result, the bank seemed less concerned about inflation, which it forecast would fall back below the 2% target within two years if interest rates remain unchanged. The pound fell to a 22-month low against the dollar.

Standard & Poor's lowered ARGENTINA's long-term sovereign debt rating farther into speculative territory. The one-notch downgrade, to B, reflects concerns about a slowdown and inflation; it contrasts with Brazil, which recently achieved investment-grade status. Argentina's government announced a debt buyback in response.

A NEW BATMAN FILM, "The Dark Knight", topped America's box office for the fourth weekend, according to Warner Bros. The film is already the third-largest-grossing of all time, although, adjusted for inflation, the caped crusader's latest venture ranks only 49th.

Vietnam sets out recovery path

The Vietnamese politburo, facing slowing economic growth and runaway inflation, has mapped out measures to improve economic development in the country in the remainder of this year. The government's challenges include achieving 7% economic growth in the year after first-half expansion of 6.5%, inflation of 27% and rising, and difficulties in investment and production due to increasing costs, a lack of capital and a fluctuating exchange rate. The financial and stock markets also remain unstable.

Workers trying to match rising pressure on their wallets, not least from a 31% increase in the price of petrol, are striking to back up demands for higher pay. Nearly 5,000 laborers at the Kingmaker footwear plant in the Vietnam-Singapore industrial zone in southern Binh Duong province, near Ho Chi Minh City, walked out earlier this month to back demands for a rise in their 1 million dong (US$60) per month salaries, Agence France Presse reported. More than 1,000 workers are also on strike at a South Korean factory in Long An province, the report said, citing the Thanh Nien daily. Vietnam on January 1 raised the minimum wage to 540,000 dong for state employees, to 620,000 dong for workers in state-owned companies, and to between 710,000 and 1 million dong for workers in foreign-invested enterprises.

A politburo statement last week claimed positive results had been achieved in curbing inflation, stabilizing the economy, ensuring social security and maintaining economic growth. The country is feeling the impact of the crisis-hit US economy and spiraling global commodity prices, while there is a lack of government action plans and synchronized guidance of local authorities. To rein in inflation, forecast by HSBC to climb above 30% year on year this month after July's 27%, and stabilize the economy, the politburo pointed to the need to continue monetary tightening policies, and to adjust the exchange rate to boost exports. It also said steps were required to prevent speculation, to manage operations of commercial banks and to improve the effectiveness of the banking system.

Declining prices for a variety of goods in Ho Chi Minh City suggest anti-inflationary policies such as increasing interest rates already taken by the central bank may be succeeding, with prices falling for a variety of good in Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnam News reported, citing distributors and traders. The prices of cement and steel in Vietnam's largest city have fallen as local demand weakens, the newspaper said. Steel prices have declined 5% over the past two weeks, while cement prices are 1% lower than a week ago, according to the report. The currency, the dong, meanwhile gained 1.8% in the seven days to August 11 before weakening again this week to 16,520 per US dollar on Tuesday. The currency has weakened from 16,144 per dollar at the start of the year.

The politburo asked the state-owned sector and businesses to improve the efficiency of investment capital from the state budget. It urged related ministries and agencies to effectively implement measures to reduce the trade deficit, while adopting import and special consumption taxes and non-tariff and monetary policies in line with international commitments. The trade gap in the seven months through July more than doubled to $15 billion, up from a $6.3 billion shortfall in the same period a year earlier, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing preliminary figures from the General Statistics Office in Hanoi.

The politburo called for more efforts to stamp out inappropriate regulations that hinder investment, production and trade activities. Priority should be given, it said, to boosting agriculture, forestry and fisheries while conditions should be improved for development of industrial and services sectors. The politburo said funds agreed to in the state budget and from other sources such as foreign direct investment, development assistance and government bonds should be disbursed more speedily to meet capital demand for manufacturing and capital projects.

Flexible tax policies should also be used in support of production and trade, particularly with regard to small and medium-sized businesses, while restructuring of state-owned businesses to bring them to market was also needed, the politburo said. At the other end of the economic spectrum, measures such as social security to help the poor, low-paid workers, and ethnic minorities should be simplified.

The politburo also indicated its intention to step up reforms and attack corruption. At the same time, it said press agencies had to supply accurate information on the party and state policies and take measures to fight against negative propaganda by "hostile forces". Even as the politburo sets out its year-end goals, the economic outlook is brightening a little, with commodity prices slipping and cost of fuel such as liquefied petroleum gas cheaper because of declines in global markets, Vietnam News said. The local price of rice has also eased, according to the newspaper.

Industry should also benefit from a decrease in power outages. The Viet Nam Electricity Group (EVN) had boosted power generation to 90% of its total capacity, a report on the Vietnam News website said on Wednesday. That represents a 20% increase in supply over July and may help GDP growth, which slowed in the first half from 7.9% in the first half last year, to pick up pace. "Most reservoirs serving hydroelectricity plants are full now," EVN general director Pham Le Thanh. "The current shortfall is mainly due to the fact that several new plants are yet to be completed and some others are under maintenance." EVN made a loss of 1.4 trillion dong (US$ 87.5 million) this year following the fuel price increase, he said. The company is seeking permission to increase tariffs, which were not raised when fuel prices were increased, the report said.

The stock market, among the world's worst performers this year, is also showing signs of a recovery. On Tuesday, the VN-Index closed up more than 5 points at 459.89 on higher trading volume, Vietnam News Agency reported. The index plummeted from a closing high at 1106 early last October to 366 on June 20.

Vietnam flood toll hits 112, more rains forecast

Military helicopters delivered instant noodles and fresh water to residents in mud-covered villages in northern Vietnam after floods and landslides killed scores of people, with more rains forecast to hit on Tuesday. At least 112 people have been killed after days of heavy rains triggered by the remnants of a tropical storm. Another 45 people were missing, the government said on Tuesday. Television footage showed helicopters delivering supplies to residents in the northern mountainous provinces of Lao Cai and Yen Bai. Most roads in the hardest-hit areas have been washed away. More than 1,100 military troops have been leading rescue work, turning over stones in streams to search for bodies, footage from state-run Vietnam Television station showed. Sniffer dogs have also been sent to the area to aid the search. The toll from the floods, the worst natural disaster to hit the Southeast Asian country this year, is expected to rise but no major impact on main export crops was expected. The region is about 1,500 km north of Vietnam's main rice and coffee production zones.

A tropical low-pressure system, formed in the Tonkin Gulf and was moving towards the country's north, is expected to make landfall later on Tuesday, the National Flood and Storm Prevention Centre said in an updated report. The system would dump heavy rains and trigger landslides from late Tuesday, the report said. Lao Cai province, bordering China, was the hardest hit by the deluge with 48 people dead and another 37 missing after floods swept through villages at the weekend, Lao Cai's Flood and Storm Prevention Centre said. All the victims were local residents, officials said.

Destructive flooding puts Southeast Asia at risk

Torrential rains and overflowing rivers have brought some of the worst flooding in decades to Vietnam and its neighbors, flooding cities and farmlands in five nations. At least 130 people were killed, dozens were missing and thousands were driven from their homes in northern Vietnam and hundreds of tourists were evacuated near the hill tribe resort area of Sapa. Flooding has also hit parts of Thailand, Cambodia and Laos as well as Myanmar, where waters rose in the Irrawaddy Delta, which is still recovering from a cyclone that left 38,000 people dead or missing in May. According to the official press in Myanmar, the floods affected much of the country, including the main city, Yangon, as well as Mandalay in the center and the Karen and Mon states in the southeast.

In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, officials said the Mekong River had brought the worst flooding in memory, rising to nearly 14 meters, or 45 feet, above its lowest level in the dry season. The high water in Vientiane broke a record set in 1966 and overflowed a levee that was built after that flood. Mudslides also cut the main road from Vientiane to the ancient capital of Luang Prabang, a city of temples and monasteries where the Mekong waters also rose. In parts of northeastern Thailand, officials said the Mekong had reached its highest level in 30 years, inundating farmlands and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people in three provinces along the river, which divides Thailand from Laos. Officials said the high water was caused by heavy downpours in southern China, Laos and Thailand. As the high waters of the Mekong moved downstream, Cambodia and eastern Thailand prepared for major floods and officials warned residents in some areas to move to higher ground along with their livestock.

In Vietnam's southern Mekong delta, where the 4,345-kilometer, or 2,700-mile, river flows into the sea, forecasters said that rising waters had reached a critical level two weeks earlier than last year and that worse flooding lay ahead. In northern Vietnam, the government said floodwaters peaked at close to their record levels of 1968. Military helicopters brought instant noodles and other supplies to stranded residents and airlifted hundreds of Vietamese and foreign tourists from Lao Cai, on the border with China. Several hundred train passengers en route to the popular tourist area, including about 50 foreign tourists, took refuge in hotels before being airlifted out, according to the Vietnamese press. In the neighboring province of Yen Bai, according to official reports, at least 35 people were killed, many of them buried under landslides that hit at night as they slept.

The government's Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control said in May that over the past three years, floods and storms had become stronger and more destructive. Last year's floods were followed by a rare prolonged cold spell at the end of 2007. That was followed in turn by unexpected scorching weather and early storms in the first months of 2008, the committee said. The most destructive flooding in recent years came in late 1999 in the country's central provinces, leaving 750 people dead or missing.

Toyo Ink plans $1 bln Vietnam power plant

Malaysia's Toyo Ink Group has applied to invest more than $1 billion in a coal-fired power plant in Vietnam, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday. The ink maker planned to build the 1,200-megawatt (MW) plant in Kien Luong district in the southern province of Kien Giang, the Planning and Investment Ministry-run Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper quoted the Industry and Trade Ministry as saying. The company will have 100 percent ownership of the plant. The plant in Kien Giang, far from Vietnam's northern coal hub, will use imported coal. State oil monopoly Petrovietnam and industrial park operator Itaco ITA.HM have also planned to invest in two other coal-fired power plants in Kien Luong with capacity of 2,000 MW and 1,200 MW respectively.

Two athletes caught for doping at Beijing Olympics

Two athletes from North Korea and Vietnam have been caught for doping at the Beijing Olympics. A 19-year-old Vietnamese gymnast tested positive for a prohibited substance that was likely to be a result of poor advice on what medicine she could take. International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies says the North Korean shooter Kim Jong-su who won a silver and bronze medal, tested positive for beta blockers which help steady athletes' hands. "In testing he came forward with a positive test for Propanalol. And as a result of this has been excluded from the Games, disqualified for the results he achieved in the 10 metre and 50 metre events. His medals and diplomas will be withdrawn and his Olympic identity and accreditation also immediately withdrawn and cancelled."

Tata Steel to build $5 bn Vietnam plant

India’s largest steel maker, Tata Steel has signed a $5 billion joint venture investment agreement in Vietnam to set up an integrated steel complex with 4.5 million tonne capacity. Tata Steel will own 65 per cent stake in the joint venture, while Vietnam Steel Corporation gets 30 per cent and the remaining 5 per cent goes to Vietnam Cement Industries. Both these companies are state-owned firms. Vietnam Steel is Vietnam's largest steel company and currently produces around 5 million tonne steel per annum. The integrated steel plant, which will be set up in Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh province, will be built in three phases. In the first phase, a cold rolling mill will be commissioned by the end of 2010, Tata Steel said in a statement.

The move is part of an effort by many Indian companies to secure supplies of raw materials overseas, as a booming economy makes these appear a scarce resource at home. The agreement enables Tata Steel to pick a 30 per cent stake in Thach Khe Iron Ore Joint Stock Company, which would undertake mining in the Thach Khe iron ore mine. “After wining Corus, Tatas are scouting for raw material assets across the world. The investment in Vietnam was discussed and almost finalised last year. Their acquisition in iron ore mine is part of their long-term strategy to have enough raw material reserves,” said an investment banker, close to Tata Group. Dau Van Hung, President of Vietnam Steel Corporation, Nguyen Ngoc Anh of Vietnam Cement Industries Corporation and B Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata. Steel signed the joint venture agreement at in Hanoi. Tata Steel shares went up 0.41 per cent to close at Rs 610.45 at the BSE in Wednesday.

City Developments Seeks Distressed Assets in Vietnam

City Developments Ltd., Singapore's second-largest real estate developer, may buy distressed assets in Vietnam as early as next year, Chairman Kwek Leng Beng said. The company has explored Vietnam, though isn't making any immediate investments because the market is ``very toppish,'' Kwek said. Residential property prices in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's biggest, declined as much as 40 percent between December 2007 and May of this year, according to Morgan Stanley. ``It's best to buy completed projects when they are distressed,'' Kwek, 67, said in an interview yesterday. ``Then, you don't have to do anything, you just collect income.''

The developer, which owns Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc, may buy hotels and residential and commercial projects in Vietnam, Kwek said. Distressed-asset investors will benefit from a wave of opportunities in Asia in the second half, when about $80 billion of debt will be refinanced, Cube Capital Group, an alternative investment fund that manages $1.2 billion of assets, said in June. City Developments will target assets that have gone through foreclosure or that are being sold at below market value. More of those assets may become available this year in Vietnam, where the benchmark stock index tumbled by almost half and the central bank raised interest rates three times to combat the fastest inflation since at least 1992.

Vietnam's central bank has asked lenders to limit bad debts to about 3 percent of their loans, Nguyen Dai Lai, deputy director of the central bank's department for development strategies, said by phone from Hanoi today. CapitaLand Ltd., Singapore's biggest developer, said in June it's seeking distressed assets in Japan and China. Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd., a Singapore-based operator of luxury resorts, said earlier this month it also expects to buy troubled assets in Asia. City Developments is also turning to Vietnam as growth slows in Singapore, which last week lowered its 2008 economic forecast for a second time. Vietnam's government expects the economy to expand 7 percent in 2008. City Developments should venture into emerging markets such as Vietnam in the medium to long term, said Brandon Lee, analyst at DMG & Partners Securities Pte in Singapore. The government expects as many as 22 million people in Ho Chi Minh City by 2020, and about 30 million by 2050, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Vietnam reported in May. The country's population of 86 million is increasingly shifting to urban areas as companies such as Nike Inc. and Intel Corp. expand production in Vietnam.

Vietnam is riding on the fundamental story of urbanization,'' Lee said. ``The office sector rents are also looking good and yields are getting more attractive.'' City Developments relies on its residential developments and office buildings and malls in Singapore for the bulk of its profit. Most of its overseas earnings come from its hotels through its Millennium & Copthorne chain, owner of properties such as the Biltmore in Los Angeles. Hotels made up 30 percent of its second- quarter pretax profit of S$248.9 million. The developer is already raising funds for its overseas investments. Kwek told reporters yesterday the company is raising as much as S$1 billion through Islamic financing to ``bottomfish at the right time.''

Vietnam-Russia Bank to expand business to Moscow

Vietnam-Russia Bank has obtained permission to establish a 100-percent owned bank in Russia, Vietnam's first investment in an overseas bank, the central bank said. The Hanoi-based unlisted venture would still need a licence from the Planning and Investment Ministry before opening the unit in Moscow, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement seen on Friday. Vietnam-Russia Bank is a $62.5-million venture, 51 percent owned by the Bank for Investment and Development, Vietnam's second-largest, and 49 percent by VTB the second largest lender in Russia formerly known as Vneshtorgbank.

The venture bank said on its website (www.vrbank.com.vn) it plans to establish a domestic network to cover major cities and also aims to do business in Ukraine and Poland. It gave no timeframe. The venture became operational in late 2006, when Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Hanoi for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. It is the only venture bank to have a non-Asian partner among Vietnam's six such businesses. Vietnamese banks run other ventures with banks from Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, South Korea and Thailand. Vietnam-Russia Bank said its total assets reached $228 million at the end of June, up 25 percent from the end of 2007.

Diary aims to shed light on gay Vietnam

His name means bravery, and that's what it took for Nguyen Van Dung to talk about life in "the third world" -- a reference in Vietnam not to poverty but to the gay and lesbian community. At age 41, he has decided to lay bare almost everything in a tell-all diary called "Bong," a slang term for homosexuals, written by two local journalists after more than 300 hours of taped interviews with him. Dung is sure many people here won't like his memoir, which has triggered both praise and criticism for its often explicit recollections of sexual adventures and relationships with other men. But Dung says it was high time to try to change attitudes in Vietnam.

"I don't want to be famous," he told AFP. "Being famous means being notorious, and the price you pay is high. But to achieve my goal, I had to sacrifice my privacy. It wasn't easy. It was a fierce struggle for me."

Very few gay people publicly come out in Vietnam. Homosexuality is still a largely taboo subject in the communist-governed, traditionally patriarchal society, long ruled by Confucian social mores and Buddhist beliefs. The book had a modest first print run of 2,000 copies. But the fact that it was published at all is considered by many here a sign of changing attitudes and greater tolerance in this fast-changing country. Many gay men, Dung says in the book, have struggled with deep shame for not meeting societal expectations -- marrying, building a family, taking over the house, caring for their ageing parents and producing male offspring. "If you were born gay," he writes, "no matter whether you are a man or a woman, you were born at a bad time, on a bad day, in a bad month, in a bad year, under a very bad star."

In one section he speaks of the deep torment he and others have felt. "If there is the so-called next life, I beg God to let me be an ordinary man or an ordinary woman, whatever gender it may be, but to be as normal as other people. It seems a very simple dream, but for me and my friends being normal is impossible."

The word "bong" can mean shadow or silhouette in Vietnamese and is sometimes used as a moderately derogatory term for homosexual males because it suggests they are mere "shadows of normal men." Dung, with a tattooed arm and an unusually deep voice, was somewhat of a lady-killer in his 20s, according to friends, but eventually came out three years ago, having spent a lifetime hiding his sexuality. "I could not pretend to love a woman just to maintain family happiness," he said. "It would have been torture. I cannot live like that. I cannot be another person, rather than myself. I cannot hurt a woman just to cover myself." He explained in the diary that coming out, or publicly announcing being gay, requires much bravery in Vietnam, saying: "You must be very courageous to rob a beloved son from his parents and to give them back a distorted creature."

Dung started to work with a foreign-funded non-government group in 2005 and last year founded his own self-help gay group called "Green Pine," named after the hardy evergreen tree because it can survive in harsh conditions. Dung, who used to work in a butcher shop, now devotes much of his time to advocacy work, informing gay and lesbian people about lifestyle and health issues including safe sex, and combating prejudice in the wider society. "I used to think that I was ill," he writes. "Only now can I really understand that gays are normal people in terms of health and intellect. We are only different in terms of our sexual tendency."

Vietnam to deport Glitter after jail time for child sex abuse

Gary Glitter, a one-time British glam rocker, is set for release Tuesday from his Vietnamese prison where he has spent two years and nine months for child sexual molestation, officials say. The disgraced 1970s pop star, once famed for his flamboyant bouffant wigs and silver jumpsuits, faces immediate deportation from communist Vietnam to his home country, according to his lawyer Le Thanh Kinh. Glitter, 64, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was arrested in Vietnam in November 2005 and convicted the following March of committing obscene acts with two girls then aged 11 and 12 in the resort town of Vung Tau. He was sentenced to three years in jail, the minimum term under Vietnamese law, which was cut by three months as part of national sentence reductions for the traditional Tet Lunar New Year in 2007.

The jail time in Vietnam was a new low point for Glitter, who had fallen from grace decades after he was a king of the "glam pop" era, a time of showmen in platform shoes, sequinned dresses and heavy make-up. The pop star, who sold more then 20 million records, had long faded into obscurity when he hit the headlines in 1997 after a computer repair shop found his hard-drive was loaded with child pornography. Glitter was arrested and two years later sentenced to four months' jail, of which he served two. The judge at his trial said the more than 4,000 images were "of the very, very worst possible type." Pursued by the British media, Glitter reportedly moved to Cuba, then resettled in Cambodia, where he lived on and off for years before he was expelled in 2002 after reportedly trawling for child sex. He later returned to Phnom Penh, where he met three Vietnamese prostitutes, according to prosecutors at his trial.

The women came to live with him in a villa in Vung Tau -- a Vietnamese oil industry and resort town with an extensive red-light industry -- where they helped him procure the children for sexual acts. A British citizen there alerted a London newspaper, which tracked Glitter down and reported that he was living with a teenage girl. Glitter was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City's international airport on November 19 while trying to board a flight to Thailand. The former pop star, who paid 2,000 dollars in compensation to the family of each victim, evaded the more serious charge of child rape, which carries a maximum penalty of death by firing squad in Vietnam. The judge who presided over the closed trial, Hoang Thanh Tung, later called Glitter "sick" and "abnormal," detailing instances of fondling, oral sex and more disturbing sexual acts with the children. Glitter maintained his innocence and claimed he was teaching the girls English, allowing them to stay overnight because they were scared of ghosts. After the verdict Glitter, his head shaved except for a grey ponytail and a goatee, blamed a media "conspiracy" as he was bundled into a police van.

Years later his odyssey continues, but not the way he had hoped. In recent Vietnamese newspaper interviews from his cell at the Z30D Thu Duc prison in southern Binh Thuan province, he announced plans to move to Singapore or Hong Kong after his release and to start recording music again. Instead, Vietnam will send him back to his home country, his lawyer said. "I paid for the ticket for him," Kinh told AFP last week. "He's a British citizen. (Vietnam) wants him to go back to the UK." The British embassy has declined to comment on the case.

Photo Exhibit on Vietnamese transformation

''That's me — I lived that," college administrator Gigi Do said when she first saw the groundbreaking Smithsonian show Exit Saigon, Enter Little Saigon. Thousands of other Houstonians will soon feel the same. The photo exhibit, which debuted in Washington, is now in the middle of a 12-city tour. It arrives in Houston Aug. 21. It's the first Smithsonian history exhibit ever to focus on the million Vietnamese refugees who poured into this country after Saigon's fall. Do, a Vietnamese immigrant and director of foreign programs at Houston Community College, arranged for the show to come here. With the third biggest Vietnamese enclave in the country, Houston has witnessed firsthand the astounding transformation of more than 60,000 war survivors into American citizens in just a few decades.

Arriving from Asian refugee camps, the first wave of traumatized refugees — many from middle-class backgrounds, but most with no English — threw themselves into American culture. Tenaciously, they insisted on saving many of their best traditions and skills at the same time. Their adaptation has been so fast, so dramatic that many of their children don't grasp what it took to achieve it. This might be even more true for Houston's non-Asians, now used to Vietnamese immigrants who excel in the mainstream; it's sometimes easy to imagine this success came effortlessly. "We are so busy trying to build our lives in the United States that we often forget to document our story," Do said.

The Smithsonian exhibit fills in some of the silence, offering photos, text and artifacts about Vietnamese-American's lives, especially since 1975. Tens of thousands more died at sea trying to get here. For many of the first generation, the exhibit's images will jar strong memories. There are black and white shots of men scaling U.S. Embassy walls after Saigon's defeat. There are images of little girls queuing for rice at a refugee camp on the island of Guam. And there are photos of the first overwhelming days at Fort Chaffee, Ark., where many Vietnamese who settled in Houston were first flown by the administration of President Gerald Ford. HCC would play a pivotal role for many of those Houston arrivals, offering vocational training immediately after the first wave of refugees arrived. Restaurateur Kim Son was one of the first students. The Midtown community college, located in Houston's original "Vietnamtown" will host the exhibit in a specially configured space.

Tributes to the many Vietnamese successes — astronaut Eugene Trinh, former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen and shoe designer Taryn Rose — also appear in the show. While the first refugees sought jobs that demanded little English and rewarded grueling labor, their children have the skills and confidence to plunge into creative fields such as computer science and clothing design. Among the exhibit's more surprising artifacts is a letter penned in the 1700s from Thomas Jefferson to a Vietnamese potentate. The Virginian wanted tips on growing rice. Items like this, viewers are reminded, show that America's contact with Vietnamese predated the 20th century war. The ongoing Vietnamese contributions to Houston show how fruitful this contact continues to be.