By John Liu Northwest Asian Weekly I recently took a long overdue vacation to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and it was a really exciting experience, one that I gleaned many lessons from. Here are my 7 tips for surviving Vietnam when you’re not Vietnamese! (The exchange rate on my trip was ₫22,500 Viet […]
Former US foreign service officer sentenced in visa fraud
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former U.S. visa chief in Vietnam has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for accepting more than $3 million in bribes in exchange for visas for entry into the U.S. Michael T. Sestak, a former U.S. foreign service officer, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Washington. He […]
Hong Kong investors to purchase Seattle’s Columbia Center — High-rise and high price: $725 million
By Staff Northwest Asian Weekly Seattle has the Space Needle and the Smith Tower, the city’s guaranteed architectural treasures. But the building that is hard to overlook? That would be the tallest building in Seattle: Columbia Center, the city’s monolithic building at 76 stories high—and it is also the tallest building in the state of […]
‘Napalm girl’ photographer returns — with iPhone, Instagram
By Ted Anthony Associated Press TRANG BANG, Vietnam (AP) — He stands in the northbound lane of Vietnam’s Highway 1, traffic swirling around him, horns honking. He is pointing. Right there, he says — that’s where it happened. That’s where the screaming children appeared. That’s where I made the picture that the world couldn’t forget. […]
Vietnam meets demands to end strike in Nike, Adidas factory
By Tran Van Minh Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Workers at a major Vietnamese footwear factory for Nike and Adidas ended a weeklong strike last Thursday after the government agreed to their demands on retirement payouts. The stoppage by thousands of workers at the Taiwanese-owned Pou Yuen factory in southern Ho Chi Minh City […]
VOICES FROM THE YOUTH: An argument for returning to the country of your birth
By Julie Tolmie SYLP On a hot, smoggy morning last December, I stepped off of a plane and onto Vietnamese soil. My family and I had just arrived in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City, after a bumpy flight down from Japan and another one before that from Seattle. In total, we had flown over […]
The Village Report — The ins and outs of crossing borders in Southeast Asia
By Dipika Kohli Northwest Asian Weekly Our brown bus got to Phnom Penh right at 4 p.m. as promised. My son, husband, and I alighted on Monivong long before the official depot in the center of town. This was going to be a different kind of arrival, without the swarming of a thousand and one […]
Vietnam allows anti-China protest over oil rig in Paracel Islands
By Chris Brummitt Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Vietnam allowed several hundred demonstrators to stage a noisy rally outside the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi on May 11 against Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig in the contested South China Sea that has triggered a tense standoff and raised fears of confrontation.
Critics pile on Vietnam in rare constitutional debate
By Chris Brummitt THE Associated Press HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam’s leaders sought to boost their flagging legitimacy by asking the public for suggestions on constitutional reform. What they got instead was rare open criticism of one-party rule, a fired journalist turned poster boy for dissent, and another lesson on how the Internet has changed […]
Vietnam deports US activist who was held for 9 months
By Shaya Tayefe Mohajer The Associated Press LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) — A Vietnamese American accused of conspiring to overthrow Vietnam’s communist government smiled broadly as he reunited with his family after he was deported back to the United States. Nguyen Quoc Quan, who had been detained for nine months, was greeted by his wife, […]