JarJar Nixon's Blues Kitchen

The New York Times

October 27, 2006 Friday
Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section C; Column 1; Business/Financial Desk; INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS; Pg. 7

LENGTH: 1010 words

HEADLINE: Terms Approved for Vietnam's Admission to W.T.O.

BYLINE: By KEITH BRADSHER

DATELINE: HANOI, Vietnam, Oct. 26

BODY:

Trade negotiators who were gathered in Geneva on Thursday approved the
terms of Vietnam's admission to the World Trade Organization. But the
biggest winners from its prospective entry will probably be European and
other Asian businesses, not American.

Companies around the world have been scrutinizing the rapid opening of
Vietnam's markets. And this agreement, which is expected to receive
final approval by the organization's 149 member countries on Nov. 7,
paves the way for a long list of changes aimed at transforming the
Vietnamese economy.

The United States and other trading powers have driven a tough deal with
Vietnam -- certainly tougher than in China's agreement to join the
W.T.O.
in 2001. So the changes in Vietnam are likely to be significant.

The deal concluded on Thursday requires Vietnam to reduce or repeal many
import duties, eliminate a long list of textile-industry subsidies and
allow foreign banks to incorporate wholly owned subsidiaries in Vietnam,
beginning on April 1.

Vietnam has some of the world's highest tariffs now -- 90 percent on
imported cars, 100 percent on whiskey and brandy. In return, quotas on
Vietnam's garment exports will be lifted and, like other members, the
Vietnamese will have the right to challenge other countries' trade
barriers before W.T.O. tribunals in Geneva.

Vietnamese admission would leave Russia, Iran and Ukraine as the biggest
countries that have not yet joined the W.T.O.

Among international companies, the experience of Prudential P.L.C. of
Britain is what they dream of emulating. Eight years after receiving the
first license for a foreign company to offer life insurance in Vietnam
since the end of its war, Prudential has captured 41 percent of the life
insurance market. That compares with 38 percent for Bao Viet, the
state-owned life insurer, 11 percent for Manulife of Toronto and smaller
shares for other companies.

The British Prudential has made large profits by investing insurance
premiums in local stock markets, up more than 70 percent this year, and
in the soaring real estate market and government bonds, which pay
interest rates well above Vietnam's 7 percent inflation rate.

With strong ties to provincial and central government officials,
Prudential has now received the first license for a foreign company to
offer a broad array of loans, including mortgages and consumer loans --
giving it an early edge against foreign banks that hope to get into the
Vietnamese market next year.

''It's the first-mover advantage,'' said Charlie E. Oropeza, chief
executive of Vietnam operations for Prudential P.L.C., which has no
connection to Prudential Financial of Newark.

European and Asian companies have similar leads in other markets, even
as the United States imports nearly $9 in goods from Vietnam for every
$1 of goods it sells here. Groupe Lafarge of France, the world's largest
cement producer, has built a large, modern cement-grinding operation on
the Saigon River near the renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Metro of Germany dominates retailing with a chain of eight Costco-like
warehouse outlets that sell to mom-and-pop stores across the country.
But Warren Hodder, Metro's director of nonfood purchasing and
merchandising in Vietnam, said that no American company had called upon
him to sell its goods in his stores, although delegations for American
beef and Washington State apples came in with sales pitches.

American companies have been slow to move, partly because of the memory
of the Vietnam War. The United States did not lift its embargo on trade
with Vietnam until 1994, and did not establish formal trade relations
until the end of 2001.

So American companies now rank ninth in foreign investment in Vietnam,
with just a quarter of the approved investment from Taiwan or Singapore.

There could be another delay for Americans in coming months. Congress is
scheduled to vote in mid-November on whether to grant permanent status
to the current, but temporary, normal trade relations with Vietnam. If
the measure fails, Vietnam would still be able to join the W.T.O., but
W.T.O.
rules would not apply to trade with the United States.

What Vietnam really wants from the United States is high technology,
including nuclear power plant technology. But Vietnam, like China, is
restricted by American limits on the export of military-related
technology.

Vietnamese officials insist that any attempt to develop nuclear power is
related to energy security rather than weapons. France, South Korea and
Russia have each been lobbying hard for Vietnam to buy their nuclear
technology, but American companies and government officials have been
silent, said Le Dang Doanh, a senior economic policy adviser to the
government here.

''Vietnam is very interested to increase imports from the United
States,''
Mr. Doanh said, adding that the terms of trade in general favor the
United States. ''How many T-shirts must Vietnam export to buy a
Boeing?''

Some of the biggest changes under W.T.O. membership will start coming
next April 1. That is the date when Vietnam has agreed to allow foreign
banks to set up 100 percent foreign-owned subsidiaries.

With nearly double-digit economic growth and just 6 million bank
accounts among 84 million people, Vietnam is one of the world's great
untapped banking markets. Houses are commonly bought and sold with
briefcases stuffed with cash. Mr. Doanh said, however, that while the
banking industry might soon flourish, no foreign bank was likely to
replicate Prudential's success in life insurance.

The brokerage industry is also attracting foreign interest. Foreign
investors can currently set up brokerage accounts in Vietnam to buy and
sell stocks. But there are strict rules to prevent this money from being
diverted into other activities, like real estate purchases.

Vietnam's two stock exchanges, one in Ho Chi Minh City and a much
smaller one in Hanoi, experienced feverish trading this year. Their
combined index more than doubled from the start of the year until April
25, before sliding back somewhat since.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com

GRAPHIC: Photo: Under an international agreement reached yesterday,
quotas for Vietnamese garment producers, like the Viet Tien Export and
Import Company in Ho Chi Minh City, will be lifted once the nation
enters the W.T.O. (Photo by Chau Doan for The New York Times)

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Deutsche Presse-Agentur

October 4, 2006 Wednesday 5:25 AM EST

LENGTH: 388 words

HEADLINE: Vietnam's miraculous "parachute boy" survives typhoon's wild
ride

DATELINE: Hanoi

Residents of typhoon-ravaged central Vietnam are
taking hope in the amazing story of a baby boy who survived when he was
ripped out of his house and sent flying along with the home's roof.

Le Ngoc Dong, 13 months old, was blown over a three-story school before
landing in a pond 150 meters away, his family says. His fall was
cushioned by a bed of floating plants that also kept him from sinking
until his father plucked him out.

"It's a miracle," his father, Le Van Vinh, a 35-year-old welder in the
city of Danang, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.
"My son is very lucky. My family is very lucky."

The infant has gained the nickname "Parachute Boy" after his wild ride.

"Everyone here knows his story," said a doctor in Danang's Thanh Khe
Hospital, who said the boy sustained only a slight head injury.
"He's very lucky he fell into the plants."

The baby was sleeping in a cradle hung from a roof beam in his
small home Sunday morning as his family and some friends sheltered from
typhoon Xangsane, which killed at least 42 people in Vietnam and has
left tens of thousands homeless.

When the 117-kilometre-per-hour winds tore the roof off the house, the
cradle and little Dong went flying with it. His father and two friends
immediately ran out and saw the roof and the cradle fly over a nearby
school as they gave chase.

A neighbour, Vo Van Hoa, told local Thanh Nien newspaper he also saw the
strange sight of the flying roof and cradle.

"When the roof was in the air, it broke into two parts," Hoa told the
paper. "One part fell down on the school and the other part flew over
the school and into the pond behind it."

When Vinh and his friends caught up, they found baby Dong's cradle in a
bamboo stand and the baby himself sinking slowly in the pond, slowed
down by the aquatic plants known as "duckweed."

The boy retrieved, everyone returned to ride out the rest of the storm
in the now-roofless house, which eventually collapsed, though no one
else was injured.

Now homeless, Dong's father said the whole family still feels like
celebrating.

"My house has collapsed and we're staying with relatives while I
rebuild," Vinh said. "But I will hold a party to celebrate my son's
miracle survival."
Oct 0406 0525 GMT

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

October 3, 2006 Tuesday 7:02 AM EST

LENGTH: 314 words

HEADLINE: Tens of thousands homeless as Vietnam typhoon toll rises to 41

DATELINE: Hanoi

BODY:

DPA x Vietnam Weather Tens of thousands homeless as Vietnam typhoon toll

rises to 41 Hanoi
Tens of thousands of people were homeless by Typhoon
Xangsane in central Vietnam Tuesday as the death toll from the storm
rose to 41, officials said.

"Local authorities are bracing to supply needy people with food
and water, and military forces are helping them repair their homes,"
said Nguyen Dong, an official in the storm-response department of
Danang, the city worst-hit by Xangsane.

More than 10,000 homes were destroyed and at least 200,000 houses
had their roofs torn off in the storm, according to state media
figures.

Schools remained closed, and electricity had only been partially
restored in Danang and nearby Quang Nam provinces after Xangsane
barrelled into Vietnam Sunday morning, days after hitting the
Philippines, which has so far reported 219 dead in Xangsane and heavy
rains that followed the storm.

While Danang had mostly restored electrical service by Tuesday
afternoon, outlying provinces were struggling to clear debris. The
main road in Quang Binh province to the Laos border remained cut by
landslides, said Nguyen Ngoc Giai of the provincial storm department.

"We are supplying instant noodles and drinking water to those who
have lost their houses," Giai said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Tuesday ordered 1,500 tons of
rice to be sent from the national stockpile to Danang, Quang Nam and
Thua Thien Hue provinces, according to a government report.

Estimates of damage from the storm topped 600 million dollars in
Danang and Quang Nam provinces alone, officials there said.

The official count of typhoon deaths rose to 41 Tuesday with
Danang accounting for 24 of those deaths, an official with the
national storm and flood committee said.

The figure included 27 killed when the typhoon struck and the rest
drowning in floods caused by heavy rains.
Oct 0306 0702 GMT

The Wagner Society of Washington, DC

presents

SAUL LILIENSTEIN

on

The Appropriation of Wagner: Germany in the 1930s

Thursday, October 19, 2006

at 7:30 P.M.

Funger Hall

2201 G Street, N.W.,

at the George Washington University

Washington, DC

The Society will present this program free to the
public. Mr. Lilienstein will focus on Lohengrin and
Die Meistersinger to illustrate the artistic currents
and political distortions of the Nazi era. He will
play relevant excerpts from the two operas and show
slides of stage productions from Germany in the 1930s,
along with clips from the films of Leni Riefenstahl.
Attending a Lilienstein lecture is like attending a
performance that mixes improvisation with scholarship,
thereby taking a fresh and novel look at each opera
examined.

Saul Lilienstein is a former student of Leonard
Bernstein. He first came to the attention of local
audiences as the conductor of the Handel Choir of
Baltimore in the 1960s. Later he turned to opera and
produced and conducted more than fifty works as
Artistic Director of the Harford Opera Theater and of
Operetta Renaissance. He has taught at the
Smithsonian Institution, the Johns Hopkins School of
Continuing
Studies, the Morgan State University, Essex Community
College, and the Maryland Institute. He is a frequent
lecturer in the O-Zone Lectures in the Opera House of
the Kennedy Center before each of the operas produced
by the Washington National Opera. His musically
illustrated commentaries on more than fifty compact
disks about forty-five different operas have been a
very popular success for the opera company.

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C. is a private
non-profit organization created for the study and
enjoyment of Richard Wagner's art. Most events are
free to members and the public. The Wagner Society
welcomes new members and contributions at any time.
Membership forms are available at
http://www.wagner-dc.org
or by calling the Society at 301.907.2600.

The Wagner Society of Washington, D.C.

P.O. Box 58213

Washington, D.C. 20037

Telephone 301.907.2600

Facsimile 301.907.8671

http://www.wagner-dc.org

Wow, this sounds really bad...

Sunday Tasmanian (Australia)

October 1, 2006 Sunday

SECTION: WORLD; Pg. 20

LENGTH: 268 words

HEADLINE: Rush for refuge as storm looms

AP

BODY:

VIETNAM began evacuating more than 180,000 people from its central coast
as powerful Typhoon Xangsane approached from the Philippines, where it
left at least 63 people dead and about 70 missing, officials said
yesterday.

''The evacuation, the biggest ever in central Vietnam, must be completed
before 5pm Saturday,'' said Van Phu Chinh, head of the regional Flood
and Storm Control Department in Danang.

The evacuees were from nine central provinces that could be affected by
the typhoon, he said.

About 522 fishing boats with nearly 4800 fishermen on board were still
out at sea, he said.

In Danang, soldiers helped fishermen who had returned to shore to move
their boats to higher land yesterday.

People streamed out of coastal communities, boarding buses and
motorcycles to seek shelter inland in schools and government buildings.

Xangsane, with winds of 120km/h and gusts of up to 150 km/h, was
expected to make landfall in central Vietnam early today.

In the Philippines, at least 63 people were killed by flash floods,
landslides and falling debris, officials said yesterday.

About 70 others were missing, the Office of Civil Defence said, adding
that close to 40,000 people were forced to flee their homes in
metropolitan Manila and 15 northern and central provinces.

Electricity was restored to about 60 per cent of the main Philippine
island of Luzon, which suffered a blackout at the height of the typhoon
on Thursday, the state-run National Transmission Corp said.

Authorities said damage to infrastructure and agricultural crops and
livestock had topped 365 million pesos ($A9.6 million) and was likely to
rise.