Hanoi  - South-east Asian tourism officials meeting in Hanoi are searching for ways to ease the impacts of the global economic downturn that is hurting regional tourism, a Vietnamese official said Saturday.

The number of tourists visiting many Southeast Asian countries has plunged since the advent of the global financial crisis this autumn. In Vietnam, hotels have slashed room rates by 30 per cent or more.

"This forum aims not only to help ease Vietnam's tourism problems, but also to benefit all ASEAN tourism industries, as well as those of ASEAN's partner countries, China, Japan and South Korea," said Nguyen Manh Cuong, deputy head of Vietnam's National Administration of Tourism.

Hanoi - The older sister of Vietnam's first reported bird flu case for 2009 died in hospital last week, health officials said Thursday.

Bui Thi Thuong, 13, was hospitalized December 31 and died on January 2 at Ba Thuoc hospital in Thanh Hoa province, 150 kilometres south of Hanoi.

"When she was first hospitalized her fever was not high, just 38.5 degrees Celsius," said Dr Truong Thi Mau, director of the Ba Thuoc district hospital. "We didn't think of bird flu."

Hanoi - Ten people were killed and 8 others injured in 3 serious traffic accidents over a two-day period in Vietnam, traffic police officials said Tuesday.

On Sunday a driver lost control of his truck whilst negotiating a mountain pass in Son La Province, 300 kilometres north-west of the capital Hanoi. The 15-ton truck had Laos registration plates and was overloaded by 15 tons. It plunged into a 40-metre deep abyss.

"Four people were killed and one seriously injured," said district traffic police head Major Nguyen Dang Quan. The driver was among the dead, he added.

Hanoi - Vietnamese workers found an unexploded bomb believed to have been dropped by the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, a military official said Monday.

The bomb, estimated to weigh 250 kilograms, was 1.2 metres long and has a diameter of 30 centimeters. It was found Friday in front of a house on central Hai Ba Trung street.

Workers were digging up the street to lay fibre optic cables when they discovered the bomb.

Hanoi - Some 4,000 workers at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in Vietnam's Thanh Hoa province went on strike over the weekend, protesting alleged misconduct by the management in the first wildcat strike of 2009, police and trade union officials said Monday.

"This is the first wildcat strike in our province this year," said Tran Thi Gioi, president of Thanh Hoa province's Trade Union.

"This is a spontaneous wildcat strike because workers are angry about the way management has treated them," said Le Duc Ngoan, a policeman in Quang Hung Commune.

Hanoi  - Floods triggered by unseasonably heavy rains have killed at least three people, left another four missing and injured four others in central Vietnam, disaster management officials said Friday.

The central provinces saw heavy rain between December 30 and January 2, with total rainfall of 200 to 400 millimeters.

"According to the latest figures from Friday morning, one person has been killed and one is missing in Quang Nam Province," said Huynh Tan Phat of the Central Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Control.

Fisherwoman Tran Thi Toi was killed when her boat sank on Wednesday. Nguyen Ngoc Tam was reported missing after his fishing boat was swept away.