Hanoi - Vietnamese officials vowed Thursday to stop dairy farmers from pouring away their unwanted milk, even though consumers frightened by the Chinese melamine scare have stopped buying it.

Vietnamese press this week have reported numerous incidents of dairy farmers pouring excess milk into rivers or onto roadways. Vietnamese milk consumption has dropped sharply since the discovery this fall that world milk supplies had been contaminated by Chinese milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Hanoi - A court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced a Mennonite Christian pastor to three years in prison Thursday for failing to repay debts owed by the company of her late first husband.

Nguyen Thi Hong, 48, had been in jail awaiting trial since her arrest in November 2007. Her second husband is the pastor, lawyer and social activist Nguyen Hong Quang, head of the Mennonite church in Vietnam.

After holding Hong for 14 months, authorities Thursday tried her for failing to repay two debts incurred in 1999 by the company of her late first husband, who died in 2003. The debts totaled 25,000 dollars.

Hanoi  - Broken dykes due to high tides have caused the flooding of more than 400 houses in Ho Chi Minh City, a disaster official said Monday.

"The latest broken section of dyke was breached at about 4 am today, flooding more than 100 houses," said Mai Tuan Binh, head of an irrigation unit in the Thu Duc district of Vietnam's largest city.

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.