Vietnam must improve rights: US envoy pick

WASHINGTON - THE nominee to be the next US ambassador to Vietnam on Wednesday saluted warming relations between the former enemies but said the communist nation needed to improve human rights for fuller ties.

Mr David Shear, a veteran diplomat in Asia, pledged in a Senate confirmation hearing to make sure 'our relationship with Vietnam is among the most successful in the East Asian region'.

Quoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mr Shear said that the United States and Vietnam 'have reached a level of cooperation that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.'

But Mr Shear said there 'remains a deep concern about the imprisonment of dissidents, restrictions on the media and the Internet and the harassment of religious groups'.

'Vietnam will not realise its full potential without greater respect for human rights, and its troubling record in this area could limit the growth of our relationship,' he said. He pledged that he would 'make human rights and religious freedom a central part of my conversations with Vietnam's leaders and with the Vietnamese people.'

Most recently, the United States raised concerns over the sentencing of prominent Vietnamese dissident Cu Huy Ha Vu, the son of a revolutionary leader, who got into trouble over his writings and interviews with foreign media. -- AFP

Giant pumps rushed from US to Japan

WASHINGTON - TWO of the world's largest cement boom pumps are being rushed to Japan to help cool reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the company that makes the equipment said on Friday.

Two giant trucks equipped with powerful pumps and flexible arms with a 70m reach will be used to shoot water from giant hoses to cool the nuclear reactors, or cement to seal off the site, said Ms Kelly Blickle, a spokesman with the US subsidiary of the German company Putzmeister.

Similar pumps were used in Chernobyl following the April 1986 meltdown, Ms Blickle told AFP. The boom pumps, normally used to pour concrete for bridges and skyscrapers under construction, can feed water over the destroyed buildings and target the reactor hotspots.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), the Fukushima plant operator, 'didn't specifically say that they wanted to pump concrete, but it is the option, they don't have to bring in more equipment should that need occur', Ms Blickle said.

The equipment can also be operated via radio remote control - an operator can be some 2km away while maneuvering the boom pump. The company is working on extending that distance to 4km, Ms Blickle said.

Eleven Putzmeister truck-mounted concrete pumps and stationary pumps were used during the Chernobyl accident, the company said. Two US companies had bought the boom pumps, but agreed instead to let Putzmeister re-direct the machines to Japan and delay their orders, Ms Blickle said. -- AFP

US says Myanmar remains 'oppressive'

Asian Social Politics - WASHINGTON - THE United States said on Wednesday it remains deeply concerned by the 'oppressive political environment' in Myanmar even with the disbanding of a military junta.

Washington is demanding the release of political prisoners and official recognition of the National League for Democracy, the main and now dissolved opposition party of pro-democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

'We remain deeply concerned about Burma's oppressive political environment,' said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. Myanmar's strongman leader Senior General Than Shwe signed a decree officially dissolving the military junta, clearing the way for the installation of a civilian government.

The army hierarchy retains a firm grip on power in the resource-rich South-east Asian country, however, and many analysts believe Than Shwe will attempt to retain some sort of control behind the scenes.

The handover came after widely-panned elections last November - the country's first in 20 years - which were marred by the absence of Suu Kyi and claims of cheating and intimidation.

Mr Toner, without commenting directly on the move, blasted the November vote as a 'fundamentally flawed electoral process that has ensured the key military regime figures have continued to dominate the government.' -- AFP

Time running out on US soldiers missing in Vietnam

HANOI - WITH increasingly few of their families left alive and acidic soil eating into their buried remains, time is running out to find the last Americans listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War.

But for the head of a relatives' group, giving up is not an option. 'We need to act now,' said Ann Mills-Griffiths, executive director of the National League of POW/MIA Families, whose brother has been missing since September 1966 when his navy aircraft disappeared over North Vietnam.

Almost four decades after the end of US combat involvement in the South-east Asian nation, few parents of about 1,700 missing soldiers and airmen are still alive and siblings are often in their 60s.

Witnesses are also ageing, their fading physical and mental abilities limiting their ability to assist in investigations. Mrs Mills-Griffiths, 69, was in Hanoi for talks that ended at the weekend with Vietnamese officials about a 'renewed effort' to open up archival records which could provide vital clues as to what happened in some of the cases.

She was optimistic that the records would be made available, with 'very good commitment' from the Vietnamese during the talks. 'But we're running out of time,' warned Mrs Mills-Griffiths, who has made about 30 trips to Vietnam as head of the families' group.

The US and Vietnam have cooperated on investigations into missing American servicemen since 1985 - 'the bridge', she says, which led to a normalisation of diplomatic relations 10 years later. -- AFP