crocsbeach

Vietnamese Protest China Amid Rising Tensions

Hundreds of Vietnamese launched a third week of protests against China on Sunday amid escalating tensions in disputed waters of the South China Sea, where both countries recently conducted live-fire military drills.About 300 people gathered near the Chinese Embassy in the capital, Hanoi, and marched through the streets, yelling "Down with China!" and demanding that their powerful northern neighbor stay out of Vietnam's territory. Crowds also gathered in southern Ho Chi Minh City.Authorities searching a 30-square-mile swath of inch penguin model forest for a former militia leader and survivalist say the man was prepared for his shootout with sheriff's deputies and left several caches of food in the area.

"We will fight for our country if the nation needs us," said student Nguyen Manh Ha, 20. "Not only me,The manslaughter trial surrounding a blaze that killed two firefighters digital conceal ed pen in a condemned ground zero bank tower is wrapping up.Closing arguments are due to start Tuesday in the case against three construction-company supervisors and a firm that employed two of them. but all Vietnamese people will die to proI put on a bathing suit, slipped on my crocs beach and walked from the decktect our territory."Protests are extremely rare in Vietnam and are typically quashed quickly by security forces, but Hanoi has allowed the demonstrations to go on for the past three Sundays amid tight security. At one point, the crowd, waving Vietnamese flags, stopped at a department store and shouted "Boycott Chinese products!"

"I'm here today to protect my country from an invading China," said Nguyen Long, 82, who fought in a short, bloody land border war with China in 1979. "I'm sure those in the embassy are listening to us shouting 'Down with China!'"Relations between the communist countries hit a low point after two incidents in the past month involving clashes between Chinese and Vietnamese boats in the South China Sea.

Vietnam accuses Chinese vessels of hindering oil exploration surveys in an area 200 nautical miles off its central coast that it claims as its economic exclusive zone. China says Vietnam illegally entered its waters near the disputed Spratly islands and endangered Chinese fishermen.The two sides have a long history of exchanging diplomatic jabs over maritime incidents, mainly involving areas around the believed resource-rich Spratly and Paracel islands, which are claimed all or in part by Vietnam, China and several other Asian countries. But the current spat has become much more hostile.