Vietnamese

PITTSBURGH - The government of Vietnam stinks. But it doesn't stink nearly as much as it did just a few years ago, and it is likely to stink less in the near future. If we are shrewd, we can accelerate the rate at which the government of Vietnam de-stinks. But we must have the patience to realize that change will come at an Asian pace, not an American one. There will be no significant moves toward genuine free enterprise, human rights, or democracy until the war generation in the Communist Party leadership has passed away.

In many cultures, especially Asian, a humble facade hides a fancy home inside. In this case, though, the inside of Pho Dat Thanh (pronounced "Foe Daht Than") in Snowden Marketplace, Columbia, isn't all that fancy, either. A single room, with a small bar to one side near the entrance, features silvery green walls with a tangerine-hued chair rail in the middle and rather non-descript prints above. The tables are bare-topped, with a stainless basket of condiments providing a bit of color.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In a quiet suburb, four armed and masked men torture a woman by blowing hot air from a hair NTC dryer into her face, then make off with $1,200 in cash and hundreds of dollars worth of jewelry.In nearby Stockton, robbers pour boiling water on an elderly woman's leg until her husband, whom they have forced to watch, reveals where their money is stashed.Four hundred miles south, in Orange County, bandits dunk a 2-year-old's head in the toilet bowl until his mother hands over $500 in hidden cash.

The dish : Tai Chin ($6.95) At the very least, this pho with round steak and brisket is as accessible to the first-timer as any Vietnamese recipe, aside from, maybe, a spring roll. The pho curious can start with Tai Chin as an introduction to an exotic staple at a bargain price. For the pho lover who wouldn't dream of a bowl without tendon and tripe, An Loi offers, in all, a dozen pho selections. Given the exceptionally neutral tones of cooked beef and rice noodles, the broth needs to carry the day. An Loi's Tai Chin does, with subtly and a deceptively simple flavor.

BERLIN -- On Buddha's birthday, Vietnamese here gather in their storefront temple on Krefelderstrasse to worship before an altar bedecked with fruit and flowers, silk lotus blossoms, burning candles and smoking incense.They sing and chant the sutras, eat spring rolls and curries, laugh with their children, sit under the old flag of South Vietnam, and talk of their lost homeland.The drapes are drawn and Berlin is shut out for a while. Vietnamese are under considerable pressure in Germany, especially in East Berlin and what used to be Communist Germany.

WASHINGTON -- A quarter-century after he fought and shed blood in Vietnam, Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest of Maryland returned to old battlefields and dined with former enemies."

When dawn breaks, Than Ngo prays to Buddha on Washington Boulevard. Cao Xuan does exercises with her 3-year-old daughter Kristina in Carroll Park. And Doi Tran makes fresh Vietnamese pork rolls for her American neighbors, which makes perfect sense to them.This is, after all, Pigtown.Over the past two years, a tightly concentrated community of 25 Vietnamese families has sprung up in -- of all places -- an old-line Baltimore neighborhood that working people have been fleeing for 30 years. And Pigtown is showing signs of rebirth.

Mai's America is one of those wonderful, out-of-left-field documentaries that makes writing about independent films such an educational delight. It follows a North Vietnamese teen-ager as she arrives in the United States on a student exchange program. And while she discovers that almost everything she thought she knew about America was wrong, it's the American viewer who has the most to learn about our land of opportunity. Filmmaker Marlo Poras describes Mai as a "spunky, mini-skirted daughter of Ho Chi Minh's revolution."

As Saigon was falling, Van Nguyen bounced about in the South China Sea in a battered boat with a dead engine. After two days, a U.S. Navy ship approached. He clambered aboard. On deck, finally safe, Nguyen found himself on the unsteady threshold of his new life. Eventually finding his way to the Washington area, the former police officer worked night and day jobs, pooled money with relatives and hardly ever slept. In the quarter-century since arriving in the United States, he finally found his solid ground: A front yard and a place in the American middle class.

Westminster, California. -- "Little Saigon'' is now the name of an exit on the San Diego Freeway in Orange County, 30 miles south of Los Angeles International Airport. I came down here only a few days after seeing big Saigon, the real thing in Vietnam, which is now officially called Ho Chi Minh City. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes.Some of the sights and the sounds and smells are the same, even though Bolsa Avenue, the main street of Westminster, is lined with neon-bright service stations, and the Saigon equivalents are squatting entrepreneurs on every street corner with little plastic bottles of gasoline and rusty bicycle pumps ready for bikes and Honda motor scooters.

Vietnamese pho is rapidly replacing chicken soup as the universal cure-all. Or maybe it's just me. In this Worst Winter Ever, where the colds all last three weeks and the threat of snow never ends, a large bowl of steaming broth filled with rice noodles and interesting cuts of beef - a soup that you individualize with garnishes served on the side like bean sprouts, fresh cilantro and basil leaves, hot peppers and wedges of lime, not to mention condiments such...

Mazen Abdulwahab chose No. 6. His brother picked No. 3. Another boy went with No. 9. By next week, those numbers and the boys' first names will adorn jerseys now being produced for the Tigers, the fledgling soccer squad these young Iraqi refugees have formed in Northeast Baltimore. And a week from Saturday, the Tigers will meet up with three other well-outfitted refugee teams, thanks to Peter and Allison Tran, owners of the EmbroidMe apparel shop in Fullerton. They offered to provide 60 sets of specially ordered shorts and jerseys for $1,300 rather than the $4,000 they'd normally charge.

Where can I find an herb plant known as Vietnamese coriander or daun laksa, "laksa leaf"? I found the fresh herb in an Asian market, but I'd prefer to have my own plant. Finding this herb really can be tricky because it goes by so many names: Vietnamese coriander, Vietnamese mint, daun laksa, daun kesam and rau ram, among others. All those common names boil down to one botanical name, polygonum odoratum, a member of the buckwheat family. Its flavor is distinctive, and the herb is used in cooking in Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Iraqis who have worked for the United States have put their lives on the line - the least the U.S. can do for them now is grant them visas to come live here. Take interpreters, for instance - who are so necessary because there are still so few Arabic speakers in the U.S. military, more than five years after 9/11. They've served alongside soldiers and Marines, in battle and in raids - 5,000 of them. Many have been killed, and more wounded. Dozens are being treated for severe injuries at a hospital in Jordan, and many of them believe they can't go back to Iraq because their work on America's behalf will mark them as dead men. Let them in. Since the war began in 2003, the U.S. has admitted just 466 Iraqi refugees, according to Ellen R. Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state.

Joseph Hill, 57, lead vocalist and songwriter for the traditional roots reggae group Culture, died Saturday after falling ill in Berlin while the group was in the middle of a European tour. One of reggae's most enduring bands, Culture was led by Mr. Hill for three decades. He penned the group's best known songs, including "Two Sevens Clash," "Natty Never Get Weary" and "I'm Not Ashamed." Born in the rural Jamaican parish of St. Catherine, he began his musical career in the late 1960s as a percussionist.

Jan. 30 1933: Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. 1948: Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered. 1968: During the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

What: Mai's America When: Tomorrow at 11:30 p.m. Where: MPT (Channels 22 and 67) In brief: A brilliant look at American social class through the eyes of a Vietnamese exchange student.

Jan. 30 1933: Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. 1948: Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered. 1968: During the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam - In the final days of the Vietnam War 30 years ago, a U.S.-trained South Vietnamese pilot named Nguyen Thanh Trung defected to the North. Faking engine problems, he peeled off from his squadron and headed back to Saigon to bomb the presidential palace and the international airport. Today, Trung flies a U.S.-made Boeing 777 for Vietnam Airlines and shuttles passengers from abroad into the same airport he once bombed. His son is studying aviation in Australia. "My generation was raised to fight the war," Trung said, "but today's generation is here to capitalize on the peace."

Vietnamese officials have ordered a nationwide ban on duck and goose farming in a bid to head off a mounting bird flu outbreak that has claimed 13 lives since late December. The waterfowl are a main reservoir of the virus, carrying it without becoming ill. Without outward symptoms it is very difficult to identify infected animals. This week, Ho Chi Minh City, the nation's largest city, ordered all ducks destroyed or slaughtered for sale. "These steps show an appreciation of the realities of the disease," said Klaus Stohr, head of the World Health Organization's global influenza program.