A policeman walks across debris after a big explosion razed homes and shattered windows of surrounding buildings in the northern province of Bac Ninh on January 3, 2018. Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP
A policeman walks across debris after a big explosion razed homes and shattered windows of surrounding buildings in the northern province of Bac Ninh on January 3, 2018. Hoang Dinh Nam / AFP

Two children die in Vietnam explosion



A baby boy and a five-year-old girl were killed in an explosion east of Vietnam's capital Hanoi on Wednesday that destroyed several houses and injured at least eight others.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the blast in Bac Ninh province's Yen Phong district, which occurred at 4.30am.

The explosion flattened four homes shattered the windows of surrounding buildings.

A one-year-old boy and a girl were killed, according to a report from the provincial health department seen by AFP.

At least eight others were injured by the blast, district authorities said.

Resident Nguyen Thi Tap told AFP her house was badly damaged by the explosion, which jolted her from her sleep.

"We were so scared. I thought thunder had struck my roof … I hugged my daughter and the doors crashed down on us," she said.

According to a local official, the explosion happened in an area "where there are many families involved in collecting scrap [metal]".

Salvage of metal from the tonnes of Vietnam War-era bombs that still blanket the country often ends in tragedy.

In August, six people were killed, including three children, when a war-era bomb exploded in Kanh Hoa province. Reports at the time suggested it detonated as scrap workers cut it open.

Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, more than 42,000 people have been killed and more than 62,100 injured by unexploded ordnance dropped by US aircraft, according government figures.

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Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
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Investment raised: $4 million 
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The language of diplomacy in 1853

Treaty of Peace in Perpetuity Agreed Upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast on Behalf of Themselves, Their Heirs and Successors Under the Mediation of the Resident of the Persian Gulf, 1853
(This treaty gave the region the name “Trucial States”.)


We, whose seals are hereunto affixed, Sheikh Sultan bin Suggar, Chief of Rassool-Kheimah, Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon, Chief of Aboo Dhebbee, Sheikh Saeed bin Buyte, Chief of Debay, Sheikh Hamid bin Rashed, Chief of Ejman, Sheikh Abdoola bin Rashed, Chief of Umm-ool-Keiweyn, having experienced for a series of years the benefits and advantages resulting from a maritime truce contracted amongst ourselves under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf and renewed from time to time up to the present period, and being fully impressed, therefore, with a sense of evil consequence formerly arising, from the prosecution of our feuds at sea, whereby our subjects and dependants were prevented from carrying on the pearl fishery in security, and were exposed to interruption and molestation when passing on their lawful occasions, accordingly, we, as aforesaid have determined, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, to conclude together a lasting and inviolable peace from this time forth in perpetuity.

Taken from Britain and Saudi Arabia, 1925-1939: the Imperial Oasis, by Clive Leatherdale

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