She Fought Disease Despite Risks

AILEEN PLANT 1948-2007 EARLY in 2003 much of the daily news was dominated by revelations of an apparently new respiratory disease that had broken out in Hanoi. People around the world were asking if this was the "new flu" destined to surpass the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that killed more people than World War I.

Time To Up The Anty

IT WAS the nonchalance of ordering stewed pork, two Carlsbergs and, oh yes, a couple of grilled scorpions that made a recent meal in Hanoi rather thrilling. The scorpions were suitably black and hook-tailed but found themselves slipped - metaphorically at least - into my mental file marked "things that sound exotic and rugged but aren't worth the bother or the guilt of eating". There they will forever live alongside whale meat, caramelised crickets and Froot Loops - their slightly earthy offal ...