Rule on allowing foreigners to buy houses

The Ministry of Construction proposed the prime minister to approve the plan to pilot the policy of allowing foreigners to buy house(s) in Vietnam with an aim to create better conditions for foreigners living and working and promote the attraction of foreign capital inflows. Accordingly, foreigners who directly join investments in Vietnam under the Law on Investment, who were rewarded medals, certificates of merit on their achievements in Vietnam's economic and social development by Vietnamese prime minister and ministries, culturists and scientists working in Vietnam, those getting married with Vietnamese people, will have the right to buy house(s) in the country as proposed by the construction ministry. In addition, foreign invested enterprises that do not operate in fields of trading real estate could be allowed to buy house(s) for their long-term foreign workers in Vietnam.

(Intellasia)

Brazil jet disaster probe begins

Rescue workers and crash investigators are searching the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger jet that crashed in flames at Sao Paulo's main airport.
All 186 people on board the Airbus 320 are believed dead, as well as many as 15 people on the ground.
Tam Airlines Flight 3054 from the southern city of Porto Alegre landed at Congonhas airport in driving rain.
The plane skidded across a crowded road before it crashed into a fuel depot and warehouse and exploded.
Reports spoke of motorists being killed on the road and people jumping out of the windows of the low-rise Tam Airlines building.
"The plane accelerated when it reached the end of the runway and tried to take off again to avoid the road, but it crashed into the building and exploded," eyewitness Junior Matos told AFP news agency.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of what is thought to be Brazil's worst air disaster.
Sao Paulo State Governor Jose Serra said none of the 186 people on board the Tam Airlines flight could have survived the crash, with temperatures in the fire reaching 1,000C.
The state's attorney general, Rodrigo Pinho, said the authorities would carry out a thorough investigation "to determine the cause and to identify who was responsible".
A Brazilian opposition congressman, Julio Redecker, is reported to have been among those on the flight.
Runway ban
Congonhas airport is notorious for its short and often slippery runway, and its proximity to the city centre.
In February, a local judge banned the use of the airport by Fokker 100, Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-700 jets, but this was overturned by an appeals court.
Remedial work, including laying a new surface, has been carried out in recent months.
However, questions remain about whether the runway had been sufficiently grooved to drain water in heavy rains.
A day before Tuesday's accident, another plane skidded off the airport's runway.
Previously, the worst accident in Brazil's aviation history occurred last September, when a Gol Boeing 737 flying from Manaos to Brasilia crashed into the Amazon jungle, killing all 154 people on board after a mid-air collision with a small private jet.
In 1996, a Tam Airlines Fokker-100 skidded off the runway at Congonhas airport before bursting into flames, killing all 96 people on board and three on the ground.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6904478.stm