Endangered Bears Find Refuge In New Vietnam Centre VIETNAM: April 8, 2008 TAM DAO - A furry black bear cub playfully clasps a rubber pet toy between its paws and eats fruit in its new home -- Vietnam's first refuge for bears rescued from abusive traffickers of bile used in traditional medicines. The bear is one of four 50 kg (110 lb) endangered Asiatic black cubs and two adults that were smuggled either from neighbouring Laos or from southern Vietnam in the past seven months, and confiscated by the authorities.

Vietnam has started clinical trials for developing a human vaccine for the H5N1 virus, researchers said in the country that has recorded 52 deaths from bird flu. Eleven volunteers, all researchers, received their second dosage of the trial vaccine on Thursday inside spotlessly-clean medical rooms of a company run by the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi. Dr Nguyen Tuyet Nga, the epidemiologist and virologist heading the trial, said experts were using the highly-pathogenic strain of H5N1 taken from humans in Vietnam and known as VN1194.