At least 34 people have died and several are still missing after a tourist boat capsized in Vietnam during bad weather.

The incident took place in Ha Long Bay, a popular tourist destination in the north of the country.

Most of the passengers were reportedly Vietnamese families visiting from the capital Hanoi.

Heavy rain has been hindering the search for survivors, rescuers say, but so far 11 people have been pulled from the water alive.

The vessel, named Wonder Seas, was carrying 53 people when it capsized after encountering a sudden storm, a statement from the Vietnamese Border Guards and navy said.

An eyewitness told AFP news agency that the sky darkened around 14:00 local time on Saturday (07:00 GMT).

There were “hailstones as big as toes with torrential rain, thunderstorm and lightning”, he said.

A 10-year-old boy was rescued after being trapped in an air pocket in the upturned hull, local media say.

“I took a deep breath… dived, then swam up. I even shouted for help, then I was pulled up by a boat”, the boy – who had been travelling with his parents – told state media outlet VietnamNet.

Of the bodies so far recovered, at least eight were children, VNExpress reports.

Rescue efforts are set to continue into the night to find the many still missing.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his condolences to the families of the dead.

Authorities will investigate the cause of the accident and “strictly handle violations”, a government statement said.

Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province is dotted with hundreds of tiny islets, attracting 4 million tourists in 2019, and is a Unesco World Heritage site.

Source: BBC

The Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) has granted a second extension to bidders for its tender to personalise ePassports.

This is not due to a lack of interest but rather because of an overwhelming number of parties vying for the Rs. 5.5 billion contract, official sources said.

The successful bidder must implement a two-key encryption solution that will allow the Sri Lankan passport’s unique public key infrastructure (PKI) to be lodged with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) public key directory (PKD) for access by immigration authorities worldwide.

Bids will now close on July 30. The first deadline of June 23 was extended to July 23. A pre-bid meeting was held at which a large number of questions from prospective bidders were answered.

However, the tender continued to attract queries. A few bid conditions have changed, and the date for submissions was delayed twice. The latest set of clarifications by the DIE runs into 15 pages.

For instance, the original requirement was for the bidder to have delivered or have in operation at least two ePassport personalisation solutions supported by reference letters; the minimum value of each project must not be less than US$15 million, and the projects must have been completed or operational within the last five years prior to the bid submission deadline. This has been amended to one ePassport personalisation solution with a minimum value of not US$15 million but US$10 million.

A separate procurement for ePassport books was won by Thales DIS Finland OY and its Sri Lankan partner, Just In Time (JIT) Technologies (Pvt) Ltd. But 1,850,000 of that order is being delivered as ordinary machine-readable passports (MRPs) to tide over a severe shortage of travel documents caused by the tender being bungled.

The personalisation (PKI-PKD) solution was advertised as a separate procurement and is still open. Some consignments of MRPs are due to be delivered before the ePassports start arriving.

(sundaytimes.lk)
(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by sundaytimes.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka, in collaboration with the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board (NDDCB), concluded a two-week regional training initiative focused on identifying and analyzing synthetic drugs and new psychoactive substances, particularly fentanyl and its analogs – substances that have become an urgent global concern. 

The training culminated in a formal handover ceremony of drug testing equipment, where U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Jayne Howell, Deputy Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Sunil Watagala, and NDDCB Chairman Dr. Indika Wanninayake presided over the presentation of the Radian ASAP instrument to Sri Lankan authorities. 
As part of the U.S. Department of State-funded regional initiative, Upgrading Forensic Lab Capabilities, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) has partnered with the Colombo Plan to strengthen synthetic drug detection across South Asia. Forensic professionals from Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal participated in two weeks of intensive classroom and hands-on training in Colombo to prepare for the installation of advanced drug detection equipment in their national laboratories. 

Each country will receive a Radian ASAP drug testing machine—a compact, cutting-edge system designed for rapid, high-confidence screening of synthetic substances in under a minute. Requiring no complex sample preparation, this technology is ideally suited to detect emerging drug threats efficiently and bolster regional forensic capabilities. 

This initiative aligns with broader U.S. efforts to disrupt the supply chains of synthetic opioids worldwide, reflecting recent White House executive actions taken to combat the global spread of fentanyl. In the United States, these substances have been declared a national emergency, with focused measures to block precursor chemicals and hold illicit producers accountable. 

During the handover ceremony of the drug testing equipment, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Jayne Howell stated: “The United States is confronting the fentanyl crisis at home and abroad because the threat knows no borders. That’s why we’re investing in regional partnerships like this one—to stop synthetic drugs before they take hold. Through this initiative, we’re not only sharing advanced tools and training, we’re reinforcing a shared commitment to public health and regional security. This work reflects broader U.S. efforts to disrupt global synthetic opioid supply chains and protect communities across the Indo-Pacific.” 

Equipment donations to labs in Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal are scheduled to follow. The U.S. remains committed to strengthening the region’s ability to detect and disrupt synthetic drug flows through technical cooperation and capacity building.