Vietnam: New clampdowns on media. Prominent former Communist party journalist Nguyen Vu Binh was detained on Friday as the country's newly elected parliament was meeting. It says material was taken from his computer and he is under arrest and cannot be contacted. A California-based organisation, the Democracy Club of Vietnam says he is among a group of dissidents who wrote to the Communist leaders early in July calling for political reforms and the release of political prisoners. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, reported that the writer was taken from his home by police on July 19 and is believed to be in detention somewhere in the capital, Hanoi. BBC online report.FROM http://www.indexonline.org/indexindex/20020724_vietnam.shtml Also Amnesty attacks Laos for human rights abuse today.