HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Hundreds of black-clad mourners, weeping or lighting incense and laying wreaths, gathered early Wednesday for a somber final tribute at a state funeral for Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang who died last week after a prolonged illness. Long lines of officials, family, police and monks in golden robes streamed through the National Funeral House in downtown Hanoi where Quang’s flag-draped coffin lay beneath a large portrait of the leader who passed […]

HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang died Friday at age 61 after a prolonged and serious illness, state media reported. He passed away from a “serious illness despite devoted treatment by professors and doctors” both in Vietnam and abroad, the official Vietnam News Agency said. In office as president since April 2016 after more than four decades at the powerful Ministry of Public Security, Quang had a reputation as a tough leader with […]