More Rain Feared as Flood Toll Tops 300

Meteorologists warned that winds and rains lashing the coast of central Vietnam could strengthen to tropical storm force as deaths in catastrophic floods in the Mekong Delta in the south topped 300. The floods, which have swamped vast areas for a month, have killed 308 people, 232 of them children, officials said, and water levels in the worst-hit upstream provinces bordering Cambodia continue to decline slowly. The national weather center said the tropical low had already brought torrential rains and strong winds to parts of the coast.