His protégés were responsible for some of the most memorable pictures from South-east Asia

Horst Faas, a prize-winning combat photographer who changed the way photojournalists covered conflict, has died aged 79.

Eric Charden, who died of cancer at the age of 69 on 29 April, was a French singer who with his wife and singing partner, Stone, had a string of hits in the 1970s.

Eric Charden, who died of cancer at the age of 69 on 29 April, was a French singer who with his wife and singing partner, Stone, had a string of hits in the 1970s.

Paddle past pearls in Vietnam's Halong Bay.

Raymond Aubrac, one of the leading figures of the French Resistance against the Nazis, has died at the age of 97.

There's a particular strain of English mildness that carries within it a finely wrought undercurrent of viciousness. It's there in the title of Patrick Gale's new novel, A Perfectly Good Man, which you could either take literally – that Barnaby Johnson, priest to the Cornish parish of Pendeen, is perfect in his goodness – or as a tight-lipped rebuke, that he is adequate at best.

So back to THAT BLOODY WAR. I mean not the Syrian one – where we're going to stay hands off – or the Libyan one (where we were hands on, but not touching the ground). Nor the Iraqi one, which is a war at 60-a-day fatalities (pretty much equal with Syria's daily death toll, though we can't make that comparison). Nope. Of course, I mean the Afghan war which we fought in 1842 and in 1878-80 and in 1919 and from 2001 to 2014 (or 2015 or 2016, who knows?). We wouldn't let them down this time, we said about the Afghans – or Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara said – in 2001. Oh yes we will.

Police in northern Vietnam have seized five tonnes of pangolin and iguana carcasses destined to be shipped to restaurants in China.

Same Old Story. Journalists shouldn't use the phrase, but what else can I say when I prowl through press reports? Take the following. "It is slowly dawning... that the Americans are really going home, that there will be a ceasefire in this country soon, and then a march to the US... planes." Iraq? Nope. Afghanistan? You'd be so lucky.

Glass manufacturer Pilkington is to cut production at a UK factory under plans to axe 3,500 jobs worldwide.

Mark Stratton embarks on a turbo-charged seven days travelling from north to south – all made possible by the first direct flights from the UK

A vision of beauty on the coast of Vietnam

Those who remember the Monty Python skit about the "groovy" Royal Navy recruitment campaign will be left jaw-dropped by Hell Below, an archival release featuring participants in actual US Army "Battle of the Bands" contests from the late 1960s.