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Malaysian ship

HANOI: A Malaysian navy ship deporting 317 Vietnamese boat people arrived at Vietnam's southern port of Vung Tau early on Saturday, a local immigration official said.

The migrants' return marked the biggest forced repatriation yet from the hundreds of thousands who fled the communist country after the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

The immigration official declined to give details of the Malaysian vessel's arrival, media coverage of which was halted by the Hanoi government at the last minute.-Reuter