HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — At least one Vietnamese satellite TV company stopped airing international channels including BBC and CNN on Thursday, citing a law that foreign governments have warned would result in international news and entertainment channels ending their broadcasts in a country increasingly cracking down on freedom of expression.

Underlining the confusion that has reigned about the law's scope and implementation, Vietnam's other major cable and satellite providers continued to broadcast as normal. The government said international news channels were exempt from one main aspect of the law requiring broadcasters to translate their content into Vietnamese before airing it.

The United States and other governments, especially those with national broadcasters, have been urging Hanoi to abandon or modify the law, which came into effect on Wednesday.

Vietnam's government is increasingly restricting freedom of political and religion expression in general, especially online. All foreign news channels are currently broadcast into the country with a half-hour delay, to allow sensitive content to be blocked if needed. The perception created by the new broadcasting law of additional restrictions on foreign businesses adds to Vietnam's difficulties in attracting investment at a time when its economic growth has slowed.

"We regret that the effect of the regulatory process as of today seems to be to restrict access of numerous international channels to the Vietnam market," said John Medeiros, chief policy officer for the Hong Kong-based Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia. "Consumers everywhere else in Southeast Asia enjoy the opportunity to view a wide mix of domestic and international television."

The association had previously said that complying with the translation requirement was expensive, unpractical and amounted to censorship.

The K+ satellite provider, a joint venture between a local company and Canal Overseas, a wholly owned subsidiary of France's Canal + group, said on its website it had cut the signals of 21 foreign channels as a result of the regulation.

Asked why it had done so, a woman at the public relations section at the channel said "it was complying with regulations." She declined to give her name because it wasn't an official company response.

Hoang Vinh Bao, director of the broadcast and television department at the Ministry of Information and Communications, said a revision to the law on March 29 meant that foreign news channels like BBC and CNN didn't have to have their broadcasts translated into Vietnamese.

Asked why one provider had blocked foreign broadcasts, Bao said: "We will carry out inspections to make sure that they all comply with the regulations."

The law, known as "Decision 20", requires that translation and editing be performed by an agency licensed by the government and that content is "appropriate to the people's healthy needs and does not violate Vietnamese press law." It also states that commercials running on foreign channels must be made in Vietnam.

Late last year, the government said in a statement that the law was aimed at "at facilitating easier access for Vietnamese people to the foreign language TV programs."

The statement acknowledged the concerns of foreign governments, saying it "continues to listen to and consider ideas from concerned parties."

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By Andrew Callus

LONDON (Reuters) - On approaching his 60th birthday this year, long-serving Tullow Oil boss Aidan Heavey told staff he felt "like two 30 year-olds".

A handful of recent shock departures by 50-something chief executives at European blue chip companies - none of them under any obvious pressure to quit - suggest some of his peers either lack that vigor, or want to channel it elsewhere.

Peter Voser is giving up one of the world's most challenging CEO roles at Royal Dutch/Shell next year, before his 55th birthday, in pursuit of a "lifestyle change".

Swiss engineering group ABB's 55-year old boss Joe Hogan is also going, for "private reasons". Pierre-Olivier Beckers, 53, is walking out on Belgian retailer Delhaize , and Paul Walsh, 57, is waving goodbye to drinks multinational Diageo .

All four are about average European CEO age.

While the rising financial rewards of running a modern multinational have been well publicized, executive recruiters say the pressures of the job have also been ratcheted up in recent years, and not just because of the tough economic times.

"The reality is it's grueling. It's really tough, and there comes a point where you don't want to do it any more," said Ian Butcher, who headhunts board-level and senior executives for MWM Consulting.

"The quarterly reporting, the governance, the regulatory aspects, it just becomes very wearing - the level of scrutiny, the pace at which things are moving, the short-term nature of how people look at any given situation. Even over the past five years these things have made CEO a tougher position to hold, and the travel that people have to undertake in these jobs - it's just something they run out of steam on."

Some recent early retirees, while still well short of traditional retirement age, also got to the top spot early.

"They're still in their early fifties, with energy and a desire to do something, but they want to do something different, something quite significantly different sometimes," says Butcher.

Voser fits that bill. He has no plans to collect well-paid chairmanships and non-executive directorships, as many ex-CEOs have done in the past. Former Tesco chief Terry Leahy has also resisted that gravy train since he left two years ago.

As for the early starters, executive search industry professionals point at people like Andrew Witty, the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline , who took on the job aged 44 in 2008 and would have to stay in harness for another decade to reach 60 in the role.

Blue-chip bosses as young as Witty are still rare, but over a quarter of Europe's current crop have less than two years in the job, and more than half have less than four, according to data from executive search specialists BoardEx.

MEDIAN CEO AGE IS 55 YEARS

The BoardEx data, collected for Reuters from 238 companies in the main stock indexes of Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, puts the median CEO age at 55, and the median tenure at four years. Only 16 percent of the group have held on for 10 years and more.

The longest serving of them is Martin Gilbert of the British fund Aberdeen Asset Management . Though younger, at 57, Gilbert pips the 28.3-year tenure of Tullow's double thirty year-old Heavey, with 29.8 years at the helm.

There are 17 top European CEOs who have been in the job for less than six months, and the youngest of the 225 in the group for whom ages were available is Vitaly Nesis, 37, who runs Polymetal International , the London-listed Russian precious metals miner.

While the recent spate of quitters are looking for something else to do, there are still some who appear to want nothing but.

In the BoardEx group there are four over 70, and the oldest by eight years is Albert Frere, CEO of Group Bruxelles Lambert .

Perhaps some linger on for fear that the pension pot is still a little light. Frere will have put such qualms behind him long ago. At 87, he is Belgium's richest man.

(Editing by Will Waterman)

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — First milk, butter, coffee and cornmeal ran short. Now Venezuela is running out of the most basic of necessities — toilet paper.

Blaming political opponents for the shortfall, as it does for other shortages, the embattled socialist government says it will import 50 million rolls to boost supplies.

That was little comfort to consumers struggling to find toilet paper on Wednesday.

"This is the last straw," said Manuel Fagundes, a shopper hunting for tissue in downtown Caracas. "I'm 71 years old and this is the first time I've seen this."

One supermarket visited by The Associated Press in the capital on Wednesday was out of toilet paper. Another had just received a fresh batch, and it quickly filled up with shoppers as the word spread.

"I've been looking for it for two weeks," said Cristina Ramos. "I was told that they had some here and now I'm in line."

Economists say Venezuela's shortages stem from price controls meant to make basic goods available to the poorest parts of society and the government's controls on foreign currency.

"State-controlled prices — prices that are set below market-clearing price — always result in shortages. The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union," said Steve Hanke, professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University.

President Nicolas Maduro, who was selected by the dying Hugo Chavez to carry on his "Bolivarian revolution," claims that anti-government forces, including the private sector, are causing the shortages in an effort to destabilize the country.

The government this week announced it would import 760,000 tons of food and 50 million rolls of toilet paper.

Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming blamed the shortage of toilet tissue on "excessive demand" built up as a result of "a media campaign that has been generated to disrupt the country."

"The revolution will bring the country the equivalent of 50 million rolls of toilet paper," he was quoted as saying Tuesday by state news agency AVN. "We are going to saturate the market so that our people calm down."

Finance Minister Nelson Merentes said the government was also addressing the lack of foreign currency, which has resulted in the suspension of foreign supplies of raw materials, equipment and spare parts to Venezuelan companies, disrupting their production.

"We are making progress ... we have to work very hard," Merentes told reporters Wednesday.

Many factories operate at half capacity because the currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies verge on bankruptcy because they cannot extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Merentes said the government had met the U.S. dollar requests of some 1,500 small- and medium-sized companies facing supply problems, and was reviewing requests from a similar number of larger companies.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses.

Anointed by Chavez as his successor before the president died from cancer, Maduro won a close presidential election April 14 against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who refused to accept the result, claiming Maduro won through fraud and voter intimidation. He filed a complaint to the Supreme Court, asking for the vote to be annulled, though that's highly unlikely to happen since the court is packed with government-friendly justices.

Patience is wearing thin among consumers who face shortages and long lines at supermarkets and pharmacies. Last month, Venezuela's scarcity index reached its highest level since 2009, while the 12-month inflation rate has risen to nearly 30 percent. Shoppers often spend several days looking for basic items, and stock up when they find them.

Fleming, the commerce minister, said monthly consumption of toilet paper was normally 125 million rolls, but that current demand "leads us to think that 40 million more are required."

"We will bring in 50 million to show those groups that they won't make us bow down," he said.

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Associated Press videojournalist Vicente Marquez contributed to this report.

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AP video: https://vimeo.com/66290575

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