DANANG, Vietnam (AP) — Bored by in-flight safety demos? A group of bikini-clad beauty queens in Vietnam recently strutted through a packed airplane as dance music blasted a song with the lyric “I’m crazy for banana.” State-run media reported that Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Administration fined Vietjet Air $960 for staging the three-minute show without receiving official approval. A YouTube video shows young women in open vests and red bikini tops dancing down the aisle and handing out teddy bears as gleeful male passengers smile and snap photographs on the flight. In a letter to Vietnamese authorities, the company said the event inaugurated its first flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang on the southern coast. It said all safety regulations were followed. A company spokeswoman refused to comment on the fine, but confirmed the local beauty queens were paid for their performance. She did not give her name because she was not authorized to speak to the media. Privately owned Vietjet Air was founded in 2007 and operated its first flight in December.

MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Philippine police say they have rounded up 357 foreigners accused of duping Taiwanese and Chinese citizens in an online scam. National police investigation chief Samuel Pagdilao said the mostly Chinese and Taiwanese suspects were arrested in simultaneous raids on 20 houses in metropolitan Manila and nearby Antipolo city. Pagdilao said those arrested were members of a syndicate that pretended to represent police, prosecutors, courts, and insurance companies who told the victims that their bank accounts were being used for money laundering and terrorist financing. He says the victims were pressured to transfer their money to an account provided by the syndicate. Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission head Paquito Ochoa said the arrests were the largest single-day operation against organized crime in the country.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Badminton authorities in South Korea have eased penalties against four players who tried to lose their last group matches at the London Olympics. A Badminton Korea Association disciplinary committee had earlier barred the two women’s doubles pairs from international and domestic play for two years after they were ejected from the Olympics for trying to deliberately lose in order to gain an easier path to the final. The players appealed for leniency and the association lowered the punishment to six months, saying their earlier decision was too harsh. The association said the players’ two coaches are barred from working for the national team for four years. They had previously been expelled from the association. Two other doubles teams, from China and Indonesia, were also kicked out of the Olympics.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. will spend $4 billion renovating its plant in the U.S. to increase production of advanced chips used in smartphones and tablet computers. Samsung’s announcement is the latest push into the lucrative logic chip business. In June, Samsung said it would spend nearly $2 billion to build a new production line in South Korea to ramp up mobile chips that work as a brain in smartphones and tablet computers. The South Korean company said mass production in the Austin, Texas plant will start in the second half of next year. The U.S. plant also produces chips for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Samsung is the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips, but the company is trying to reduce its exposure to the cyclical downturn of the memory chip industry.

DANANG, Vietnam (AP) — A court in central Vietnam has sentenced a high school chemistry teacher to six years in prison after he criticized the government. Judge Nguyen Van Uy says Dinh Dang Dinh was sentenced in a half-day trial on charges of conducting propaganda against the state. The official Vietnam News Agency reported that police in central Dak Nong province arrested Dinh last October, confiscating his computer and documents calling for multi-party democracy. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said Dinh is a former army officer who wrote online commentaries alleging police harassment and signed a petition opposing a planned Chinese-led bauxite mine in Vietnam’s restive central highlands. Vietnam is a one-party state that does not tolerate challenges to its authority. Dissidents frequently receive long prison terms for speaking out.