One of the 14 month old conjoined twins dies

Nguyen Hoang Phi Phung, died on February 23 after an operation last year to separate the 14-month-old conjoined twins.

Medical workers of Children Hospital 2, Heart Institute and Hospital of Traumatic and Orthopedics finish the operation in November, 2013.

The child was on life-support and died due to pneumonia and blood poisoning. His brother is still recovering from the surgery and will be released from the hospital soon.

The twins were born in Ninh Thuan conjoined between the thorax and the abdomen.

They shared a heart, liver, biliary tract and had a defective abdominal wall and thorax, said Dr. Truong Quang Dinh, deputy director of Children Hospital 2.

The twins were born prematurely at a local medical clinic on Sept. 25, 2012. Doctors successfully separated the twins during a 10-hour procedure at Children Hospital 2 on Nov. 25, 2013.

Checks on cattle imports tighten

The Viet Nam Customs has ordered local offices to strengthen the management of imported live cattle.

It said that all live cattle arriving in the country must be checked to ensure they carried the correct paperwork, including quarantine papers.

Customs offices and teams in provinces were told to make sure there were no cattle smuggled in from neighbouring Laos and Cambodia and that they strictly punished illegal carriers and traders.

Customs offices were also told to join hand with border guards, police, cattle quarantine offices and local authorities to achieve better results..

Dang Cong Hoan, chief of Nghe An Customs' secretariat, said that so far no provinces and cities had reported any cattle epidemics thanks to strict checks.

In some provinces, such as Nghe An and Ha Tinh in the central region, vaccinations against cattle diseases were slowly implemented due to a shortage of veterinarians, said Hoan.

Most districts arranged only one injection a year, but regulations called for two.

Authorities play down faults on Vinh Tuy Bridge

Cracks in one of the main piles of Vinh Tuy Bridge, which spans the Red River in Ha Noi, will not impact the quality of the project, according to a senior transport official.

Cracks, possibly caused by concrete shrinkage, appear on one of the main piles of the Vinh Tuy Bridge, which spans the Red River in Ha Noi. -- Photo Courtesy of baodautu.vn

The cracks, possibly caused by concrete shrinkage, were detected at a recent inspection, said deputy director of the municipal Department of Transport Nguyen Xuan Tuan.

Although these cracks have begun to absorb rainwater, they would not affect the loading capacity of the pile or the bridge's overall structural stability. However, it was necessary to keep a close watch on them to assure the safety of the bridge, he said.

The inspection was conducted by the department and seven parties, including the contractor, the supervision consultant steering committee, the project management unit and the designing units. They agreed that the cracks would be repaired by applying a special glue.

Nguyen Quang Tuynh, deputy director of Thang Long Construction Corporation, the constructor of the bridge's piles, said that the pile was designed to be hollow, so further investigation was required and the parties had agreed to hire a unit to conduct such an investigation.

The VND5.5 trillion (US$258 million) Vinh Tuy Bridge, one of seven bridges across the Red River, aims to address the pressing issue of transport in the capital. The 5.8-km long and 19.25-m wide bridge with four lanes was completely constructed by Vietnamese engineers and workers.

The project reduces traffic over the Chuong Duong Bridge, contributing to completing the city's second belt road and creating more favourable conditions for development of new urban areas by the banks of the river.

The Ta Ngan Project Management Board was formerly the project's contractor, but it is now under the management of the city's Transport Department.

Body found after boat disappearance

The missing body from a stranded fishing vessel on the Gianh River in the central province of Quang Binh was found yesterday morning after a six-day search.

The victim, 52-year-old Nguyen Chi Thanh, fell into the water after being hit by turbulent waves and strong winds last Tuesday night, according to the vessel's captain, Nguyen Van Cat.

The body was returned to Thanh's family.

Two injured after grille collapses

Two construction workers were injured following a grille collapse at Mui Ne market in the central province of Binh Thuan's Mui Ne City yesterday.

Victims were immediately rushed to a medical clinic in Mui Ne City for first aid after the accident occurred at around 10am.

The site, an investment by the Mui Ne District's People's Committee is in its first phase. The construction, worth VND9 billion (US$423,000), is expected to finish next month.

The case is under investigation.

Swimsafe project to save children's lives

The central province of Quang Nam has approved the Swimsafe Project, funded by Swim Viet Nam, under the 2013-14 training course for children in Que Son District.

The project, with a total cost of VND251 million or US$12,000, will install mobile swimming pools and cover the cost of swimming lessons for teachers and children in schools in the mountainous district.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, 1,700 kids drowned in 2012. In the first six months of last year, over 700 children drowned.

Overloaded trucks still in operation

More than 28,000 trucks are using oversized cargo containers, revealed a Department of Viet Nam Register report sent to the Ministry of Transport.

The trucks are mainly used to transport liquid fuel and gasoline. By using oversized containers, drivers can carry a larger volume of cargo and thus earn more profits.

Tran Ky Hinh, head of the department, said many trucks were manufactured or imported before 2012, when the Ministry of Transport published a regulation on the required size of containers.

Hinh said that truck owners often expanded their containers to carry more cargo and hired containers of the right size when they had their vehicle registered at authorised agencies.

To improve management of this issue, the department has proposed a number of solutions. One of the solutions involves the department attaching photos of the original truck to the registration certificate. Drivers found with oversized containers would be fined and required to cut the containers down to size on the spot.

According to the Viet Nam Road Administration, as many as 53 mobile scales will be installed on highway routes nationwide to crack down on overloaded trucks.

In the last three months of 2013, traffic police cracked down on more than 3,360 overloaded trucks and removed 7,270 tonnes of excessive cargo. More than 750 drivers had their driving licences revoked and police collected VND1.4 billion (US$65,800) in fines.

Health Ministry proposes mobile vaccination teams

Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien has said it is necessary to re-establish mobile vaccination units to ensure no children in far-flung areas are left unvaccinated against measles.

Tien made the proposal at a February 23 online conference in Hanoi amidst worries about the rapid spread the disease in Vietnam.

Measles has attacked more than 20 provinces and cities and caused first deaths since the beginning of this year. The epidemic is detected not only in northern mountain provinces, but also in capital Hanoi and HCM City.

“We need to examine the current immunisation model. Mobile vaccination teams need to be re-established to ensure the community is immunised against infectious diseases,” said Minister Tien.

She recalled that when the national expanded immunisation programme was carried out several years ago, elephants were used to bring vaccines to clinics in remote areas. Mobile units took boat to households in areas crisscrossed by rivers to inoculate children against child-killers.

The Health Ministry is implementing a measles vaccination programme, targeting northern mountain provinces and other localities which have had a low vaccination rate over the past three years.  

Approximately 200,000 children aged between 9-24 months old are expected to receive a measles injection from February to April 2014.

France, Vietnam cooperate in notary services

Vietnam and France on February 24 penned a cooperation agreement which will result in a complete revision of the Notary Law to be submitted to the National Assembly in May.

Under the agreement, signed in Paris, the French Notarial Superior Council (NSC) will assist Vietnam in setting up twinned relations between local notarial councils of both countries and the Vietnam national notary association, as well as in providing other technical support.

At the signing ceremony, NSC President Jean Tarrade congratulated Vietnam on its admission to the International Union of Notaries (IUN) last October and stated he is committed to fully support Vietnam within the framework of the organisation.

For his part, Minister of Justice Ha Hung Cuong spoke highly of the close and effective cooperation between the two countries over the past two decades.

“France has provided significant technical and logistical support for legal and judicial reform, helping Vietnam draft legal documents consistent with market economy institutions”, he said.

Cuong thanked the NSC for its assistance in helping Vietnam gain admission to the IUN.

On the same day, a Vietnamese delegation led by Minister Cuong held a joint working sessions with the NSC and the French Senate Law Commission.

Earlier on February 22, they worked with the Lyon Notarial Council on matters related to the organisational structure of France’s notarial system and other matters concerning notary training.

Minister Cuong also met with his counterpart Christiane Taubira and worked with Paris Court leaders.

Transport minister inspects bridge collapse site

Transport Minister Dinh La Thang on February 25 visited Chu Va 8 village in the northern province of Lai Chau to direct investigations into the collapse of a suspension bridge that left 8 dead and 38 injured.

He proposed Lai Chau build a makeshift bridge linking Chu Va 6 and Chu Va 8 villages to meet the travel demand of nearly 150 local households.

He asked the province and localities to erect warning signs at all bridges to prevent dreadful accidents in future.

The minister handed over financial aid to families of the dead and injured in the February 24 accident.    

Initial investigations show overloading was blamed for the collapse of the bridge.

Nguyen Khac Chu, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said all 38 injured locals were admitted to hospitals shortly after the accident happened.

Two of them recovered completely and were discharged from hospital on February 25.

Local authorities cordoned off both ends of the bridge and dispatched on-duty guards around the clock to warn local people against possible dangers.

Minister Thang and other leading transport experts inspected the site where the suspension bridge collapsed on February 24, killing 8 people and injuring 38 others

Minister Thang asked relevant agencies to design and build a concrete bridge at the same site, and reminded Lai Chau province to examine all bridges and their load capacity.

Doctors from Bach Mai hospital and Vietnam-Germany hospital also flew to Lai Chau on February 25 to support rescue work there.

Hanoi determines to improve HIV/AIDS prevention

The Health Department of Hanoi this year will  intensify education and publicity work in a bid to raise the community’s awareness of HIV/AIDS.

Director of the Hanoi HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Centre Le Nhan Tuan said that the organisation will strive to provide anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment for 70% of HIV carriers and reduce the number of infants contracting the virus from their mothers. It will also run more publicity campaigns raising awareness of how to prevent the infection from spreading.

According to the centre’s statistics, as of late 2013, Hanoi had nearly 24,800 people living with HIV and 3,836 deaths.

The number of newly-detected cases in 2013 reduced 7.9% against the previous year’s figure. This was the third consecutive year the city recorded a decrease in newly-diagnosed patients.

Meanwhile, the rate of women living with HIV rose to 27.9% in 2013 from 22% out of the city’s total patients in 2008.

In a move to contain the spread of the disease, Hanoi has committed to raising the quality of treatment for HIV carriers as well as expanding 18 medical facilities specialising in ARV treatment.

Bird flu inspections strengthened at border gates

The Health Ministry has taken drastic measures to strengthen quarantine checks and the inspections of imported goods at border gates, with the aim of preventing bird flu viruses from entering the country.

Tran Dac Phu, Director of the ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department, said that since the beginning of this year, nine teams have been established to assist northern border provinces in the fight against the H7N9 and H5N1 strains of avian flu.

They have also supervised localities carrying out poultry smuggling investigations.

Phu confirmed that no avian flu H7N9 cases have been reported so far this year in either humans or poultry. However, the country has been facing a very high risk due to the sudden increase in H7N9 cases in neighbouring China, he added.

Therefore, the ministry has intensified inspections 24/7 by using infra-red body temperature measuring devices

at border gates as around 130,000 Chinese enter Vietnam each month. Unusually high temperatures might be a symptom of avian flu.

In the time to come, the health sector will continue strengthening quarantine work at border gates, and improving the capacity of doctors to avoid fatalities.

Activities respond to World Water Day 2014

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is completing the draft of a national action plan on enhancing management, protection and water use in order to increase efficiency in managing and using water resources in the coming time.

It is also works hard to build an inter-water reservoir operation process for lakes in basins across the country, while continuing to research the impact of hydroelectricity projects on the main flow of the Mekong River.

The information was revealed at a press conference in Hanoi on February 24 to announce the ministry’s upcoming activities and a national programme for the 2014 World Water Day.

According to Hoang Van Bay, Director of the Water Resources Management Department, a national meeting and an array of activities in response to the 2014 World Water Day will be held on March 21 in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau,  one of the localities in the watershed between the Red River and Thai Binh River, the largest river basin in northern Vietnam.

The programme, organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) in conjunction with the provincial People’s Committee,  includes a national meeting, a scientific conference titled "Water and Energy", a photo exhibition themed "Water - People - Life", an art performance called "River and Singing" and some other activities.

Themed “Water and Energy”, the 2014 World Water Day aims to raise awareness of the close relationship between these two basic elements, and calls on people to find management measures to be able to maintain economic growth and to meet human needs through sustainable exploitation of water resources and the efficient and economical use of energy towards a green economy.

Unlawful gold mining still rife in northern province

Illegal gold mining continues to be a problem in Pi Toong Commune in the northern mountainous province of Son La, despite local authorities' efforts to stop it.

There are currently over ten illegal mines in the area, according to the latest statistics from local authorities.

Several local households have borrowed money to equip themselves with pneumatic drills and sluice boxes to exploit the precious metal.

Voice of Viet Nam (VOV) reporters recently visited the area and found it abuzz with noisy mining equipment and witnessed several gold miners setting up temporary accommodation around the mines.

Illegal gold mining has scarred the landscape, causing landslides and polluting water used for local agricultural production.

"We all know that what we are doing is illegal, dangerous, and causes environmental pollution, but we have no other choice because we don't make enough money from growing rice to live on," Vi Thi Lun, a local resident, told VOV.

Illegal gold mining has been reported in the area since 2011.

Local authorities had attempted to close illegal mines in recent years, but the situation hadn't changed, according to the commune People's Committee Chairman, Quang Van Tam.

Local authorities have confiscated machinery and tools used for gold mining, but residents simply replace them.

Muong La District's police in co-operation with the local Natural Resources and Environment Division and the commune People's Committee made efforts to stop illegal mining and set up an inspection team to deal with exploitation activities in the commune.

"The commune fines illegal miners VND2 million (US$95), but that's not enough of a deterrent, and local residents continue mining after they've paid the fine," Tam said.

Remote sensing satellite functioning well

Vietnam’s first remote sensing satellite, VNREDSat-1, has captured more than 21,000 images since being launched into orbit in May 2013, the National Remote Sensing Centre announced on February 24.

Of the total, some 5,600 images have less than 10 percent cloud cover and are thus usable, according to the department under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. About a quarter of the total images are of Vietnamese territory.

VNREDSat-1 was launched into orbit on May 7, 2013, from the Kourou launch pad, Guiana, France. Its operation has been under Vietnam’s control since September 4.

The satellite is said to be capable of capturing images of all areas in the world and expected to assist efforts to deal with flooding, forest fire, oil overflow and other incidents quickly and effectively.

The VNREDSat-1 project has a total investment of 55.8 million EUR sourced by the French government's Official Development Assistance and the Vietnamese side's contribution of nearly 65 billion VND (around 3.2 million USD).

The satellite was designed and built by Astrium SAS, an affiliate of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).-

Hanoi urged to up investment in concentrated IT park

The establishment of the concentrated information technology park in Cau Giay district, Hanoi - one of the first three zones of its kind in the country - is on the right path, marking a remarkable turning-point for IT development in the city.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son made the remark during a working session with the municipal authorities on February 24, praising the Hanoi People’s Committee for swiftly putting the zone into operation.

He also urged the city to create preferential policies to draw more investment in the zone, saying that it is necessary to solve difficulties facing investors to help them promote their business and production.

The minister noted that the municipal authorities should also pay attention to calling on domestic and foreign investors to pour money into the field.

According to Vice Chairwoman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, the city has invested 30 billion VND to upgrade and develop infrastructure in the park.

She said the city also asks related departments and sectors to build appropriate policies and models for its first concentrated IT park. Three more of this kind will be built in other districts in the coming time, towards turning the IT sector into a spearhead of the city’s economy by 2015, Ngoc stressed.

On August 28, 2013, the Cau Giay handicraft and small-scale industrial cluster was recognised as a concentrated (IT) park in Hanoi.

Covering an area of 8.5 ha, the park sees the operation of 306 enterprises, with 11,336 workers. IT firms account for 28.8 percent of the enterprises, such as the Financing and Promoting Technology Corporation (FPT) and the Military Telecom Corporation (Viettel).-

Community-based disaster management promoted

A large number of people in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang have been provided with skills to protect themselves and their families from natural disasters thanks to a project on community-based disaster risk management.

The outcome was reported at a meeting to review the project held in the locality on February 24.

Funded by the Red Cross of Germany and Australia, the project, which started in July 2012, will continue until December 2014 in three districts, namely Thoai Son, Tri Ton and Tinh Bien, which are considered to be extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Through training courses, residents in the areas have learnt how to prevent, cope with and adapt to the impacts of natural disasters and climate change.

Thirty-three campaigns to raise public awareness of responding to climate change have been organised with the participation of 988 local people, most of them are women and Khmer people.

As many as 210 pupils from primary schools in the three localities have been taught how to administer first aid in urgent cases.

The project has also made use of the experience from activities of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent implemented in Vietnam and the region, towards ensuring clean water supply and environmental sanitation as well as promoting healthcare and development of livelihood-support models in the locality.

Youngsters act for climate change adaptation

The project “Youth Initiative for Climate Change Adaptation” came under review in the central city of Da Nang on February 24, with youngsters from Da Nang and the southern cities of Quy Nhon and Can Tho taking part.

As part of the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network, young people in these localities have received funding of 1.2 billion VND (570,000 USD) for 12 out of their 60-plus climate change response initiatives from the UK’s non-governmental organisation Challenge to Change (CTC) since 2012.

Besides technical assistance, the youth initiative groups were also provided with aid of 10-100 million VND (470 – 47,600 USD), depending on the scale and complexity of each project.

At the event, 12 groups presented their ideas, implementation, results and lessons learnt during the process. They also had a chance to interact with specialists from CTC and Quy Nhon University.

The projects on assessing the impacts of climate change and disasters on Da Nang’s fisheries, rainwater collection and a semi-auto rainwater spraying system are among the success stories.-

Expert proposes removal penmanship, arithmetic from curriculum

An expert from the Hanoi National University of Education said training in penmanship and arithmetic memorisation should be dropped from primary school education because it lacks real educational value.

Dr. Vu Thu Huong of the Primary Education Faculty of the university, said that such training methods take a lot of time both for teachers and students, but show little as far as practical results.

She added that surveys conducted in countries such as the UK, Germany, Hungary and France have shown that this type of training in young children does not reflect greater skills in math or language later in life.

Huong added that, "In many foreign countries, students are provided with knowledge of geography, biology, physics and chemistry from an early age. They are also taught about the cultures of different peoples and life skills, all of which are necessary for their future lives.” She added that first grade students in Vietnam lag behind in understanding the outside world and are not given the tools to decipher it through what they are taught in school, which is partially the fault of parents who focus too much on good marks.

According to Huong, penmanship and memorised mental calculation should only part of the curriculum for children in the first and second grade, and older children should move on to more challenging subjects such as spelling. For maths, she says, a shift from quick calculation to accuracy should be put in place.