49 Son La households to move to safe areas

Authorities in the northern mountainous province of Son La have directed local agencies to quickly build a new resettlement area for 49 households in Song Ma District.

The old resettlement area in Muong La District's Ten Noong Village is at high risk of landslides after a growing number of cracks have appeared in the Son La Reservoir since it filled to its highest water level of 215 metres.

The new resettlement area is scheduled to be completed before the onset of the rainy season.

Ten Vietnam records recognized by Asian Council

The first is the biggest bronze pagoda in Asia, which sits on top of Yen Tu mountain in the northern province of Quang Ninh. The 70-tonne pagoda was restored in June 2006.

The second is the longest lobby with 500 Arhat statues at the Bai Dinh pagoda in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

The third, also at the pagoda, is the 100 tonne bronze gold-inlaid statute of Sakyamuni.

The fourth is the biggest Jesus Christ statute on the top of Tao Phung mountain in the southern coastal city of Vung Tau.

The fifth is the Con Dao prison relic site, also known as “tiger cage”, in Phong Nha – Ke Bang as world natural heritage in the central province of Quang Binh.

The sixth is Thien Duong (Paradise) cave in Ke Bang national heritage park, which is recognized as the longest dry cave.

The remaining are the Cu Chi tunnels near HCM City, also recognized as the longest, the sea-crossing cable system in the Vinpearl resort, Nha Trang, the oldest and largest weapons museum in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, and the discovery of many musical instruments, including the two-cord fiddle, the organ, guitar and drums by a little blind boy named Bui Ngoc Thinh, 12, from the central province of Khanh Hoa.

UNHCR assists ethnic people in Dak Lak

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has committed to help the Central Highland province of Dak Lak build schools and kindergartens in its disadvantaged districts.

Under the agreement signed between the UNHCR and the provincial People’s Committee on February 29, the UN agency will provide Dak Lak with US$150,000 to build a primary school in Ea Drong village in Buon Ho town, a nursery school in Ea M’Roh village in Cu M’gra district, and three classrooms for preschool children in Dlue Ya Commune in Knong Nang district.

The rest of the capital will come from the province’s budget, according to the agreement.

The provincial People’s Committee said it will try to start the work early and put these schools into operation in the coming school year.

The UNHCR has so far presented Dak Lak with more than US$400,000 to build eight schools, five of which have come into use.

Kien Giang denies globefish caused deaths

A rumour that 14 fishermen in southern Kien Giang Province died after eating globefish in recent days was false, affirmed provincial authorities.

The fishermen remained onboard the Tan Vinh fishing boat which was still operating offshore and none of them had been poisoned as a result of eating globefish, said boat owner Dinh Van Dan.

Similar rumours have circulated about other boats.

Relevant agencies are continuing with their investigation to clear up the rumour and reassure the public.

Japanese firms offer transport scholarships

Seven Japanese enterprises on Feb. 29 awarded scholarships worth $147,000 to students and postgraduates of the University of Transport and Communications in Hanoi.

The firms are Nippon Steel Group, Nippon Steel Pipe Vietnam, Kawakin Holdings Group, JGC Group, IHI group, Itochu Vietnam and A Chau Vietnam equipment solutions company.

Nippon Steel Group is the leading donor with 126,000 USD given to two lecturers to pursue post-graduate training in Japan. The rest will be used as annual scholarship for students.

The activity is an idea of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), aiming to help Vietnam train its human resources to meet the increasing demand for technology transfer between Japan and Vietnam.

JICA Chief Representative in Vietnam, Tsuno Motonori, pointed out that transportation is the largest sector using Japan’s ODA in Vietnam. Many key transportation works have applied Japan’s latest technologies. Japanese firms plan to transfer the most up-to-date technologies to Vietnam through universities.

JICA also pledges to create optimum conditions for Japanese enterprises and Vietnam’s universities to boost cooperation.

Unquarantined eggs smuggled into capital

The Ha Noi Market Watch Department confiscated 32,000 unquarantined chicken eggs and a large amount of expired ham on Tuesday.

Director Vu Thi Thanh Ngan of the TBF Food Joint Stock Company, owner of the products, presented two veterinary quarantine certificates granted by northern Hai Duong Province's Animal Health Department but was unable to produce certificates from the Ha Noi authorities as regulated.

Child death blamed on hand-foot-mouth

The death of a three-year-old boy on Monday in northern Lao Cai Province's Bao Thang District has been blamed on hand-foot-mouth disease.

The toddler was hospitalised with symptoms including coughing, a high fever and cysts on his arms and legs.

Twenty other people in the boy's Gia Phu Commune are also suspected of having come in contact with the disease. Samples have been taken from each of the potential patients for testing.

The provincial Health Department ordered its district-based units to spray chemicals at local schools to prevent spread of the disease.

Nine children have died of the disease this year and about 6,000 people have been infected nation-wide.

Nation pledges to work with Cooperative Alliance

Vietnam will cooperate fully with the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and other countries to ensure cooperatives thrive and become more productive.

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Dang Khoa affirmed this at the 9^th Asia-Pacific Cooperative Ministers’ Conference in Bangkok from February 27-29.

Khoa said Vietnam’s agricultural sector has developed well with a variety of products to gain a strong foothold in international markets, such as rice, coffee, rubber and nuts.

As a result of cooperative efforts, people’s incomes and living standards are gradually improving in many rural areas in Vietnam.

In his speech, ICA President Pauline Green cited the UN’s view that cooperatives have helped improve the living standards of 50 percent of the world’s population.

Every year the ICA makes public a list of 300 largest cooperatives around the world. The total capital and assets of these top cooperatives have so far amounted to US$1.6 trillion, equivalent to that of Spain, the world’s ninth largest economy.

On this occasion, the Vietnamese delegation compared notes on the results of bilateral cooperation between the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance and the Cooperative College of Malaysia and also worked with representatives from Thailand and some other countries.

HCMC seizes smuggled meat, some rotten

On Tuesday, Feb 28, quarantine officers and police in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc District seized and destroyed 700 kg of cattle and poultry meat that was being transported without documents.

Early Tuesday morning, a joint inspection team, including officers of the Thu Duc Animal Quarantine Station and local traffic police, forced a suspicious van to stop for examination and discovered that it was carrying about 170 kg of beef, all of which was rotten.

48-year-old Vu Van Ty, the transporter, failed to show the officers a quarantine certificate or any other documents related to the meat.

The rotten meat contained many maggots, the officers said.

Ty said he was carrying the meat from Dong Nai Province, where he is living, to HCMC, for sale.

A couple of hours later, the team signaled for a truck to stop and found 528 kg of meat, including beef, pork, chicken and chicken’s tripe inside the vehicle.

Nguyen Thi Hong, 29, of HCMC’s District 9, the goods’ owner, had no documents to prove their origin.

Hong said she had bought the meat from Tam Hiep Market in Dong Nai Province and wanted to bring it to the district for sale.

The station confiscated all the meat from Ty and Hong and later destroyed it.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre