Hanoi hosts int’l conference on drug and HIV/AIDS

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Vietnamese government co-organized a regional conference on countermeasures against drug and HIV/AIDS in Hanoi on June 14.

The event was part of a 1993 memorandum of understanding between Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and UNODC.

The conference aimed to review the situation of drug using and HIV in East Asia and Southeast Asia, boost the role of executive, medical, and criminal judicial staff in the fields, exchange experience and knowledge of challenges and opportunities in taking evidence-based approaches in drug rehabilitation and fighting HIV in the region.

Participants in the conference included guests from Malaysia’s National Anti-Drug Agency (NADA), the Asian Network of People who use Drugs (ANPUD), UNODC, and the World Health Organization.

It’s estimated that there are 16 million drug users, including 2.6 million in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Accidents kill 2, injure 9 in central provinces

A road accident occurring in the central province of Ha Tinh killed 1 and severely injured 6 around 11:00 am today.

Eyewitnesses in Cam Xuyen District said a bus carrying 30 passengers smashed a motorbike coming in the opposite direction and then got off the road after one of its front tires suddenly blew up.

The motorbike rider, a local named Thai Xuan Kieu, was killed on the spot while 6 passengers were injured.

The bus is owned by Ha Tinh Automobile Transportation Joint Stock Company.

Three hours later in the central province of Binh Dinh, a tractor-trailer driven by Ta Xuan Quang, 34, crashed heads-on into a truck steered by 35-year-old Nguyen Van My, from the central highland province of Gia Lai, when the two vehicles were traveling in opposite directions.

Quang, a Binh Dinh resident, was killed right away. My, together with the assistants of the two drivers including Le Hoa Hop and Nguyen Duy Khanh, was seriously injured.

Reporters on duty assaulted

Two reporters were allegedly attacked Tuesday morning while they were filming construction material stores that infringe on railway safety rules around Phu Dien station in Tu Liem District, Hanoi.

Photo: VNN

Then the aggressive man rushed to choke Le Duy Khanh, the other reporter from ATV, a TV program produced by An Ninh Thu Do newspaper, and punched him in the face when Khanh was capturing the scene.

The two reporters then asked for help from Phu Dien Commune police who are now investigating the reported attacks.

Population, housing census released

Publications on the 2009 Vietnam Population and Housing Census were released in Hanoi on June 14, providing data on population, serving a basis to assess millennium development goals and support the creation of accurate and appropriate development policies and strategies.

Addressing the launch ceremony, Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Do Thuc and United Nations Resident Coordinator in Vietnam Bruce Campbell affirmed that the results of the 2009 population and housing census play an important role in making plans and devising socio-economic development policies.
They stressed the importance of data from the census in monitoring differences between urban and rural areas, geographical areas and vulnerable population groups, ethnic minorities, as well as in meeting goals and targets set in the socio-economic development plan.
The data also helps to evaluate the process of achieving millennium development goals, they said.
With the currrent birthrate, Vietnam’s population would reach 95.3 million by 2019, 102.7 million by 2029 and 108.7 million by 2049, according to the GSO’s population predictions.
In the publications, analyses on education, including the literacy rate among those aged from 15 and over and among ethnic people, and the difference in the literacy rate between men and women, show the country’s progress in meeting the millennium development goal on gender equality.
Analyses on the age and gender structure showed that Vietnam had entered a young population structure period, which started from 2007 and was forecast to end by 2041. This information would help the Government make policies on human resource development and job generation as well as measures to ensure social security and health care for the elderly.
The publications also provide analyses on gender equality, migration, addressing economic challenges and issues on culture and society, pressures on urban infrastructure and demands for social services.

France trains Vietnamese officials in urban management

Officials from 15 cities and provinces of Vietnam have concluded a two-week training course on urban management in France.

The course was held by the Lyon National Institute of Application Sciences (INSA) and partners in the Rhone-Alpes region.
Trainees were provided with knowledge on urban construction projects, planning of public space, urban lighting and traffic systems, social housing, water supply and waste treatment systems as well as the geographical information system (SIG).
INSA has cooperated with Vietnam for 15 years. The institute receives 25 Vietnamese senior high school students for training every year starting in 1998. It began a programme to train high-quality engineers for Vietnam from 1999.
The institute also helped train Vietnamese officials in urban planning and new materials.

Man slits girl’s throat after she rejects him

After days of investigation, Long An province police have arrested a man for killing a 19-year-old girl with a knife and throwing her body in a fish pool to cover up the crime.
Police have arrested Truong Minh Hai, 23, and also detained his father, Truong Van Lua, who was charged with harboring a criminal.
After returning home from work on the evening of May 20, Tran Thi Thu Huong, with a flashlight in hand, went out to the toilet that is 50 meters from her house and next to a fish pool.
Hai, who was hiding nearby, rushed the girl, took her to the ground and cut her throat with a knife. She died on the spot.
Hai found a mobile phone in her pants and took it. He then threw her body in the fish pool.
After the murder, he returned to his home, just 50 meters from Huong’s house.
After discovering Huong had not returned, her mother went out to look for her.

On the way to the pool, she found the flashlight on the ground and some drag marks near the pool.

She screamed for help and a moment later, Huong’s father found her daughter dead in the pool.

Hai’s and Huong’s families have long been neighbors and the two knew each other when they were kids.
Some time before, Hai left home for Ho Chi Minh City where he worked as a truck driver’s assistant and got married there.
In February 2011, Hai returned home and met Huong again. He later fell in love with her and asked for her phone number, he told police after his arrest.
Hai phoned Huong many times to express his feelings but she did not reciprocate his affection.
Recently, after discovering Huong had a boyfriend and the two were planning to marry, Hai got so envious that he wanted to kill her, he told police.
Huong was a worker at Mianlan in the district’s Duc Lap Ha commune and was the breadwinner of her family.

Her father had lost his ability to work due to Agent Orange contamination and her two brothers have birth defects and cannot work either.

Water leak at hydropower plant kills one

An enormous amount of water and soil shout out of a broken water pipe Tuesday morning at the Dam Bol hydropower plant in Lam Dong province in the Central Highlands, killing one and causing another to go missing.

The water also swept away three nearby houses.

Tran Van Trung, 11, was confirmed dead while the missing victim was identified as Vu Thi Luong, 33.

Three others sustained severe injuries. They are Tran Thi Bich Hieu, Tran Van Thanh, and Vu Thi Hoa, Trung’s mother.

All of the victims are from Hamlet 4, Loc Bac Commune in Bao Lam District.

Local authorities mobilized around 150 rescuers to search for Luong.

5 cars burnt down in garage fire

5 passenger vans, trucks, and tractor trailers were burnt to the ground after a fire swept through Truong Vinh Garage in An Nhon District in the central province of Binh Dinh this morning.

No one was hurt but the fire is estimated to have caused more than VND3 billion (US$150,000) in damage.  

The flame sparked from electric welding equipment in the garage and quickly spread out, one eyewitness said.

After being informed, local authorities mobilized 7 fire trucks with 50 firefighters to the scene to put down the flame.

It was not until noon that the fire was extinguished.

 The accident blocked the road for one hour.

Joining efforts to build rural areas

A seminar was held in Hanoi on June 14 to review one year of implementing a national target programme aimed at building new rural areas.  

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung highlighted efforts by relevant ministries and agencies in raising public awareness of new rural areas.

The Deputy PM stated that the programme requires investment in the rural areas to bring practical benefits to farmers and poor people. Therefore, local authorities and relevant ministries should consider it a top political task and take drastic measures to bring new rural areas to life.

Deputy PM Hung asked ministries to co-ordinate with local authorities to implement 19 criteria of the programme in accordance with the specific situation in each locality.

Mr Hung said it is important to focus on developing agricultural production, improving people’s living conditions and paying attention to training human resources.

VNN/VOV/VNA/TuoiTre