HCM City strives to become a scientific and technological centre

Ho Chi Minh City has focused on scientific and technological development and has initially achieved positive results in recent years.

The Government delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan worked with leaders from the HCM City People’s Committee and other departments on July 15 to discuss management mechanisms for scientific and technological activities.

Phan Minh Tan, Director of the city’s Department of Science and Technology, said the city has initially achieved positive scientific and technological results in recent years. For example, it has established high-tech and biotechnological zones, the high-tech agricultural zones, the institute of computational science and technology and the research and training centre for chip design under the Vietnam National University-HCM City.

However, the path to scientific and technological advancement has not been an easy one, Tan said.

At the working session with Deputy PM Nhan, departments’ representatives pointed out difficulties in attracting talented people, reforming policies and procedures to develop human resources and infrastructure, as well as managing intellectual property.

In its development plan until 2015 with a vision to 2020, the city aims to become a scientific and technological centre in the region. To obtain the target, it will focus on five orientations including developing high-quality human resources, improving businesses and production industries’ competitiveness based on technological renovation, forming scientific services, researching scientific basis for making plans, and making scientific and technological progress.

Mr Nhan praised the city’s achievements and the departments’ efforts in promoting scientific and technological development. He said the results will contribute to developing the country’s scientific and technological sector. He asked the city to remove obstacles for departments and to create favorable conditions for researchers to promote their talent to contribute to the national development.

France helps build major waste factory

The ancient town of Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam put its largest waste treatment facility into operation on July 15, in an effort to conserve the world cultural heritage site.

French Ambassador Jean Francois Girault cut the inauguration ribbon of the VND77 billion (US$3.77 million) facility, of which his Government funded over VND57 billion in ODA. The balance was provided by the Vietnamese Government.

The factory was designed to treat almost 7,000 cu. m. of liquid waste and 55 tonnes of solid waste a day, including a large volume of medical waste from the 300-bed municipal hospital.

Hoi An was awarded a World Cultural Heritage title by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999.
 
One bitten by blood-sucking bugs, hospitalized

One patient living near Ha Noi Maternity Hospital was hospitalized after being bitten by blood-sucking stink bugs yesterday.

Dr. Truong Xuan Lam, chief of entomology under the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, reported that seven nests of kissing bugs have been detected in Hanoi.

The number of hospitalization cases has increased significantly due to serious allergy from the bug bites which could cause not only swellings and itchiness but also high fever in some patients.

Back in May, 2010, officers of the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources found the biggest nest with more than 1,000 kissing bugs in a woodpile from the house of Luu Thi Ninh in Co Nhue commune, Tu Liem district, Hanoi.

War-time bomb uncovered in Vietnam kindergarten

A 1.2m-long bomb was yesterday uncovered at Muong Xen Kindergarten in Ky Son District of the central province of Nghe An when teachers were cleaning up the campus after a flood receded.

The bomb is rusty on its shell measured at 0.35m wide. It is guessed the bomb was dropped there during the war time before 1975.

The bomb has lied under a big pile of scrap which has existed in the school for decades.

Local authorities and an army unit were sent to the location to protect safety. They are planning to move it away and defuse it next week.

Many bombs and explosives and other weapon remnants have been unearthed in the province.

Son, friends blackmail parents $9,800 in Hanoi, arrested

Wishing to have money for dissipation, a son in Hanoi who has pretended to be kidnapped for being indebted has plotted with his four friends to blackmail his own parents VND200 million (US$9,800).

All the five were arrested yesterday.

The 24-year-old guy, Nguyen Van Kien wrote an IOU acknowledging that he owed VND200 million to the four men who demanded payment from his parents.

Using the phone of one of the ‘creditors’, Kien told his parents -- Nguyen Van Luong and Nguyen Thi Duong -- that he has been threatened to be mutilated and killed if the debt has not got paid.

On allowing the parents to hand over VND60 million first, the four guys agreed to receive money at Lon (Big) Bridge in Hanoi’s Dong Anh District where they all were nabbed by disguised policemen.

Four other guys include Le Van Ha, 24, residing in Hanoi; Pham Dinh Duan and Ngoc Ngoc Quy, 21, in Bac Ninh Province; and Do Tien Dung, 28, in Ninh Binh Province.

Sex-for-grade teacher ‘mismanages phone’: board

C.T.D., who accuses her teacher, T.X.N., of sending her messages to demand sexA university lecturer in Dak Lak Province is facing a disciplinary warning for “mismanaging his cell phone” after being accused by a female student of demanding sex on mobile phone messages.

The student, C.T.D., wrote that T.X.N, faculty member of the Finance and Accounting Department at Tay Nguyen University, many times texted to her cell phone, demanding sex in return for a good grade for her graduation thesis.

The lecturer has firmly rejected this accusation, claiming that his wife used his cell phone to send such erotic messages to test her husband’s faithfulness.

He later wrote in an explanatory report to the university that someone attempted to harm him by using his mobile phone to send the dirty texts.

Yesterday, the university held a meeting to consider the accusation and concluded that T.X.N should be disciplined for mismanagement of his phone, causing damage to the school’s image.

The Department conducted a ballot and most of its members voted that N should be given a warning for this “mismanagement”.
The proposal will be submitted to the university’s Disciplinary Council for consideration.

One message sent from N's phone to D reads, "It is not far for us to go. Both of us will ride close to each other. 8 pm we will return home. That place is safe."

T.X.N., an instructor from Tay Nguyen University, and one of his alleged messages demanding sex from a female student

In a message, T.X.N. allegedly texted, “Let’s go to a hotel. You will feel at ease after your first try.”

D. said she had not answered all the messages from N.

When the deadline for submitting her thesis came near, D received many other messages, some of which reads, “I won’t correct your thesis any more. Do it yourself!”, and “This is the last chance. You must have a definite action.”

On June 22, D. received a striking message that set 7 pm the next day as the deadline for her to meet N. at a hotel.

After reading the “ultimatum”, N. lodged the complaint to relevant agencies.

T.X.N later apologized to the student as “it is simply a proper thing to do since the messages were sent from my number”

Two buses mysteriously burnt to skeletal frames

Two buses transporting 1 ton of rice and 2 tons of NBK fertilizer was unexpectedly burnt to bare frames in an early-dawn fire today in Nghe An province.

The fire broke out from a garage in Dien Hong commune, Dien Chau district and caused an estimated loss of more than VND2 billion (US$100,000).

A crash helmet was found 10 meters from the scene.

Nguyen Duc Binh, owner of the two buses, said he had deactivated the electrical system so a short circuit was ruled out as the culprit.

Police are still investigating.

Fugitive Korean embezzler seized in Vietnam

The Vietnamese police have arrested a South Korean business executive who is wanted in his country for allegedly embezzling US$300,000 from his company.

Yoon Haeng Joon, 52, director of Sunho, who reportedly fled to Vietnam in late 2009, was arrested yesterday by the Vietnam Interpol office at the Nam Trung Yen Urban Area in Hanoi.

He had been hunted by the South Korean police, who sought the assistance of the Vietnam Interpol office, the latter said.

It then launched an investigation, and in early April, following information for various sources, it focused on a South Korean man who married a Vietnamese woman in 2001 and had two children.

He was frequently spotted in Dong Da and Cau Giay Districts in Hanoi, and soon the police confirmed that he was the wanted man.

Yoon told the police that he had hoped to use the embezzled money to do business in Vietnam.

But he sang for South Korean companies in Hai Phong for $200-300 per show.

The Vietnam Interpol office has handed Joon over to the Ministry of Public Security for further questioning before extraditing him to South Korea.

Chinese worker dies in Ca Mau industrial accident

A Chinese welder died yesterday after falling off the roof of a fertilizer plant being built in Ca Mau Ca Mau Province.

Liu Zye was welding a chimney on the roof of the plant when he was hit by an iron grill that swung loose from another construction work nearby.

It caused him to fall off the 10-meter-high roof, and he was seriously injured.

He was taken to a local hospital but died on the way there, Colonel Le Cong Truong, head of the district police, who arrived at the scene of the accident, said.

Work on the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group’s Ca Mau urea plant in U Minh District began in 2008 with two Chinese contractors, Wuhuan Engineering Corporation and the Chinese Machinery Import and Export Corporation, involved.

Most of the workers are from China, Truong added.  

1 more arrested in fake drivers’ license case

The Can Tho city police yesterday arrested one more member of a major gang that allegedly sold more than forged 600 driver’s licenses in several Mekong Delta provinces.

Nguyen Ba Cong belonged to Bac Ninh Province north of Hanoi but lived in Binh Duong, they said.

In May they had arrested five other members -- Ngo Van Ho of Vinh Long Province, Duong Van Kim of Hau Giang, and Nguyen Dinh Sau, Nguyen Dinh Manh, and Tran Van Bay of Binh Duong.

Ho supplied the fake licenses while the others distributed them, Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Tran Quang Thang, deputy head of the Can Tho police’s security investigation division, said.

They had been operating since the middle of last year, he added.

On April 22, following a tip-off from the public, the police caught Ho with 18 forged licenses and a fake high-school graduation certificate in Vinh Long.

Simultaneously, other officers stopped a bus near the Can Tho Bridge to arrest Kim who was on it.

The two men then gave the police information that enabled them to track down and arrest Manh, Sau, and Bay.

All the licenses carried a forged signature of the deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Transport, Duong Hong Thanh, the police said.

Other documents related to a driver’s license were also forged by the ring in every detail, including signatures and seals.

After getting a copy of the customer’s ID card and photos, they would deliver a fake license in just a couple of days, charging different rates depending on the nature of the license.

Some of the gang’s clients confessed to the police they had paid VND11.5 million (US$558) for a Grade E license for driving passenger vans.

For smaller vehicles, the price was lower.

Ho admitted to having a network in all delta provinces and selling hundreds of forged licenses.

Thang said preliminary investigations showed that the gang had sold more than 600 of them.

The police are continuing their investigation.

Heavy rains lash North Vietnam  
 
A low pressure system intensifying on the East Sea caused heavy rainstorms in northern Vietnam.

The national weather bureau said that by 1 am this morning, the system was centered at 20-21 degrees north latitude and 109-110 degrees east longitude on the northeast of the Gulf of Tokin.

Within the next 24 hours, the system is forecast to strengthen into a tropical depression. The gulf of Tonkin will see wind gales and tornados.
 
Vietnam, Laos to increase educational ties  

Vietnam and Laos plan to further strengthen ties in the field of education, particularly in human resource development, according to an announcement made at a meeting between representatives of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports in Hanoi on July 13.

Pham Vu Luan, Minister of Education and Training proposed some solutions that would help Lao students studying in Vietnam to improve their learning skills by enhanced quality of teaching and learning methods in the Vietnamese language.

He said that currently, teaching Vietnamese in some schools in Laos is progressing well. This ability will help Lao and Vietnamese students to communicate with each other. Learning Vietnamese will create more opportunities for Lao students to study in Vietnam once they can speak Vietnamese.

As of now, thousands of Lao students study in 127 schools and universities in Vietnam.

Mr. Luan stressed that Vietnam considers that educational ties will help strengthen Laos-Vietnam relations.
 
Revival of Thai, Mong languages in schools  

People’s Committee of the northern mountain province of Dien Bien has approved a project to teach Thai and Mong languages to primary school children during the academic year 2011-2015.
 
The Department of Education and Training launched the project at an annual meeting on July 12. The project aims to preserve audio and written word of the Thai and Mong ethnic minorities. The project is estimated to cost VND8.3 billion (US$404,000).

Under the project, Thai primary school children will study Tay Dam language and ancient scripts while Mong students will study Mong Lenh-Mong Hoa languages and written words that will be edited by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The province intends to open 80 classes for teaching these two special languages to around 2,000 third graders. Educators decided to start teaching ethnic minority languages for third graders because these students speak Vietnamese fluently; thus, learning their mother tongue will not influence their studying of Vietnamese subjects.

Students will study these languages till the ninth grade.

Since Thai and Mong languages are in danger of extinction, the implementation of the project will revive them. Hence, in addition to good textbooks, there also must be teachers who have love for the languages and understanding of the culture.

Le Van Quy, head of Department of Education and Training at Dien Bien province, says the curriculum has been carefully edited for students in the northern mountain provinces.

Approx. 1,500 Thai teachers and 200 Mong teachers are ready to participate in the project.
 
Health inspection teams to contain epidemics  

Dr. Nguyen Van Binh, head of the Preventive Health Department in the Ministry of Health, announced yesterday the setting up of four inspection teams that will check and manage epidemic prevention in 12 major provinces and cities of the central and Southern regions.

The inspection teams will cooperate with Pasteur Institute and the Ho Chi Minh City Preventive Medicine Center.

According to the latest statistics, there are 21,200 reported cases of dengue fever with 21 reported deaths and 18,800 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease with 52 reported deaths across the country.

The infectious disease department of Children Hospital No.1 has reported 180 in-patients with hand-foot-mouth disease, 30 of whom are in serious condition and on ventilators. There was also one reported death in the southern province of An Giang.

Truong Huu Khanh, head of the above department said that the hospital admits approximately 80-90 new cases everyday, 50 percent of which are from other provinces. A similar situation prevails in Children Hospital No. 2.

According to Nguyen Dac Tho, director of HCMC Preventive Medicine Centre, in the first 6 months of 2011 there have been about 4,700 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease including 17 deaths. He also confirmed that the epidemic only petered off temporarily at the beginning of July. However, now more fresh outbreaks have re-occurred and medical workers battle to contain the disease.
 
Fear of hand-foot-mouth disease in pre-schools  

Fear of contracting hand-foot-mouth disease has caused many pre-schools in Ho Chi Minh City to shut down temporarily since more and more children are reporting sick every day.

The People’ s Committee of District 8 announced the closure of public pre-schools in the district two weeks earlier than scheduled as hand-foot-mouth disease is becoming more widespread among children. Private day nurseries will be allowed to operate as normal under supervision of health authorities.
 
Since the beginning of this year, there have been 440 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease and three fatalities in District 8.  Apart from this, there were 12 other cases including one death in 10 schools namely Son Ca, Bong Hong, Bong Sen, Kim Dong, Tuoi Ngoc, Tho Ngoc, Tuoi Hoa, Tuoi Tho, Vang Anh and 19-5.

A bulletin board in front of Vang Anh School says “As hand-foot-mouth disease is widespread with serious complications, the school has decided to shut down. Parents please keep your children at home”. The managing board of the school has strengthened propaganda about the ways of transmission of the disease to make parents more aware.

The refusal of schools to remain open during summer vacation has caused problems for busy parents; however, Trieu Tuan, head of the Department of Education and Training in district 8, said that the option of opening classes depends on teachers during vacations.

The reported cases of hand-foot-mouth disease increased in July, when the disease usually shows signs of abating. Pediatric Hospital II admits 60 cases daily compared to 35 cases per day earlier. Last week, two kids died in the hospital; one was from HCMC’s district 12 and the other from another province.

Nguyen Dac Tho, deputy director of the Municipal Department of Preventive Health, said around 400 children suffering from the disease are taken to hospitals in the city each week.

The situation in the Mekong delta is much the same. Bac Lieu province reported 129 children contracted with the disease, according to Dr. Nguyen Van Minh, director of the province Preventive Health Department. Two kids in district Dong Hai and Hoa Binh died of the disease. Managing board of Hoa Mai pre-school in the province has decided to shut down because three children contracted the disease.

Can Tho City also recorded more than 2,800 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease since the beginning of the year, 109 percent higher than the same period last year.  Some affected children were from the neighboring provinces of Vinh Long, Hau Giang and Soc Trang.

Dong Thap and An Giang saw 120 children affected with the disease, an increase of 30 percent. Whist Dong Thap has seen an increase of 300 percent compared to the same period with an astonishing 1,046 reported cases.
 
Travel + Leisure: Metropole Hanoi among Asia’s top 3 city hotels  

Travel + Leisure, a world leading travel magazine, has called out the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi as one of the top three city hotels in Asia.  

In its August issue, the famous travel magazine ranked the Metropole third after the Mandarin Oriental in Bangkok and the Ritz-Carlton in Beijing.

Last year the Metropole ranked 14th on the list, which was determined by Travel + Leisure readers.

The 364-room Metropole is situated in downtown Hanoi. Opened in 1901, it is known as one of Southeast Asia’s most iconic hotels.

No other hotels from Vietnam made Travel + Leisure’s list of top 100 hotels in the world, officially known as the World’s Best Awards 2011. However, the Park Hyatt Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City made the magazine’s list of Top 25 Hotels in Asia, standing at 10th.

Travel + Leisure readers surveyed the hotels at TLWorldsBest.com, citing individual properties on their rooms, facilities, location, services, restaurants, food and other values.

An independent monitoring firm, ROI Research, screened the votes to ensure that travel industry professionals could not lobby for their own properties.