Women's group reaches out to poor

The HCM City Women's Union plans to ensure that it will reach out to all poor women in the city with various kinds of support during the coming five years (2011-2016).

During this period, Women's Union chapters at the grassroots level will implement a movement to build families with five "nos" and three clean qualities.

The five "nos" are no poverty, no legal violation and social evils, no domestic violence, no third child and no malnourished children and school drop-outs. The three clean qualities are clean house, clean kitchen and clean lanes.

These are among the main targets set at the 9th Congress of the HCM City Women's Union held on Monday.

Over the past five years, the city Women's Union has provided loans worth a total of VNÐ1.62 trillion (US$77 million) to help more than 230,400 women escape poverty, provided vocational training for more than 296,000 women and found jobs for 148,735 women, according to a 2006-11 report submitted to the congress.

The city Women's Union has also eliminated illiteracy among nearly 3,000 women and children and set up 206 groups and clubs against domestic violence.

Speaking at the congress, Le Thanh Hai, secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, praised the city Women's Union's achievements and asked it to continue in the same vein.

He also asked the city Women's Union to institute policies to train and develop a strong force of female officials in the city.

The municipal People's Committee was planning to grant VND50 billion ($2.3 million) to the union's Capital Aid Fund for Women in Economic Development, Hai said.

Fire breaks out at schools, 11 hospitalized

Yesterday morning, Oct 18, a big fire occurred at a building in Ho Chi Minh City where Hoa Mai Pre-school and Thang Long High School are located, causing suffocation to 11 students and teachers who had to be hospitalized.

The flame broke out at 8:15 am on the ground floor of the 6-storey building at 118-120 Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in District 5.

It then spread to the higher floors where the preschool is located, causing panic among 200 preschoolers and their teachers.

The violent fire and smoke hit 350 students of the high school located four floors above the pre-school.

All of the students and teachers escaped from the building by the staircases. During their exit, 11 students and teachers were suffocated with smoke and had to be hospitalized, VnExpress newswire reported.

Seven of the victims were discharged shortly after treatment but the four others remained at Trung Vuong Hospital.

These four include two high school students, one teacher of the pre-school and another teacher of the high school.

Over 100 firefighters and tens of fire engines were mobilized from districts 1, 5 and 8 and Binh Tan District to extinguish the fire.

5 ambulances and tens of doctors of Cho Ray and Trung Vuong hospitals were also sent to the site.

The blaze was put out after one hour. It burned down 25 motorbikes at the parking lot on the ground floor.

The district police are investigating the cause of the fire.

Boarding school for Cham Khmer students

Southern An Giang Province has begun construction of a boarding school for ethnic Cham and Kh'mer high school students in Chau Doc Town's Chau Phu B Ward.

The project, receiving nearly VND117 billion (US$5.57 million) from the State Budget and provincial budget, will feature a school of 17 classrooms, a dormitory and other facilities on an area of 33.2ha. Construction is expected to be completed by 2015.

100 workers hospitalized for food poisoning

More than 100 workers at a UK-owned sports show manufacturer in Tien Giang Province were hospitalized for food poisoning yesterday after they ate lunch at the company.

The employees of FreeView Industrial Vietnam Co Ltd in the Tan Huong Industrial Park had symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, hypocalcaemia, and convulsive fits.

Dr Tran Van Hong, deputy director of the Chau Thanh General Hospital, said some of them were in critical condition and on respirators.

Ten had been discharged yesterday evening, he added.

The victims said they became ill after eating pork braised with bamboo sprout, fried egg, and sour soup.

The Tien Giang Province Sub-department of Food Hygiene and Safety has taken samples of the food for testing.

Tran Thi Diep, one of the victims, said several workers had suffered from diarrhea and vomiting Monday afternoon after eating braised chicken, pickled cabbage, and sour soup.

Blaze injures teachers, students in HCM City

Two teachers and two students were hospitalised yesterday morning after a fire broke out at the Hoa Mai Nursery School and the Thang Long High School, located on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street in HCM City.

It took almost 200 fire-fighters two hours to put out the blaze at the six-storey school building.

The injured teachers and students were all reported to have recovered from smoke inhalation.

The blaze destroyed 25 motorbikes, with the total cost of damages still unknown. The fire was alleged to have started in a store near the school's parking area.

Vietnam to expel 23 Chinese, Taiwanese for swindle

Police in Khanh Hoa Province are preparing to deport 20 Chinese and three Taiwanese who were arrested in a transnational swindling case in the capital Nha Trang.

They were caught impersonating Chinese law enforcement officials and making calls to suspected law offenders in mainland China to coerce them into transferring money to designated accounts.

Colonel Tran Ngoc Khanh, director of the provincial police, said the 23 would also be fined VND500 million (US$24,000) and banned from entering Vietnam for three to five years.

The police would hand over all the evidence to Chinese authorities, he said.

On Monday morning, following a tip-off from the public, officers raided Thao Trang hotel in Nha Trang and arrested the 23 for the alleged swindling.

They had rented all nine rooms of the mini hotel at VND30 million ($1,430) a month since June.

The police seized 14 walkie-talkies, two high-speed Internet transmission equipment, 37 landlines, eight wifi cell phones, two USBs with data, and many documents, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Anh Hong, deputy head of the Police Office, said.

The police said the suspects confessed to masquerading as Chinese officials to contact suspected law offenders in China through the Internet and IP voice services to con them.

The only Vietnamese suspect in the case, Tran Han Nam, would be punished under Vietnamese law, Khanh said.

In six other similar swindling cases, Vietnamese authorities have arrested 192 Taiwanese and 106 Chinese in Can Tho, Binh Duong, and Phu Yen Provinces, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City.

Women awarded engineer scholarships

The American Chamber of Commerce in Viet Nam (AmCham) and Intel Viet Nam have launched a scholarship programme solely for female undergraduate students majoring in engineering.

The scholarships will provide financial support to attend a top technical university in Viet Nam and will encourage more female students to study technical fields and pursue technical careers.

Twenty-five scholarships worth VND8 million ($385) each will be awarded this year.

Flash floods leave seven dead

Flash floods triggered by torrential rains in the central region that have killed seven, left four missing and injured 14, were easing, authorities said yesterday.

According to the National Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting Centre, water levels in rivers stretching from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai provinces have dropped to between one and three metres and are expected to fall further over the next few days.

The Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention said flood water had inundated 92,160 houses and destroyed 5,730ha of paddy fields and other crops. It also said 6,520 households were forced to evacuate to higher ground.

In Quang Tri Province, 27,000 houses are still under about three metres of water, while numerous irrigation channels in Kinh Mon and Cam Lo districts have been destroyed.

In Quang Ngai Province's Mo Duc and Nghia Hanh districts, 4,400 houses have been flooded. Two bridges were swept away and more than 7,000 wells contaminated.

A fishing boat sank after running aground, but the six-man crew was rescued.

The local Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention said it would continue to supply food and water to those affected by the floods.

Meanwhile, in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, four people were reportedly killed yesterday, bringing the death toll to 48. More than 80,000 houses, 21,500ha of paddy fields and thousands of kilometres of dykes are under water.

Rain is expected to continue for the next few days in the central region.

Tien Giang doctor disciplined in patient death

A doctor at a district health center in Tien Giang Province has once again been found to have acted irresponsibly in taking care of a patient who later died following a warning for a similar occurrence just two months earlier.

Dr Nguyen Van Hoang of Cho Gao District had been warned again following the death of Le Tan Tai, 50, the center’s director, Nguyen Kim Ngoi, told Tuoi Tre on Monday.

On September 28 residents in Cho Gao town found Tai of Long Binh Dien Commune lying on the road, drunk and sick.

Some locals reported to the police, who took Tai to the health center.

Hoang admitted the victim and put him on a bed but gave him no care or medicines, witnesses told the police.

Tai later shouted, took off his clothes, and fell down from the bed. Hoang still did not provide him any treatment.

At 6 am a center staff who knew Tai called Tai’s family.

Le Minh Tan, Tai’s brother, said when he had reached at the center he had found Tai’s face scratched and swollen on one side and his left chest bruised.

At 1 pm Tai developed breathing trouble and passed out, and his family took him back to the center, where doctors said he was in a coma due to alcohol poisoning and a brain injury.

Tai was transferred to a hospital in Cho Gao District but died at 5 pm.

Earlier, on July 18 Hoang allowed the relatives of a man with brain injuries to take him from the center to a hospital by taxi, leading to his death.

The provincial Department of Heath issued Thanh a warning.

Nearly 90 schoolgirls faint from hysteria

Nearly 90 school girls from Can Duoc High School in southern Long An Province were hospitalised after fainting en mass during the last few days due to hysteria, according to the province's Health Department director Le Thanh Liem.

Thirty students were discharged from hospital on Monday afternoon.

Mass hysteria is a psychological disorder that can occur among young girls who have a physical or psychological imbalance, said Liem, adding that when suffering from fainting, girls should drink hot tea and take a rest.

Australian businesses keen on developing Vietnam’s water sector

Representatives from leading Vietnamese and Australian businesses attended a seminar on the development of Vietnam’s water sector in Ho Chi Minh City on October 18.

Addressing the event, held by the Australian Trade Commission, Graeme Swift, Australian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City said Vietnam, particularly the Mekong Delta region, is most affected by climate change and rising sea levels.

Water is vital to Vietnam’s rice basket, he said, adding that it is crucial to conduct research and work out solutions to the problem.

The seminar offered a good chance for Australian water management businesses, the Australian Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and Vietnam’s related agencies to cooperate to deal with the challenges.

It also helped Australian businesses seek Vietnamese partners in water resource management and the development of infrastructure for water sector.

Many Australian businesses have invested in water projects in Vietnam such as a project to supply running water to 280,000 people in the Mekong Delta region.

Tra Vinh urged to focus on human resource development

Tra Vinh should make a breakthrough in institutional reform, infrastructure upgrade and human resource development to realize its socioeconomic development targets in the next five years, said Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Mr Nhan made the request while working with leaders of the Mekong Delta province on October 18.

The Deputy PM asked Tra Vinh to increase productivity, reduce the number of traffic accidents and control hand-foot-mouth disease, which is spreading across the southwestern region.

On the same, Mr Nhan and his entourage visited My Lan-Tra Vinh group which has been cooperating effectively with Tra Vinh University in human resource training.

Three individuals of Vietnam-Bulgaria Friendship Association honoured

Three individuals of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Friendship Association were honoured at a ceremony held by the Bulgarian embassy in Hanoi on October 18.

The conferment was made by the Bulgarian State and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to acknowledge the three individuals’ contributions to promoting the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Bulgaria in the fields of economics, culture, education and diplomacy.

Stoyan Petkov, Charge d’Affairs of the Bulgarian embassy in Vietnam granted the Bulgarian State’s Kiril Metodi Order, First Class, to Professor Vu Huong, Vice President of the Vietnam-Bulgaria Friendship Association in recognition of his contribution to developing cultural relations between the two countries.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr Petkov recalled the traditional friendship between Bulgaria and Vietnam over the past 60 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties. He said tens of thousands of Vietnamese have studied and worked in Bulgaria, serving as a bridge between the two countries.

Mr Petkov said that the awards ceremony reflected Bulgaria’s respect for those Vietnamese who have greatly contributed to developing traditional relations between the two countries.

For his part, Professor Vu Huong refreshed fond memories of the Bulgarian landscape and people and pledged to make greater efforts to strengthen cultural exchanges between the two countries.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre