HCM City honours 159 teachers

The HCM City Department of Education and Training on Wednesday chaired a ceremony to honour 159 teachers named Meritorious Teacher or People's Teacher on the occasion of Viet Nam Teachers' Day today, Nov 20.

Among the 159 educators honoured, 37 received the Meritorious Teacher title from President Nguyen Minh Triet.

Vietnam, US seek to identify missing soldiers

The Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on November 19 signed a memorandum of understanding on the US-Vietnam Technical Cooperation on capacity building to locate and identify Vietnamese persons missing during the war. 

Under the MoU, both sides set out to collaborate on a training and technical assistance programme which aims to strengthen the scientific and technical capacity of Vietnamese government institutions and improve the ability of Vietnamese authorities to locate, identify, and document those Vietnamese soldiers missing in the war.
The activities will take the form of technical assistance and include training, exchange of information and experience, provision of equipment and transfer of technology.
Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony in Hanoi, MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Hoa indicated that cooperation in this area reflects the good will of the two countries, and the US and Vietnam will continue to further promote efforts to collaborate in the areas of social and humanitarian assistance that aim to develop the bilateral relationship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries in the future.
Although the war ended 35 years ago, Vietnam still lacks information on hundreds of thousands of revolutionary martyrs’ whereabouts and has not yet been able to identify hundreds of thousands of sets of remains of martyrs, said the deputy minister.
Judging from the effective results of the cooperation programme to seek the American soldiers missing in action (MIA) during the war that have brought joys to US servicemen’s families, he said he hoped the technical cooperation programme will make practical contributions to locating and identifying Vietnamese persons missing during the war, thus meeting the desire of the martyrs’ families.
This new activity comes at an opportune time as Vietnam and the US celebrate the 15th anniversary of normalising our diplomatic relationship, said US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak. “We are encouraged to see the increased mutual understanding and confidence between our two nations,” he said.
After 10 years of operation in Vietnam, USAID has contributed more than 330 million USD in support of Vietnam’s development and relief activities.

French embassy, VNA boost ties

The Vietnam News Agency and the French Embassy have agreed to boost the exchange of information in politics, economy, culture, social and science and technology.

The agreement, signed yesterday, Nov 19, will have the French Embassy provide the VNA with information about events relating to France and find partners and support for the VNA's Le Courrier du Vietnam from French agencies and organisations and schools that use the French language.

The embassy will also create favourable conditions for the granting of scholarship for VNA reporters and editors to study in France.

The VNA, in turn, will systematically publish information relating to France and French-speaking and Francophone countries as well as activities of the French Embassy, French agencies, businesses and Francophone organisations in Viet Nam.

This will include its TV channel (VNEWS), Le Courier du Vietnam and e-newspapers such as VietnamPlus.

VNA General Director Tran Mai Huong said the co-operation agreement would improve VNA's efficiency in publishing news in French and the embassy's support for its Le Courier du Vietnam - the only French- language daily in Viet Nam.

French Ambassador Jean-Francois Girault said initiative was a result of long-term co-operation.

It would serve as a foundation for the close-knit relations between the two and enhance mutual understandings between Viet Nam and France, he said.

Chinese man steals a taxi

Liang Kun Lun, 33, from China's Shangdong Province was placed in temporary custody for allegedly stealing a taxi, said the Ha Noi Police.

An initial investigation revealed that Liang caught a taxi in Long Bien District on Wednesday evening and threatened the taxi driver with a brick.

When the driver jumped out of the taxi to call for help, Liang took the car and then crashed into another car and three motorcycles, injuring five people on Nguyen Trai Street.

He was later arrested on Tay Son Street.

Japan backs centre for rehabilitation

The Japanese government committed to donate over US$95,000 to Dong Hoi City's Disabled Children's Centre in central Quang Binh Province in a signing ceremony between the Japanese Embassy and the centre director in Ha Noi on Thursday.

The fund is expected to help build a rehabilitation centre at the facility, as only 36 of the 74 disabled children receiving care at the centre are able to live on site because of the lack of beds.

Coach burned, no one injured

Thirty three passengers, including 15 foreign visitors, fled a double-decker coach that had burst into flames on National Highway No 1A in central Quang Ngai Province yesterday morning.

Everyone was able to leave the vehicle uninjured.

Two fire-engines responded to the blaze but their efforts were in vain as the coach burned down to its frame.

The cause of the fire is unknown.

Large Long Bien bomb deactivated

Engineers from the Ha Noi Capital Command deactivated a 220-kilo bomb which was found in Dong Lake, Long Bien District, on Thursday during a dredging project.

The bomb was allegedly left over from the American War and was made in 1967.

It was the ninth bomb deactivated in the capital by the command this year.

VNN/VOV/VNS