Giant hailstones pummel Lao Cai

A heavy hailstorm lashed northern mountainous Lao Cai Province last night, injuring at least 18 people in Muong Khuong District.

Fifteen of the injured were taken to hospital after being hit by the massive hailstones that rained down for 15 minutes.

Giant hailstones pummel Lao Cai.

The storm also damaged many houses and thousands of hectares of crops in the districts of Muong Khuong, Bac Ha and Si Ma Cai.

Vu Thanh Tuan, a resident in Muong Khuong District told the Vietnam News Agency it was the heaviest hail fall he had ever seen. There were hailstones the size of a person's fist, he said.

Local authorities arrived this morning to help residents deal with the aftermath.

More information will be provided as it comes to hand.

Pilot skills testing system launched

A pilot examination of skills testing and certification system has been launched in Ha Noi, HCM City and Nghe An Province from March 25 to April 14.

"The pilot testing would be good chance to establish substantially the national skills testing and certification system by analysing problems in the field," said Kim Sik Hyun, Deputy Resident Representative of the Korean International Co-operation Agency in Viet Nam.

The examination system that was under framework of KOICA funded technical project, aims to help Viet Nam perfecting management human resource and developing high technical human resource to industrialise the country

Heroin trafficker faces death sentence

The Vietnam Supreme People’s Court has upheld the death sentence issued against 37-year-old Nghe An resident Nguyen Trong Xin.

The March 26 decision confirmed the verdict of an instant trial of the Nghe An provincial People’s Court on December 14, 2012. That verdict sentenced Xin to death on the charge of “illegally trafficking drugs”.

Xin confessed that he had been hired by Tran Van Hoi, another Nghe An-born resident, to carry 155 cakes of heroin weighing 54.2kg from Laos into Vietnam. Xin was apparently paid a total of VND60 million.

Hoi was the kingpin of a drug trafficking ring that smuggled 5,500 cakes of heroin into Vietnam from Laos.

A joint Nghe An-Laos police operation smashed the ring and brought Hoi to court. He was sentenced to death in 2006.

Nghe An Police enacted the arrest warrant issued against Xin in July 2012.

The Supreme People’s Court on March 26 rejected Xin’s appeal and upheld the death sentence.
Mekong Delta to have prenatal, newborn screening

The General Office for Population and Family Planning (GOPFP) scheme will expand prenatal and newborn screening in 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta this year.

The project, which has been running for six years, aims to increase its coverage in all provinces and cities across the country.

The benefiting provinces and cities in the Delta include An Giang, Ben Tre, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Can Tho.

So far, the project has been implemented in 51 provinces and cities. Last year, about 3,700 communes nationwide continued the scheme from previous years, while 2,300 others were introduced to it.

The screening has been the most effective in three centres – the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Hanoi, the Hue University for Medicine and Pharmacy, and the Ho Chi Minh City-based Tu Du Obstetrics and Gynaecology Hospital.

In 2012, the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynaecology detected more than 3,300 cases of congenital malformation out of 4,700 suspected ones.

Pham Huong Lan, Head of the hospital’s Training Ward, said the hospital will transfer the technology of taking and preserving blood samples from the new-born’s heel to help new-born screening in the expanded provinces and cities.

For Deputy Director of Can Tho Hospital, Nguyen Huu Du, setting up a centre for prenatal and new-born screening in the Mekong Delta is necessary and urgent when more and more residents are aware of the importance of having healthy babies.

Deputy Director of the Population and Family Planning Department under the GOPFP, Tran Ngoc Sinh, said that besides expanding the project’s coverage, it will carry out a pilot programme of screening for Thalasemia disease, a form of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorders.

More than 87,000 children with congenital malformation are born each year in Vietnam and about 4,000 – 5,000 of them are from the Mekong Delta.

Ten outstanding young people honoured

Ten outstanding young people were honoured by the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCM CYU) at a ceremony in Hanoi on March 25.

The honoured individuals are active in a wide range of fields, from studying, scientific research, production and business, national security and defence, culture-art, sports, and social activities for the sake of the community.

The event was part of activities to mark the 82nd founding anniversary of the HCM CYU (March 26).

The ten outstanding young people include Ngo Phi Long, a 12th grader from the school for gifted students of the northern mountainous province of Son La and Dr. Nguyen Huynh Dong, head of the Oil and Gas Department of the Oil and Gas College under the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.

Ho Vinh Hoang, general director of the Tosy Robotic Corporation is also among the honoured, together with Tran Thi Thuan Hoa, a farmer from the Red River Delta province of Thai Binh , Nguyen Thanh Tai, a soldier stationed in the Truong Sa (Spartly) archipelago and Nguyen Tien Hai, a policeman from Hanoi .

Others on the list are gymnast Phan Thi Ha Thanh, singers Nguyen Tung Duong and Thai Thuy Linh, and Do Hoang Giang, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union chapter of Phu Thanh Commune, Tam Nong District, the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

On this occasion, 82 secretaries of local HCM CYU chapters were also awarded in recognition of their dedication and enthusiasm to the union’s missions.

So far, a total of 160 outstanding young Vietnamese have been honoured at the annual event.

Bac Lieu Bird Garden faces high risk of fire

The fire risk at Bac Lieu Bird Garden has been raised to the highest level and the reserve closed to visitors due to the prolonged drought in the southern province.

Garden director Nguyen Trung Chanh said the Level 5 fire risk resulted from an average temperature in recent days of 37C, which had caused the garden's trees to dry out.

A water shortage had compounded the situation, he said.

The 25 garden staff would continue to maintain 24 hours surveillance, while the management board had mobilised 40 residents of neighbouring communes to be stand by in case of fire.

The 130ha national bird garden is home to more than 60,000 birds of over 100 species, including many listed in Viet Nam's Red Book.

There are 150 species of animals and 109 species of plants in the park, making it one of the country's most significant reserves.

Phan Chau Trinh awards winners announced

The Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation has announced awards for outstanding people in the fields of culture and education, translation, research and Vietnamese studies.

The Phan Chau Trinh Awards 2012 include a culture and education award each to educator Bui Tran Phuong and artist Vu Duc Hieu, a translation award for Chu Tien Anh and Pham Duy Hien, a research award for Vietnamese overseas professor Le Thanh Khoi and a Vietnamese studies award for French professor Philippe Langlet.

Phuong and Hieu are honoured for their contributions to promoting education and preserving Vietnamese Muong ethnic culture.

Artist Hieu is being recognised for the Muong Ethnic Group Cultural Space Museum , which he established in 2007. It is the first private museum in the northern province of Hoa Binh and the only museum in Vietnam devoted to Muong culture.

Phuong is the rector of Hoa Sen University in Ho Chi Minh City which was developed from a vocational school and gathers educators from diverse backgrounds.

She is a core faculty member for SIT (School for International Training) Study Abroad in Vietnam. She has lectured on gender and social change for SIT students and has led interactive discussions between SIT and local students at Hoa Sen University.

Anh and Hien will receive the award for their translation works which have brought human knowledge quintessence to Vietnamese readers.

Khoi is recognised for his research on cultures from the East to the West and Langlet for spending his whole life studying and introducing Vietnamese history and culture.

The Phan Chau Trinh Culture Foundation, run by the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, instituted the awards in 2007.

The awards honour national hero, poet and cultural expert Trinh, a native of central Quang Nam Province.

Born in 1872, Trinh was a reformer who fought in the resistance movement against the French when he was very young. He devoted all of his life to the country's modernisation.

The award ceremony will be held on March 28 in HCM City.

HCM City continues flyover initiative

Construction work is to begin next month on three steel flyovers in HCM City with the total investment of more than VND1 trillion (US$47.6 million).

They will be built at the intersections of (a) Cong Hoa-Hoang Hoa Tham, (b) Nguyen Tri Phuong-Ba Thang Hai-Ly Thai To and (c) Cay Go roundabout, which are sites of serious traffic congestion.

The Department of Transport said the 238m flyover at the Cong Hoa-Hoang Hoa Tham intersection in Tan Binh District would be restricted to vehicles with less than nine seats. It would take about five months to build.

The flyover at the Nguyen Tri Phuong-Ba Thang Hai-Ly Thai To intersection in District 10 would be more than 350m in length whereas the one at Cay Go roundabout would be built in a Y shape.

Flyovers already completed at the Thu Duc intersection and Hang Xanh roundabout are reported to have reduced traffic jams considerably.

A flyover is also being built at Lang Cha Ca intersection in Tan Binh District with the total investment of more than VND120 billion (nearly $5.8 million) and is expected to complete by June this year.

Mobile weighing stations to debut

Viet Nam's first two mobile weigh stations will be introduced on National Highways 5 and 10 on April 1, according to the Roads Directorate of Viet Nam.

They are the forerunners of a total of 67 mobile weigh stations and 11 fixed weigh stations planned across the nation.

The directorate said mobile stations would be introduced first because the fixed stations would take more time and money to install.

Directorate head Le Dinh Tho said overloaded vehicles were causing major damage to the nation's roads and were difficult to detect because there weren't enough inspectors.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport's inspectorate would begin checking the operation of GPS trackers (black boxes), which store and transfer information vehicle distance and speeds.

The trackers are compulsory in passenger vehicles making trips of 300km upwards, tourist cars and container trucks.

The inspections would be conducted in April and May on companies using and supplying the devices in cities and provinces, including Ha Noi, HCM City, Da Nang and Dong Nai, said ministry deputy chief inspector Thach Nhu Sy.

The Department of Transport's website said most transport companies that had installed the devices had not made the most of them for management and safety.

Market watchers swoop on sub-standard wine

A market watch team in the central city of Da Nang confiscated nearly 10,000 bottles of illegal wine after surprise inspections of wine stores on Monday.

Previously, local authorities discovered a fake wine manufacturing unit in Da Son and confiscated more than 2,000 bottles of fake wine, hundreds of fake stamps and false labels of famous wine brands.

Nation completes gravity measurement

Viet Nam has completed a system that analyses gravity in the country, providing useful data for predicting natural disasters and studying natural resources.

The project focused on 76,005 points in lowland and midland regions and will also be used in mountainous areas.

At a press conference on Monday, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said that Poland, Denmark, Switzerland and Australia already had similar systems in place.

PM inspects progress of Highway 1A expansion project

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on March 26 inspected the implementation of a project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1A – the section linking southern Ben Thuy 2 Bridge and highway bypass with Ha Tinh City.

Started in September 2012, the project is built in the form of BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) with a total capital of over 2.4 trillion VND (about 116 million USD).

The 35km long and 25.5 metre wide six-lane road is of great importance in the socio-economic development strategy of central Ha Tinh Province in particular and the northern central region in general.

Earlier, the PM offered incense and flowers at the Truong Bon Relic Site in Do Luong District, central Nghe An Province, which commemorates 13 youth volunteers who laid down their lives in 1968 during the war against the US.

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