Vietnam cancels anti-gov't cable network

The southern province of Bac Lieu has revoked the license of Giata cable television network which aired programs damaging the government’s image.

The Ministry of Information and Communications criticized Bac Lieu of loose management over its broadcasting and television stations.

The ministry requested provincial authorities to punish those involved in the airing of these programs and prevent future violations.

Sugar plant suspected of causing mass fish deaths

A sugar plant is suspected of discharging wastewater into Cam Ranh Bay in Cam Ranh City in the central province of Khanh Hoa, killing grouper fish en masse.

Grouper fish breeders claimed the mass deaths of their fish had cost them a total VND2.5 billion (US$122,000) in damage.

Le Van Dong, who bred grouper fish in Cam Nghia Ward, said four days earlier, he had found the seawater in his 5,000-sq m breeding area turn into brown red and smell of sugar.

Shortly afterwards, his fish began died in large numbers, costing him over VND700 million (US$34,000).

The ward authorities also reported a damage of VND1 billion ($48,800) to 25 hectares of gracilaria.

On April 24, after reports from local residents, authorities of Cam Thang Bac Ward, Cam Lam District inspected the Cam Ranh Sugar Plant and found it indeed discharging wastewater of muddy yellow into the bay through an exhaust valve.

The investigators took samples of the wastewater to report to the provincial Anti-Environmental Crimes Department for further investigation.

Policeman dies of rabies from domestic dog

A policeman in central Phu Yen Province’s Son Hoa District died Monday from rabies spread to him by his rabid dog more than three months ago, according to Cao Minh Hoa, chairman of the local people’s committee.

Lieutenant-colonel Nguyen Van Truong, 49, who had been bitten in the thumb by the dog on January 26, was admitted to Phu Yen hospital last Sunday with typical symptoms of rabies: insecure feelings and dread of wind, said Chau Khac Toan, a hospital doctor.

He was then transferred to the hospital’s infection control department and gone shortly after his family took him to another hospital in Ho Chi Minh City.

The dog also bit other people like his wife and some neighbors so local medical officers are now monitoring their health, Hoa said.

A local doctor confirmed those who ate the dog which was given to them for slaughtering after it had bitten so many people will not develop the disease since the rabies virus could definitely not survive the cooking.

Consultations for VN’s statistics strategy

A workshop on consultation with policymakers and researchers on Vietnam’s statistics development strategy for 2011-2020 was held in the northern province of Vinh Phuc on April 28 by the General Office of Statistics (GOS) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The workshop stressed the importance of statistics in socio-economic development, to help socio-economic managers and policymakers identify the reality of issues and make predictions on development, as well as take the right decisions.

An increasing number of businesses, socio-economic and research organizations and people need access to an objective, accurate and synchronous information system to serve their work more efficiently, resulting in high demand for a transparent, objective, accurate and timely statistics service, the workshop said.

Christophe Bahuet, UNDP Chief Representative, said building the statistics service in a comprehensive and professional manner requires the involvement of more organizations. It is necessary to review the relationship between data providers and users in order to make suitable adjustments, creating favorable conditions for the development of the statistics service.

Nguyen Van Doan, Head of the GOS’s Statistics Science Institute, stressed the importance of human resource training and due attention to the statistics service, helping it further develop to meet increasing demand from society.

Missing women turn up dead in locked house

Both mother and daughter who have gone missing for four months were this morning (Thursday) found dead in a house that was locked from the outside. Their bodies were decomposing.

Chu Thi Thu Hang, 50 was a dentist and Tran Thi Nga, 21 a senior student at a university in Ho Chi Minh City. Their bodies were found inside the house on Cao Dat Street, Ward 1, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City.

Earlier, after being informed by local residents, local police rushed to the scene and found the house locked from the outside – on both its front and its side.

The police used a ladder to climb up to the first floor and after forcing open the door there, found two bodies.

On the girl’s body, police found many spots of blood.

Locals said they detected a stinking smell in the area two days ago but they thought it came from the dead body of an animal.

By tracing down the bad odor, they determined it originated from the dentist’s house. They immediately reported the case to the police.

The two have gone missing for four months, according to the husband, a surgery doctor in HCM City.

Tran Vuong Thong told the police that four months ago, while he, Hang and their three children were living in a house in Lanh Binh Thang Street in District 11, Hang and Nga suddenly left home without saying goodbye.

He said that before their disappearance, Hang sometimes displayed some inexplicable behavior and uttered some incomprehensive sentences, according to An Ninh Thu Do.

He has looked for his wife and daughter since but failed to find them until now.

But the newspaper did not say whether he had reported the missing case to police or not.

The house where Hang and Nga were found dead was owned by the couple and they leased it several years ago, Thong said.

One year ago, they got the house back and Hang sometimes came there to do some cleaning, he said.

There were no valuable properties in the house, he added.

Thong said that during the time the two were absent from home, he came to that very house to look for Hang but did not find her.

Father soaks 3-year-old son in petrol, burns him

Vu Quoc Linh, 3 years old, of Nong Cong District, Thanh Hoa province, is being treated at the Thanh Hoa Province Pediatric Hospital after being burnt cruelly by his father, Vu Van Quang, 31.

Linh was hospitalized yesterday in a critical condition, with 40 percent of the boy’s body severely burnt with petrol, said Dr. Hoang Thi Kim Thanh, deputy director of the hospital.

Upon receiving Linh, doctors gave him emergency aid, intensive care, intravenous infusion of hydration, advanced cardiac life support, and mechanical ventilation.

Linh’s health was slightly improved but still in a critical condition, Dr. Thanh said.

Doctors were afraid that the boy might develop some infections and kidney failure next week.

According to Linh’s relatives, Quang recently had some arguments with his wife, Nguyen Thi Ha, 27.

Ha later left her husband and son, and returned to her mother’s house in the district’s Te Tan commune to live.

On April 27, Quang drove Linh to the commune to look for Ha. On the way to his mother-in-law’s house, he bought 2 liters of petrol.

Quang soaked his son with the petrol before bringing him to the house and setting the boy on fire.

Ha’s brother, Dong, witnessed Quang’s actions, so he immediately dipped Linh into a pond nearby and took him to hospital.

Nong Cong police have arrested Linh.

Yesterday evening, many donors in the province gave Kinh’s relatives more than VND10 million (US$485) to support Linh’s treatment.

No power cuts in May: Ministry

 

The Minister of Industry and Trade has instructed Vietnam Electricity (EVN) not to cut off power during the month of May as the power supply has improved substantially in April.

 

Accordingly, EVN- the country’s largest power company will ensure safe and stable power supply during the weekend holidays, April 30 and May 1 and from May 15-30, when the voting for the 13th National Assembly members will take place.

By May 25, the company should report to the ministry on methods to improve operations at the national power grid until the end of the dry season.

According to the Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, during the first four months of 2011, the total power output remained stable. The output is estimated to reach nearly 34 billion Kwh, up by 10 percent over the same period last year.

 

National workshop on reducing harm to sex workers 

 

The National Anti-Social Evils Department estimates that by 2012, at least 9.3 percent of Vietnamese female sex workers will contract HIV.

A representative of the Department stated this at a National workshop on reducing harm to sex workers, held on April 27-28 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The HIV epidemic in Viet Nam is concentrated amongst people who are sex workers, clients of sex workers and men who have sex with other men. People who inject drugs are also susceptible to catching the disease.

According to the latest data, HIV is rampant amongst sex workers in many cities. Twenty percent of street sex workers in Hanoi, twenty three percent in the northern province of Hai Phong and sixteen percent in Ho Chi Minh City have contracted HIV, according to Dr. Duong Van Dat, Reproductive Health Manager of the United Nation’s Population Fund.

Moreover, the number of HIV-positive female sex workers stands third only after drug users and gay groups. The northern and southeastern regions have the largest number of HIV-infected female sex workers.

Only a small number of sex workers have regular access to essential services for HIV prevention, such as condoms and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Besides HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, sex workers are exposed to other serious harm, like drug use, violence, discrimination, debt and exploitation.

Speaking at the workshop, Nguyen Trong Dam, Vice Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) stressed the necessity to include the fight against prostitution in the social welfare policy and adopt practical, effective methods to minimize its impact.

Julia Cabassi, Regional HIV Adviser at UNFPA, informed participants of the ways to ensure success in HIV prevention, treatment and cure. While representatives of HCMC Department of Social Evils Prevention said, the city has strengthened prevention methods because prevention is better than fight to cure.

UNFPA representatives said it welcomed MOLISA’s initiative to include the prevention and reduction of sex workers in the next five-year Plan of Action on Sex Work Prevention for 2011-2015.

 

Nguyen Trong Dam, Vice Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, speaks at the seminar (Photo: T.Kien)

A former sex worker who is working for the HCMC Women’s Union delivered a presentation at the seminar. She said that sex workers must be the driving force in the development, implementation and enforcement of harm reduction programs. The woman spoke of her experiences to encourage her colleagues to use condoms.

She said that in 2010, she and her colleagues in the city Women’s Union and Department of Social Evils Prevention helped two women to stop sex working but earn their living with other jobs.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh, Vice-president of the city Women’s Union, petitioned the MOLISA that the government should develop policies to penalize those who pay to have sex with a prostitute and support sex workers to integrate into the community.

Le Thi Ha, Deputy Chief of the Department of Social Evils Prevention under MOLISA, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tam, Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) and Le Trong Sang, deputy director of HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs along with World Bank representatives and relevant agencies attended the two-day workshop.

 

Education Publishing House increases textbook prices 

The Education Publishing House announced on April 28 a new list of textbook prices for this year.   

The prices are applicable for textbooks from first to ninth grade and have been approved by the Ministry of Finance.

As per the new price list, the first grade textbook set of 6 textbooks will be sold at VND47.500, the second grade textbook set of 6 textbooks at VND45.300 and the third grade textbook set of 6 textbooks at VND49, 000. Whereas the forth grade textbook set of 9 textbooks will be at VND77, 700 and the fifth grade textbook set of 9 textbooks at VND78, 000.

According to Nguyen Minh Khanh, deputy general director of the publishing house, textbook prices this year increased by 16.9% compared to last year due to an increase in paper costs. 

Paper price increased by 30% and transportation prices doubled compared to the same period last year, hence most printing houses decided to increase printing prices.

During the 2010-2011 school terms, many provinces adopted the price stability program for study material. Hanoi added notebooks on the price stability program from June 2011 to October 2011.

Many stationery shops increased the prices of paper products due to increase in paper prices from 10-15%.

Vietnam funds free eye surgery camp for the poor in Laos

 

Around 200 poor people from Laos received free eye surgery, in a project funded by the Vietnam Central Eye Hospital from April 18 to 27.

The operations took place in Kham Keut, Vieng Thong and Pakading districts of Bolikhamsai.

The program was part of the Vietnam government’s commitment to help Laos in fighting blindness from now to 2020.

Laos has more than 56,000 blind people and over 28,000 suffer from cataract. The country adds around 5,000 new cases every year. Moreover, Laos has only ophthalmologists who mostly work in Vientiane and other big cities.

Vietnam launches no-tobacco week 

The Health Ministry’s National Programme on Tobacco Affect Prevention on April 25 launched the “National No Tobacco Week” in response to the World No Tobacco Day (May 31). 

 

All ministries, sectors, organisations and people have been urged to join hands in creating a tobacco-free environment in public sites, workplaces and at homes,and mass media agencies have been called to disseminate widely information on the harm of tobacco to health.

The World Health Organsation (WHO) has selected the theme “Implementing WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control” for 2011 and gave out five measures to encourage the effective prevention of impacts of tobacco at countries participating in the convention.

Those measures are creating a non-smoking environment, increasing tobacco tax, printing health warnings on cigarette boxes, banning tobacco advertisements totally and creating sustainable financial sources for the fight against tobacco effects. Vietnam has considered those measures as priorities in its tobacco control.

Smoking is one of leading reasons causing diseases and deaths in the world.

According to a survey in Vietnam in 2010, as many as 47 percent of men are smokers, putting the country in the group of 15 nations with the highest rate of male smokers.

 

Int’l arrivals in Vietnam continue rising 

Vietnam welcomed more than 460,000 international visitors in April, up 6.3 percent against the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).  

In the first four months of the year, the number of foreign tourists to Vietnam reached over 1.9 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 10.5 percent.

Despite the recent earthquake and tsunami, Japanese visitors to Vietnam still numbered 177,000, up 21 percent.

Vietnam also saw remarkable increases in the numbers of tourists from China with 20.4 percent; the US, 6.8 percent; the Republic of Korea, 6.6 percent; France, 6.3 percent; and Australia, 5.7 percent.

 

Air Mekong launches direct flight to Phu Quoc 

 

The Mekong Aviation JSC (Air Mekong) will launch a direct flight from Hanoi to Phu Quoc island in the southern province of Kien Giang on April 28.

This is the first direct flight between the two destinations without transiting in Ho Chi Minh City , thus will help passengers to reduce half of their travelling time.

Daily Hanoi-Phu Quoc flights will depart at 6am in Hanoi and make return flights at 12.40pm.

Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam with an area of 59,300 ha with two towns, Duong Dong and An Thoi, and eight communes. It is known for its pristine beaches and forests.

Phu Quoc is also called the Emerald Island because of its natural treasures and tourism potential.

Air Mekong, Vietnam 's third private air carrier, went into operation last October. It recently has received delivery of four Canadian Bombardier CRJ 900 aircraft, owned by the US company Skywest Leasing. Each aircraft has 90 business and economy-class seats.

Gambling via mobile phone, the new trend

For gamblers in Vietnam, online games are old hat; the latest trick is gambling on mobile phone networks.

In a country where gambling and betting are totally banned, ironically, the gambling services are being publicly provided by the Hanoi-based Bien Xanh (Blue Sea) media and technology company via its website www.doden.vn.

The website is lawful and registered to offer online games, lottery results, and chat forums.

To gamble on it, a punter needs to have a mobile phone enabled with GPRS, the mobile data transfer service, and sign up for membership to access the online games.

A member can log into different rooms offering games like chess, poker, and dozens of other card games.

The poker room is divided into sub-rooms depending on the stakes involved in each game – VND1,000, VND5,000, and so on.

Punters can buy virtual money known as Xu, Keng, Un, or Ro depending on the game, to gamble by paying real money which will just get deducted from their mobile phone account upon sending an SMS.

But what happens mostly is that the gamblers, who cannot redeem their winnings from the website, just do so from each other. In other words, winners sell their virtual money to other gamblers.

Websites like www.doden.vn entice gamblers with thinly disguised exhortations like “Mobile phone users can well interact with one another for online chess / card games.”

Tuoi Tre witnessed many gamblers playing in poker rooms late at night, with some owning up to 138 million Ro of virtual money.

Tuoi Tre contacted an official at Bien Xanh company and was informed that the firm operates the website with a license.

However, the firm does flout current regulations that service providers can only provide online games 14 hours a day with a break from 10:00 pm to 8:00 am.

Besides, the rules also require players to declare their personal identification to get membership.

Tran Vuong Thao, a Ho Chi Minh City lawyer, said a games provider violating the law could be fined up to VND50 million (US$2,380), while anyone found guilty of gambling could be imprisoned for at least three months.

Highway project landslide kills two kids

Two dead children were today morning pulled out of a 50 cubic-meter soil heap in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

Authorities at 10am found the bodies of 8-year-old Hoang Minh Quy, a second grader and 15-year-old Hoang Van Hoa.

Meanwhile, fifth grader Hoang Minh Quyen, 10 is missing and feared dead

They all come from Con 2 village, Cam Con commune in Lao Cai.

The landslide occurred at 5.30 pm yesterday (Thursday) when three children who were tending buffalos played with soil at a roadwork site under supervision from Alpha Nam company.

The section is being built into a highway leading to Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi.

Rains caused the soil to slide down.

Major highway named after late Prime Minister

A 13.4 km segment of the East-West Avenue – an arterial route into downtown Ho Chi Minh City from the suburbs – was today morning (Friday) officially renamed Vo Van Kiet, after the late Prime Minister.

A ceremony for the purpose was held at the Thu Thiem Tunnel in district 1.

The 13.4-kilometer-long Vo Van Kiet Highway runs from National Highway 1A in Binh Chanh District to Calmette Bridge in District 1. It opened to traffic in September 2010.

The new name came about thanks to Tuoi Tre’s proposal.

When Mr. Vo Van Kiet died on June 11, 2008, Tuoi Tre received a comment from reader Nguyen Hong Phong saying that the city should name the East-West Highway after this late leader.

“If this avenue bears his name, we will always be reminded to renovate our country”, Phong wrote.

His opinion was published on Tuoi Tre print edition dated June 14, 2008 and received wide support.

Tuoi Tre correspondents then met chairwoman of the city People’s Council Pham Phuong Thao who expressed approval for the idea.

On the edition on June 17, Ms. Thao said “With late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet’s contribution to the revolution, his life, struggle for the people, for the state and for the Party, it is completely deserving to name one street in Ho Chi Minh City after him”.

After three years and many meetings and discussions, the city government ratified the proposal.

Vo Van Kiet, born in 1922 in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long, became Chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee in 1976 before becoming Prime Minister in 1991 and holding office until 1997.

During his tenure, Kiet was hailed as the architect of the doi moi (renovation) market reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s that tackled poverty in Vietnam and ushered in an era of economic growth.

Source: SGGP/Tuoi Tre/VNA/VNE