Teacher suspended for disparaging comments

A teacher at Tran Phu High School for the Gifted in northern Hai Phong City was disciplined and temporarily suspended for making disparaging remarks to students in class, announced the city’s Education and Training Department on Monday.

The teacher’s words were recorded and posted on the internet by a student late last month, raising much public concern.

The department asked schools to ban students from using recording devices in class in accordance to Ministry of Education and Training regulations for high schools.

Germany helps Vietnam’s agriculture

Photo: VNA
Representatives from the German government have presented gifts worth EUR11,000 to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The German government’s gifts, including a mobile clean-water filter and a mobile classroom for forestry farmers, were handed over in Hanoi on October 5 by Vice Governor of Hessen state Joerg Uwe Hahn and German Ambassador to Vietnam Rolf Schulz to representatives from the Ministry.

The mobile classroom will be passed on to Huu Lung College in the northern province of Lang Son to help implement farmer training programme, said Deputy MARD Minister Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu. 

The clean-water filter will be transferred to the central region where people are suffering from heavy flooding.

Vietnam and Germany have seen effective cooperation in different areas, including reforestation, sustainable forest management and development, conservation of forest ecological system biodiversity and mangrove protection in response to climate change.

Cooperation in forestry was always given priority by the German government and is its strongest area of cooperation in Asia, German Ambassador Rolf Schultz said.

Three substandard drugs suspended

The Drug Administration of Viet Nam has suspended three substandard drugs from distribution nation-wide.

The suspended drugs include Amoxicillin 500mg imported by Cuu Long Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company; and R-Tist 300mg and Intermedic Ciprofloxacin 500mg imported by Central Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company No 2.

The administration also decided to withdraw 11 other foreign drugs from distribution in the Vietnamese market.

Joint venture fined for releasing wastes

Southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s People’s Committee has decided to fine Vung Tau Paradise Joint Venture Company more than VND200 million (US$10,200) for violating environmental regulations.

Inspectors from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment discovered that the company failed to classify, register and report toxic waste to authorised agencies prior to storage in late August.

Market Watch finds over 5,000 violations

Market Watch departments nation-wide punished about 5,100 violators last month with total fines reaching VND178.2 billion (US$9.2 million).

The violations primarily included the sale of counterfeit, poor quality or contraband products in the domestic market; the trafficking of banned toys; and product label violations.

In the first nine months of this year, market watch departments across the country reported about 51,000 violations, including 10,400 cases of smuggling, 11,000 cases of counterfeit production and trade, and 3,700 speculation and price violations.

Hanoi celebrates World Sight Day

Hanoi has 33,000 visually impaired people, accounting for 0.5 percent of its population. 12 percent of them do not have enough money to pay for surgery and 29.5 percent do not even know that their eyes can be cured.

To mark the 1,000th birthday of Thang Long-Hanoi and World Sight Day, the Hanoi Eye Hospital has been providing free eye checks-up, medicines and surgery to thousands of Hanoians.

It is estimated that more than 48,000 people across the city will benefit from the programme. In September, the hospital provided free eye checks-up and medicine to more than 8,000 people over 50 years old in 69 wards and communes, 5,400 pupils in Ha Dong and free surgery for 20 children.

In October, the hospital worked with several health centres to offer free checks-up and medicines to around 9,000 people over 50 years old in Soc Son, Ba Vi and Thanh Tri districts, 25,000 pupils in 54 primary schools and 1,000 children in Hoan Kiem and Hai Ba Trung districts. The hospital will all carry out free eye operations on 30 children.

At a meeting to mark World Sight Day, in Hanoi on October 6, the Director of the Hanoi Eye Hospital, Vu Thi Thanh, called on the public and organisations to join in blind prevention activities to reduce the rate of blind people to below 0.3 percent by 2030.

Cornea donation campaign launched in Da Nang

A meeting was held in the central city of Da Nang on October 5 to mark World Day of Vision and launch a campaign to encourage local people to donate corneas. 

The drive, initiated by the Vietnam Red Cross and Orbis International in Vietnam, will be carried out in the city’s seven districts by 285 volunteers. 

It aims to raise public awareness of cornea-related diseases and the significance of cornea donation, and call upon people to register for donation. 

The campaign in Vietnam is being carried out on trial in 10 cities and provinces. Nearly 3,200 Red Cross volunteers are joining the drive to spread information about the cornea-related blind disease and encourage people to donate corneas after death. 

More than 30,000 people have so far registered. 

Vietnam now has over 300,000 blind people who are awaiting cornea transplantation operations but availability is still limited. 

Since 2004, Orbis International has been assisting Vietnam to promote eye care and treatment for people and the organisation has become the biggest cornea supplier to Vietnam with some 100 corneas each year. 

From 2010, the Central Eye Hospital Eye Bank, supported by Orbis, will receive 330 corneas from local voluntary donors annually.

Red Cross grants relief aid to flood victims

The Vietnam Red Cross (VNRC) on October 5 granted VND820 million in cash and goods as relief aid to flood victims in the central provinces of Quang Binh, Ha Tinh and Nghe An. 

VNRC said it would work with International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, and several counterparts, to collect more support for the victims. 

Recently, rain-triggered floods have seriously damaged provinces in the northern-central region, leaving 13 people dead, three others missing and inundating thousands of houses and large areas of rice and crops.

VNN/VNS/VOV