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Vietnam Airlines plane hit by lightning in Paris
Vietnam Airlines yesterday (Wednesday) admitted that its plane was struck by lightning when parking at an airport in Paris last month.
The national carrier told the press that the plane bearing VN534 flight number supposed to carry 230 passengers and one child was due to depart from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport for Hanoi at 14:10 local time on April 24.
140 passengers bought tickets from Vietnam Airlines and the rest from Air France.
But lightning hit the outer cover of the plane’s engine, causing the flight to be cancelled.
The lightning-struck plane is being under repair.
Vietnam Airlines said it had transferred some passengers who needed to fly immediately to flights from other airlines.
Those volunteering to take a Vietnam Airlines flight the next day were provided with free accommodation and food at a hotel in Paris, the state-owned company said.
The Vietnam Airlines’ admission came on the same day when two farmers in the southern province of An Giang were struck dead by lightning as they were watering their rice fields.
Local police said Tran Van Manh and Tran Van Tong were running home as a rainstorm approached and were struck by lightning.
Vietnam in Thai media spotlight
Vietnam’s land, people and famous tourism sites have been given wide coverage in the Nation, Puchatkarn and other major Thai newspapers.
In a recent issue Pisanu Chanvitan wrote about the Vietnamese people’s daily life and Hanoi’s old quarter and cuisine.
He said Vietnam has a long history of struggle against foreign aggressors and praised its tradition of patriotism and heroism.
Know as a former ambassador to Vietnam, Pisanu is now holding the post of vice secretary at the Thai Foreign Ministry. All his writings will be published in a book to mark the 35th anniversary of Vietnam-Thailand diplomatic ties. He hoped his book would help Thai people gain a better understanding of Vietnam in the past, at present and in future.
On the occasion, the Thai Foreign Ministry will oragnise a wide range of activities, including a seminar on investment and business opportunities in Vietnam, and photograph and painting exhibitions on Vietnam.
The Puchatkarn newspaper on May 2 ran an article introducing Hanoi 36 old streets and guilds and tourism sites, like the President Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, Uncle Ho’s house on stilts, Hoan Kiem Lake, Ngoc Son Temple, and the Temple of Literature.
Plan, Accenture cooperate in providing youth with vocational training
Plan International will link up with Accenture to provide vocational training for about 3,500 underprivileged young people in Vietnam and India.
The two-year project will bridge the gap between job supply and demand by matching disadvantaged young people with local opportunities through networks of employers, Plan International said on the sidelines of the ongoing 44th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Hanoi on May 3.
Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, is providing US$1.9 million in financial support and commercial expertise for the pioneering scheme, which will also reach out to young people in remote areas through virtual training modules.
Free skills and training programmes will target industries such as information technology, customer relations and business process outsourcing where local demand for jobs is high.
The partnership will build on Plan International’s ongoing educational project, REACH in Vietnam. Over 80 percent of the 5,400 disadvantaged young people trained through the programme are now in stable employment.
Accenture will assist the international charity to develop a business model to expand REACH to other developing countries.
The new partnership was launched in India this year and will roll out internationally, with Haiti and Tanzania among the next countries being considered.
Largest filtered sea water swimming pool opens
The largest filtered sea water swimming pool in Southeast Asia opened to public in the northern port city of Hai Phong on April 30.
This is the first swimming pool in Vietnam with the technology to filter sea water and it also has a wave machine to provide visitors to Hai Phong with the most modern facilities.
The 2011 Hai Phong-Do Son Tourism Festival was held on the same day.
Vietnam Fund presents gifts to poor in Laos
The Fund for Support and Mobilization of Overseas Vietnamese Communities sent a delegation to Laos and presented gifts to 1,600 poor households.
Truong My Hoa, chairperson of the Fund, also presented 100 Vua A Dinh scholarships worth US$50 each to the Vietnamese children who had received good results during the academic year of 2010-2011.
She also gave away gift packages worth VND500,000 ($25) each, which included cash, noodles, cooking oil, clothes and medicines for residents of Attapeu, Sekong, Saravan, Pakse and Shiphandon Provinces.
During the visit, the delegation also met overseas Vietnamese and inquired about their welfare and problems the may be facing in their daily lives.
Enterprises, organizations and sponsors in Vietnam had donated the gifts.
EVN issues 75 fancy phone numbers by ‘mistake’
EVN Telecom will revoke 75 fancy numbers like 888888 and 999999 it said it “mistakenly” issued to mobile phone subscribers in Hanoi since they have not been authorized for release yet.
The Ministry of Information and Communication allotted the numbers to the state-owned firm for subscription in the future.
They were mostly given to subscribers in Hanoi’s Ba Dinh and Hai Ba Trung Districts, and will be suspended for 60 days before being terminated.
EVN Telecom called it an “unwanted incident” and promised to replace the numbers with other “beautiful numbers” that are licensed.
The firm is owned by the giant loss-making state monopoly Electricity of Vietnam (EVN).
According to Sai Gon Tiep Thi, EVN owes VND9 trillion (US$450 million) in its electricity and coal purchases in the first quarter of this year.
Ding Quang Tri, deputy CEO of EVN, said EVN suffered a loss of VND8 trillion last year.
240,000 go hungry in Thanh Hoa
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Pham Ba Diem, deputy head of the People’s Committee of Muong Lat District, said 9,094 residents in his district are running out of food.
Ly Seo De, a resident in Muong Lat’s Poom Khuong Village in Tam Chung Commune said 40 out of 55 households in his village are badly in need of rice.
“The main cause is that we are running out of land for farming,” he said.
In coastal districts like Nga Son, Hau Loc, Quang Xuong and Tinh Gia, more and more crops are being destroyed as farming land is increasingly affected by salinity, pushing farmers to the brink of hunger.
Nguyen Thi Ly, deputy director of the provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the department had asked for 3,700 ton of rice from the government to save residents from going hungry.
ASEAN embassies raise funds for Japanese victims
The embassies of ASEAN member countries in Germany hosted a culinary festival on May 3 to raise money for Japanese victims of the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
The festival introduced a wide range of traditional specialties originated from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Vietnam Ambassador to Germany Do Hoa Binh said the event was a chance for the ASEAN nations to show off their culinary cultures as well as to express their sentiments and close relations with Japan .
Organisers handed over more than 12,000 EUR collected at the festival to the Japanese Ambassador in Germany , Takahiro Shinyo.
ASEAN groups Brunei , Cambodia , Indonesia , Laos , Malaysia , Myanmar , the Philippines , Singapore , Thailand and Vietnam.
Kids poorly fed despite parents’ willingness to pay
Parents in some districts in Ho Chi Minh City are wondering why local authorities have turned down their suggestion to pay more to improve preschoolers’ meals.
Bui Quoc Tuan, a parent, complained that his child, who is attending a kindergarten in District 11, hadn’t been fed well for several months despite a deal agreed upon by the school and the parents’ association to spend more money on kids’ meals.
Tuan said, under an agreement with the school that was reached three months ago, the parents agreed to pay VND20,000 (US$0.97) for their kids’ daily meals instead of VND15,000 ($0.72).
Truong Thi Viet Lien, the school’s superintendent, explained that District 11’s finance office had rejected the arrangement.
That means all the kindergartens in this district can’t improve the quality of their meals, Lien said.
Kindergartens in Go Vap District are also facing the same problem as local finance authorities have yet to approve any increase in expenses for daily meals for kids despite parents’ willingness to pay.
“Though we have tried our best, the kids cannot be fed well with just VND17,000 ($0.82) per day for their meals,” a vice principal of a kindergarten in the district said.
Six babies die from hand-foot-mouth disease
Six children have died from hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) so far in 2011, said Dr. Nguyen Dac Tho, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City Preventive Medicine Center at a conference held by the HCMC Department of Health yesterday.
Dr. Tho warned parents to take every caution necessary to protect their children as there was neither specific treatment nor vaccine for HFMD.
In April only, 550 children citywide were reported to be infected with HFMD. 3 of them have died.
Germany grants scholarships to Vietnamese students
The German State of Hessen granted scholarships to students studying at universities and colleges in central Vietnam on April 29.
This is part of an educational cooperation programme between the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training and Hessen State Ministry for Science and Art, which aims to encourage disadvantaged students to successfully complete their studies.
Under the programme, 24 students from seven universities and colleges received scholarships from Hessen worth VND5 million each for 2010-2011. Previously, the Hessen State Ministry for Science and Art also granted 124 scholarships for Vietnamese students nationwide.
Chief representative of the Hessen State office in Vietnam, Bui Cong Tho, said the Hessen scholarship fund not only supports Vietnamese students but also helps boost cultural exchanges between the two countries.
Shooter of young girl on Hanoi street identified
Police on May 4 issued a wanted warrant to five people for allegedly shooting to death a 20-year-old woman on a taxi on a street in Hanoi early morning April 29.
Dong Cao Cuong, 28 of Bac Ninh province, Luu Quang Duc, 24 of Ha Nam province, Nguyen Manh Cuong, 22 of Hai Phong city are suspected of directly causing the death of Nguyen Thi Lien.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 20 and Nguyen Quang Anh, 34 both residing in Hanoi are being investigated for not denouncing criminals.
Police have arrested Anh. The remaining four people are all in hiding.
According to initial investigation, the victim – Lien - owed some money to Cao Cuong and Duc.
The two sides argued and both creditors and debtor arranged to meet on Xa Dan Street to solve the debt.
Early that morning, Lien and Nguyen Quang Anh, 34 and two other young men took a Thanh Cong taxi to Xa Dan Street where they were stopped by nine men from Cao Cuong’s gang riding on four motorbikes.
The taxi car then lurched and crashed into the roadside. After that, the gang smashed the car’s glass window.
One of them used a gun to shoot Lien and taxi driver Bui Manh Quan and fled the scene.
Lien died before arriving at hospital while the taxi driver survived and were taken to Viet Duc hospital.
The taxi’s glass windows on both sides and windscreen were smashed.
Police found grapeshots, electric bludgeon, knifepoint, and tear gas sprayer inside the damaged taxi.
Mrs. Thanh, the deceased’s mother, said Lien had been absent from home in the past three days.
On the evening of April 28, Lien told her that if someone looked for her, she had to call police. After that, two young men came to her home and told her that Lien owed them VND10 million (US$500), according to the mother.
They asked Lien’s family to pay them or else their lives would be endangered.
Two farmers struck dead by lightning
Two farmers in the southern province of An Giang were truck dead by lightning as they were watering their rice fields this morning.
The victims were Tran Van Manh from Phuoc Hung Commune in An Phu District and Tran Van Tong from Chau Phong Commune in Tan Chau District.
Local police said the two tried to run home as a rainstorm approached but were struck by lightning.
Local authorities have given financial support to help the victims’ families.
Earlier, the Central Hydrometeorology Forecast Center in the Mekong Delta Region has warned all farmers to be careful while working on the fields during this rainy season.
Source: Tuoi Tre/VNA/VNE/VOV/SGGP
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