National contest on clean water launched

 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Singapore-based Lien Aid organisation and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have jointly launched a national campaign on clean water and environmental sanitation with the participation of the UN Goodwill Ambassador Xuan Bac.

 

The contest is designed for people nationwide including primary pupils and university students to spread the message about the importance of protecting water sources, hygienic toilets, washing hands with soap and collecting and treating waste.

 

The contestants can represent their ideas through photos, video clips, articles and paintings. All entries should be sent to the organisers from May 15 to September 15, 2011.

 

The results of the contest, including one first prize, four second prizes, five third prizes and three annual prizes will be announced in the media on October 15.

 

The first and second prize winners will have the chance to study clean water and environmental sanitation in Singapore with Goodwill Ambassador Xuan Bac.

 

Women’s role in coping with global challenges

 

The 21st Global Summit of Women has provided an opportunity for delegates to put forth measures to improve women’s response to global challenges, said State Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan at the opening ceremony of the summit being held in Istanbul, Turkey from May 5-7.

 

The event was attended by nearly 1,500 women who are politicians, wives of heads of state, businesswomen and government leaders from more than 80 nations around the globe.

 

State Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan led the Vietnamese delegation consisting of 50 outstanding representatives from businesses and relevant ministries and agencies.

 

In her speech, Ms Doan highlighted the summit’s theme “Women Bridging Solutions to the 21st century”, emphasizing that in the context of complicated developments in the world, there have been more and more global challenges such as the scarcity of energy and food, issues related to epidemics, natural calamities and climate change.

 

The President of the Summit, Irene Natividad, asked nations and governments to create favourable conditions for women to improve their status and contribute to social development for a fair and civilized world.

 

During the three-day event, delegates discussed major issues related to global economic growth, business development using technologies, policies to improve women’s lives, opportunities for women to do business and boost trade ties with Turkey.

 

On the sidelines of the summit, Ms Doan received the Republic of Korea’s Minister of Gender Equality and Family Paik Hee Young.

 

Vietnam, Germany sign educational accords

 

Vietnam signed two accords of educational and research cooperation with Hessen State of Germany in Wiesbaden on May 4.

 

The signing was part of an ongoing visit to the European country by a delegation from the Ministry of Education and Training (MET) and the Vietnam-Germany University led by MET Minister Pham Vu Luan.

 

All three signatories, including the Minister of Science and Art, Eva-Kuehne-Hoerman, and the Minister of Culture, Dorothea Henzler, of Hessen State, described the accords as a contribution to bilateral relations, especially in scientific research and the exchange of students.

 

The Vietnam-Germany University is an example of successful cooperation between the two countries, attracting many donors, including the Hessen and Baden-Wuerttemberg states of Germany, the Vietnamese Government and businesses from the two countries.

 

The World Bank has offered a loan worth US$180 million for the upgrade of infrastructure at the university.

 

Remains of Vietnamese martyrs from Laos reburied in Quang Tri

 

A ceremony was held at the National Martyrs' Cemetery on Road No 9 in the central province of Quang Tri on May 5 to rebury the remains of 36 Vietnamese voluntary soldiers and experts who had died during the war in Laos.

 

With the assistance from the Lao province of Savanakhet, the Quang Tri provincial military command gathered 36 sets of remains of Vietnamese soldiers and experts from various places in Laos.

 

Earlier on May 4, a requiem for the dead was held by Lao authorities and people in Savanakhet province.

 

US$22.5 million for healthcare project in Vietnam

 

The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has agreed to provide Vietnam with US$22.5 million in loan to help the country improve the quality and capacity of its healthcare.

 

An agreement to this effect was signed on May 4 by Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh and OFID Director General Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish.

 

The 20-year loan will have a grace period of five years with an annual interest rate of 1.75 percent and service fee of 1 percent based on the original outstanding balance.

 

The healthcare project, which aims to upgrade the General Hospital in Trung Son district in northern Tuyen Quang province, and the Transport General Hospital in Hanoi, is expected to be competed by 2015.

 

The OFID has so far provided loans worth US$161 million for projects and programmes in Vietnam. It is also involved with assistance activities and projects focused on transport, irrigation, poverty reduction, healthcare and education.

 

Three billion Asians could become affluent by 2050

 

If Asia maintains its present impressive growth momentum, its annual GDP per capita is likely to hit US$38,600.

 

The Managing Director General of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Rajat Nag, hosted a press briefing on May 4 to announce ADB’s draft report entitled “ Asia 2050-Realising the Asian Century”

 

The report says that as the global economy’s center of gravity shifts toward Asia, the region could account for about half of the global output in 2050, up from its current 27 percent.

 

Mr Nag said the report also focuses on promoting technology and private-public partnership, balancing the financial system, building confidence in democracy, urban management and avoiding the middle income trap.

 

Participants said that if Asia wants to ensure sustainable and comprehensive growth, Asian nations need to enhance cooperation to deal with challenges.

 

Mr Nag said around three billion Asians will enjoy the fruits of prosperity by 2050 if the present growth momentum is maintained. However, he said it is not easy to reach this goal because Asia is facing five major challenges, including inequality among countries,  the danger of falling into the middle income trap, scarce natural resources, adverse impacts of climate change and poor administration and institutional capacity.

 

 All regional countries need to ensure sustainable development by increasing institutional capacity and combating corruption. Any country that wants to overcome the middle income trap must have creative power and rising labour productivity, stressed Mr Nag.

 

The draft report will be updated into a final document for publication in August.

 

One dead, one hospitalized after eating infected pork

 

One resident in Trieu Phong District in the central province of Quang Tri has died and another is showing signs of food poisoning after eating infected pork.

 

According to a source, nearly 100 others in this district have also eaten similarly infected pork but are yet to show signs of food poisoning.

 

Yesterday morning, Quang Tri’s Health Prevention Center sent inspectors to Trieu Phong to identify if there was an epidemic spreading Streptococcus suis, a peanut-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium found in the infected pork.

 

The inspectors confirmed that there was no sign of an epidemic.

 

In related news, a 56-year-old woman from Quang Tri’s Dong Ha City has recently been hospitalized with symptoms of respiration failure and serious bleeding after eating infected pork.

 

She ate pork in a party held at her house, her family said.

 

An Giang caught up in rainstorm, whirlwind

 

A one hour of rainstorm and whirlwind has seriously damaged many houses throughout the southern province of An Giang.

 

On the evening of May 2, a rainstorm accompanied by powerful winds blew off the roofs of 91 houses located in Binh Long, Binh Thuy and Binh Chanh districts and Cai Dau Town.

 

Some residents said they also suffered from icy rain, which is an unusual thing to happen in this province.

 

Local authorities yesterday gave financial support of up to VND6 million to each of the families whose houses were destroyed by the storm.

 

Expats buying cars under other’s name: be careful

 

Overseas Vietnamese and other foreigners who ask associates in Vietnam to buy properties and other assets in the country on their behalf since they themselves are not allowed to own them may end up losing them.

 

A lawsuit by Vietnamese-American Chernicki Ngoc Anh against Phan Anh Tam, a cai luong artist living in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 8, for “stealing” her car highlights the problem.

 

Anh met Tam during a trip to Vietnam years ago.

 

In 2009, after returning to the US, she asked Tam to buy a car for her in Vietnam and sent hi US$40,000 through a bank.

 

Tam bought a Honda Civic and registered it in his name.

 

However, when Anh came to Vietnam, Tam handed over neither the car nor the money.

 

Tam admitted to Tuoi Tre he got the money from Anh, but claimed it had been a gift from her since they had planned to get married.

 

“Ngoc Anh knew I was using a rental car and so bought me the car as a gift,” he said.

 

He tried to contact Anh to resolve the problem but was unable to, he claimed.

 

“I’m willing to return the car to her as long as she withdraws the suit and apologizes to me,” he said.

 

Lawyers Huynh Van Nong and Le Ngoc Thuong said cases like this have become quite common in Vietnam.

 

African ivory smuggled to Hai Phong

 

Hai Phong City’s customs authorities Thursday discovered 2 tons of ivory smuggled from Tanzania.

 

Declared as dried seaweed imported by Tien Hoang Co., Ltd. from Mong Cai City in northern Quang Ninh Province, the ivory was hidden in 400 bags in 2 containers aboard

the Mount Bokor that arrived in Hai Phong on April 28.

 

On April 29, Nguyen Quoc Hung, 34, Tien Hoang’s representative, showed up at the customs office to claim the goods which he said would be re-exported to China.

 

However, when customs officers inspected the containers on May 4 and 5, they discovered the 400 bags of ivory hidden under the seaweed.

 

After the investigation, Tien Hoang denied its ownership of the containers.

 

Ship formerly owned by Vinashin detained over debt

 

Hoa Sen, a ship formerly owned by the Vietnam Shipping Industry Corporation (Vinashin), has been detained at a port in the Republic of Korea as a debt security.

 

According to Nguyen Canh Viet, general director of Vinalines, which was assigned ownership of Hoa Sen last July when the government was restructuring Vinashin, told

Tuoi Tre yesterday the ship’s former owner owed a South Korean partner US$4 million.

 

The South Korean creditor had thus requested authorities to detain the ship, Viet said.

He said the ship’s direct owner, Vinashin Lines under Vinalines, is now negotiating with its South Korean partner to settle the debt.

 

Vinashin bought Hoa Sen from Italy for VND 1.3 trillion ($63 million) in 2007.

 

Hanoi’s highway tunnel shows cracks

 

Dozens of long and wide cracks have appeared on the surface of the tunnel on Hanoi’s Thang Long Highway that passes through Tay Mo Commune in Tu Liem District.

 

4 out of the 6 lanes of the tunnel were found with cracks, some of which are over 10 m long and 3 cm wide.

 

Several parts of the tunnel have even shown deep depression.

 

Ho Ngoc Loan, deputy CEO of the Management Board of the Thang Long Highway project, said the cracks were caused by the shrinking of the concrete surface.

 

Loan said lime and mortar could be used to fix them.

 

The board was waiting for solution suggestions from the Institute of Transport Science and Technology, he said.

 

Drugs smuggling ring busted

 

A joint investigation by the Hanoi police and customs yesterday arrested 3 caught who were receiving drugs smuggled from Canada at Thanh Xuan District’s Post Office.

 

The arrested are 35-year-old Truong Thi Nga from Hai Phong City, and 35-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Van and 36-year-old Nguyen Ha Chung both from Hanoi.

 

The investigators found over 450 gram of dry hashish.

 

Man almost killed by polymer bill

 

A Nha Trang resident was saved yesterday after a surgery to remove a VND100,000 polymer bill he had swallowed a week before, said Doctor Cao Viet Dung, deputy chair

of Khanh Hoa General Hospital.

 

N.V.L.N., 29, from Nha Trang City, was hospitalized on May 5. He had been suffering from severe intestinal pain for a week.

 

N. was diagnosed with general peritonitis and intestinal perforation and had to undergo a surgery.

 

Doctors found the bill, which was folded, in his intestine.

 

The patient’s family said they didn’t why and when he swallowed the bill.  N. is in stable condition.

 

Hanoi man chews, swallows glass bulb

 

A clip posted on YouTube recently causes a nauseating feeling when a man allegedly a student breaks a glass bulb into pieces and proceeds to digest the sharp shards.

 

First, he covers the bulb in a handkerchief and by using a ruler to strike on the cloth, breaks the bulb.

 

He takes out the shards, chews and swallows them one by one. Sometimes, he gulps in water to probably help him digest the ‘meal’ better.

 

Some expressed their amazement at his unusual ability while others commented it is just a magic trick.

 

According to information from YouTube, the glass eating man is a student from Hanoi University of Agriculture. He often performs similar stunts for his classmates and students at the university.

 

According to Wikipedia, hyalophagia or hyalophagy is the eating of glass. It is sometimes considered a pathological disorder.

 

Hyalophagia is very dangerous as the sharp glass may wound the stomach, intestines, and throat as it passes through the system.

 

Eating glass is also a performance technique common to some sideshow performances. A few of the more prolific "glass eaters" have been Todd Robbins, Matt the Knife,

Josh Routh and Michel Lotito, Wikipedia wrote.

 

Woman put to death for using narcotic to rob

 

The People’s court of the southern province of Long An Thursday gave a 41-year-old woman a death sentence for using narcotic to kill and rob many people.

 

According to the indictment, Dao Thi Ngung, who has a record of previous convictions and offences, put narcotic into beverages to poison many people in Tay Ninh, Daklak

and some southern provinces to rob their property worth nearly VND150 million (US$7,500).

 

Her criminal acts killed three and severely hurt four others, police said.

 

6 houses razed down by big fire in Lai Chau

 

A huge fire Wednesday afternoon swept through Son La Hydropower resettlement area in Lai Chau mountainous northern province, burning six houses to the ground and

badly damaging another.

 

Luckily no fatalities have been reported so far.

 

Witnesses said the fire broke out at a fuel dump and quickly spread.

 

It also reduced other expensive goods like cell phones, electric generator, motorbikes, and one care to ashes.

 

Due to lack of professional firefighting equipment, it was not until Thursday afternoon that the fire was put under control.

 

The victims whose houses were destroyed by the fire include Nguyen Van Ngoc, Pham Hong Van, Nguyen Van Thanh Nam, Pham Van Loat, Hoang Trung Ha, and Nguyen Van Dung.

 

Police are investigating meanwhile local authorities are prompting to give financial supports to the victims.

 

Vietnam lacks construction standards for underground car parks

 

Vietnam has yet to set out common standards for the construction of underground car parks, even though the Ministry of Construction has been working on this matter for over two years.

 

Nguyen Hong Tien, director of the ministry’s Technical Infrastructure Department, told the Daily on Tuesday that the ministry’s progress has been held up by numerous overlapping issues involving various ministries.

 

Tien said, for instance, the Ministry of Transport is responsible for traffic circulation at underground car parks, while the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is in charge of land use and the Ministry of Construction oversees underground car park construction.

 

He said while waiting for the promulgation of the common standards, domestic developers of underground car park projects could temporarily apply foreign standards for the construction of underground car parks.

 

He said the application of foreign standards for underground space was guided by the construction ministry in a Circular 18/2010/TT-BXD that was issued in October last year.

 

Meanwhile, the lack of common standards, more or less, has obstructed the construction progress of several underground car park projects in HCMC.

 

At the moment, HCMC’s government has already approved four projects of developing underground car parks in the downtown area. However, construction has been suspended due to many reasons, including the lack of common standards.

 

According to an official of the city’s Department of Transport, related city departments are accelerating the progress of the four projects in District 1 and hope to see construction of all projects begin within this year and next year.

 

The projects, located at Le Van Tam park, Hoa Lu stadium, Tao Dan stadium and Trong Dong music stage, expect to be operational from 2014 with total investment capital of VND5.7 trillion to provide parking spaces for nearly 10,000 cars and motorbikes, said the official.

 

Man held for blackmailing over teen sex tape

 

Police officers in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday arrested Phan Van Huan, 22, suspected of attempting to blackmail his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend’s mother by claiming he had a video of her daughter having sex with him.

 

According to preliminary information, Huan was in love with the 16-year-old girl known only T. this February. He took her to a guesthouse based in Tan Binh Dist’s Hong Ha St. to have sex.

 

He used his cell phone to shoot the clip featuring their sexual acts there.

 

When the couple broke up due to irresolvable quarrels, he sent a text message to her mother threatening to give the sex video if she did not give him VND500 million (US$25,000).

 

After their negotiation, the ransom was reduced to VND10 million ($500).

 

However, he was arrested by police as soon as he received the payment from the victim’s family at Hoang Van Thu Park in Tan Binh Dist.

 

Huan admitted to his crime, police said.

 

Policeman discharged over indecent assault

 

Lieutenant colonel Huynh Chi Dung in the Tien Giang province police department will either be forced into early retirement or discharged from the force on conviction of indecently assaulting a woman.

 

The punishment was handed out by major general Nguyen Chi Phi, director of Tien Giang police department on May 5.

 

According to the investigation, Dung created a scene at a hairdresser’s Y.O. in My Tho city and insulted and tried to assault its owner on March 29 after drinking a lot .

 

He was still kicking up a fuss at the shop when four policemen arrived on the scene. He insulted them too.

 

The man just fled when officers of the 113 mobile police force arrived.

 

Another Hanoi teen sex clip emerges

 

A video clip recently leaked on YouTube features two teenagers, suspected to be students at a high school in Hanoi, engaging in sexual acts and dirty talks, drawing criticism from online community.

 

They are rumored to be students from Hoang Van Thu Senior High School in Hoang Mai District.

 

The 12-minute clip, allegedly taken with a cell phone, shows a girl and a boy and their voices but their faces are quite blurred.

 

It appeared on YouTube on April 29. The clip distributor also supplied the girl’s nick, name and age.

 

In March, a similar 10-minute sex clip presumably featuring two students in Hanoi was too leaked onto YouTube and later removed.

 

According to some netizens, two characters in the clip probably study in a famous university in Hanoi.

 

This clip’s setting took place at a rented room surrounded by bookshelf, table, and other furniture, in which the girl possibly aged 20 is wearing myopic glasses while the boy is holding a camera in his hand(s) to record their sweet moments.

 

Railway transport charges to rise 15%

 

The transport company under Vietnam Railway Corp. will increase fuel surcharges on transporting goods by imposing 15% on top of the official fare from June 3.

 

Nguyen Huu Tuyen, head of transport unit of the corporation, said the surcharges will be calculated on transport invoices and are exclusive of VAT (value added tax). The higher surcharges will help the company compensate for higher fuel prices in the country.

 

This is the second surcharge increase by the corporation this year. The company earlier raised passenger ticket prices by 5-15% on April 8.

 

Most transport services in Vietnam have applied higher fuel surcharges given the gasoline price hikes since late March.

 

Yet another dump truck accident, 1 dead

 

Yet another infamous dump truck accident occurred Wednesday noon on Nam Hai Van Bypass in Da Nang City’s Hoa Son commune, killing one father and seriously injuring his wife and son.

 

Le Van Tuan, 36 was riding a motorbike carrying his wife Pham Thi Hue, 29 and 4-year-old Son Le Van Tien behind when a dump truck loaded with soil hit him and dragged his motorbike for nearly 30 meters.

 

Tuan died on the spot while his wife and son are in critical condition.

 

Truck driver Nguyen Dang Hiep, 25 has fled the scene.

 

The accident caused serious traffic jam in the area.

 

It is the latest in a series of accidents caused by dump trucks in Da Nang, claiming four lives so far this year.

 

Exactly one month ago (April 4) on that very Nam Hai Van Bypass, a man was seriously injured when a dump truck crashed into another truck carrying watermelons coming in the opposite direction.

 

Its driver, Nguyen Chi Quyen, had apparently tried to overtake a bus and slammed the brakes after seeing the truck loom ahead. It failed to stop and, instead, spun around before hitting the truck.

 

Both vehicles were badly damaged and Pham Van Bang, the assistant to the truck driver, was severely injured.

 

On March 24, Da Nang city began a campaign against dump-truck drivers who violate road rules.

 

The giant vehicles are a nightmare for other vehicles and people living on many streets through which they travel, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Den, head of the traffic police, earlier told Tuoi Tre.

 

During a ‘raid’ on March 27 in Da Nang, local traffic police found more than 200 dumpsters to violate rules including over-speeding, overloading, allowing construction materials to fall off on to the streets, and drivers having no licenses.

 

‘Floating Buddha’ sends farmers flocking to Soc Trang

 

A farmer in the southern province of Soc Trang has dug up a small Buddha statue that is rumored to be able to cure diseases

 

Huynh Suol’s dilapidated house in Dai Tan hamlet in My Tu district these days is crowded with people flocking to see the statue in the ‘flesh’.

 

Many kneel in front of it to pray for luck.

 

Suol told VnExpress that three days earlier, he found the black, 10cm tall statue when he was digging to plant a column to fix his kitchen.

 

After cleaning it, he put it on his ancestral altar and claims it is the “floating Buddha”.

 

Rumors spread and locals flocked to his house. Many asked the statue for “holy water” to treat illness.

 

Some even took home the dirt and soil from the place where the statue was found.

 

It is also rumored that Suol refused to sell it even when offered a staggering sum of 20 taels of gold (nearly US$38,000).

 

Social sciences courses at schools have few takers

 

The number of applications to universities for social sciences courses has plunged this year, statistics from education departments around the country show.

 

Only 2,100 out of 151,000 applications in Ho Chi Minh City for national university entrance exams in July are for social sciences majors, Huynh Minh Tri, a local education official, said.

 

Many schools in the city do not have a single applicant.

 

In provinces like Dong Nai, Dong Thap, Dak Lak, An Giang, Tien Giang, and Quang Nam, social sciences account for a very small percentage of the total number of applications.

 

The largest number of applicants is for group A which comprises mathematics and a few sciences, followed by group B (sciences including biology) and D (foreign languages, foreign trade, etc.), all of which are believed to have better job prospects.

 

Last year many universities could not find enough students for social sciences courses, and some ended up even cancelling the courses.

 

Students increasingly stay away from social sciences because they find it hard to get good jobs after graduation, Truong Thuc, an official at the Da Lak Department of Education and Training, said.

 

Teaching used to be a possibility but getting a teacher’s job is becoming harder, he pointed out.

 

But Dr Pham Tan Ha from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities said social sciences offer a broad range of job opportunities depending on how well students do in school.

 

Many opt for other majors without considering their personal propensity and simply because their friends do so.

 

Assoc Prof Tran Thi Ngoc Lang said it is a “myth” that social sciences graduates have poor job prospects and get low salaries.

 

Source: Tuoi Tre/VNA/VNE/SGGP