The Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) will help Vietnam manage and reduce landslide disaster in the transport sector. This is part of a technical project signed in Hanoi on November 7 between JICA and the Ministry of Transport. The five-year project is expected to help reduce the effects of landslides by developing new risk assessment technologies in monitoring and forecasting ground movements as well as enhancing the early warning system and disaster preparedness. A feasibility study will be conducted in the selected sites along Ho Chi Minh Highway, National Highway 1 and north-south railway. Nguyen Thi Hong, a mother of three who went to Malaysia last July to work as a domestic help, died there in a road accident, but her husband was not informed for two months. Hong of Ha Tinh Province had sought to work abroad to earn enough money to pay for the treatment of their son who had pancreatic inflammation, Nguyen Van Hung, her husband said. Through … [Read more...]
Australia doctor awarded for environment works in VN
600 logs of rare timber seized Krong Trai forest rangers have seized nearly 600 logs of giang huong (pterocarpus pedatus pierre) timber, illegally stored at a local house in central Phu Yen Province. Nguyen Tien Dat, 41, had been storing the timber and failed to show legal documents to prove the stockpile's origin. It is the largest amount of timber found to be illegally stored at a local house in the province so far. The case is currently under investigation. Giang huong (Pterocarpus pedatus Pierre) is precious 2A timber. Special permission is required from authorised agencies to transport or trade the material. VN Railway Station offers 20% discount on ticket price of SE19, SE20 Vietnam Railway Station is offering a discount of 20 percent on ticket prices for passengers who travel to Quang Binh to attend in General Vo Nguyen Giap’s funeral from 11 to 14 October. The program is applicable for SE19 and SE20 trains from Hanoi to Dong Hoi Station in Quang Binh Province and … [Read more...]
Rural living standards still very low in VN
Rural living standards still very low in VN A survey released on Wednesday reveals a large and persistent gap in development outcomes between residents living in mountainous and lowland regions. The survey was produced after more than 3,700 households in 12 cities and provinces nationwide were polled last year. Called Viet Nam Access to Resources Household Survey, it has been conducted every two years since 2002. The latest one shows that income for most rural households continues to come from farming and livestock, especially in the north and central highlands. In addition, members of small ethnic groups have much lower access to essential goods, such as safe drinking water and high quality housing. At the same time, richer households are much less likely to own agricultural land for any of their income. According to the Institute of Policy and Development Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), farming is still relevant to how households earn income and accumulate … [Read more...]
Vietnam steps up health screening of tourists after 2 MERS deaths in S.Korea
Vietnam has started to require visitors from South Korea to fill in medical history forms after their country reported two deaths from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The Health Ministry issued the order after an urgent meeting Tuesday amid the rapid spread of the viral disease in South Korea, which reported its first infection ten days ago, local media reported. Reports from international media showed that the country has confirmed 25 infections of MERS-CoV. It reported the first patient on May 20. The 68-years-old fell sick after visiting Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The dead patients were a 58-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man, who had received treatment and medical support. MERS is similar to the virus that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in China in 2002-2003 and killed some 800 people in 30 countries, including five in Vietnam. It was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012. At least 26 countries have reported … [Read more...]
Dutch mourn as first MH17 bodies arrive in Netherlands
The bodies of the first victims from a Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine last week arrived on Wednesday at a military base in the Netherlands - a nation in shock and sorrow. Bells pealed and flags flew at half mast in memory of the 298 people killed when flight MH17 came down in an area of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists, in the first national day of mourning since wartime Queen Wilhelmina died in 1962. King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte joined dignitaries on the tarmac as two military aircraft carrying 40 plain wooden coffins landed at Eindhoven in the southern Netherlands. A military guard of honor stood to attention as a trumpeter played The Last Post, the military funeral call for people killed in war. After a minute's silence - observed in stations, factories, offices and streets across this stunned nation - servicemen from all four branches of the Dutch military boarded the Dutch Hercules C-130 and Australian Boeing C-17 to carry … [Read more...]
More cases of Ebola spreading in Europe ‘unavoidable’, WHO says
More cases of the deadly Ebola virus will almost inevitably spread in Europe but the continent is well prepared to control the disease, the World Health Organization's (WHO) regional director said on Tuesday. Speaking to Reuters just hours after Europe's first local case of Ebola infection was confirmed in a nurse in Spain, the WHO's European director, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said further such events were "unavoidable". Spanish health officials said four people had been hospitalised to try and stem any further spread of Ebola there after the nurse became the first person in the world known to have contracted the virus outside of Africa. "Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely," Jakab told Reuters in a telephone interview from her Copenhagen office. "It is quite unavoidable ... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around," … [Read more...]
Smell of Ebola lingers as health workers fight disease
Ebola has a specific smell, says Sebastian Stein, a medical worker in Sierra Leone. While he can’t really describe it, he can tell you the effect. “It’s full on. It’s in your face,” he said. Sulaiman Kanneh Saidu, who runs an Ebola treatment center, recalls running to a police station to escape an angry mob when he tried to move a diagnosed patient, along with other suspected cases, to a hospital. The mob wanted the patients treated at home, and that’s where they ended up, he said. At the front lines of the Ebola outbreak, doctors and support workers across Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea face a daunting challenge. On a daily basis, they deal with patients who lie about their travel history, hopeful their fever has nothing to do with the funerals they attended. They face suspicion from families who mistrust them and neighbors who fear them. And they are frustrated by a lack of adequate supplies and the tough conditions they work under. In … [Read more...]
Two teens killed in US school shooting, attacker dead: police
LOS ANGELES — Two teens were killed in a shooting at their high school in the southwestern US state of New Mexico on Thursday, police said, adding that the assailant was dead. The attack took place at Aztec High School, New Mexico State Police said on Twitter. The school is located in the small town of Aztec some 300 kilometers northwest of Albuquerque in an area close to Navajo tribal lands. Initial reports of other people being wounded are wrong, San Juan County Sheriff Ken Christesen told a press conference. The identities of the shooter and those killed were not released. Garrett Parker, a student at the school in the town of 7,000, told the local TV station KOAT that he was stunned. "Out of any state, out of all the states in America, you don’t think it would happen here," he said. Parker said he was in history class when the shooting started. "At first it sounded like kids were just banging on the lockers. But it started getting closer and louder and it was obvious it … [Read more...]
Two cured in US, Spain, as Ebola crisis widens
A US photojournalist joined a Spanish nurse in being declared free of Ebola on Tuesday (Oct 21). The survivor stories, however, came as cases continued to soar in West Africa. WASHINGTON: A US photojournalist joined a Spanish nurse in being declared free of Ebola on Tuesday (Oct 21), as the United States tightened restrictions on travelers from the West African countries at the epicenter of the outbreak. And in West Africa, medical charity MSF, at the forefront of the Ebola fight, announced Tuesday it had saved a 1,000th patient from the deadly virus. The survivor stories, however, came as cases continued to soar in West Africa, where more than 4,500 people have died. The epidemic, which is proving fatal in 70 per cent of cases, is already the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Experts warn the infection rate could reach 10,000 a week by early December, The hemorrhagic fever, for which there is no licenced vaccine or cure, has hit hardest in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but … [Read more...]
August 14 in History
1893 France becomes the first country to introduce motor vehicle registration plates. 1908 The world's first international beauty contest is held at the Pier Hippodrome at Folkestone, England. 1941 The Atlantic Charter is signed by US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill. The charter was later included in the United Nations Declaration. 1945 The National Insurrection Committee appeals to all Vietnamese people to rise up against Japanese occupation. From August 14 to 18, the general insurrection, later known as the August Revolution, spread to rural areas in the north, most of Central Viet Nam and parts of the south, to be crowned with … [Read more...]