Most internet cafes still break proximity rule

An internet cafe in Cau Giay District, Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Thanh Giang

HA NOI — Many internet shops located within 200 metres of schools were operating and supplying internet services despite regulations that ordered them to close down before Monday, said director of Ha Noi's Information and Communications Department Pham Quoc Ban.

Previously, the department had instructed internet service providers to cut services to 204 internet shops located within 200 metres of schools as part of a drive to tighten controls on online games.

Ban said the department also found that these shops failed to install required management software and meet health and safety regulations.

Many were open all day, despite a ruling that said shops must close between 10pm and 6am.

"I have seen hundreds of young people between 14-16 years old playing games, eating and sleeping at internet shops at night," said Ban at a conference on Tuesday.

Department inspector Nguyen Van Minh said district authorities reported that only half of the internet shops abided by the time regulation.

The inspector cited an internet shop on Giang Vo Street as an example. The shop is across the street from the Hoa Sen Nursery School and was open despite being required to close down.

Minh said the shop's internet had been blocked, but the owner had it reconnected.

Two students commit suicide Two students committed suicide last week after being scolded by their parents for their online gaming addiction. Bui Tan Cuong, 14, from southern Tien Giang Province often skipped class to play games. Pham Quang Vu, 15, from Pleiku City in Central Highland Gia Lai Province sold his parents' jewellery to get money to play games. The two were said to be good students before developing an addiction to online games. — VNS

Ban placed the blame on internet service providers who had failed to check with their internet agents regularly and were unaware of the regulations.

Viettel Corporation's Internet Service Centre deputy director Bui Quang Huy said an internet shop could buy multiple packages from an internet provider, which would allow stores to continue to operate after being banned.

Huy suggested that testing devices should be installed at these shops to monitor their operations and their gaming content. Huy said such devices would work as ‘a long-term and effective method' to prevent illegal operations.

The regulations should be implemented nationwide, not only in Ha Noi, he said.

Deputy Minister of the Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said the ministry would consider expanding their regulations. — VNS

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Students compete in quiz to test ASEAN knowledge

HA NOI — Sixty-four high school teams took part in a contest to test their knowledge of ASEAN organised in Ha Noi yesterday.

The event was one of several activities to promote students' knowledge about ASEAN jointly held by the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ha Noi Department of Education and Training and other relevant agencies.

The contest was expected to provide young students with useful information about ASEAN member countries and an opportunity to make new friends, said Education and Training Deputy Minister Tran Quang Quy.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dao Viet Trung said that with proper knowledge about ASEAN, students as the country's future could offer policy makers recommendations for the further development and increased solidarity of the ASEAN community.

Each team was made up of five students who competed in a contest by answering a 10-question package. Sixteen teams took first prize in their respective heats.

Do Thi Uyen, a 12th grader at Tran Hung Dao High School, said her group had started researching for the contest from July.

Relevant ministries have provided 80 high schools in the city with basic knowledge about the institution to facilitate the studies of students . — VNS

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Viet Nam begins new road-safety campaign

HA NOI — Viet Nam has launched a new campaign to strengthen road traffic safety, particularly drink-driving prevention, according to a press release from the World Health Organisation on Tuesday.

The campaign aims to raise public awareness regarding legal blood-alcohol levels for drivers and provide breathalysers to traffic police.

The first phase of the new programme will be carried out in the two northern provinces of Ha Nam and Ninh Binh by 2011.

The localities will be provided with financial and technical support to reduce drink-driving.

The WHO representative in Viet Nam, Jean-Marc Olive, says "Drunkenness is a major factor in traffic accidents in Viet Nam."

"Local research indicates that over 34 per cent of death rate for traffic accidents were associated with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeding the legal limit," he said.

"Enforcement is one of the most effective interventions to minimise traffic accidents, particularly with drunk drivers," Olive said.

Than Van Thanh, the National Traffic Safety Committee's Chief Secretariat said: "The traffic safety law issued in 2008 ruled the legal BAC level for motorcyclists reducing it 80 to 50mg/dl blood."

"Decree 34 that took effect in May, introduced increased fines for drivers violating blood alcohol concentration levels," Thanh said.

The campaign is a part of a global road safety programme that is running in ten countries with particularly high levels of traffic accidents.

The campaign has the support of international partners including the Global Road Safety Partnership and Johns Hopkins University. — VNS

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New deal ensures safe pork for HCM City

A veterinary official checks the quality of pork at a slaughter house in My Tho, in the southern province of Tien Giang. — VNA/VN Photo Dinh Hue

HCM CITY — HCM City has signed agreements with three southern provinces to buy healthy pigs from them and prevent further spread of the blue-ear disease through illegal transport of sick pigs.

Under agreements signed last week by the respective Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, the owners of healthy pigs bred on large farms in the provinces of Tien Giang, Long An, and Dong Nai will be issued quarantine certificates and transported by designated vehicles to abattoirs designated by the provinces.

The certificates will not be issued to pig traders who buy from various sources to ensure the loop is fully closed.

Provincial departments will provide the city division daily updates on the status of the epidemic and infected areas.

The city has 29 large abattoirs that slaughter 7,500 to 8,500 pigs daily but only 11 per cent of them are raised in the city while the rest are from outside.

Dong Nai accounts for almost 37 per cent, Ba Ria-Vung Tau for 11 per cent, and Long An and Tien Giang for around 10 per cent each.

Dong Nai leads the country in the number of heads with 1.2 million, half raised on large farms and the rest in more than 40,000 household farms.

Only 15 per cent of Tien Giang's 544,000 pigs are raised on large farms that have more than 100 heads.

The corresponding number for Long An Province is 10 per cent.

The city People's Committee has designated four companies to buy pigs raised in the city at VND29,000-32,000 per kilogramme in case of farms and VND25,000 in case of households.

More than 10,000 large and household farms raise 369,000 animals, with 60,000-65,000 ready for slaughter, mostly in outlying districts like Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, and Binh Chanh.

The four selected firms are Sai Gon Trading Group, Vissan Co Ltd, Sai Gon Agriculture Incorporation, and Sai Gon Co.op.

So far 27 provinces and cities have reported outbreaks of blue-ear disease with more than 243,000 pigs infected and nearly 116,000 destroyed. — VNS

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Welfare system failing jobless

Jobless workers register for unemployment insurance in Ha Noi. Many workers who have unemployment insurance have failed to receive assistance after being laid off. — VNA/VNS Photo Huu Viet

HCM CITY — Many workers covered by unemployment insurance failed to receive allowances or assistance for vocational training after being laid-off, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs admitted.

Only 50,057 out of nearly 87,000 filing for unemployment benefits in the first half of the year got them, it said.

While all received allowances, only 108 got vocational training and nearly 35,000 were introduced to new jobs.

Under the insurance scheme, a laid-off worker gets a dole of 60 per cent of the last six months' average salary starting a year after the worker joins the scheme.

The ministry's Employment Department said more than 2,500 laid-off workers had their benefits temporarily cut because they failed to report their unemployment status once a month.

HCM City had the highest number of people filing for benefits in the first six months – 27,700.

By the end of July it had risen to 33,000 though only 24,000 are eligible for benefits, according to a report by the city Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Some 4,000 laid-off workers were introduced to new jobs while only 32 opted for vocational training courses, it said.

Provincial and city labour departments' job service centres could not get funds released for providing vocational training and introducing jobs because it was not clearly stipulated in the unemployment insurance policy, the ministry's Employment Department said.

So the ministry was drafting a supplementary circular for the purpose, it added.

Almost 6.4 million workers pay unemployment insurance in nearly 50 provinces and cities that have joined the scheme. — VNS

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Brain haemorrhage deaths up 30-35%

HCM CITY — The rate of patients dying of brain haemorrhages was between 30-35 per cent, warned Dr Nguyen Anh Tai, head of HCM City-based Cho Ray hospital's Neurology Faculty.

Cho Ray Hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in the city, received about 1,200 patients during the first six months of this year. More than 40 patients were treated at the hospital on Tuesday alone.

"People's failure to control their hypertension is the most popular cause of the disease, which makes blood vessel break and overflow into brain tissue," says Dr Tai.

The patients who survive often suffer from a loss of motor skills and physical mobility.

"The recovery rate for most patients is limited," he says.

The disease is preventable in 80 per cent of cases, but Tai said the issue receives little attention from the public.

The abuse of drugs and alcohol can prompt the disease, he says.

Brain haemorrhages can attack people of any age, but the old and males, particularly those of over 50 years old, are the most vulnerable to the disease. Male patients account for 60 per cent of the hospital's total patients.

Tai says people should take simple measures to prevent the disease, including checking their blood pressure, having regular health check-ups, maintaining a healthy diet, exercising and avoiding alcohol and drug abuse. — VNS

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Vietnam sets up wildlife crime agency

Vietnam has established a national committee for the prevention of wildlife crimes like poaching, trafficking, and captive breeding of endangered species.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, together with the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, launched Tuesday the Inter-agency Executive Committee for Vietnam Wildlife Enforcement, which has members of the Vietnam Wildlife Enforcement Network (Vietnam-WEN) on it.

Vietnam-WEN is headed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hua Duc Nhi and has a committee comprising nine members.

“Vietnam-WEN is an essential requirement, which demonstrates the government’s efforts to strengthen collaboration with other countries in the region and worldwide for more effective response to wildlife crimes,” Nhi said.

Manop Lauprasert, Senior Officer of the ASEAN-WEN Program Coordination Unit, said: “This progress demonstrates ASEAN member countries' commitment and collaboration to mutually fight the illegal wildlife trade that is robbing our region of irreplaceable flora and fauna.”

Vietnam is the sixth ASEAN member to form a national wildlife enforcement agency under the regional ASEAN-WEN after Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

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