18 injured when coach overturns

HA TINH — Eighteen people, including one child, were injured when a coach overturned yesterday in Ky Anh District in central Ha Tinh Province.

The driver has been blamed for losing control of the vehicle. An investigation is ongoing.

Barge destroys 10 houses in An Giang

AN GIANG — Ten houses were destroyed when an 80m long barge sideswiped a bank on the Hau River in Long Xuyen City, southern An Giang Province, on Tuesday.

Residents were unhurt as they were able to flee the out-of-control barge in time. The driver of the barge said he lost control.

Two charged with stabbing man

HAI PHONG — Police on Tuesday charged two men for intentionally causing injuries to Hoang Van Khanh, head of the Hai Phong-based Placo Group.

The accused are Ta Dang Hung, 35, and Hoang Ngoc Son, 36, of Le Chan District.

A fight allegedly broke out when Hung, Son and two others went to the company to recover a VND280 million (US$14,300) debt from Khanh's sister.

Khanh was taken to the Viet Nam- Czech Republic Friendship Hospital.

Doctors save man with 86% burns

HCM CITY — It took three months of treatment for doctors at HCM City's Cho Ray Hospital to save the life of man admitted with burns over 86 per cent of his body.

Huynh Van Di, 39, of central Khanh Hoa Province was the first patient the hospital had saved after suffering from such serious burns.

Woman on charge of smuggling waste

HCM CITY — Police on Tuesday charged Phu Thi Thu Nguyet, director of the Kim Thu Binh Commercial Import Export Co Ltd in Dong Nai Province, for smuggling plastic waste.

In March, environment police found 140 tonnes of plastic waste packed in containers in a warehouse at the Vinh Loc Industrial Park in Binh Tan District.

Police said that in January, the Kim Vien Dong Plastic Joint-Stock Company in Binh Thanh District entrusted Nguyet's company to import the waste from Australia-based Auspac Trading Company.

Police said they are investigating the involvement of customs officials in the case. — VNS

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Male smoking reaches alarming rate

With almost half (47.4 percent) of adult men smoking or getting involved in other uses of tobacco, Vietnam has been put into the group of countries with extremely high smoking rates among men.

The risk of secondhand smoking is also high with 67.6 percent of the adults exposed to the risk at home and 49.0 percent at the workplace.

The highest rate of secondhand smoking was found at cafes, wine and tea shops (92.6 percent), followed by restaurants (84.9 percent) and universities (54.5 percent).

The figures were released at a workshop in Hanoi on October 27 where the Ministry of Health released the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) result related to Vietnam.

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen said tobacco is the cause of 25 potentially fatal diseases.

She quoted the World Health Organization (WHO) as estimating that unless Vietnam takes prompt measures to control the trend, up to 10 percent of national deaths will be of tobacco-related diseases in 2020.

Under the GATS survey conducted by WHO in 2010, in addition to male smoking, 1.4 percent of Vietnamese women smoke.

Up to 81.8 percent of smokers in Vietnam smoke daily and 26.9 percent use traditional tobacco pipes.

The ages for beginners average 19.8 years for men, 23.6 for women and 19.9 in general.

Of the 9,925 respondents aged 15 years old and upwards, 29.3 percent of smokers said they had quit the habit while 67.5 percent of current smokers said they are thinking of quitting smoking one day in the future.

As many as 71.3 percent of respondents indicate support for the policy on tax increases for cigarettes.

Mass media warnings on the risks caused by tobacco have caught public attention, according to 91.6 percent of respondents.

Vietnam has been advised to strictly prohibit smoking in public places and increase taxes on cigarettes. Bans on relevant advertisements, trade promotions and any kinds of financial support by tobacco companies should also be tightened.

The country has also been urged to intensify investment in detoxification services for smokers.

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Court sentences cemetery disorder culprits

The people’s court of Cam Le district in the central city of Da Nang sentenced Nguyen Huu Minh, who masterminded the public disturbance at the Con Dau cemetery, to 12 months in jail at a trial on Oct. 26.

Minh was charged with “causing public disorder” and “resisting on-duty officials”.

The court also gave a nine-month imprisonment term to Phan Thi Nhan, a 12-month suspension to Nguyen Huu Liem, and a nine-month suspension term each to Doan Cang, Nguyen Thi The, Le Thanh Lam and Tran Thanh Viet, on the same charges.

The defendants, with those having suspension terms released immediately after the trial closed, reside in Hoa Xuan ward in Cam Le district and Hoa Nhon commune in Hoa Van district.

According to the Cam Le District people’s procuracy, the defendants were involved in the public disturbance relating to the relocation of the Con Dau cemetery in Hoa Xuan ward for an eco-urban area development scheme.

Due to the Con Dau cemetery’s relocation, on March 19, 2010, the Cam Le district people’s committee announced a halt to funerals at the cemetery and removal of existing tombs to Hoa Son cemetery in Hoa Vang district in line with the Da Nang people’s committee’s regulations.

Enforcing the Cam Le district people’s committee’s announcement, the Hoa Xuan ward people’s committee issued an announcement on the cessation of burial services at the Con Dau cemetery from March 29, 2010.

In connection with the case, the seven defendants mentioned above had taken advantage of Dang Thi Tan’s funeral and incited a number of extremist elements, especially the deceased woman’s family, not to follow the Cam Le district people’s committee’s guidance and intentionally burry Tan’s body in the Con Dau cemetery.

The acts by these defendants and extremist elements caused public disorder and fights against the police in Con Dau hamlet, Hoa Xuan ward, Cam Le district, during the deceased woman’s funeral on May 4 and triggered serious security and social order consequences.

At the court, all defendants admitted their wrongdoings and showed repentance and the desire to redeem their faults./.

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Distance education conference opens in Hanoi

The 24 th Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) annual conference opened in Hanoi for the first time, on October 27.

Attending the event were Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga, representatives of 70 distance education universities from 45 AAOU member countries and territories, international organisations in Asia and members of the AAOU across the world.

At the ceremony, Deputy PM Nguyen Thien Nhan spoke highly of the AAOU’s role in offering study opportunities for the people. He affirmed that open and distance education contributed to building a lifelong study-oriented society for everyone and had become an integral part of the national education system.

With the theme “Open distance learning towards building sustainable global learning communities”, the event will focus on ideology and philosophy, partnership and communication, methodology and technology, sustainability, access, equity and quality, opportunities and challenges.

About 200 reports from experts discussed the building of a sustainable study community and its challenges, cooperation among colleges and universities in sharing materials and e-learning equipment, and government subsidies for distance education.

The event will last till October 28./.

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Male smoking reaches alarming rate

With almost half (47.4 percent) of adult men smoking or getting involved in other uses of tobacco, Vietnam has been put into the group of countries with extremely high smoking rates among men.

The risk of secondhand smoking is also high with 67.6 percent of the adults exposed to the risk at home and 49.0 percent at the workplace.

The highest rate of secondhand smoking was found at cafes, wine and tea shops (92.6 percent), followed by restaurants (84.9 percent) and universities (54.5 percent).

The figures were released at a workshop in Hanoi on October 27 where the Ministry of Health released the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) result related to Vietnam .

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thi Xuyen said tobacco is the cause of 25 potentially fatal diseases.

She quoted the World Health Organisation (WHO) as estimating that unless Vietnam takes prompt measures to control the trend, up to 10 percent of national deaths will be of tobacco-related diseases in 2020.

Under the GATS survey conducted by WHO in 2010, in addition to male smoking, 1.4 percent of Vietnamese women smoke.

Up to 81.8 percent of smokers in Vietnam smoke daily and 26.9 percent use traditional tobacco pipes.

The ages for beginners average 19.8 years for men, 23.6 for women and 19.9 in general.

Of the 9,925 respondents aged 15 years old and upwards, 29.3 percent of smokers said they had quit the habit while 67.5 percent of current smokers said they are thinking of quitting smoking one day in the future.

As many as 71.3 percent of respondents indicate support for the policy on tax increases for cigarettes.

Mass media warnings on the risks caused by tobacco have caught public attention, according to 91.6 percent of respondents.

Vietnam has been advised to strictly prohibit smoking in public places and increase taxes on cigarettes. Bans on relevant advertisements, trade promotions and any kinds of financial support by tobacco companies should also be tightened.

The country has also been urged to intensify investment in detoxification services for smokers./.

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Administrative reforms boost HCM City's growth rate

Administration reforms have significantly contributed to the city's socio-economic development over the last decade, HCM City officials said at a conference on Oct. 26.

The conference aimed to review progress made in the reform process over the last 10 years and set out orientations and tasks for the next ten years.

"Administrative reforms that have been taking place in the city has contributed partly to the sharp GDP growth in recent years," said Nguyen Thanh Tai, deputy head of the HCM City People's Committee.

As many as 4,712 documents have been checked and 2,566 considered obsolete have been removed, said Dang Cong Luan, a municipal administrator. As of now, 17 of 24 districts have finished cancelling 2,940 of 8,488 documents issued at the district level, he added.

Luan said during the period under review, about 1,762 administrative procedures were streamlined, accounting for more than 72 percent which was about 30 percent higher than the set target.

All departments and districts have efficiently implemented the one-stop shop policy, to facilitate the work of citizens as well as enterprises, he said.

The conference also focused on modernising the city's administrative apparatus. In the coming decade, the city will increasingly apply information technology in its administrative management processes, and building up e-government while effecting significant cuts in red tape, officials said.

It was disclosed at the conference that during the 2001-10 period, the city sent 195,071 officials to attend in-country training courses in administrative management. Another 2,479 officials were sent abroad to hone their administrative skills in short-term courses, while 716 others were sent to pursue Masters and Docterage programmes in foreign universities./.

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Colleges lack quality facilities

Infrastructure and learning facilities at many of the country's public universities and colleges have been discovered to be severely low in quality in a recent nationwide survey.

The Ministry of Education and Training's survey, which was carried out for the first time at 196 educational establishments, revealed that only one library seat is available for every 21 students at public universities and colleges in Vietnam, and many public higher education institutions to not even have a library to facilitate studies, the survey released on Oct. 25 reported.

It also revealed that 24 lacked a library altogether and 119 did not provide their students access to e-libraries.

Additionally, the quality of e-libraries was revealed to be inadequate and ineffective. Only 16.9 percent of the e-libraries were connected with other libraries and as many as 175 students had to share a computer.

The survey found that a shortage of land area, and inadequate training facilities and functional areas for educational pursuits were common.

On average, area available per student was about 35.7sq.m, far from the current standards of 55 to 85sq.m.

Students only had about 3.6sq.m of study area available, less than half of the national standard and three times lower than that in developed countries.

On average, total land area of each university and college was reported to be under 10 hectares. Only 20 percent of the 850,000 students in these educational establishments were able to stay in dormitories because there is simply not enough room.

Only 15.5 percent of laboratories met research and study requirements for teachers and students. Nearly 50 percent were reported to be outdated while only 1.4 percent met the same quality standards as international schools.

Tran Thanh Binh, director of the Institute for Research and Design of Schools, said the growing student population and the rapid increase in the number of educational establishments were the main reasons for the limited land funds.

For example, the number of students has increased by 135 percent in the past five years while the land fund has remained unchanged.

Binh said most existing universities were established on sites of less than 10 hectares and 15 universities hovered just below or just above one hectare. This has led to a substandard educational environment at these universities.

Le Hong Can, vice rector of Hong Duc Private University in central Thanh Hoa province said there should be a policy to prioritise the construction of university facilities.

Vice head of the Ministry of Finance's State Budget Department Nguyen Truong Giang said the schools should mobilise investment sources from businesses or the community to develop infrastructure.

Giang said one-fifth of the State budget was spent on the educational sector, with 10 percent of that going to higher education.

That percentage is expected to increase to 12 to 14 percent in the upcoming years, he said.

Giang said the schools should be re-classified according to national standards and that low-quality institutions should be merged together to avoid ineffective and scattered investment./.

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