China’s ban on fishing in areas of the East Sea, including several areas belonging to Viet Nam, is wrong and groundless and violates Vietnam’s sovereignty over its territorial waters, the Vietnam Fisheries Association said.

“The association objects to such an irrational ban,” said Tran Cao Muu, deputy chairman and general secretary of the association.

Under the fishing ban issued by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture in January 12, China will ban fishing in many areas in the East Sea from May 16 to August 1, 2012.

Muu said the association will make its objection to the ban known in an official document that will soon be sent to the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and other concerned agencies.

The association will also give fishermen necessary directions and instructions so that they can continue their fishing activities in Vietnam’s sea areas in a safe way, Muu said.

Earlier, on January 20, spokesperson for the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Luong Thanh Nghi asserted that the fact that China unilaterally banned fishing activities in the East Sea was an act in violation of Vietnamese sovereignty over the Hoang Sa (Paracel) islands, as well its sovereignty rights and jurisdictional rights over exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf.

With such an act, China has violated the Declaration of Conducts (DOC) and complicated the situation in the East Sea, Nghi said.

“Vietnam has indisputable rights over the Spratly (Truong Sa) and Paracel slands, and has sovereignty and jurisdictional rights over exclusive economic zones and the continental shelf under the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea,” he added.

source from: tuoitrenews

The new programme aims to protect the tigers

According to statistics from the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, there are less than 50 wild tigers scattered throughout the country’s remote forests.

With the hope of expanding their population, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) submitted a draft National Tiger Conservation Programme to the Prime Minister at the end of April.

The draft was welcomed by naturalists.

Chairman of the Viet Nam Zoological Society Professor Dang Huy Huynh said: “Wild tigers must be saved before it is too late.”

“It is absolutely imperative that we implement this programme because our wild tigers are moving closer to extinction every day,” he said.

Illegal hunting and trafficking as well as deforestation have been blamed for the threat to their survival.

“We should not let the fate of our wild tigers go the same way as the last rhino in Viet Nam,” Huynh said.

“If it happens, it will be a painful story for both scientists and managers.”

But the professor is also optimistic that Vietnam will be able to double its tiger population in the next 10 years.

He explained tigers gave birth to 1-3 cubs every 2-2.5 years with a gestation period of 104-106 days. If the cubs were well cared for, the number of wild tigers in the country would rise to 80.

Under the draft programme, at least one wild tiger conservation area is planned and potential locations include the Muong Nhe Nature Reserve and national parks in Pu Mat, Vu Quang, Chu Mom Ray and Yok Don.

Huynh suggested that two conservation areas should be set up, one located in the north and the other in the central region.

However, technology and costs should be taken into account, he said.

Policy-makers should ensure they come to a consensus with the public to achieve their targets, he said.

For example, local people in conservation areas would have to refrain from hunting tigers or destroying their habitat.

Public awareness of wild tiger conservation needed to be heightened in order to reduce domestic consumption of tiger products, he added.

Truong Van Truong, director of the Central Highland province of Dak Lak’s Yok Don National Park, said that illegal hunting and reduction of habitat were believed to be the causes of falling numbers.

An estimated 10 wild tigers currently live in the park. Truong also believed that the number would be maintained, along with other wild animals.

“If a wild tiger conservation area is built in our national park, we’d do our utmost to save the fate of our tigers,” Truong said.

Hoang Thi Thanh Nhan, deputy head of MoNRE’s Biodiversity Conservation Department, said that the programme would be funded by the State budget and other sources including official development assistance and donations from individuals and organisations.

“To build a tiger conservation area that meets international standards is expensive. That’s why we only focus on one area to begin with,” Nhan said. According to the International Tiger Coalition, it costs USD4,000-10,000 to provide a save environment for each cub to mature into an adult tiger. “If the area is a success, we plan to expand the programme,” she said.

Viet Nam, one of 13 countries that are home to wild tigers, committed to implement the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation in 2010. The Government first issued a ban on hunting wild tigers in 1963.

The wild tigers living in the provinces of Dak Lak, Dien Bien, Ha Tinh, Nghe An, Kon Tum and Quang Nam are Indochinese tigers (Panthera tigris corbetti), weighing from 180-200 kilos and 1.7-2.3 metres in length.

Statistics from the Worldwide Fund for Nature said that 97 per cent of the world’s wild tigers had been lost in just over a century, and only 3,200 remained.

source from: dtinews

Watching the launch at VNPT’ headquarters in Hanoi.

The 36-minute process of Ariane 5 and the two satellites successfully finished at 5.49am when Vinasat-2 split from the missile and moved to its position – 131.8o East on the orbit. Earlier, supported by two auxiliary missiles, Ariane 5 left the earth at 5.13am.

Within 30 seconds, two auxiliary missiles burnt more than 1,000 tons of fuel at the temperature of 3,000oC. After that, the two missiles separated from the major missile. Ariane 5 moved to the west and flew faster into the orbit.

At 5.16am, Ariane 5 went through the atmosphere and crossed the Atlantic Ocean within 20 minutes. In the western bank of Africa, JCSAT-13 split from the missile. Adriane 5 continued bringing Vinasat-2 to its position.

At 5.49am, Vinasat-2 split from the missile to its position. The launching was announced to be a success.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung congratulates VNPT on the successful launch.

Watching the launch at the headquarters of the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) in Hanoi, PM Nguyen Tan Dung confirmed that the successful launching of Vinasat-2 is a significant event that marked a great move of Vietnam’s telecom industry.

Manufactured by Lockheed Martine from the US, VINASAT 2 is outfitted with Ku band transmission beams to blanket Southeast Asia and adjacent areas. The satellite weighs approximately 3 tons and has a lifespan of 15 years. The satellite will offer direct television broadcasting, telecommunications and Internet services.

Vinasat-2 project was implemented over two years, from October 2009, at total investment of $260-280 million. Earlier, Vinasat-1 was launched in April 2009. Both projects were invested by VNPT.

The launching process in pictures:

source from: vietnamnet

However much he might blame rotten luck or fatigue for Real Madrid’s failure to get past Bayern Munich on Wednesday, it was Jose Mourinho’s caution that possibly cost the Spaniards a place in next month’s Champions League final.

They were eliminated at the last-four hurdle for a second straight season as they failed to hold on to a 2-0 lead on the night, curbed their attacking instincts more and more as the game wore on and were ultimately undone by the brilliance of Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in a nervy penalty shootout.

“The match went through many different phases after our second goal. We can’t attack all the time,” Sergio Ramos, who blasted his penalty over the bar, told reporters.

Everything went to plan in the opening 15 minutes, with Real racing ahead in the semi-final second leg at their Bernabeu stadium – where they had netted 22 goals in five previous Champions League outings this season – thanks to a double from Cristiano Ronaldo.

However, after Bayern pulled a goal back through Arjen Robben’s penalty in the 27th minute to make it 3-3 on aggregate, Real seemed to take their foot off the gas and the Germans settled into the game and began to control possession in a manner rarely witnessed at the giant arena.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, another hero of the night after netting the penalty that sent Bayern through, expertly marshalled the midfield and was ably supported by Luiz Gustavo and Toni Kroos.

Real’s defensive midfield pair of Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira huffed and puffed but were unable to exert the control that would have allowed them to get the ball forward more often to the lethal Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Angel Di Maria.

Bayern’s defenders, particularly Holger Badstuber and Jerome Boateng, played solidly and intelligently with the two centre backs occasionally striding out to join the attack and Philipp Lahm and David Alaba roving down either flank.

SHIP SAILED

Mourinho threw on playmaker Kaka for Di Maria with 15 minutes of regulation time left but his next change midway through extra time was to take off Mesut Ozil, who created Ronaldo’s second and has the most assists of any Real man this term, and replace him with defensive midfielder Esteban Granero.

Striker Gonzalo Higuain had been deployed a few minutes earlier in a straight swap for Benzema but by then there was a sense that the ship had sailed and Real had missed a chance to take the game by the throat.

“We had big problems in the first 15 minutes and then we played some excellent football for long periods,” Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes, who led Real to a Champions League title in 1998, told reporters.

Mourinho, whose failure to reach the final will be a bitter blow after Real’s arch rivals Barcelona were knocked out by former club Chelsea on Tuesday, suggested the packed calendar had helped bring about Real’s failure.

Real and Barca locked horns in the La Liga ‘Clasico’ on Saturday and Real’s 2-1 win at the Nou Camp put them seven points clear with four games left and within touching distance of a first title in four years.

“The final will be contested by the fifth-placed English team (Chelsea are actually sixth) and the second in Germany, who have been playing with their B teams while Barcelona and Real Madrid had to play the most important game of the season on Saturday,” Mourinho told a news conference.

“When I said they had to change the calendar in Italy and they did it I was pleased,” added the former Inter Milan manager, who was bidding to become the first manager to win the Champions League with three clubs.

“Here in Spain I don’t command the same respect, power or value of opinions.

“We started the most important month of the season playing midweek La Liga games and that’s why things happen like this.”

source from: tuoitrenews

Trial nude program in Guangdong park stirs debate.

Starting on February 19, the program is touted as a “celestial forest bath.” It offers tourists a stretch of trail, secured by guards in Nandan Mountain park in Foshan, to walk naked in the woods while “enjoying the smell of flowers and sounds of birds.”

So far, about 60 people, mostly young, have come to experience the nude sunbathing, according to the park.

“It’s only a trial program to encourage tourists to get closer to nature,” Han Jiucheng, deputy general manager of the park, told the Global Times. “We don’t want to challenge any social norms.”

This is not the first time a nude resort has opened in China. Although scantily clad girls and even nude “art shows” are no longer taboo, inviting citizens to gather at a public place without any clothing remains controversial.

‘Visual pollution’ 

Inspired by a tourist who told him that the fragrance of a flower common to the area had health benefits, especially when people absorb it in the nude, Han began his nude bathing plan.

The park does not charge any extra fee beyond the usual 45 yuan ($7.15) entrance fee.

Han admitted that his idea was opposed by the park’s board of directors at first, mainly because of the controversy that surrounded previous programs like this, such as nude beaches. They eventually relented.

The response from local authorities has been vague. They said the program was a marketing measure and was tolerable as long as it was not against the law.

However, the government “will not advocate such a program, and will give proper guidance to prevent it from going astray,” a press officer from the Foshan Committee of the CPC, told the Global Times.

Even though many people support the idea, seeing it as a matter of personal choice, others have criticized the plan, referring to it as “visual pollution” or “a disgrace to morality.”

Xia Xueluan, a sociologist at Peking University, said that nude swimming or bathing was “extreme behavior.”

“Nude beaches have been around for years in Western countries, but China has a different culture. It is impossible to put up with such things now,” he said.

Without any cultural background, it is easy for others to get a licentious idea about the subject, he said.

Real nudists stay low 

Li Jisheng, member of the Bainiao Swimming Association formed by many nude swimming enthusiasts in Yuxi, Yunnan Province, said that Foshan’s program may be just a way to promote the scenic spot.

“They are so eager to make the public know that, which is different from us. As real enthusiasts of nude swimming, we don’t want to expose any information about our secret swimming location, since China has not been so open to the practice,” he told the Global Times.

In 2005, about 10 keen swimmers started swimming nude in a reservoir in suburban Yuxi, and the news spread rapidly but quietly among enthusiasts.

source from: dtinews

Thuy Van and Tuan Hung (from left to right)

The couple has lived overseas for over 20 years. They sometimes returned home but they have never performed on any stage in Vietnam. They name their first show in Vietnam after their own names Thuy Van-Tuan Hung as an official introduction of themselves to local audience.

The couple will both sing and dance in the show, with guest singers like Khac Trieu, Cam Van, Quach Tuan Du, Nhat Nguyet group and the show host Thanh Bach.

The show will take place for only one night, on April 27.

Thuy Van says that they planed to organize a bigger show in the near future.

Thuy Van practiced ballet and violin at the age of seven. When she was 11, she won a gold medal in a dancing competition in Saigon, with the tango. Van and her father, famous dander Ta Riem, taught dancing at the Saigon cultural house.

The dancer left Vietnam to the US when she was 18. She has won many prizes at dancing contests in the US and other countries. She joined several music centers of overseas Vietnamese as a choreographer, fashion designer and performer. She and her husband – Tuan Hung – are dancing instructors and judges of many dance sports competitions.

Tuan Hung left Vietnam to France at the age of six. He obtained a technical and vocal music bachelor degree in France.

source from: dtinews

The competition is designed for all individuals and organizations in Vietnam.

Entries must be video clips which feature messages that encourage people not to use bear bile and products from bear.

Entries that pass the qualifier round will be posted on the website www.thiennhien.org/baovegau.

Two top video clips: one is voted by the audience and one is selected by the organizing board, will be presented with iPads.

The competition will last until July 15, 2012. The winner will be announced on July 16th.

Vietnam’s bear species are in danger of extinction due to people’s exploitation to satisfy their needs.

“People’s habit of using bear bile has put bear species at risk of extinction. To completely stop the habit, we should say no to bear bile and products made from other parts of bears,” says Tran Viet Hung, ENV’s PR Manager.

ENV has made and broadcasted many short films to call upon people not to use bear bile and products made from parts of bears.

The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Wildlife at Risk (WAR) has just published a set of bear stamps that will be available at post offices across the country.

The set includes four stamps covering two bear species in Vietnam: moon bear (Ursus thibetanus) and sun bear (Ursus malayanus). Both species are listed in the Vietnamese Red Book as endangered species.

On the occasion, WAR also published a set of six postcards called “Save our bears.”

According to the Forestry General Department, more than 4,000 bears, mostly moon bears, are being kept for bile extraction. The figure is much higher than bears found in the wild, which is estimated at only 100.

source from: dtinews

The unpredictable risks

In the eyes of many modern Vietnamese parents, sending children to foreign universities is the optimal solution to follow higher education.

Going studying abroad has become a growing tendency in Vietnam, especially after scientists voiced their criticism against the traditional education methods in Vietnam, saying that the methods have become out of date and Vietnamese students need to approach the modern western education style.

A lot of parents force their children to go studying abroad, even though the children do not want to. They hope that by studying in foreign countries, the children would become the “world’s citizens” who can live and work in all environments. The parents do not know that a lot of risks are awaiting in the “ideal environments.”

The death of a Vietnamese student at Golden West Community School recently shocked Vietnamese people. NMC, the victim, a student of the school, hanged at the inn in Westminster City.

Prior to that, on October 24, 2009, in San Jose, California, PH, a Vietnamese student was beaten with police batons for being suspected of attacking the roommate.

On July 17, 2009, the dead body of NMN, a Vietnamese student, was discovered in the wardrobe of a dorm room Queensway Singapore. N had been living in Singapore for just two months and following an English course at a school.

Ngoc Ha, a Vietnamese student in the UK, said that the students, who live far from their parents, always have to bear hard pressures. If they have bad learning records, or feeling shocks, they would not be able to find sympathy from relatives and friends like in Vietnam. Therefore, many of them try to commit suicide to end their tragedies.

Meanwhile, the living environment in foreign countries proves to be too different from Vietnam’s, while risks exist in many places. The cultural differences among the students from different countries always exist as a big barrier.

Spending money and only getting worse

Explaining why she decided to send the only daughter to a school in Australia, Thao Trang, an accountant officer of a foreign company said that she wants the girl to approach a modern education. “While other parents have to grow two or three children, I have only one child, and I want her to receive all the best things I can give her,” she said.

Trang related that she was very happy when the girl informed that she would return to Vietnam to celebrate Tet. However, Trang could not fetch the girl at the airport, because the girl decided to stay in Nha Trang sea city for several days before returning to Hanoi to meet the parents.

However, when arriving in Hanoi, the daughter refused to live together with parents at the home, when she was born and grown up, saying that she would stay in a hotel during the time in Hanoi.

Trang feels discouraged when realizing that the daughter has absolutely become a westerner: she does not like living with parents, and she does not intend to return to work in Vietnam after finishing school. Especially, the girl said she would send the parents to retirement homes when they get older. Meanwhile, in traditional Vietnamese families, grandparents, parents and children can live together in a home and take care for each other.

Le Thi Tuy, a consultant, has warned that sending children abroad should not be seen as the ideal solution to re-educate naughty children. A lot of parents now tend to send their children to foreign schools if the children fail the domestic university entrance exams. However, many of them cannot obtain a high education as their parents want. Though they spend money, but they only get worse.

source from: dtinews

Japan has deployed missile batteries in Tokyo and dispatched destroyers carrying interceptor missiles as it boosts its defences against a planned North Korean rocket launch this month.

Pyongyang says it will launch a satellite for peaceful scientific research between April 12 and 16 to mark the 100th anniversary on April 15 of the birth of founding leader Kim Il-Sung.

But the United States and its allies say it is a disguised missile test and that the launch would contravene UN sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s missile programme.

Patriot missiles were Saturday deployed at three military facilities in the greater Tokyo region and the defence ministry dispatched three Aegis destroyers carrying sea-based interceptor missiles, reportedly to the East China sea.

“With the latest step, it completes the deployment of PAC3,” said a duty officer at the defence ministry, referring to the Patriot missiles.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has given the green light to shoot down the North Korean rocket if it threatens Japan’s territory.

In 2009, Japan also ordered missile defence preparations before Pyongyang’s last long-range rocket launch which brought UN Security Council condemnation and tightened sanctions against the isolated communist state.

That rocket, which North Korea also said was aimed at putting a satellite into orbit, passed over Japanese territory without incident or any attempt to shoot it down.
source from: tuoitrenews

At least 27 people were killed in a major road accident in Haiti when a truck carrying people overturned on a highway south of Haiti’s capital, hospital officials said.

“By now, we have counted 27 dead,” Joel Charles, hospital director in the town of Petit-Goave, told AFP by phone. “Seriously injured people have passed away, and we have other people in critical condition.”

Earlier reports put the death toll at 20, while 40 were reported injured.

The accident occurred late Saturday afternoon when a truck carrying small retail traders, many of them women, tipped over on National Highway 2, near a community known as Morne Tapion.

In addition to passengers, the vehicle was overloaded with bags of food and other merchandise, a typical way to transport goods in Haiti.

A local judge who witnessed the accident said the truck was climbing a steep incline when it lost its balance and went tumbling down.

“This is a dangerous road where accidents occur frequently,” said the witness who preferred to withhold his name.

Four people were killed and a dozen injured in an accident in the same area just last week.

Seventeen people were confirmed dead at the scene on Saturday, according to Charles. Ten more succumbed to their injuries after ambulances of the Haitian Red Cross took them to hospital.

Overall about 40 people have been hospitalized, many with serious injuries, the doctor said.

“Some of the injuries are critical, a lot of head trauma and broken bones. We need surgeons, other medical specialists and ambulances” Charles said. “The victims need to be transported to hospitals in Port-au-Prince.”

Petit-Goave has only one modest hospital. But the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, which has been operating in the region since the 2010 earthquake, helped local authorities to evacuate many of the injured to other medical facilities.

“The city’s capacities are overwhelmed by this accident, and we need medical staff,” a local radio reporter pleaded on air.

The impoverished Caribbean nation’s infrastructure is in generally disastrous shape after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, which killed some 250,000 people, and left roads and buildings in and around the capital in ruins.

Over half a million Haitians still live in camps for the displaced, where they are threatened by flooding at the start of a rainy season that has already ravaged streets and roads.

In January, at least 26 people were killed and 56 injured in a massive pile-up along a road on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

That accident took place on a road connecting the capital city with the nearby town of Delmas.

Officials said about 10 cars, including some taxi cabs, were completely destroyed in the accident.

source from: tuoitrenews