Program helps rural people access Internet; People pay respect to Uncle Ho on his death anniversary; Da Nang border guards rescue knifed Philippine captain; Boat capsizes, leaving seven missing in southern Vietnam

Many postal employees, young people and students in rural and mountainous areas nationwide now know how to use the Internet. This is thanks to a program launched in 2006 by Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT) and the Vietnam Youth Union.

Under the program, they are taught how to go on the net to search for information, for instance, information about economy, society, farming, and academic subjects like mathematics, physics, history and English.

So far, as many as 2,353 cultural post offices at communes around the country have had the Internet connected for local students and residents to use for free.

The program is currently in its third phase, in which centers, called “Knowledge garden,” will be built.

The centers are about 500 square meters and have a reading room, a sports yard and an Internet room with 10 computers, one printer and webcams.

The centers will organize free computing classes.

At present, there are five such centers available on Bach Long Vi Island in Hai Phong City, and Da Nang, Hai Duong, Ninh Thuan and Gia Lai Provinces.

A further 13 will be built this year.

People pay respect to Uncle Ho on his death anniversary

Despite bad weather, thousands of people from throughout the country flocked to the hometown of late President Ho Chi Minh in Kim Lien Commune, Nam Dan District, Nghe An Province, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the death of the hero of national liberation (September 2).

The managing board of Kim Lien Historical –Cultural Site said that this is the period each year when the site welcomes the largest of number of visitors.

More than 20 million people have visited the President’s native village over the past 40 years to pay tribute to him after his death on memorial days, including his birthday May 19, death anniversary September 2 and Lunar new year (Tet) holidays.

In Hanoi, statistical reports from the Ho Chi Minh President Mausoleum Protection High Command indicated that some 31,000 visitors went to the mausoleum in the morning of September 2 to pay respect and gratitude to the prominent national leader, who was honored by UNESCO in 1990 as a national liberation hero and great man of culture.

September 2 is also National Independence Day of Vietnam.

Da Nang border guards rescue knifed Philippine captain

A Philippine captain who was stabbed by a sailor on a ship off Da Nang Wednesday has been taken to the hospital by border guards from the central city.

At 2 a.m. on Wednesday, the 55-year old captain of the Lady Barbara ship, Jai T.Jarabe, was knifed by Jose T.Pesole, also a Philippine man, while the former was sleeping, Da Nang officials said.

Not long after, other sailors on the ship, including 17 Filipinos and one South Korean man, sent emergency signals. Da Nang border guards responded and arrived at the scene promptly.

The border guards then transferred the captain to C Hospital in the city. He is now showing signs of recovery, according to officials.

The border guards and other relevant agencies are investigating the case.

Boat capsizes, leaving seven missing in southern Vietnam

A motor boat capsized on the southern region’s Dong Nai River on Wednesday afternoon, leaving seven people missing.

The accident happened at 5:30 p.m. when the boat driven by Truong Tho suddenly overturned in Dong Nai Province’s Son Ha Hamlet, according to local police.

Six people from a family who rented the boat were then on board.

As of 9 p.m. the same day, rescuers had yet to find any of the victims.

Also on Wednesday morning, four students from the central province of Ha Tinh drowned at sea, according to Nguyen Quoc Anh – head of Ky Anh District’s education division.

The victims’ bodies were pulled out of the water later the same day, he said.

Gov’t seeks improvements in education

On the occasion of the new academic year, the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Nguyen Thien Nhan, has sent a dispatch to local authorities to order them to focus on five duties to improve the quality of education.

First, he ordered each teacher and managerial staff to make an innovation in the way they are teaching and managing to put an end to learning-by-rote within two years.

The schools should run for quality instead of quantity, but should keep the rate of weak pupils and school quitters below 0.5 percent, he said.

The experience of this year’s high school final exams will be the foundation to settle policies for next year’s final exams.

Second, the schools continue to implement the emulation movement of ‘building friendly schools, producing active learners’ to improve social interest in education. The pupils should be ensured three aspects: health, dress and equipment.

Twelfth-grade pupils across the nation will also hold a ceremony to show gratitude and their maturity when they graduate.

Third, local authorities are asked to propose new tuition fees for local municipal committees and councils, which will be applied from the academic year 2010-2011.

They are also ordered to give priority in using budgets to universalize education at primary level and ensure incomes for teaching staff, as well as financial support for disadvantaged pupils.

He has also instructed local governments to develop school networks in rural areas and upgrade infrastructure and educational facilities.

Finally, he wants to raise the quality and capacity of teaching staff and deal with the shortage of teachers in some provinces.

Vietnam Air to launch Hanoi-Fukuoka service in Oct.

National carrier Vietnam Airlines said it would start direct flights between Hanoi and Fukuoka in southern Japan on October 10.

The airline said it would operate two flights per week on Tuesdays and Saturdays, using Airbus 320 craft.

When the new service is launched, the carrier will reduce the three existing weekly Ho Chi Minh City-Fukuoka flights to two, according to Vietnam Airlines spokesman Le Hoang Dung.

This is the fourth destination in Japan that Vietnam Airlines flies to, in addition to Nagoya, Tokyo and Osaka.

Fukuoka city is one of Japan’s largest cities. It is an economic and scientific center for Japan’s south-western region, home to facilities of world-renowned automakers Toyota, Nissan and Daihatsu.

Vietnam opened a Consulate General in Fukuoka in April this year.

Driver to be charged over fatal accident

Police have decided to charge a Hanoi man with reckless driving following an accident that killed three of his five male passengers.

Tao Chi Kien, 33, lost control of his vehicle as he was crossing a bridge over the Nhue River in Thuong Tin District in the early morning of August 26, the district’s police chief, Nguyen Van Phuong, said on Monday.

The car plunged into the river and drifted for 30 meters before sinking, Phuong said.

Kien and two passengers managed to escape and swim to the riverbank, but the other three were trapped inside the car and drowned. Their bodies were found when police pulled the vehicle from the river later the same day.

Chief Phuong told Tuoi Tre newspaper that, going by the evidence, Kien could not have slowed down as he went into the corner immediately before the bridge.

Truck kills woman, halts bridge traffic

A truck overturned and paralyzed traffic on a Mekong Delta bridge for three hours Tuesday morning after hitting and killing an elderly female pedestrian.

The southbound truck struck the woman on Tan Huong Bridge in Tien Giang Province when it swerved to avoid an oncoming motorbike directly in its path. She died instantly.

Police arrived shortly after to find the truck, which was transporting flowers from Ho Chi Minh City, upside down in the middle of the bridge near the border with Long An Province.

It took until 9 a.m. to get traffic back to normal.

Tien Giang Province authorities are continuing to investigate the fatal crash.

City gets help to treat water plant silt

A US agency on Wednesday agreed to help Ho Chi Minh City treat and recycle silt at water plants.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and Saigon Water Corporation or Sawaco will cooperate with each other to build a silt treatment facility for the Thu Duc District Water Plant.

USTDA and the consulting, engineering, construction, and operations firm CDM will support the project with US$626,721 and Sawaco will contribute VND873 million ($48,700) under an agreement signed Wednesday.

Sawaco will also receive a report on environmentally-friendly measures that are most cost saving and technologically effective.

PV