The film entitled “Hoang Sa Vietnam: Noi dau mat mat” (Vietnam’s Hoang Sa: Pain and Loss) reflected the life of fishermen in the coastal district of Binh Son and the island district of Ly Son, the central province of Quang Ngai. Despite difficulties, fishermen go fishing, affirming sovereignty over the sea and islands.

Images of widows and orphans whose husbands and fathers died during voyages for earning their living and for the Fatherland’s sacred territorial touched the heart of the audiences.

Menras told correspondents that he has visited Vietnam for many times to meet local people and authorities to better his understanding of the nature and the live of fishermen in the central region.

He said he will continue to screen the films and raise fund for needy fishermen in Vietnam.

Earlier, the film was presented in other French cities such as Toulouse and Beziers and some European countries like Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.

source from: dtinews

An 11-year old girl is believed to have set fire to her house, located on Bach Dang Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh District, last Saturday as her body had previously generated high heat and burned several items in the house. 

At 9am, a blaze suddenly broke out from the second floor of a three-storey house owned by H. It started from the lamp near a bed and then spread to the mattress and closet. According to H.’s relatives, before the fire was discovered, H.’s daughter, 11-year old T., came to take some clothes from the bedroom.

A month ago, T. broke out in rash and was diagnosed with Atopic dermatitis by doctors at the city’s Dermatology Hospital. She was prescribed to take some medicine but her condition did not improve. T. also said she had a sore throat at that time.

According to H., at first, some house furniture like plugs, electrical wires, and clothes suddenly melted as if they were placed next to a hot item. T.’s family called up an electrician to fix wires in the house, which were thought to be the cause, but several items were still burned after that.

When H. took T. to a relative’s house to check if her daughter was the cause of the blazes, they found objects burned as soon as the girl passed by. The fires break out at any time of the day and are often unpredicted.

A fan in the house was partially burned (Source: SGTT)

H. later took T. to the city’s Hospital of Pediatrics 1 to take blood tests and electroencephalography, but no abnormalities were found. They later went to the Hong Bang international hospital where T underwent a radionics check by Du Quang Chau, an expert in this field and also the hospital’s director.

T. was told to take up a new diet lower in glucose and protein to reduce her internal energy, however, items in the house still burned. Meanwhile, her skin disease was cured even though she only took medicine for a week.

The disease can be cured by practice

Last Sunday, Dr Du Quang Chau confirmed with Tuoi Tre that he had received the case of this 11-year old. Specialists were sent by the center to T.’s house to measure the magnetic power but there were no abnormalities. They also found that plugs and switchboards in the house burned due to electrical discharges on the surface, while the internal wires remained unburned. The center also did a Resonant Field Imaging (RFI) test for T. and some problems were detected in the right hemisphere of her brain.

Dr Chau said the right hemisphere develops greatly in people who have great creativity and imagination like artists, poets or painters. In T.’s case, some issues in the right brain are probably the cause of the high heat, which sets fire to items which she stands near.

After Dr Chau gave T. a black quartz bracelet to reduce her ‘power’, things in the house stopped burning but T. showed signs of exhaustion and experienced light convulsions. T. was then instructed to come to the center for some training which helps balance her sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system. If practiced frequently, there is a possibility that T. will become normal again.

The burned ceiling in a recent blaze thought to set by T. (

source from: tuoitrenews

18 year-old Yeo Phuc Anh, a 12th grader at Ho Chi Minh City’s British International School, has been wandering around the streets of the city’s downtown, trying to sell plastic wristbands to raise funds for her own project.

It all began in 2010 when Anh witnessed a friend in pain as her legs became disabled after a serious accident. That summer, Anh and another friend decided to found HeartSays, a charity project that raises funds for the disabled, orphans and the needy elderly.

Every weekend Anh and some friends wander around the backpackers’ area in District 1 to introduce their project and try to sell as many wristbands as possible.

“Anh is a model of a young generation who performs well in academic fields and shows sympathy to other people,” said Truong Pham Hoai Chung, a teacher at the Yola institute, where Anh took a SAT course.

Currently 15 members, including local and international youth, have raised hundreds of millions of dong for the HeartSays fund. They have donated 70 wheelchairs to a hospital in District 8, visited and given presents to an old people’s house, an orphanage and the Oncology Hospital.

“I joined Heartsays in 2011 when I learned that there are still many people who are dealing with a difficult life,” said Kim Uyen, a twelfth grader at Ernst Thalmann high school.

Besides managing her own charity program, Anh has also gotten involved in international youth conferences. Anh has been chosen by her school to attend several seminars held in Vietnam and Korea over the last few years. Last summer Anh was one of 60 delegates to join the Yale/Stanford Johnson & Johnson Global Health Scholars Program, which discusses issues on world economics, culture and society at Yale University (US).

Anh has recently been accepted into the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell University, both of which belong to the Ivy League in the US. Anh was the only Vietnamese student who was chosen for the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, which is limited to 40 outstanding students each year.

“I hope to learn about healthcare management in developed countries to apply in Vietnam,” said the 18-year old who is fluent in both English and French.

source from: tuoitrenews

They are historian David W. Blight, volcanologist Katherine V. Cashman, director Clint Eastwood, musician Sir Paul McCartney, playwright Neil Simon and mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, chemist James Fraser Stoddart, biological engineer Angela M. Belcher, astrologer Debra Fischer A and electrical engineer Robert P. Cowell.

Other members include sustainability expert Kamaljit Singh Bawa, former Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, Jr., veteran diplomat R. Nicholas Burns, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, television journalist Judy Woodruff and Boston Globe editor Martin Baron.

They are all winners of the National Medal of Science, the Lasker Award, the Pulitzer and the Shaw prizes, the Fields Medal, MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, the Kennedy Center Honors, Grammy, Emmy, Academy, and Tony awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Election to the Academy is both an honor for extraordinary accomplishment and a call to serve,” said Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz. “We look forward to drawing on the knowledge and expertise of these distinguished men and women to advance solutions to the pressing policy challenges of the day.”

The new academicians will be inducted at a ceremony on October 6, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

As the US’s most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy is a leading center for independent policy research. Members contribute to Academy publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education.

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Prof. Chau is the first Vietnamese mathematician who has received the Fields Medal for his project to prove the fundamental lemma for automorphic forms as proposed by Robert Langlands.

Born in Hanoi in 1972, Chau participated in the 29th and 30th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) and became the first Vietnamese student to win two IMO gold medals.

source from: dtinews

National Assembly deputy Dang Thi Hoang Yen of Long An Province, whose eligibility for office is under scrutiny due to false declarations in her record, has unlawfully organized a press conference in her hometown, local authorities reported.

The deputy, who is also chairwoman of the Tan Tao Group, Tan Duc Investment and Industry Joint Stock Company, and Tan Tao University, held the conference at the university on April 21, with the attendance of a number of mass media agencies, said the provincial Department of Information and Communications.

Yen held the press conference to provide the media with information and explanation related to her personal details.

The department is collecting more information on the illegal organization of the event and will give Yen an administrative penalty for her offense, said Le Van Bich, director of the department.

Under current regulations, the organizer of such an event must send a notice to the department so that the agency can consider whether the event is legal or not, Bich explained.

Meanwhile, Yen did not inform the department about the press conference and the agency only learned of it when it was reported by media outlets, Bich said.

As reported earlier, the 53-year-old deputy submitted an incorrect CV to concerned agencies when she was a candidate for the NA election in May 2011.

As stated in her profile, Yen is a candidate from outside the Communist Party of Vietnam, since she left blank the area in the form for “the date of admission to the Party, if any”, while many sources confirmed that she was actually a Party member in the past.

She also declared in her CV that her husband was Nguyen Tri Hai, who died in 1989, and did not mention her current husband, Jimmy Tran, from whom she sought a divorce at the provincial People’s Court in July 2010, but she recently withdrew the petition after the court’s verdict on the divorce case was cancelled by the Supreme People’s Court.

Tran left Vietnam for the US on July 5, 2010, and on September 16, the Ministry of Public Security prosecuted him for “abusing trust to appropriate assets” when he was general director of the Vietnam Urban Development Joint Stock Company (Vietnam Land), located in the Tan Duc Industrial Park in Long An.

source from: tuoitrenews

Twenty people who attacked law enforcement officers in a forced land withdrawal in Hung Yen Province have been detained, local authorities reported.

They were arrested yesterday in Van Giang District after using stones and bottles of petrol to attack the local police force, which helped keep order in the forced removal by local authorities to withdraw 5.8 hectares of land from 166 households, said Bui Huy Thanh, chief of the Secretariat of the provincial People’s Committee.

Thanh said that the police are investigating those who had organized the resistance against law enforcement officers.

He also said that no policemen or residents were injured in the attack.

The 166 households, which are among the 1,720 households to be affected by the project to build the Van Giang Commercial and Service Urban Area, were forced to withdraw from their land since they had not agreed to hand over their land to the investor, although the project was approved by the Prime Minister in 2004, Thanh explained.

The families did not agree to accept the rate of compensation of VND48 million (US$2,300) per hectare, since they considered the sum too low.

Meanwhile, 1,554 other households have received compensation and given up their land, making up a total of 132.45 hectares, to the investor, Viet Hung Urban Investment and Development Company, Thanh added.

According to Thanh the VND48 million compensation rate is the highest to ever be applied in the province.

In addition, the investor has paid VND35,000 per square meters as a tip for those households who handed their land over to the project quickly, he said.

On the day of the attack, many local residents lingered in the area where their land had been withdrawn until the late evening.

Talking with Tuoi Tre, Dang Van Du, a farmer who had his land reclaimed yesterday, said, “My family was allocated 0.25 hectares of farming land. We have grown decorative plants on the land at a cost of VND120-130 million ($6,250). Now the land has been leveled.”

“We do not agree with the rate of compensation.”

Meanwhile, Thanh said, “The Government’s Inspectorate has worked with the district authorities for three months over the withdrawal of land for the project. The reason those families did not agree to hand their land over to the project was not because of the low compensation rate but because they proposed that the project not be implemented there, but such a proposal is not acceptable.”

source from: tuoitrenews

 

Image for illustration only. (Photo: Internet)

According to the new adjustment, tourist, business, transit, crew member, student, exchange visitor, and journalist visas, which used to cost US$140, will now cost $160; petition-based visas (H, L, O, P, Q, and R), which used to cost $150, will now cost $190.

Border crossing cards for people age 15 and older will cost $160 compared to the current $140, and those for people under age 15 will cost $15 instead of the present $14.

The US Embassy noted that though categories of nonimmigrant visa processing fees will increase, the fee for E visas (treaty-traders and treaty-investors) and K visas (for fiancé(e)s of US citizens) will decrease. Specifically, E and K visas will now cost $270 and $240 respectively, instead of their previous costs of $390 and $350.

It also added that because of the relocation costs associated with immigrant visas, all categories of immigrant visa processing fees will decrease.

Immediate relative and family preference applications, which cost $330 previously, will cost $230. The new fee for the Diversity Visa Program (also known as the Visa Lottery) will be reduced from $440 to $330 per person.

For employment-based applications, the new fee will drop from $720 to $405; and for other immigrant visa applications, the new fee will be $220, compared to the current $305.

Also, the fee on determining returning resident status will be reduced from the current $380 to $275.

Fee information may also be found on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website, travel.state.gov or the website of the U.S. Consulate General Ho Chi Minh City at http://hochiminh.usconsulate.gov.

source from: vietnamnet

source from: vietnamnet

The “Sound Fest 2012” music festival has just announced two more foreign artists who will be take part in the concert t be held on April 14 in Ho Chi Minh City.

British singer Taio Cruz and Top 7 American Idol 2003 Kimberly Caldwell are the names that will join well-knownSouth Korean pop band Big Bang, talented Thai singer Tata Young and a number of local singers in the list of performers at the 10-hour music festival held by Coca Cola in collaboration with Samsung.

Born in 1983, singer-songwriter Taio Cruz is known in Vietnam for his hits including “Higher,” “Break Your Heart” and “Dynamite.” In 2008, he released his debut album “Departure”, which he wrote, arranged and produced himself. Cruz has worked with a number of renowned singers like Ke$ha, Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoy.

Last year, he wrote and recorded the song “Telling the World” as the lead single from the soundtrack to the famous 3D animated movie “Rio.”

American singer, actress, and television hostess Kimberly Ann Caldwell was born in 1982. In 2003, she competed in American Idol and placed seventh in the final rounds. Last April, she released her debut album titled “Without Regret.”

Tickets for “Sound Fest 2012” have been officially released at prices ranging from VND500,000 (US$25) to VND2.2million (US$110).

Under the organizer’s plan, the festival will open with cuisine, cosplay and games booths from 2pm to 6:30pm.

Local artists including Buc Tuong, Unlimited, rock band Microwave, Ha Okio, Thao Trang, Tien Dat, Thanh Bui, Suboi, Van Mai Huong, Phuong Vy and Pham Anh Khoa will perform at the event from 2pm, and then the foreign singers will join in at 7 pm to rock the air with a big concert.

“Sound Fest 2012” will take place at Phu Tho Outdoor Stadium at 1 Lu Gia Street in District 11.

Singer – Songwriter Taio Cruz

source from: tuoitrenews

Authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia have abruptly cancelled a show by a Singapore ballet troupe amid concern that their costumes would be too revealing, a dance group said Thursday.

Bilqis Hijjas, president of Malaysian arts group MyDance Alliance, said performers from the Singapore Dance Theatre were denied visas for the performance scheduled for this weekend due to the “indecency of their costumes.”

Officials with the Information Ministry and a Malaysian government agency that handles performances by foreign artists could not immediately be reached for comment.

But Janek Schergen, artistic director of Singapore Dance Theatre, told AFP he did not know why the performance was cancelled.

“There has been some speculation about the reasons for the cancellation but I really don’t know why (approval) was not given… There can’t be any issue of costume or content because the performance is perfectly respectable,” he said.

Malaysian Islamic groups frequently oppose performances by Western artists whom they accuse of promoting promiscuity and corrupting youths.

In February, authorities banned a concert by American singer Erykah Badu after a photo of her with body art including the Arabic word for “Allah” was published in a Malaysian newspaper.

The Singapore dance group was scheduled to perform a selection of classical ballet works including “The Nutcracker.”

All of the costumes for women included long skirts except for “The Nutcracker”, which was to be performed in ballet’s traditional short tutu and tights, Bilqis said.

Bilqis, whose group promotes dance, called the move “deplorable” and warned it would make Malaysia appear an unreliable host for cultural performances, scaring off foreign arts investors.

She also took authorities to task for inconsistency, noting that ballet performances in tights have been approved many times before, including earlier this year.

source from: tuoitrenews