Diverse activities have been launched in response to Youth Month in March, such as building charitable houses, providing free healthcare services and organising vocational training courses for young people.

Vietnam has imported several types of vaccine, including a five-in-one inoculation that fights five diseases (meningitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and polio).

International travel agents are not allowed to organize outbound tours for Vietnamese tourists that involve visits to casinos, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has said.

A national week on occupational health and safety (OHS), and fire and explosion prevention was launched in Hanoi on March 13.

A charity walk for blood donations was organized in Ho Chi Minh City on March 13 with the participation of 5,000 students, Red Cross Society members and officials from FPT Company.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the Hanoi municipal People’s Committee held a “Consumer Rights Day” on March 13 to raise people’s awareness on the issue.

For the first time Vietnam is among the top ten nations worldwide sending students to the US with 12,823, marking a year-on-year increase of 46.2 percent in 2009, according to the Open Door 2009 annual report by Institute of International Education (IIE).

A big requiem will be held at three cemeteries in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue next week to commemorate war martyrs, according to the provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs. 

A seminar was held in the northern province of Thai Nguyen on March 13 to discuss issues related to occupational health and safety (OHS) at small-and -medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

A musical performance programme was held in Vientiane on March 12 to encourage people in Laos to vote for Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay as one of the seven new natural wonders of the world.

The Hilton Hanoi Opera hotel on March 11 granted a charity gift worth US$2,300 to KOTO, a vocational training centre for street and disadvantaged children in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on March 12 presented 30 laptops to six boarding schools for ethnic minorities.

For the past eight years, a society in the German city of Neuburg has been raising funds to help Vietnamese children affected by Agent Orange/dioxin which contaminated large areas of Vietnam during the war that raged in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The Department for Preventive health and the Environment on March 12 confirmed the first A/H5N1 patient in Hanoi in 2010.

Vietnam’s largest Khmer sanctum was inaugurated at Ghositaram Pagoda in the southern province of Bac Lieu on March 12.

The Japanese Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City has signed a sponsorship contract worth nearly US$500,000 for five projects to be conducted in several southern provinces.

The Vietnam Kovalevskaia Prize Committee held a ceremony in Hanoi on March 12 to present prizes to outstanding female scientists and to mark its 25th anniversary.

Around US$66 million (VND1,213 billion) will be invested in generating more traffic in Hanoi in the 2011-215 period.

Vietnam needs a clearer legal framework to regulate responsible journalism, and journalists need to be trained in a more professional way.

A US$85-million project administered by the Health Ministry has helped more than 81 percent of people living just above the poverty line in the Mekong delta afford social health insurance premiums.

New regulations on birth control amending the Population Ordinance issued by the Government on March 8 will permit seven cases of family circumstance to have three children as opposed to the previous quota of two.

Strengthening hydrometeorological services in Southeast Asia was the topic of a UN-sponsored seminar held in Hanoi on March 11 with a focus on five countries, including Vietnam.

Despite reaching stable growth in the number of female migrant workers, Vietnam has not yet paid due attention to their specific rights and demands, said a UN official.

The Australian Government will offer 200 scholarships to potential leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to undertake postgraduate study in Australia in 2011.

Former Vice President Nguyen Thi Binh, honourable president of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) on March 11 received VND90 million from Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Sun Guoxiang.

If the domestic labour market is fully exploited people can get a suitable job.

The US cruise ship Nautica docked at Cai Lan port on March 9 bringing over 1,000 foreign tourists to Ha Long Bay.

Radio the Voice of Vietnam’s Online Newspaper (VOVNews) has awarded prizes to winners of a Radio Blog contest in Hanoi.

The Vietnam National Institute of Ophthalmology (VNIO) marks World Glaucoma Day (March 12) through a wide range of activities, such as opening a workshop on the treatment of the disease, providing free eye examinations and eye drops to patients with glaucoma or organsing a meeting.  

“It is crucial to comprehensively implement all 8 solution packages to develop tourism in Da Lat city,” concluded more than 150 representatives at a workshop held in the central highland province Lam Dong on March 10.