Hanoi University of Technology and Toyota Vietnam Fund (TVF) granted 67 scholarships to outstanding students in northern Vietnam on October 24.

Since its first operations in Vietnam in 1990, the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) has made significant contributions to promoting voluntary activities in the country, benefiting both the community and individual volunteers. Marking the UN Day (October 24), Ida Munck, UNV Programme Officer granted an interview to a VOVNews reporter.

After six years of actively campaigning for the poor, VND1,700 billion has been mobilised so far to help poor people build and repair more than 418,000 houses and provide stable accommodations for nearly 2 million poor people. In addition, may poor people have been provided with means of production, capital and knowledge to escape poverty.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has asked the National Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control and relevant ministries and agencies to make better preparations to cope with other floods and storms after Typhoon Xangsane, which hit Vietnam early October.

Thirty officers from the Vietnamese Border Guard Command attended a workshop on detection of fraudulent documents and impostor recognition in the immigration process from October 16-20.

One of the effective ways to reduce infections in the community is to fight stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Vietnam-Russia Friendship Association has strongly protested against the recent ruling by the Saint Petersburg court jury in the murder case of Vietnamese student Vu Anh Tuan.

A four-storey house under construction collapsed in Tan An town, Long An province on October 20, leaving seven dead and four injured.

A special television programme on the relationship of Vietnamese and Lao women was televised live via Hanoi and Vientiane on October 20.

The Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia demanded relevant Russian agencies quickly investigate to find and severely punish the murderers of a 20 year-old Vietnamese student in Saint Petersburg.

Over the past years, the Vietnam Women Union (VWU) has devised many practical programmes of action to realise the Party resolution and the national target programme on hunger and poverty reduction. Women organisations across the country have been encouraged to actively engage in social programmes to help women escape poverty.

The European Commission (EC) is very happy that ASEM Trust Fund 2 has become an important source of technical assistance for Vietnam in restructuring State owned enterprises, banking reform and social welfare.

Vice State President Truong My Hoa on October 19 paid a visit to the Orbis Flying Hospital, which is on a two-week stopover in central Da Nang city.

Of nearly 2,000-member VOV staff including reporters, editors, technicians, musicians and artists, women account for 40 percent, having made great contributions to the development of VOV over the past years as well as in the current period.

More than 40 kinds of diseases have been detected in Vietnam over the past three decades, mostly caused by the heavily degraded environment, according to Dr Nguyen Huy Nga, head of the Preventive Medical Department.

Vietnam is fully committed to strictly protecting intellectual property rights as demanded in a regulation on database security for pharmacies, said Health Minister Tran Thi Trung Chien.

The development of the market towards low-income earners was the main topic of a workshop co-organised by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Asia Development Bank (ADB) in Hanoi on October 18.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam now has some 5-8 million people with disability including Agent Orange/dioxin victims who are in need of support.

Vietnam now has some 22 percent of households, mostly ethnic minority people classified as poor by new standards. They mainly live in mountainous provinces such as Bac Kan, Cao Bang and Lai Chau.

Thousands of teenagers and youths have been provided with basic knowledge on sex, reproductive health and physio-psychological matters under a project funded by the German Bank for Reconstruction.

There has been no outbreak of bird flu throughout the country since mid-December 2005, according to the Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

A "Month for the Poor" campaign was launched in Hanoi on October 17 to raise funds in support of the poor living in areas affected by the recent Typhoon Xangsane.

The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) will launch a week-long campaign on October 16 to inform families about nutrition, in the hope of further reducing malnutrition.

Over the past five years, the union has encouraged municipal women to overcome difficulties and challenges, to make the best of advantages and new opportunities and to boost emulation movements for successful implementation of the resolutions adopted at the Union’s 12th Congress.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the National Steering Committee on Bird Flu Prevention and Control have issued a telegram urging cities, provinces, ministries, sectors and local authorities to boost measures to prevent the disease.

Water plays an important role in social life and in maintaining the environmental sustainability. Therefore, people should have greater awareness of protecting, tapping and using water resources effectively.

The progress in providing education and vocational training and creating jobs for former drug addicts over the past years in Ho Chi Minh City have proved the rightness of the National Assembly's Resolution 16, according to the NA Social Affairs Committee.

Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) should further renew its management and programming capacity to deserve its role as a leading media agency in Vietnam, said To Huy Rua, Secretary of the Party Central Committee (PCC) and head of the PCC Commission for Culture and Ideology.

Nha Trang city of central Khanh Hoa province has welcomed as many as 9,000 tourists from cruise ships to the city in the past nine months, 3.5 times higher than in the same period last year.

Many organisations, agencies and individuals across the country and abroad have contributed billions of VND to help Typhoon Xangsane victims.