Vietnam has been doing its best to ensure that people involved in forestry enjoy good benefits, said a Vietnamese official an international conference on the relationship between forestry and poverty reduction, held in Ho Chi Minh City on October 3.

Experts from 22 hospitals, medical and pharmaceutical colleges and concerned agencies are attending a training course in Hanoi to learn experiences from US colleagues in clinical research.

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has expected his hope that the German Development Service (DED) will continue helping Vietnam through development programmes.

The death toll from Typhoon Xangsane, which hit central Vietnam on October 1, has risen to 30, including 26 in Da Nang city, according to the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control on October 3.

The Vietnam Learning Promotion Association marked its 10th anniversary at a ceremony in Hanoi on October 3. The organisation aims to build a learning society by 2010 to create favourable conditions for people from all walks of life to access education.

The Committee for Ethnic Minorities held a conference in Hanoi on October 3 to review the implementation of price subsidy policies in the 1998-2006 period.

The Government has decided to provide VND50 billion for central localities which were hit by Typhoon Xangsane, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said on October 2.

Over 400 delegates representing Vietnamese and Cambodian people from all walk of lives gathered in Ho Chi Minh City on October 2 for a friendship and cooperation meeting.

The Government Prime Minister has issued an instruction on enforcing the Housing Law which was approved by the eight session of the 11th National Assembly and came into effect as of July 1st , 2006.

The Steering Committee for the implementation of the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative Against Human Trafficking (COMMIT) made its debut in Hanoi on September 29.

Typhoon Xangsane has battered central provinces with heavy downpours, widespread flooding and damaging winds when it swept ashore on Sunday morning. According to the latest report, at least one person was killed, seven others were injured and 850 roofs of houses blown off in Da Nang city.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has asked provinces in the Central Highlands to immediately make storm control plans as Typhoon Xangsane is likely to affect larger areas than earlier forecast, targeting the Central Highlands region.

The German Solidaritactsdients International Organisation (SODI) will rally further support for mine clearing activities in central Quang Tri province, said Hans-Juergen Ebert, SODI Managing Director.

Several primary schools and bridges built in Vietnam's northern provinces with non-refundable aid from the Japanese Government for the 2003 and 2005 fiscal years were inaugurated on September 29.

More than 10,000 primary pupils in northern Lai Chau province will benefit from a project entitled "Education on school hygiene and nutrition".

Central coastal provinces are evacuating approximately 180,000 people from areas venerable to landslides and flash floods ahead of the arrival of powerful Typhoon Xangsane around midnight on Saturday.

Up to 50 percent of middle-aged people in cities are overweight, according to a recent survey on weight and obesity in Vietnam, conducted by the Healthcare Sector on 14,245 people aged 25 or older in 7,600 families.

The Vietnam Lawyers Association (VLA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a project in Hanoi on September 29 to strengthen the former’s capacity to play an active role in the current legal and judicial reform in Vietnam.

Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung on September 29 went to the central region to direct local preparations for storm No. 6 – internationally named Xangsane. Typhoon Xangsane brought fierce winds and rains after hitting central provinces on the night of September 28.

Vietnam-German Friendship Hospital held a ceremony on September 28 to receive a batch of medical equipment worth US$150,000 from East-West Meet.

The National Committee for Flood and Storm Control has asked its provincial chapters and relevant ministries and sectors to closely follow and brace themselves for powerful typhoon Xangsane which appeared to be moving into the East Sea on September 28.

According to a report released by ActionAid International Vietnam (AAV), many women have become slaves in marriages, household helpers and prostitutes. Despite being aware of risks caused by their emigration, they still have to run away from home to become vulnerable to human trafficking.

To solve the issues on the exhaustion and pollution of water resources in Vietnam, it is important to co-ordinate efforts of the whole community. Research institutions are asked to find appropriate scientific and technological solutions for Vietnam.

An exhibition on ten years of Vietnam-Germany scientific and technological cooperation opened in Hanoi on September 27.

A report on the trafficking of Vietnamese women and children by ActionAid International Vietnam (AAV) has laid great emphasis on the provision of on-site interventions as a major preventive measure against the crime.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh co-signed the Financing Agreement of the European Commission’s “Support to Vietnam’s Poverty Reduction and Support Strategy in the framework of 4th Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC 4).

The use of average technology is still popular in Vietnam as the proportion of hi-tech industries in the country represents only 20 percent, much lower than in Thailand (31 percent), Singapore (73 percent) and Malaysia (51 percent).

"It is necessary to put warning images on cigarette packets to protect the community's health," participants agreed at a seminar held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance in Hanoi on September 26.

Establishing guidelines to achieve a safe and healthy working environment for Vietnamese workers is the focus of an agreement signed in Hanoi on September 25.

State President Nguyen Minh Triet has urged the elderly people to continue to be a reliable mainstay for Party organisations and administrations at all levels, and a nucleus in building and developing the national great unity bloc.