Vietnam's population programmes, strategies and policies will give priority to young people in the coming future in order to increase the population's understanding about reproductive health, said Nguyen Thien Chuong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Committee for Population, Family and Children.

A crack-down on women and children smuggling at the Vietnam-China border was launched at a conference held by the Ministry of Public Security in the northern border province of Lang Son on July 7.

Two groups of Vietnamese students left Vietnam on July 8 for two international Olympiads on mathematics and physics, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

Rangers in northern border Quang Ninh province have discovered an illegal transport of live clouded leopard destined for China.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has agreed to grant more than US$3.76 million in non-refundable aid to help the National Committee on Population, Family and Children implement the second phase of the national population strategy from 2006 to 2010.

The National Committee for Population, Family and Children in co-ordination with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recently held a press briefing on the World Day against Child Labour. According to the ILO, in 2004, around 218 million children in the world were exploited in terms of their labour, of whom 125 million were forced to work in hazardous environmental conditions.

Although the foot-and-mouth disease has been basically kept under control, it still broke out on small-scattered scales in the provinces of Bac Lieu, Lai Chau and Binh Phuoc, according to the Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

A specialised technology and professional equipment fair will be held in Hanoi in September, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) announced at a press briefing on July 6.

The Embassies of Australia and the Netherlands plan to provide AUD1.12 million (over VND13.4 billion) this year to support small-scale community-based activities in Vietnam through the Australian Small Activities Scheme (ASAS).

The European Commission (EC) reserved a contingency fund worth 11,680,500 euros to cover a basic package of healthcare services for the poor in Vietnam's mountainous northern and central highlands provinces.

Vietnam will build an epidemic alarm network from the central to grassroots levels in order to discover diseases that may develop into epidemics in the community, said Dr. Nguyen Van Binh, deputy head of the Preventive Healthcare Department under the Ministry of Health.

The number of Vietnamese guest workers in the United Arab Emirates has so far reached more than 3,000, according to the Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Vietnam on July 5 imported an additional one million doses of type O vaccine against the foot-and-mouth disease, according to the Veterinary Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Vietnam Red Cross launched an action month for Agent Orange (AO) victims and poor disabled people in northern Ha Tay province on July 4.

As many as 600,000 candidates began the first phase of the tertiary entrance exams on July 4, making up 70 percent of a total of 700,219 examinees sitting for maths in the morning and physics in the afternoon.

Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park is expected to be recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a World Natural Heritage Site in September 2006, according to the Heritage Department under the Ministry of Culture and Information.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is aiming to reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS infection among Vietnamese youth through a US$20-million project.

The “Sun Flower” coffee bar in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat has become well-known to local residents in recent years as all waiters there are young people with disabilities.

More than 1.7 million candidates across the country will begin tertiary entrance exams on July 4, a year-on-year increase of 12 percent, according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

Seventy experts from various technical schools in Asia are attending a four-day international seminar on sustainable development, which opened at the campus of RMIT International University Vietnam in HCM City on July 2.

The sixth Congress of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in the UK successfully concluded on July 2 with the participation of its members, overseas Vietnamese and staff members from the Vietnamese embassy and other representative agencies in the UK.

Hanoi aims to provide and re-generate jobs for approximately 90,000 workers, reduce the urban unemployment rate to less than 5.5 percent, increase the working time of rural workers from 85-90 percent, and increase the number of trained worker from 60-65 percent.

The National Tuberculosis Control Programme in Vietnam is considered one of the most effective schemes to eliminate the disease in developing countries, said health officials at a five-day TB conference in Hanoi.

Vietnam has exerted all-out efforts to promote gender equality, asserted the President of the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) at the East Asian Ministerial Conference on Gender Equality which was opened in Tokyo, Japan, on June 30.

"Vietnam has more potential human resources than any other countries in the region," said Jonathan Pincus, senior economist of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Vietnam will launch a pilot programme on the development of a national environmental observation network with assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Zoo officials from as far as Europe and Africa will attend the 15th annual conference of the Southeast Asian Zoos Association in HCM City in September, said Nguyen Thi Hien Luong, Director of the Sai Gon Zoological and Botanical Garden.

Educational unionists from Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam gathered in Hanoi on June 28 to discuss challenges and action plans to ensure the equality of education for disadvantaged children.

Vietnam is an example of protecting children's rights in the region through its priority programmes, said Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Toshoyuki Niwa in Hanoi on June 27.

Director of the Human Development Department of the African region of the World Bank (WB) Yaw Ansu has said that Vietnam’s experience in the field of education will provide good ideas for education reforms in African countries.