Social News 14/6 Contaminated fish sample sent for retesting   The Ministry of Health’s Department of Food Safety and Hygiene has urged the provincial authority to quickly send samples of frozen mackerel scads to Hà Nội City for further testing. The requirement was made after the provincial authority tested samples of six fish species at a local seafood shop, including three batches of scads, and found that one batch of scads was contaminated with phenol, a harmful substance banned in food production. The phenol content was 0.037mg per kg. The provincial authority has ordered the owner of the shop to destroy 30 tonnes of scads. The products were reportedly bought after fish in the central region died en mass. Nguyễn Thanh Phong, director of the ministry’s food safety and hygiene department, said the department has asked the authority in central Quảng Trị Province to send samples of the contaminated fish and the process for testing of the fish species to the department. After getting results from a test centre in Huế City, Phong said the provincial authority concluded that the fish tested positive for phenol. He said to make a conclusion on the quantity of phenol in the fish, the tests had to be several times to get an accurate result. The department would announce the test results to the public right after they were completed, he added. The ministry will conduct regular tests on seafood to ensure it contains no harmful substances. Phenols are widely used in household products and as intermediates for industrial synthesis. the substance may have a harmful effect on the central nervous system, heart, liver and kidney, resulting in dysrhythmia, seizures and coma. New Ghenh Bridge to open to traffic from June 26 The new Ghenh Bridge across the Dong Nai River in the southern province of Dong Nai will open to traffic at midnight on June 26, said Do Quang Van, branch director of Saigon Railway Transport Company, on June 13. The new bridge is built to replace the old one which collapsed at noon on March 20 after a barge crashed into its pillar, causing disruption to north-south train services. All trains from Saigon Station in Ho Chi Minh City will depart one hour later than the departure time on tickets between June 26 and 30 as no bus transfer is required, Van added. The old Ghenh Bridge was built more than 100 years ago and used by both trains and vehicles. The construction of the new bridge began on April 1 at an estimated cost of 13 million USD. Reports by Vietnam Railways (VNR) Corporation show that the accident greatly affected its performance during the first five months of 2016. More than 448,000 tonnes of goods were transported by train during the period, roughly equivalent to 72.6 percent of last year’s figure, while the corporation served 781,600 passengers, a decline of 17.4 percent year on year. Its revenue also plunged 34 percent compared to the same period last year to 260.3 billion VND (11.66 million USD). Communes face difficulties in environment during rural building Only 42.4 percent of communes nationwide fulfilled the criterion on environment in the new-style rural area building during 2011-2015, according to the Central Steering Committee for the National Target Programme on New-style Rural Areas. According to the Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA), almost all production and business facilities, especially those at small and household scales in rural areas have yet to strictly follow regulations on environmental protection. Several trade villages have not implemented measures to gather and handle waste or completed procedures on the environment. Many localities do not pay attention to investment in infrastructure to treat waste water from daily and production activities. To complete the criterion, the VEA suggested providing specific guidance on the environment-related criterion for communes and districts, and keeping a close watch on the implantation of this criterion by state management offices on environment in localities. It is also necessary to intensify inspections on the environment in communes and districts which were recognised as new-style rural areas in order to maintain the achieved results. The national target programme on new-style rural areas was initiated by the Government in 2010, which sets 19 criteria on building infrastructure, improving production capacity, constructing public works, protecting the landscape and environment, and promoting local traditions and cultural identities, among others. As of March 2016, 1,761 communes or 19.7 percent of all communes across Vietnam had obtained the new-style rural area status. World Vision donates water to drought victims Some 5,000 children and adults in Bắc Bình and Hàm Thuận Bắc districts, afflicted by the severe drought in Bình Thuận Province, will receive support from World Vision. The organisation will address the urgent water, sanitation and hygiene needs in these areas. The relief package worth US$150,000, entrusted to World Vision by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will be distributed from June until the end of July 2016, offering 20,000 bottles of drinking water and 1,250 plastic water tanks to the needy. Each family will receive sixteen 20l  bottles, estimated to be a 40-day supply, and one 1,000-litre water tank. “Our immediate aim is to contribute to containing the diseases arising from the lack of adequate water supply for human use,” Lê Văn Dương, World Vision’s National Coordinator of Humanitarian & Emergency Affairs in Việt Nam, said. “We’re seeking additional funding opportunities to leverage our support for people in need of food aid, hygienic water supply facilities and early economic recovery in the Bình Thuận and Đắk Nông provinces,” Dương said. Previously, World Vision was part of the initial response, using its own resources of $80,000, assisting more than 5,000 residents in the Hàm Thuận Bắc and Bắc Bình districts since early June 2016. From mid-June until July, World Vision will also provide food aid and domestic water supplies to nearly 2,000 people who have faced crop failures in Bắc Bình District. The prolonged drought and saline intrusion as a consequence of El Nino in the Mekong Delta, South Central Coastal and Central Highland regions has led to serious groundwater depletion in water-scarce districts. Some two million people are suffering an acute water shortage, including over 1 million women and 520,000 children, according to World Vision. Water pipeline rupture hits 50,000 households in Tiền Giang The clean water supply for about 50,000 households in three districts of Tiền Giang Province was suspended after a pipeline connecting the areas to the Bình Đức Water Plant failed. The water system ruptured at the section running through Châu Thành District’s Bình Đức Commune at around 7.30 am this morning. Thousands of cubic metres of water was seen spreading on to the road surface, cutting the water supply for 50,000 households in Gò Công Tây, Gò Công Đông districts and Gò Công Township. The water pipeline suffered problems previously on May 17, forcing the aforementioned households to live without water for hours. Huỳnh Công Dũng, director of Tiền Giang Water Supply One Member Co, Ltd. said that the exact position of the broken pipeline remained unknown until workers excavated the area. The initial reason for the rupture, according to him, was a shortage in the connection between two pieces of steel and plastic used to make the pipeline. The weight of vehicle traffic on the road caused an overload of pressure and contributed to the breakage. Dũng said the company had mobilised workers to fix the water pipeline. As per the planned repairs, it would take two days to resume water supply to the affected households. The company would operate local water stations and mobilise trucks carrying water for residents in the interim, he said. 300kg of smuggled fireworks detected on North-South train Đồng Nai Police’s Economic Crime Investigation Department discovered 300kg of smuggled Chinese fireworks while inspecting packages being transported from Hà Nội Station to Hố Nai Station in this southern province. The fireworks were hidden under scraps of fabric and packages of herbal medicine, police said. The police have identified the expected recipient as a man named Tâm, who lives in Bạc Liêu Province. Tâm told the police he had been asked by a trader from Hà Nội to accept the goods and deliver them to another trader in HCM City. Police seized all the smuggled fireworks and worked with Tâm to identify the owner of the goods. Last Thursday, police in Đồng Nai Province found seven carriages on the Hà Nội-Hố Nai Station route transporting smuggled goods without invoices. All the goods were hidden in hundreds of parcels weighing a total of 70 tonnes, worth many billions of đồng. Police are continuing to investigate the case. Man arrested for transporting illegal drugs Police of the northern mountainous province of Lai Châu have arrested a man for illegally transporting more than 36,000 tablets of methamphetamine. Vàng A Phong, 31, from Cò Nòi Village in Mai Sơn District, was arrested at 11pm on Saturday while transporting the drug shipment, weighing nearly 3.4kg, from Lao Khô Village in Yên Châu District to Cò Nòi Comune in Mai Sơn District on his motorbike. He told the police that he had been hired to transport the drugs for a fee of VNĐ3 million (US$134). The case is under investigation. Fire destroys 20ha of forest in Nghệ An A fire broke out yesterday in the forest bordering Thanh Chương District’s Thanh Lâm Commune and Nam Đàn District’s Nam Lộc Commune in this central province, destroying several hectares of forest. Local residents told the  Công An Nhân Dân (People’s Police) newspaper that the fire started on a pine-covered hill in Nam Lộc Commune at 11:30am on Sunday. The blaze became uncontrollable and spread to other hills. Local authorities have mobilised over four hundred people, including police, soldiers, fire-fighters and local residents, to put out the fire. Hot weather, fuelled by hot winds from Laos, set ablaze the highly flammable pine and acacia forest, making it harder to extinguish the fire. It took more than 10 hours to get the fire under control, local authorities said, warning that the risk of new flare-ups remains high. There are currently no statistics available on the losses incurred, but at least 20ha of pine forest, including trees that are over a decade old, have been destroyed. Fencer Do Thi Anh secures Olympic berth The International Fencing Federation (FIE) unveiled on June 13 that fencer Do Thi Anh from Hanoi has qualified for a berth at the Rio 2016 Summer lympics, set for August this year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Miss Anh is the fourth athlete from Vietnam to qualify for the Olympics following in the footsteps of athletes Nguyen Thi Dung, Vu Thanh An and Nguyen Thi Nhu Hoa. UNDP donates US$150,000 towards drought relief In response to the recurring drought that has ravaged households in Binh Thuan Province, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on June 12 gave US$150,000 for their benefit. The funding, which has been channelled through World Vision, will provide 20,000 bottles of clean water and 1,250 water tanks to local residents of the districts of Ham Thuan and Bac Binh. In a statement, Le Van Duong of World Vision, said his organization will continue assisting residents of the district until the end of the drought. From mid-June to July, World Vision will fund other famine relief and water purification projects as well as administer the UNDP project and the acquisition of water containing equipment for residents of the two districts, said Mr Duong. Earlier, World Vision gave US$80,000 to 5,000 citizens of the Ham Thuan Bac and Bac Binh districts in Binh Thuan Province, as part of a long-term development program to help needy people lift themselves out of poverty. 69,000 students enters 10th grade entrance exam in HCMC The opening ceremony of the 10th grade entrance exam for the 2016-2017 school year was held at Chu Van An High School in District 1 on June 11 with the attendance of the Deputy Director of the HCM City Education and Training Department Nguyen Tien Dat. Students at Chu Van An High School exam venues Around 69,000 students throughout Ho Chi Minh City are taking part in the 10th grade for the upcoming school year, according to the city Department of Education and Training. Candidates will have to take tests on subjects, including mathematics, literature, and a foreign language on June 11-12. The city has 123 exam venues with 11,000 teachers to supervise the exam. HCMC to implement 39 new social housing projects The Department of Construction said that Ho Chi Minh City will continue implementing 39 new social housing projects with 44,700 apartments over the total area of 140 hectares from 2016 to 2020. So far, eight projects with 4,200 apartments have started construction over 7.4 hectares and 12 projects with 11,700 apartments have been approved over 30 hectares. This year, the city will complete four projects providing 1,764 apartments and speed up the progress of five and start work on six others. Nearly 600 apartments from six social housing projects funded by the state budget have been put into operation and opened for dwellers. It is expected that the city will have another 252 apartments from 35 Ho Hoc Lam project by the first quarter next year. The project invested by Hoang Quan Company will supply 718 apartments. Of these, 252 apartments will be handed over to the city for rent or lease purchase and the rest number will be sold or rented out to eligible customers by the company. Fishing in Spratly and Paracel islands With simple equipment, fishermen are catching whale sharks from the East Sea. Nguyen Duc Thinh, a fisherman from Khanh Hoa Province said he caught four tonnes of whale sharks and could earn VND60-70m in profits. Fishermen mostly go to the waters around Spratly and Paracel islands for this kind of fish. Because the whale sharks only eat live bait, fishermen do not prepare the baits at home. They often jump into the sea to catch live fish to be the bait when they arrived at the fishing spots. Some whale sharks are so heavy that the fishermen have to use winches to pull them on board. According to the fishermen, the fins are most valuable part. A kilo of meat is sold for VND13,000 but a fin costs VND400,000 to VND500,000 (USD18-22) a kilo and sometimes, the prices can go even higher. Thinh went on to say that they had seen a lot of Chinese ships recently near Spratly Islands. He said, "We often fish three to four nautical miles away from them and have to be on our guard or else they'll come and ruin our bait." Whale sharks mostly live near the coastlines of Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen provinces, the sea near Spratly and Paracel islands the areas near Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. The World Wildlife Fund lists the whale shark as an endangered species. Minister Dung made head of State evaluation council The Prime Minister has issued Decision No. 1038/QĐ-TTg on the establishment of the State Evaluation Council aiming to evaluate the national target programme on modern rural area construction and the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction during the 2016-2020 period. The PM assigned Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung as Chairman of the council, while its deputy head is also assigned to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Trung. The council members include leaders from the Ministries of Finance, Justice, Industry and Trade, Transport, Health, Culture Sports and Tourism, Natural Resources and Environment, Education and Training, Information and Communications, Construction, Science and Technology, Defence, Agriculture and Rural Development and Public security, as well as the State Bank of Vietnam, the Government Office, and the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, who are responsible for evaluation of the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction during the 2016-2020 term. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs is responsible for evaluating the national target programme on modern rural area construction over the next five years. The council is responsible for organising the evaluation on the feasible study report for the two programmes and then reporting to the PM for consideration and decision. It has the right to order the assigned agencies responsible for preparations for the programmes to provide materials and information related to the programmes to serve for the evaluation, while asking such agencies to fix and amend records to meet the assessment requirements if necessary. The council also has to consider and decide on the evaluation plans and other relevant issues in the process of evaluating the programmes. According to Resolution No. 100/2015/QH13 dated November 12, 2015 by the National Assembly, the minimum total capital from the State budget for the national target programme on constructing modern rural areas sits at over VND193 trillion (US$8.7 billion) and more than VND46 trillion (US$2 billion) for the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction. Hanoi launches movement to protect emblem of Red Cross The Hanoi Red Cross Society on June 12 launched a movement entitled 'Protecting the emblem of the International Red Cross' with the aim of raising public awareness on the humanitarian values and meaning of the Red Cross symbol. Vice Chairman of the Hanoi Red Cross Society Nguyen Sy Truong said the emblem of the Red Cross has always been associated with the humanitarian activities of the Red Cross Society, noting that over the past 70 years, the symbol of the Red Cross has become recognisable and common with people in Vietnam. However, he added, the symbol of the Red Cross has been misused by many organisations and individuals at health establishments, ambulances, drugstores, healthcare products, household appliances and traffic signs, among others. Truong said that there have been cases when people have abused the Red Cross symbol to seek profit and carry out illegal acts which affect the humanitarian operations and prestige of the Red Cross Society. The Vietnam Red Cross Society is a member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, thus, the protection of the emblem of the Red Cross is the responsibility of each member and volunteer of the Vietnam Red Cross Society in order to protect the values of humanitarian work, Truong stated. The emblem of the Red Cross was recognised by the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Law on Red Cross activities was adopted by the Vietnam's National Assembly in 2008. On the same day, the Hanoi Steering Committee for Blood Donation held a ceremony to honour blood donors in 2016 in response to World Blood Donor Day (14 June). Argentine press praises Vietnamese people and landscape An article, carried by Argentina’s Resumen Latinoamericano newspaper on June 12, highly appreciated the beauty of the Vietnamese people and the country’s serene landscapes. With the title ‘Una Miranda Argentina de Vietnam’ (An Argentinean view of Vietnam), the article shared Professor Guillermo Pérez Cena’s experiences after his visit to Vietnam. The article featured Vietnam’s socio-economic development and international integration, focusing on large bridges and modern buildings, in addition to ancient pagodas and the cultural diversity of 54 ethnic groups. The beauty of Vietnam’s natural landscape, from terraced rice fields in Sapa, to Ha Long Bay, to beaches in coastal provinces and sand dunes in Mui Ne, was also described. The author of the article was also impressed by traditional trade villages in Vietnam, such as Bat Trang pottery village and traditional hand embroidery villages across the country. Especially, the beauty of Vietnamese women in traditional dress (Ao dai) and Vietnamese people’s hospitality making a strong impression on Professor Cena. Professor Cena is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Trade, 21st Century Business University, in Argentina. In his article, he also affirmed that the Vietnamese people, with small hands have created large successes.    Heritage in Hue recognised The People's Committee of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue held a ceremony on June 11 to receive a certificate recognising the royal literature on Hue royal architecture as a documentary heritage of the Memory of the World Committee for Asia and the Pacific (MOWCAP). The heritage has been highly appreciated by MOWCAP and met the criteria in the registry dossiers formed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). According to Dr. Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre, said the poetry on the Hue royal architecture includes Chinese-language scripts in the form of poems that were meticulously carved onto clusters of three wooden plates and wooden walls built during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945). Particularly notable is the ‘One Poem and One Painting’ decoration style on the Hue royal architecture, which was formed and developed during the Nguyen Dynasty and became the court’s rule in decorating royal architecture from then on. Literary works in the Hue royal architecture reflect the thoughts of the Nguyen Kings on history, national independence, culture, governance and welfare. Many experts, researchers and culture managers evaluated the works as special decorative arts that had been made and preserved in Ha Tinh province. The heritage is unique in the world with diverse contents found on different materials, including wood, stone, bronze, enamel, ceramics and lacquer. Danang stops licensing remodeled tourist boats Danang chairman Huynh Duc Tho has ordered relevant agencies to stop licensing tourist boats that have been remodeled and upgraded from fishing vessels to ensure safety for tourists. The order comes after Thao Van 2 tourist boat with 56 tourists on board capsized in the Han River of Danang City on Saturday night, killing three people including two children of a family. Tho said for the licensed tourist boats remodeled from fishing vessels, competent agencies are required to check their designs, seating capacity, and safety equipment including life buoys and vests. As of June this year, the Danang Department of Transport had licensed 27 boats to carry tourists on the Han River, with 70% of them upgraded from fishing boats. Tho requested the Danang Department of Tourism establish an association for tourist boats in the Han River to better organize and manage their operations. The department was tasked with helping tourist boats equip their employees with service skills and safety tips. After Thao Van 2 sank in the Han River on June 4, the Party Committee of Danang City proposed dismissing the director and vice director of the Danang port authority and those people on duty on the night when the accident happened. Le Cong Chi, captain of Thao Van 2 boat, has been detained for four months for interrogation. Meanwhile, Vo Quoc Hung, the owner of the boat, has not been detained as he is now receiving medical treatment at a hospital.   Bull dies in Nghệ An protected forest Nghệ An central province authorities are investigating the death of a gayal or wild oxen  in a protected forest in Vĩnh Sơn Commune, Anh Sơn District. Nguyễn Hữu Thanh, head of the Vĩnh Sơn Commune Police, said local residents discovered the bull’s dead body at 3pm on Thursday while they were harvesting honey in the forest. The animal weighs more than one tonne. Its dead body is disintegrating. Authorities took samples of its head and gall bladder for investigation and research. Thanh said the forest once had eight gayals and now it only has about three to five. The gayal is a rare and endangered species and is listed in the Việt Nam Red Book. Vietnam attends 105th International Labour Conference Vietnam supports the End to Poverty Initiative and the 2030 Agenda of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as well as millennium initiatives to welcome the 100th founding anniversary of the ILO, said Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) Pham Minh Huan. Addressing the 105th International Labour Conference (ILC), which took place from June 1-13 in Geneva, Huan also emphasized sustainable employment in global supply chains, which was an issue discussed at the event. Apart from advantages, Vietnam has faced challenges when joining global supply chains, he said, naming human resources quality, labour productivity, and competitiveness of enterprises and labourers as some problems. President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) Bui Van Cuong also delivered a speech at the event, in which he stressed the VGCL attaches importance to the negotiation and signing of collective labour agreements, considering this as a crucial tool to protect interests of its member and labourers and prevent discrimination at work . He said Vietnam’s trade union organisations actively participated in building labour-related laws and policies, and protecting rights and interests of members and leaders of trade union establishments. The 105th ILC focused discussions on key labour issues, including the decline of working activities in global supply chains, employment at sea and basic rights of employees. In the framework of the event, Vietnamese representatives attended a meeting of labour ministers from the Asia Pacific Group of the ILO (ASPAG). They also held bilateral meetings with ILO officials and delegations from Switzerland, Indonesia, the US and Canada to look for specific measures implementing bilateral agreements signed between Vietnam and these countries. In particular, ILO representatives committed to supporting the Vietnam Co-operative Alliance (VCA) in seeking outlets for agricultural products in demanding markets such Japan, Australia, Germany and Switzerland, in accordance with an MoU signed between the ILO and the VCA in Hanoi on May 27. Management overlap led destruction of forests Quảng Nam Province has seen a number of forest destruction cases recently and provincial authorities determined management overlap and loose inspections led to the problem. Nguyễn Nhuần, deputy chairman of the Bắc Trà My District People’s Committee, said late last week three different organisations manage the Sông Tranh Protected Forest, including the Sông Tranh Management Board, the Sông Tranh Forest Ranger Unit, and the Bắc Trà My Forest Ranger Unit. This overlapping management led to the tardy discovery of forest destruction. So Nhuần suggested only one organisation to manage the forest. Phan Tuấn, director of the Quảng Nam Forest Management Department, told Lao Động (Labour) newspaper that from the beginning of last year through now, the department discovered more than 120 cases of illegal forest destruction affecting more than 273ha. Most of the cases affect protected forests. Several forest managers did not keep close watch on areas they were responsible for, Tuấn said. And authorities did not perform regular inspections of forest management. Huỳnh Tấn Đức, director of the Quảng Nam Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the department plans to re-arrange the system of forest management boards to improve protection effectiveness. For now, the forest would be managed by forest ranger divisions, he said. Recently, the Quảng Nam Economic Police seized Nguyễn Cường, deputy director of the Đắc Mi Protective Forest Management Board in Phước Sơn District, for making corrupt use of his position to appropriate properties. Cường used 45cu.m of wood in the forest, worth more than VNĐ252 million (US$11,200), for his personal purposes. He sold part of the wood, and used the remainder to build a house for himself and to build offices for the board. By the end of last year, provincial authorities discovered a number of forest destruction cases, affecting hundreds of cubic metres of the Sông Tranh Protective Forest in Bắc Trà My District. Some forest management board workers co-operated with the investigation. Some employees of the Sông Tranh protective forest management board were discovered to have collaborated with forest destroyers. These workers were temporarily suspended from their work for further investigation. Men seized for trading in heroin The Cao Bằng Border Guards, in co-ordination with the Hạ Lang District Police, seized a man on Saturday for keeping 10kg of heroin. Dẫn’s accomplice, Hoàng Văn Cường, 19, was also seized. The border guards arrested Nông Văn Dẫn, 34, of Đồng Loan Commune, Hạ Lang District, after a period of investigating and keeping close watch on his activities. The heroin was discovered in Dẫn’s house. Both men allegedly admitted to police that the heroin was bought in China. Hot spell to continue across northern, central regions The current hot spell is likely to continue heating up the northern and region and the central coast in the next 3-4 days. According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF), the highest temperature during daytime will hover around 35-37 degrees C, even reaching 38-39 degrees C in some areas, including Hanoi. The temperature will stay above 35 degrees C for 11-17 hours a day, it said. The northern and central coastal regions have been baking in hot weather for the past several days, with the temperature hovering around 36-37 degree C. At around 13:00 on June 12, the temperature was measured at 38.2 degrees C in Huong Khe district of central Ha Tinh province, 38 degrees C in Dong Ha city of central Quang Tri province and 37.8 degrees C in central Da Nang City. Tien Giang builds sluices to fight saline intrusion The Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang has begun the construction of three sluices in Go Cong town this June in a bid to control saltwater intrusion. Under an investment of more than 89 billion VND (4 million USD), the sluices will be put into operation in December 2017. They are expected to play an important role in keeping fresh water and ensuring irrigation for 35,000 hectares of coastal cultivated land in the eastern part of Tien Giang. The construction is part of a project on managing and mitigating the risk of droughts and floods in the greater Mekong Sub-region. The project has an investment of 477 billion VND (21 million USD), sourced from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Australia Agency for International Development (AUSAID). Go Cong is the location most affected by climate change impact in Tien Giang. As of April, saline instruction compounded by drought caused heavy losses to production and impacted the lives of locals in the coastal Go Cong area. Over 3,430 hectares of rice, fruit trees and vegetables were damaged by saline intrusion in Go Cong Dong, Go Cong Tay, and Tan Phu Dong and Go Cong town, district, with losses estimated at 90 billion VND (4.05 million USD).- PM receives US medical staff on humanitarian mission in Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 13 received a delegation of doctors and students from the US’s Mercer University who is in Vietnam to provide the Vietnamese with prosthetic legs and health check-ups for free. During the reception in the southern city of Can Tho, the PM praised the delegation for their kindness and expressed his hope that they will continue with their charitable activity to ease the burden for Vietnamese patients. He said the Vietnamese and US leaders have agreed to further boost multifaceted cooperation for the benefit of the two peoples, thus laying a strong foundation to lift the bilateral comprehensive partnership. Doctor Vo Van Ha, who led the delegation, said over 40,000 Vietnamese have been given free medicines while 5,000 other amputees have been provided with prosthetic legs since 2009 via the programme. He said the delegation will continue with their charity work in the Mekong Delta and the central region in the future. The guests expressed thanks to the Vietnamese government and authorities for their support over the past years and pledged to work closely with relevant agencies to give more help to poor patients in the country.- Volunteers offer free meals to the poor at Communal House Three days a week, 11 volunteers meet at An Phú Communal House in HCM City’s District 2 to cook meals for the poor in the area. Many of the visitors to the kitchen, open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, are food vendors and sellers of lucky tickets. Võ Thị Gái, chairwoman of the Red Cross Society in An Phú Ward, is in charge of visiting local markets at 6am to buy fresh food. “Most of the traders at the market know that I buy food to cook free meals for the poor, so they offer me reasonable prices,” Gái says. Menus on the white board list rice, soups, vegetables, fish and meat. Nguyễn Thị Mai Quỳnh, 69, the cook for the charity meals, says the dishes are ready to eat by 9am. Around 140 people are served every day. “It’s not a big thing, but I feel really happy,” Quỳnh says. Members of all trade unions in An Phú Ward’s People’s Committee have given cash donations to the ‘kitchen’, according to Nguyễn Văn Hải, deputy chairman of the committee. Hồ Thị Thu Xuân, a street seller of lottery tickets, says that she and her husband often eat at the communal house. “The delicious meals are a great treat to us.” VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri