Long-legged Festival is an annual fashion show organized by Venus, a chance for models in the HCM City and Hanoi to see and exchange experience.

Below are collections by famous designers introduced at the festival:

The show opened by body-art works by painter Ngo Luc:

Minh Tu’s designs:

Do Manh Cuong’s designs:

Designer Do Manh Cuong.

The collection for men:

source from: vietnamnet

Dr. Hung talks with correspondents.

“That phenomenon only happens for priests, philosophers or painters,” said Dr. Nguyen Manh Hung, director of HCM City-based International University of Hong Bang.

A group of scientists of various fields, led by Dr. Hung visited the little girl’s home in Tan Binh district, HCM City.

Dr. Hung stated that the girl is capable of burning anything. “This is a very strange case in Vietnam and the world,” he said.

Scientists rejected environment as the element that causes the girl’s special ability because fires happened everywhere where the girl appeared. They collected soil, water, objects from the girl’s home for analysis.

Dr. Hung said that after scanning the girl’s brain, they discovered a strange line on her right brain’s right side, which only happens with the brains of philosophers or priests.

Correspondents surround the girl’s house.

“She burned objects near and far from her. There is no limit of distance between the girl and burnt objects. It is very odd!”

Hung said that there is a red mark on her forehead. The mark disappeared when she put on a black quartz bracelet and re-appeared when the bracelet was taken off. But when the girl wore the bracelet, she felt uncomfortable and felt an electric current running through her body.

The special ability of the little girl was discovered by her family about one month ago when fires appeared wherever the girl appeared.

At first, the family’s electricity network underwent repetitive short circuiting. Many electrical sockets in the house also burnt when the girl approached them. Taking the girl to other homes causes the same phenomenon. She also burnt the hotel room where her family stayed during their holiday on Vung Tau beach.

The little girl’s father talks with scientists.

Recently, the girl burnt a corner of the toilet seat. Sometimes, her clothes suddenly burst into flames. On May 12, the family’s third floor was burnt down.

Her family now guards her around the clock to prevent any possible incident. When she goes to sleep, water buckets and a wet towel will be placed next to her bed to put out the fire in case of emergency.

The little girl’s third floor after the fire on May 12.

The family took the girl to a scientist, named Du Quang Chau, at Hong Bang International University for treatment. After several tests, the scientist said he noticed variations from the norm in her cerebral hemisphere.

The girl was medically examined at Cho Ray Hospital and the Children No. 2 Hospital but doctors found nothing abnormal about her body.

The girl once had a serious accident at the age of 3.

source from: vietnamnet

Youth volunteers clean up the Binh Phu residential area in HCM City. Young people have become actively involved in activities to raise public awareness about proper disposal of waste. — VNA/VNS Photo The Anh

Nguyen Thi Kim Duyen, a second-year student, writing in an essay on green topics, said the careless use of plastics bags by urban residents could lead to what she called an unhealthy “invasion” of the environment.

Duyen said shoppers were relying on plastic bags for convenience, throwing them away after a short period of use and thus, heavily polluting the environment.

She said that improvements in usage should come from both residents and authorities.

“There is a lack of rubbish bins in my neighbourhood, and this drives residents to drop waste on the roads, even though many of them try to care about the dumping of waste,” Duyen said, adding that there were not enough public rubbish bins in District 6, her neighbourhood.

“Many of my neighbours try to sort rubbish at their homes, but the public collectors mix the waste together in a basket so it is easier for them to carry,” she said.

HCM City is developing a system of rubbish sorting and has piloted a sorting model in several residential areas. But, for the system to work well, collectors might have to receive training from the city.

Duyen won first prize for her essay in the recent writing contest, which attracted 400 essays judged on content and English writing skills. The contest was held by the US Consulate General in HCM City on the occasion of Earth Day in April.

The contestants raised their concerns about several issues, including air pollution, traffic congestion, canal pollution and overuse of fossil fuels.

Eleventh-grade student Chu Ha Thanh of the Ha Noi Amsterdam High School said transport vehicles contributed to about 70 per cent of pollution.

She said the city should develop a sustainable-development plan to reduce the number of vehicles as well as air-pollution levels.

Student Tran Huy Hung of the HCM City University of Technology also said that vehicles on the roads had polluted the air and contributed to overuse of fossil fuels.

He urged the city to build better traffic infrastructure and develop more means of public transport.

Bio-technology student Nguyen Bich Han, who won third prize, recommended that more research be conducted on producing biofuel so that residents could rely less on fossil fuels, which contribute to carbon emissions and global warming.

Recognising that formal clean-up programmes are proceeding at a snail’s pace, students have become actively involved in activities that raise public awareness about the proper disposal of waste.

Han said that most of her classmates interested in recycling programmes were conducting research on the use of high technology for the waste recycling.

Meanwhile, Duyen, a banking and finance major, is active in a campaign run by the district to keep her neighbourhood streets clean.

She has been awarded a Certificate of Merit from District 6, where she lives.

“I’m creating a website calling for the participation of youth in environmental activities and improvement of residents’ awareness of environmental protection,” she said, adding that she would seek the help of friends majoring in information technology to create the site.

source from: dtinews

Surrogate pregnancy is not allowed in Vietnam, but it is an existing service based on real demand and suppliers who need money, with the surrogates also the egg donors, according to a Tuesday report on the news website of Vietnam Cable Television.

Hien lives in a rented house of just 10 square meters with three other co-workers in the province’s Nhu Quynh town, around 20 kilometers from Hanoi.

The 20-year-old earns VND3 million a month from working extra hours, but the money is not enough to support two younger siblings at home in Ninh Binh Province, also in the north, and pay the asylum where her mother is being treated after her father died five years ago.

Hien said two other workers at her factory had provided the surrogacy service earlier.

“That’s easy money so I want to try. I would do it just one time to have money so I can start a stable business at home while taking care of my mother,” Hien said.

“I am fed up with being far from home with an unstable job,” she said in the report.
The 20-year-old woman will be paid one-third of the agreed money in advance, another one third after she delivers the baby, and the rest when the baby is taken. But she is hopeful of getting a bonus.

“Women I know have received bonuses of several thousand dollars if they delivered boys,” said Hien, who lives in a country where many parents still value sons more than daughters because sons are needed to continue the family line.

The businessman, whose name and age has not been revealed, said he chose Hien after being introduced to dozens of girls.

“I cannot sleep with women who are too ugly. And I don’t want my baby to come from a woman who looks untrustworthy,” he said.

There was no mention in the report of the risks either party to the agreement faced of contracting HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases.

The businessman was introduced to Hien, as well as other women, by Minh, a popular broker in the region, who sets her price at VND10 million ($500). Like the surrogate mothers, she also stood to get generous tips in “successful cases.”

Minh said the service is not legal, thus it operates mainly on free will and mutual trust.

“Money is not an issue for most sterile couples when they really want a baby. They would give anything to get a lovely baby. So it’s unlikely that they cancel the service or refuse to pay at the end,” the broker said.

She said she herself tries to guarantee good service by only choosing women she has known for a while, and never agrees to work with sex workers.

Minh, who is from Hanoi, has successfully provided the service to 40 sterile couples with babies from factory workers, mostly in northern provinces such as Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Hung Yen. Some of the workers were in the southern region, she said, adding the service was also available in Ho Chi Minh City.

Minh began providing her service nearly ten years ago after helping a worker with an unexpected pregnancy find parents for her baby.

The rich parents at the time gave Minh VND50 million in gratitude. She gave VND30 million to the girl and took the rest as she had been taking care of the woman during her pregnancy and delivery.

Soon after, the parents contacted Minh and asked her to persuade the girl to give them another child, in exchange for a house in Hanoi.

The girl agreed, setting an example for many factory workers in northern Vietnam looking for opportunities to change their lives for the better.

Minh said she requires that her either party to an arrangement not seeing each other once the baby is transferred. Sometimes the child is given to the waiting parents as soon as it is delivered, while some parents want the baby to be breast fed for at least four months before they collect it.

The report did not explain how the baby, which is born in a hospital to the biological mother, is registered as the child of the father and the foster mother.

The broker said her job sounds like human trafficking, but it actually solves the problems of many people.

“The service helps end the big financial difficulties faced by countryside women such as factory workers or maids in large cities.

“More importantly, it brings the happiness of being parents to sterile couples.”

According to Minh, there are at least two other people offering the service in Hanoi, and many in HCMC where the service is cheaper and sex workers are also employed.

Sad side effects

In her long experience, Minh said she cannot deny she has witnessed many sad side effects of her service.

She remembered Lien, a factory worker, who smothered her baby with kisses as the couple who had hired her service waited to collect the child.

“I don’t want to leave my child. I would miss him so much, what can I do?” the woman asked Minh half an hour before the couple arrived.

She kept looking at the baby as the father placed stacks of money on her desk, Minh recalled.

The boy was the third child that the 25-year-old Lien was being a surrogate mother for. She needed the money badly because her father suffered from cancer and her mother was mentally ill.

Lien was also worried that she would not be able to find a husband because she had provided the service.

It is not just the surrogate mother who suffers the sad and bitter part of the service.

Nguyen Thi H., a sterile mother in Hanoi, lost her husband after agreeing to introduce him to the service. She thought it was safe to do so as they had lived together for 20 years.

When she found out that her husband was having an affair with the woman who gave them the baby, she demanded a divorce. The man left the child, then three-years-old old, with her, and started a new life with the other woman.

“Honestly, I ask myself many times. What am I doing? Is it immoral?” said Minh.

“But then that’s life. Everything has two sides.”

source from: thanhniennews

It had been found some two meters below the ground, he said.

It took the engineers three hours to defuse the bomb, he said, adding it has been removed to be destroyed later.
source from: thanhniennews

The goalkeeper said on April 26 that he was very tired after being suspected of committing match-fixing and being offered for sale by his team.

“My family feels worried for me. I’m responsible to make clear the case to make my family to feel secure and to make my fans to understand that I’m innocent,” Truong said.

The goalkeeper said that he had not been summoned by police and confirmed that he was willing to cooperate with investigators, hoping that his innocence to be proved as soon as possible.

Explaining about his unstable performance in recent games, Truong said: “I do not deny the fact that I did not play very well recently because of family reasons and non-football activities. If I have a chance to play in the second phase of V-League, I will try my best to be admitted to the national squad to prepare for the AFF Cup later this year.”

The dispatch sent by the chief of the security division of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to Saigon FC says: “There are suspicious opinions and information about goalkeeper Tan Truong and some player of Saigon FC who showed unstable performance and abnormal signs in recent matches. Especially, in the game between Saigon FC and Song Lam Nghe An, goalkeeper Tan Truong made serious mistakes in the last minutes, which affected the results of the match. There is doubt of having an organized match-fixing ring that makes impacts on the results of Saigon FC’s games.”

The security division asked Saigon FC to explain the case of Tan Truong and some other players. The case will be then reported to the Ministry of Public Security.

The division also requested Saigon FC to facilitate Tan Truong and some players to work with investigators in the coming time.

Saigon FC’s Chair Nguyen Duc Thuy said that the club would forward the explanation report to the security division today, April 27. “We warmly support VFF and VPF (Vietnam Professional Football JS Company which runs the V-League) to invite police to make clear the suspicion,” he said.

Saigon FC has decided to not reject Tan Truong from the list of players for the second phase of V-League 2012. However, the goalkeeper will not play football until his innocence is proved.

source from: vietnamnet

Thousands of residents and expats living in Ho Chi Minh City last night flocked to Lan Anh Stage at 291 Cach Mang Thang Tam in District 10 for the show of American country band Mary McBride.

At the show held by the U.S. Consulate General in HCMC, the band including vocal Mary McBride, guitarists Paul Cabonara and Mark Spencer, bass player Greg Beshers and drummer Bobby Lloyd Hicks offered audiences a remarkable night with around 20 non-stop performances.

The music night started with bustling songs like “Tricky Tricky World,” “Home” and “Black Eyed Strays.” Despite the fact that McBride’s songs are not very popular in Vietnam, audiences were deeply moved with the melodies.

The climax of the show was when the band sang the hit which has made their fame “No One’s Gonna Love You Like Me” – soundtrack of the Academy-award winning film Brokeback Mountain. The whole stadium waved their cell phones with the lights on along to the melodies, making the venue look like a beautiful starry night.

After that, the band even added more fire to the night by singing the Grammy winning song “Rolling in The Deep,” making thousands of audiences sing and dance along.

“We are very happy to be here, in Vietnam,” Mary expressed her felling on the stage.

Then, the most surprising part of the show is the performance of the southern folk song “Ly Chieu Chieu” in amazingly fluent Vietnamese though the band just arrived in the country 2 days ago.

“This is a special performance, for you,” Mary said. The song is not officially included on the show’s ticket.

The band then continued to rock the air until midnight with stunning drum and guitar solos as well as funky rock ‘n’ roll songs including “If You Lived in My Town” and “Don’t Need No Doctor.”

 Last night’s concert attracted thousands audiences including a large number of young people

After the concert in HCMC, the band will continue to hold performances on April 8 and 9 in the central city of Hue within the framework of the city’s 7th biennial International Cultural Festival.

In addition, the artists from the US will meet with students at the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music at 9am on April 6, and the Hue Conservatory of Music at 9am on April 10.

Also, they will hold outreach events for disadvantaged people in HCMC, Hue and Quang Tri Province.

source from: tuoitrenews

Manchester United are all but certain to retain their Premier League title after opening an eight-point lead by beating Queens Park Rangers 2-0 on Sunday while second-placed Manchester City crashed to a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal.

A 15th-minute penalty from Wayne Rooney and a long-range Paul Scholes strike in the second half secured the points for United against relegation-threatened QPR who had Shaun Derry controversially sent off at Old Trafford.

Mikel Arteta’s fierce low drive in the 87th minute broke City’s hearts at Arsenal.

A bleak day for City ended with the volatile Mario Balotelli being dismissed in the dying minutes for a second yellow card after a nasty challenge on Bacary Sagna.

Manager Roberto Mancini said his fellow Italian now faced a lengthy ban and in any case he would not pick him again this season.

Although neither Mancini nor United manager Alex Ferguson would declare the title race over, the leaders would have to collapse dramatically in the remaining six games to avoid becoming champions for the 20th time.

United’s victory over QPR was their eighth in succession in the league. Ferguson’s team have 79 points from 32 games while City, who have won just once in the last five matches, are on 71.

Mancini looked like he was at the end of his tether with striker Balotelli after City’s defeat while also refusing to concede the title race was over.

“Until you can’t mathematically win it you are always in the race but it is going to be difficult after today,” Mancini told reporters. “It’s clear we need to start winning again but I am the right man to bring the title to City, 100 percent.

“I have finished my work with him (Balotelli), I am finished today, but I love him as a guy … he is not a bad guy and he is a fantastic player but at this moment I am very sorry for him as he is continuing to lose his talent and his quality.

“I hope he understands he is in a bad way for his future and he must change his behaviour. He will not play again (this season) and I will probably try to sell him in the summer,” added Mancini.

EMIRATES RAIN

Neither City nor Arsenal played particularly well in the rain at the Emirates but the home team improved as the match progressed and hit the woodwork three times before Arteta’s goal.

Arsenal are now two points clear of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur in the race for an automatic Champions League berth.

Balotelli was lucky to stay on the field after a rash 20th-minute studs-up challenge on Alex Song. He was then booked for a bad tackle on Sagna before being sent off late in the game.

While problems have dogged City’s title challenge recently, United seem to be sailing serenely on.

Although they got a helping hand with Derry’s 14th-minute sending-off, they were vastly superior to QPR.

“It was a good win and three points and we now have a better goal difference than City so it’s been a good day,” said Ferguson.

QPR manager Mark Hughes, the former United striker, said his club would appeal against the dismissal which occurred when winger Ashley Young, who appeared to be offside, seemed to dive following the softest of touches from Derry.

“We’ll obviously appeal against that and hopefully get it overturned,” said Hughes.

“Everybody understood the boy was offside and there was minimal contact. The boy has gone down too readily.”

QPR are fourth from bottom on 28 points.

source from: tuoitrenews

 

In his presentation, Dr Phi cited the figures to show the damages Bangkok incurred in the one-month long biggest flood in the last 60 years. 815 people died, while 13 million people were affected, 930 factories got paralyzed, threatening 600,000 jobs. The total damage was estimated to reach 53 billion dollars, while it would take 72 billion dollars to rebuild the city.

Phi said that if a similar flood occurred in HCM City, the toll would be lower than in Bangkok, because HCM City has not developed in the low land areas, such as district 8. However, the districts 1, 4, 5 and 6 would still suffer.

After the field trip to Bangkok, Phi pointed out the differences and similarities of the two cities in terms of geographical conditions, the capability to prevent and fight against flooding with the systems of dykes, water pump stations, water reservoirs, and drainage system.

After analyzing the current conditions, Phi has put forward two scenarios of HCM City facing the flood.

HCM City’s Deputy Mayor Nguyen Huu Tin emphasized that the principle the city must follow is “minimizing damages, not only minimizing risks.”

Tin said that the city will spend money to build an emergency flood corridor to lower the Saigon River water, set up the agricultural production system adaptable to the conditions of the low land areas, build the houses which could serve as storm shelters for local residents, and install automatic water prevention doors for supermarkets and high rise buildings.

Tin said that in order to speed up the projects, the city’s planning and investment department and the department for interior affairs have to hurry up the works of surveying the field, inviting for bids and arranging capital.

Prior to that, at a workshop discussing how to deal with the flooding in HCM City, Dr Luu Duc Cuong, a senior official of the Ministry of Construction, warned that the flooding in HCM City has become more serious in the last 10 years. Though the city has completed four big projects on water drainage and environment sanitation, the development of the water drainage system still cannot catch up with the rapid urbanization process.

However, Cuong pointed out that climate changes are not the only reason that causes the serious flooding. He stressed that the uncontrollable urbanization should also be seen as a high risk. Research works have found out that 75 percent of the inundated places in HCM City are 2.5 meters higher than the sea water level, while 70 percent of places get inundated with the modest rainfall of 400 mm, no matter how the water level at the Phu An Station on the Saigon river is.

“In order to settle the flooding to the every root, it is necessary to have good urban programming,” Cuong said.

The World Bank, in a document guiding the risk management in city flooding, released one month ago, the risks lie in the poor water drainage system and infrastructure items in big cities. The unreasonable underground water management and the rapid population increase have also been cited as the big problems.

However, the World Bank believes that Vietnam has learned the lessons from other countries in the world, and it could be seen as a good example in dealing with natural calamities.

source from: vietnamnet

An overloaded motorbike on a street in Ho Chi Minh City. Such bikes are making city roads even more dangerous.

Last month, Tom Hricko was hit by a delivery man riding an almost worn out bike carrying large sacks of ice cubes in front of the Caravelle Hotel in downtown Ho Chi Minh City.

“The guy was going in the wrong direction and stupid me, I did not think to look both ways even though it was a one-way street. My leg still has not healed,” the American expat said.

Although he was quite used to the heavy traffic over several years that he’d been staying the city, Hricko said he still carried a fear of reckless motorbike drivers who could cause serious damage at any time.

Now there is another item that has been added to the scary list: overloaded bikes on rickety bikes.

In fact, it is not just the expatriates who carry with them the trepidation about heavy loads on bikes that look like they can collapse any moment.

Nguyen Thi Thien Thanh said she gets really scared whenever she has to go on Ly Thuong Kiet Street that runs through districts 5, 11 and Tan Binh because of the high number of motorbikes and three wheelers that carry heavy loads.

“There are a number of construction material shops and a big market on the street. They mainly use old and rusty bikes for transportation,” she said.

‘Dangerous activities’

According to the US Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), “the two most dangerous activities in Vietnam are crossing the street and driving or riding in traffic.”

“The road system throughout Vietnam is chaotic, and traffic laws are widely ignored,” says OSAC’s Vietnam 2012 Crime and Safety Report released on February 15.

According to the report, police officials admit that they face a major problem controlling the steadily growing number of motorcycles and vehicles on their streets.

“The lack of open sidewalks and adequate traffic controls, such as stop lights at all intersections, creates a precarious situation for pedestrians and motorists,” it said.

Vietnam, which has a population of 88 million, has more than 32 million registered motorbikes and the number has increased by 10 percent a year over the past few years. The Transport Ministry has forecast that there will be 36 million motorbikes in the country by 2020.

HCMC has around 4.7 million motorbikes, about one motorbike per every two residents in the city with more than eight million people.

George, a tourist from London, said it might be fine for the Vietnamese but it can be “intimidating and scary for tourists who are new to the chaos.

“If you have already been traveling through Vietnam you have probably noticed the mad random acts many drivers commit. Honking, jumping lights, cutting corners, going the wrong way on the streets, riding one handed, the list goes on…,” he said.

Indispensable, expandable

Motorbikes have been important load carriers for a long while in Vietnam, but with exponentially increased numbers of vehicles plying the same roads, those that are overloaded are exacerbating the chaotic traffic situation.

On March 1, a woman was carrying two large sacks of clothes on District 7’s Rach Ong Bridge when the load suddenly dropped. Luckily, several motorbikes behind managed to escape to safety on the sidewalk.

But Tran Huu Phuoc of Tan Binh District was not so lucky. The pedestrian was fatally hit by a motorbike carrying a heavy load when he was crossing Truong Son Street last June.

A number of dilapidated motorbikes are being used by many shop owners to deliver goods because they are cheap vehicles, which is an advantage because the possibility of being stolen is less and the loss is not too great if they are seized by traffic police for any violation.

These bikes are used to deliver a wide variety of products including ice, beer and beverages, cooking gas, bread and many other commodities. The bikes, often with a decrepit frame with no lights, mirrors or horns, also tend to speed on crowded streets to ensure fast delivery and to evade traffic police.

A motorbike mechanic who is also a broker selling such motorbikes in Binh Thanh District, said a registered bike costs only around VND1 million (US$48) while an unregistered one can be got for less than half this amount.

A traffic police officer said some shop owners have dozens of these cheap motorbikes for delivery. “They would pay fines to get the bike back for minor breaches and just abandon them if the driver commits some serious offence,” he said.

The police official, who wished to remain unnamed, said they have failed to identify drivers in many traffic accidents because they would flee the scene, leaving the bike behind. It was often not possible to find the abandoned bike owner because it was unregistered, he said.

Legal loopholes

According to a Transport Ministry circular on vehicle loads, a motorbike is allowed to carry a load that exceeds either side of the rear seat by 0.3 meters and has a height not exceeding two meters from the ground.

But there is no regulation on the maximum weight that a motorbike can carry.

Many traffic police officials said they could not issue fines against drivers who carry heavy loads that do not exceed the size limits.

One of them said: “There should also be regulations that stipulate higher fines for motorbikes carrying large loads because they are easily a danger to themselves and to other drivers.”
source from: thanhniennews