A wild bear seized from poachers in Dak Nong Province. Photo credit: WCS
TNN – Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has reported that there are 1,250 captive bears remaining on farms, a 72 percent decline since 2005.
It released the information at a celebration of “Bear Day” (May 7), which fell on the first anniversary of the successful shutdown of bear bile tourism in Ha Long Bay. Continue reading Vietnam bile farm bear numbers down 72 percent to 4,300
AMTI.CSIS – China’s reclamation activities in the South China Sea remain a matter of grave concern for reasons that are not solely political. The radical transformation of major coral atolls in the region’s marine ecosystem affects far more than the already huge area physically occupied by China’s new islands. The biophysical impacts extend well beyond their artificial foundations into the waters of surrounding littoral states. Continue reading Environmental aggression in the South China Sea
By Desiree Hellegers *, Thanh Nien News
Monday, May 11, 2015 00:11
This past week, as activists gathered in Washington, D.C. for the conference on “Vietnam: the Power of Protest,” in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, a delegation led by Veterans for Peace (VFP) Chapter 160 was quietly wrapping up a two week tour. The tour was timed to coincide the VFP’s national “Full Disclosure Campaign”. Continue reading Trade wars: Monsanto’s return to Vietnam
vietnamfulldisclosure.org – Last week’s “Lessons of Vietnam” program in Washington was not simply a commemoration of the end of the Vietnam War, but an effort to remember and recount narratives that would not have emerged from the effort of the Pentagon to tell its revisionist history of the war the U.S. lost. Continue reading Remembering the Lessons of Vietnam Means Rejecting the Pentagon’s Revisionist History by Rick Cohen
February 18, 2015 – CSIS – This map shows four land features in the Spratly Islands that have undergone significant construction or land reclamation work in the past year. They are: Itu Aba, Gaven Reef, Johnson South Reef, and Fiery Cross Reef. Read more details about the features of these projects and use click and drag the slider in the middle to see before and after photographs.
Continue reading Before and after: The South China Sea transformed
Allan Macatuno, Armand Galang, Cynthia D. Balana | Inquirer Central Luzon Philippine Daily Inquirer 12:52 AM | Tuesday, April 21st, 2015
GI – FORT MAGSAYSAY, Nueva Ecija—Ramon Lacbain II on Monday joined some 100 regular and reserve members of the Philippine Navy in training lectures conducted by Philippine and US officers at the start of 10-day annual war exercises. Continue reading US-PH war drills open amid China buildup
TTN – UPDATED : 05/03/2015 10:20 GMT + 7
An HIV-positive Vietnamese woman who was named an “Asian Hero” by Time Magazine has been active in helping fellow patients combat their illness and social stigmas in the past 14 years.
Along with 19 other Asian laureates, Pham Thi Hue, now 36, was selected by Time as the 2004 Asian Hero.
She was honored as one of Vietnam’s few who have braved social discrimination to come out of the closet and help many others with HIV/AIDS. Continue reading The inspiring life of an HIV-positive Vietnamese woman honored by Time Magazine
By An Dien, Thanh Nien News
Thursday, April 30, 2015 12:15
The irony hit its crescendo at the very place where the Vietnam War drew to its end 40 years ago.
Last week, a banner announcing the shareholders’ meeting of the Saigon Securities Incorporation flapped on the gates of the Independence Palace — the same place a pair North Vietnamese tanks made their dramatic entrance on April 30, 1975.
These days Ho Chi Minh City is awash with signs of capitalism and consumerism. Continue reading How the US continues to impact Vietnam 40 years on
by cogitASIA Staff • April 26, 2015
By Joshua Simonidis
In September 2014 the Cambodian government signed an agreement with Canberra to resettle a potentially unlimited number of refugees originally destined for Australia in exchange for increased aid. Human rights groups criticized the agreement and Cambodia’s capacity to handle refugees, but Prime Minister Hun Sen shot back, noting that 85 refugees were resettled in Cambodia in 2009. Yet Phnom Penh’s treatment of Montagnard asylum seekers from neighboring Vietnam shows a disregard for its obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, in sharp contrast with the image Cambodia is trying to portray. Continue reading Pay to Stay: Cambodia’s Refugee Policy
By Thanh Nguyen, Thanh Nien News
HO CHI MINH CITY – Monday, April 27, 2015 17:25
Earlier this month a national TV channel came under fire for a news report on some 17-year-olds smoking shisha.
While the problem was whether VTC14’s reporter tricked the children into smoking to stage the report, it was a rare case in which a Vietnamese media agency was openly criticized for violating ethical standards by revealing full information about underage people’s identities. Continue reading Right to privacy in Vietnam media: we are still failing our children
Bloomberg
Wednesday, April 29, 2015 12:25
TTN – Chuck Palazzo was 18 when he took his first trip outside New York City. He went to Da Nang, Vietnam, courtesy of the U.S. Marines.
“You had mortar rounds going off in the mountains and you were surfing off China Beach,” he said. “It was ‘Apocalypse Now!’” Continue reading Surf, sand and software turn Da Nang into Vietnam’s ‘IT’ city
Photo: Author’s mother on the right. Circa 1970s
Recalling back to the time when I was about from secondary school to high school, there was this thing that many of my friends had in their mind — some sort of hero or “idol”, in music, movies…
“Who is your hero?” I sometimes asked myself since I did not really have one. And I felt like I didn’t really need to have one or just only one hero. Say, in music, I listened to a mix of genres. However, now reflecting upon it, I think I did have many heroes or heroines, instead of one. My heroes were mostly characters in stories and books like Doreamon, Teppi, Tottochan, Little Princes, Peter Pan to Anna Frank, or the kids in In Desert and Wilderness, or in the kids in the famous Vietnamese novel Tuổi thơ dữ dội, or characters in big novel like Jean Valjean, Quasimodo… Continue reading There is a hero – look inside your Mom
PHU THO – TNN – Tuesday, April 28, 2015 12:14
Nearly five million pilgrims have traveled to Phu Tho Province to pay tribute to Hung Kings, the country’s legendary founding fathers, during their death anniversary this week.
Temples in the province, not far from Hanoi, started the festival five days before the main event on Tuesday, but many people had come here days before that. Continue reading Remember the ancestors: Millions flock to temples to honor Hung Kings
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| At Thuy’s Hoa Sen centre, kids play a folk game after school in an April afternoon as their dinner is prepared. — VNS Photo Phuoc Buu. |
by Phuoc Buu
THUA THIEN – HUE (VNS) — “Having two children in the house can be tiring, but I have 35, so it is exhausting.”
Nguyen Ngoc Thuy is smiling as she says this. The diminutive 38-year-old native of Thua Thien – Hue Province in central Viet Nam actually is, in fact, a de-facto guardian for hundreds of disadvantaged children. Continue reading Mom with 35 kids has her hands and heart full
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| An employee checks a packaging production line at Ngoc Bich Engineering and Construction Co in Thai Binh Province. Many local enterprises are unaware of the TPP and AEC free trade agreements which are expected to help them integrate on global and regional scales. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet |
HA NOI (VNS) — Many local enterprises do not know much about the TPP and the AEC free trade agreements (FTAs) that are expected to be signed this year.
Adequate knowledge about these FTAs would help domestic firms in Viet Nam prepare for business integration at a global and regional scale. Continue reading Local firms lack knowledge of FTAs
Đọt Chuối Non 