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Archive for July 26th, 2010|Daily archive page

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VN-Index plunges below 500 due to investors’ hastiness

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:20 pm

Movements of VN-Index on July 26. (Photo: vietstock.vn)Despite the revival of blue-chip stocks, the Vietnam’s benchmark, VN-Index, dropped below 500 on July 26 as investors lost patience.

The measure of 249 companies and four mutual funds listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange declined 0.44 percent, or 2.21 points, to open the week at 498.1.


Trading volume rose slightly over the previous trading session as 42.46 million shares were traded at VND1.23 trillion.


On the index, 56 stocks advanced or treaded water, while 141 fell.


Binh Chanh Construction Investment Shareholding Company (BCI) tumbled 18.23 percent to VND46,200. The company will issue 18,067,000 shares to sell to its current shareholders at a ratio of 3:1 and a price of VND20,000 per share. This is a part of the plan to issue more than 21 million shares, increasing its chartered capital to VND752.6 billion from VND542 billion.


Godaco Seafood Joint Stock Company (AGD) and Nari Hamico Minerals Joint Stock Company (KSS) both sank 4.86 percent to VND35,200 and VND37,200 respectively.


Chuong Duong Beverages Joint Stock Company (SCD) closed down 4.85 percent to VND29,400.


Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank or Sacombank (STB), the sole gainer in banking stocks, topped the list of most active shares by volume with 2.11 million changing hands.


Ocean Group Joint Stock Company (OGC) was behind with 2.05 million shares, followed by Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE) with 1.97 million shares traded.


Baominh Insurance Corporation (BMI) gained 4.86 percent to VND19,400. According to the company’s preliminary business report for first half of this year, its pre-tax profit have climbed to VND103 billion, up 6 percent year-on-year, to reach 54.2 percent of this their goals for the year.


Hoa Binh Construction & Real Estate Corporation (HBC) advanced for the second day, adding 4.84 percent to VND43,300.


The smaller bourse in the north also slumped as Hanoi’s HNX-Index lost 2.29 points, or 1.45 percent, to 155.7 points. Trading volume fell to one-month low as nearly 30 million shares, worth VND873 billion, changed hands.


The UPCoM-Index dipped 0.52 points, to 54.27. A total of 343,800 shares were traded at a value of VND6.05 billion as of 11 am local time.

Source: SGGP

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Silk paintings spotlight Vietnamese culture in France

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm

Nearly 40 Vietnamese silk paintings are on display at an exhibition that opened in the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in Paris , France on July 24.

A visitor contemplates a silk painting at the display. The exhibition, the fist of its kind in France , is being co-organised by the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Vietnamese Fine Arts, Photography and Exhibition Department, the Vietnamese Embassy in France and the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in Paris .

As part of activities to celebrate the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, the exhibition featured daily activities of Vietnamese people, contributing to introducing the country’s traditional culture to international friends.


The event, which will run until August 30, has attracted great participation of both Vietnamese and French artists.

Source: SGGP

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Tre Publishing House gives Son Nam’s book to his commemorative house

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm

Tre Publishing House, who owns copyright of the late writer Son Nam’s works, has given more than 100 of the author’s books to his commemorative house in Tien Giang Province.


 

     Writer Son Nam’s commemorative house (Photo: Tuoitre)

The publisher also handed over documents from the film, Mua len trau (Buffalo Boy), signed by director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh.

The film was adapted from Son Nam’s short stories, including Mua len trau (Buffalo Boy) and Mot cuoc be dau (The whirligig of life).


“Buffalo Boy” was produced by Giai Phong Film Studio of Vietnam in co-operation with 3B Production of France and Novak of Belgium in 2003. The film won prestigious awards at film festivals held in Brazil, Switzerland, France and Northern America (Chicago) and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival.


Writer Son Nam, whose real name is Pham Minh Tai, was born in 1926 in the Mekong Delta Province of Kien Giang.


He is one of the south’s greatest writers and ethnologists. Son Nam is affectionately called “old southern man” by his colleagues and readers.
 
The late writer is the author of nearly 60 books (about 10,000 pages) consisting of more than 400 short stories, dozens of novels and medium stories and 20 records.


He is also known as a writer, a culturist, a researcher and a “living encyclopedia dictionary of the southern region.”


His life was a journey. The writer travelled throughout the country to collect material for his works.


He passed away at 82 in 2008.

Writer Son Nam’s commemorative house, covering on an area of over 1,500 square meters along the Bao Dinh canal, was built by the late writer’s daughter, Dao Thuy Hang, in My Tho City in the Mekong Delta Province of Tien Giang.


The exhibition house is expected to open to the public on August 22.

Source: SGGP

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Suspected Qaeda leader among three killed in Yemen clashes

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm

SANAA, July 26, 2010 (AFP) – Yemeni troops killed three suspected Al-Qaeda militants, one of them believed to be a senior one, in clashes late on Sunday in Shabwa province, a jihadist stronghold, a security official said.


“Three Al-Qaeda members, one of them a top leader, were killed” in the deadly exchanges with troops guarding an oilfield in the province, the official told AFP.


The militants killed six soldiers in the firefight, a local official told AFP on Sunday.


The attackers, riding in an offroad vehicle, opened fire with machine guns and rockets at the soldiers who were posted near a foreign oil company’s operations, the official said.


The attack happened in the Al-Aqla distrct, 45 kilometres (30 miles) east of the provincial capital Ataq.


The area produces between 10,000 and 15,000 barrels of crude a day, provincial official Abdel Mohsen Ben Saad told AFP.


Shabwa province is a stronghold of Al-Qaeda militants as it is the base of the Al-Awalaq tribe of the radical Yemeni American preacher Anwa al-Awlaqi, who is wanted by both US and Yemeni authorities.


Awlaqi has been accused of ties to Al-Qaeda’s Yemeni branch.

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Source: SGGP

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Hanoi welcomes 551,600 foreign tourists

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm




Hanoi welcomes 551,600 foreign tourists


QĐND – Monday, July 26, 2010, 21:37 (GMT+7)

Hanoi has welcomed 551,600 foreign tourists so far this year, a year-on-year rise of 12 percent, reported the city’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Department.


Germany was the leading nation in the number of holidaymakers to Hanoi with 104,900, a quadruple year-on-year increase, followed by China with 76,600, up 32 percent; France with 59,100, up 32 percent and Japan with 50,900, up 20 percent. Other foreign tourists came from Australia, the US and the UK .


According to the department, the increase was attributable to Hanoi’s upcoming celebrations of its 1,000 th anniversary and the National Tourism Year 2010 in the city.


The city has also increased its tourism quality and developed tourism products, launched movements themed “Hanoians welcome friends” and “the Green Tourism Year” and organised the best tourist guide contest and the long dress festival to lure more tourists.


It will organise the Thang Long-Hanoi International Tourism Festival 2010 and the Hanoi Cuisine Festival.


Source: VNA


Source: QDND

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Sony likely bounced to black in first quarter: report

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm

TOKYO, July 26, 2010 (AFP) – Japan’s Sony is likely to have swung back to the black in the first quarter with operating profit reaching 30 billion yen (342 million dollars) due to aggressive cost-cutting, a report said Monday.


That would compare with a 25.7-billion-yen loss in the same April-June period last year and represent the first profit in two quarters, the Nikkei business daily reported ahead of official results on Thursday.


Under chief executive and president Howard Stringer, the Japanese company has been streamlining operations and cutting costs to trim back the sprawling group, which was battered by the global downturn.


Plant consolidation and lay-offs saved the company more than 300 billion yen the previous fiscal year, making the company more resilient to blows such as the yen’s recent rise against the euro, the Nikkei said.


Rebounding demand from China and other emerging companies helped lift sales of digital cameras, personal computers and video cameras, the report said.


Liquid crystal display televisions also sold well, and Sony’s game and mobile phone divisions returned to profitability thanks to cost savings.


Stringer has promised to reinvent Sony — the maker of the iconic Walkman — and the group is revving up for the year-end holidays with the September launch of the “Move” motion-sensing controller for PlayStation 3.


The company is also banking on the mounting popularity of products that enable three dimensional viewing.


In April it released a software update enabling the PS3 to support 3D games. Televisions showing 3D images went on sale in Japan last month.


Sony has also released a 3D camera and its film studio Sony Pictures is rolling out 3D movies.


Shares in Sony were up 1.19 percent at 2,543 yen at noon in Tokyo.

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Source: SGGP

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Dalat City likely to become low-carbon model town

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm




Dalat City likely to become low-carbon model town


QĐND – Monday, July 26, 2010, 21:37 (GMT+7)

The hilly resort city of Dalat in Lam Dong Province will likely be selected as a low-carbon model town by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) community, said an official of Asia Pacific Energy Research Center.


Weerawat Chantanakome, senior team leader of the center, told the Daily on the sidelines of an energy forum held in Dalat on Tuesday that Tianjing City of China will be the first city to be selected as a low-carbon model town by late this year. 


“…and Dalat City in Vietnam also has many characteristics to be possibly selected as one of the low-carbon towns in APEC communities in the future,” he said. 


He explained that an APEC low-carbon model town project is being executed to encourage the creation of low-carbon communities in urban development plans and to share best practices for making such communities a reality. 


Chantanakome said a feasibility study for the project to select low-carbon model towns among APEC is being conducted between 2010 and 2012 with total budget of some US$500,000. Then, the project will be widely implemented within the next five years, 2012 to 2017. 


“We are working to finalize criteria for selecting low-carbon model towns among APEC, and I think Dalat is more possible to become a low-carbon model town because it does not have many skyscrapers, not so many high technologies,” he said. 


APEC has 21 members spanning in four continents, including the most advanced economies like the United States, Japan, and economies in Southeast Asia like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. 


He said the low-carbon model town project was mentioned in a declaration of APEC’s energy ministers June this year for the regional cooperation on low-carbon paths to energy security, focusing on cooperative energy solutions for a sustainable community. 


On the sidelines of the energy forum on Tuesday, the Daily also talked to some scientists about the targeted renewable energy development among ASEAN countries in the future. 


Weerawat Chantanakome of the Asia Pacific Energy Research Center said that ASEAN members aimed at using 15% of renewable energy by 2015 compared to the present ratio of around 10%. 


To do so, “we need to increase the ratio by at least one percentage point per year,” he said. 


Meanwhile, Pham Khanh Toan, Head of Vietnam Energy Institute, said that Vietnam still needs more favorable mechanisms to develop renewable energy. 


Although ASEAN aims high for renewable energy, renewable energy in use in Vietnam still accounts for less than 3%, so it should be feasible for Vietnam to reach around 10% by 2015, he said. 


Cao Hung Cuong, manager of CDM Project Department of PetroVietnam Finance Corporation, said that the development of clean energy projects in Vietnam such as hydropower, wind, and solar power among others should be further promoted. 


However, Cuong was concerned that the pricing policy for electricity from CDM projects did not encourage the development of such projects in the country.


Source: VietNamNet/SGT


Source: QDND

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More and more Asian men forced to marry foreigners: study

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:19 pm

PARIS, July 26, 2010 (AFP) – Increasing numbers of southeast Asian men, particularly in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are marrying foreigners because fewer women in their homelands are willing to wed, a new study said Monday.


The phenomenon, which dates back more than a decade, has even created a detectable trend in women’s migration, said the study by Daniele Belanger of the University of Western Ontario University.


“Since the beginning of the 1990s, more and more men in southeast Asia are looking abroad to find a wife,” wrote Belanger in the journal of France’s National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED).


In Taiwan, 15 percent of wives were of foreign origin in 2009; eight percent in South Korea.


In Japan, the phenomenon started earlier, in the 1980s, but has remained at a modest level: only five or six percent of marriages in the mid-2000s involved foreign wives.


But in all three places, foreign brides represented the largest group of new immigrants apart from the temporary workers, wrote Belanger. And the reason the men went looking abroad was the lack of women at home, she added.


With women’s education levels rising so was their representation in the workplace, she explained.


Increasing numbers of them were not willing to settle for the traditional role of a wife — at least as it exists in its current form. They preferred to keep their jobs and stay single.


For men however, “they have the responsibility to continue the paternal line by giving birth to a son and, in many cases, looking after their aged parents,” Belanger wrote.


They could not therefore remain bachelors.


The foreign brides generally came from China and Vietnam, and if at first this kind of marriage was more common among the rural poor, it subsequently spread to the urban middle classes.


There were even marriage agencies specialising in this sector, charging the man’s family between 5,000 and 10,000 euros.


Some observers have expressed fears that some of the brides involved are victims of trafficking.


But Belanger noted: “The great majority of migrant women marry of their own accord and not under parental pressure, and their objective is both to marry and to migrate.”

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Source: SGGP

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Vietnam draws football with Thailand

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:18 pm




Vietnam draws football with Thailand


QĐND – Monday, July 26, 2010, 21:37 (GMT+7)

Hosts Vietnam drew with Thailand 1-1 in their first match at the ASEAN Football Federation’s U19 Football Championship in HCM City on July 24.


The unexpected draw created enormous difficulties for Vietnam , as they have to play tough rivals Australia and the Republic of Korea (RoK) in the following matches.


In the opening game of the same day, Australia defeated RoK 1-0.


The tournament will last until July 30.


Both Vietnam and Thailand have qualified for the final round of the Asian U19 Football Championship in China in October.


Source: VNA


Source: QDND

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Malaysia mulls school for pregnant teens to curb dumping

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2010 at 3:18 pm

This photo taken on July 16, 2010 shows a tourist walking through a bar decorated with baloons for the weekend in Kuala Lumpur. AFP

KUALA LUMPUR, July 26, 2010 (AFP) – A Malaysian state is considering establishing a school for pregnant teenagers, to curb an alarming epidemic of “baby dumping”, a report said Monday.


The chief minister of Malacca state, Mohamad Ali Rustam, said according to the New Straits Times that the school was among strategies including encouraging pregnant girls to marry.


Only married teens will be allowed to attend the school.


“For unmarried teenagers, they also can be part of the school but with one condition — they must marry the baby’s father,” Ali said.


Authorities in Muslim-majority Malaysia are grappling with the problem of rising numbers of abandoned infants, often dumped dead or dying in the streets or on rubbish dumps.


“This problem has become a disease of sorts. We cannot just turn our backs and think that this is not our problem,” Ali said according to the English-language daily.


“Baby dumping cases usually happen among the Muslim community as teenagers were desperate to conceal their pregnancies. Some of the girls were also disowned by their families,” he said.


“They do not perform abortions as this is prohibited in Islam. So, they take the shortcut to solve their problem by dumping their newborns. We do not want this to continue. It has to be stopped.”


The chief minister said Malacca was considering establishing a special school for pregnant girls to encourage them to continue with their education and to protect their unborn children.


“In the event normal schools cannot accept pregnant girls, we are going to build a school just for them,” he reportedly said, adding that youngsters from other states could also attend.


“This school will cater to those who are legitimately married.”

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Source: SGGP