[news] Brief news about VN

[AnHai Doan <anhai@cs.washington.edu>]

v 400 red-headed cranes in Tam Nong so far

Over 400 red-headed cranes have grouped in Tram Chim Bird Sanctuary in
Tam Nong District, Dong Thap Province. According to professionals,
during this rainy season, the sanctuary will receive a similar number of
cranes to those which found themselves here in 1996, the year when the
largest number of cranes gathered in Tam Nong.

v VND150 million for Vietnam Assistance Fund for Children 

The Vietnam Assistance Fund for Children has received VND150 million
worth of donations from the NA Committee of Social Affairs, the Labor
Union of Vietnam and the World Bank (WB). In particular, Vice President
of State Nguyen Thi Binh has donated VND1 million to the fund in her
personal capacity. On the occasion of the action month for children, the
fund has developed a wide range of activities, including 1,000 smiles
for children, 350 scholarships for children of war martyrs and invalids,
and organizing races for disadvantaged children. So far, the fund has
encouraged around 120 members to take part in the "VND1-million Club."  
 
v Fruit festival at Suoi Tien Cultural and Tourist Site

The cultural tourist site of Suoi Tien (Thu Duc District) is organizing
a fruit festival from June 1-9. The festival held to celebrate
Children's Day (June 1) and Doan Ngo Tet (the fifth day of the fifth
month of the lunar calendar), will include a wide range of fresh and
processed fruits from different parts of the country. A contest for
setting fruit-trays and making animal shapes with fruits, and a quiz on
fruits will also be held on this occasion.  

v Nursery schools badly needed in Cu Chi 

Cu Chi District (HCMC) presently has 21 communes and towns with around
7,000 children of nursery age; however, just four nurseries are
operational here with about 500 children. The remaining children are now
being kept at home. The district is now in need of assistance from the
city government and related agencies to build nurseries in its communes,
so that children of school age can go to school and their parents can
therefore have peace of mind when at work. 

v Vietnam's beauty spots to be introduced on Internet

A four-member film-making group of Mungo Park Company will come here
soon to make a program about Vietnam to be broadcast on the Internet,
said a source from the press department of the Foreign Ministry. This
aims to carry out a contract that the company has signed with Microsoft.
The undertaking will last from June 8-18 and is expected to cover famous
landscapes in Hanoi, Ha Long, Hue, Danang, Dalat, HCMC, and Tay Ninh. 

v Children's Fashion Show in Hanoi

Tuoi hon nhien (The Age of Innocence) is the name of a fashion show for
school pupils to be held in Hanoi Children's Palace from June 1-2. The
fashion show, the first to be held in Vietnam, is organized by the
Fashion Design Institute (Fadin), in coordination with Thieu Nien Tien
Phong and Hoa Hoc Tro newspapers, and Hanoi Children's Palace. More than
200 fashion designs made of locally-produced fabric by Vietnamese
garment factories will be introduced on this occasion.

v A Japanese man defends his associate doctoral thesis in Vietnam

The Literature Institute under the National Center of Social Sciences
and Humanities) recently organized a session for Mr. Hasebe Heikichi
(Japan) to defend his associate doctoral literary thesis entitled
"Japanese Culture and Literature - General Characteristics and Reception
from Personal Perspective." Mr. Heikichi, 76 years old, is a cultural
and economic activist in Japan. He has received doctoral diplomas from
Hungarian and Mongolian national universities, and lead many cultural
and educational organizations in Japan.

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