Vietnam to Release 21 Foreigners on Amnesty

Mon, 08/29/2005 - 12:47

Twenty-one foreigners are among 10,428 inmates to receives pardons Vietnam’s President Tran Duc Luong in the largest-ever amnesty to mark the 60th Sept. 2 National Day, an official announced Monday.

The foreigners to be freed include two Chinese, four Americans, five Cambodians, three Malaysians, four Taiwanese, one South Korean, a Laotian and a Cameroonian, said Nguyen Van Bich, deputy director of the Presidential Office at a press conference in Hanoi.

US Offer $220,000 in Disaster Relief to Central Provinces

The US will provide US$222,000 in emergency disaster relief to Vietnam’s southern central provinces in response to what is being considered the worst drought to afflict Vietnam in 30 years.
According to a press release of the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, the assistance will be provided to Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces through the US Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

Vietnam to Free up Aviation Sector: Report

Fri, 08/26/2005 - 14:03

Vietnam plans to open up its state-controlled aviation sector to outside investors, including foreigners, allowing them to set up airlines and build more airports, local media quoted a government minister as saying.

"Our policy is to open wide the door to all economic sectors, including foreigners, to develop airports, airlines and all other aviation-related services," Transport Minister Dao Dinh Binh was quoted as saying in a report published on Friday.

"Veterans for Peace" Oppose Senate Concurrent Resolution 17 in the California Legislature

OPPOSING SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 17 IN THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE

Passed August 6, 2005

WHEREAS the war in Vietnam ended in April 1975;

WHEREAS from 1975 to the present, the United States Government has accepted over a million of refugees and immigrants from Vietnam, and now with their children, the Vietnamese-American community is approaching two million people, the majority of whom are now citizens;

Vietnam's Top Banks Kick off New Net Services

Tue, 08/16/2005 - 16:27

Vietnam's three leading commercial banks said beginning on August 15 they will offer a series of e-banking services in a bid to attract more customers.

The East Asian Bank (EAB) said starting today it would provide internet banking services at http://ebanking.eab.com.vn, enabling customers to access account balance and transaction information.

In the near future, the services would include online transactions and utilities payments, the bank said.

No US Resettlement Offered to Central Highlands Returnees

The US has not offered stateside resettlement to 94 ethnic minority Vietnamese migrants, who returned to the Central Highlands from Cambodia in July 2005, according to the US Embassy in Hanoi.

In a press release, the US Embassy noted that the minority Vietnamese migrants were peacefully resettled in accordance with the terms of an agreement between UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Royal Cambodian government and the government of Vietnam.

US, Vietnam Further Cooperate in Fighting Bird Flu

A US delegation was visiting Vietnam to explore new avenues of cooperation between the two countries to combat avian influenza, said a press release by the US Embassy on Monday.

Mr. Stewart Simonson, Assistant Secretary for Public Health Preparedness, US Department of Health and Human Services, led the delegation on a visit to Vietnam August 14-17, the press release said.

The mission would meet with officials from the Vietnamese Ministries of Health and Agriculture and Rural Development.

US Adopted Overseas Vietnamese Returns Home to Lend a Hand

An overseas Vietnamese foster child of an American family joined in a children’s camp in central Hoi An ancient town to help disadvantaged kids in her home country.

Eighteen-year-old Mai Lynn is one of the nine adopted children Candace Abel and David Z. Abel, businesspeople from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania.

Mai, whose mother is mentally ill, stayed in an orphanage in northern Bac Giang province until she was eight, before being adopted by the philanthropist American family.

Charity trip

Remains of US Servicemen Killed in Vietnam Head Home

DaNang_064.jpgVietnam handed over Saturday the remains of five US servicemen killed in the American War and a box of personal effects to US representatives at Da Nang airport in the central region.

The remains and effects, which were initially examined in Ha Noi, will be flown to Hawaii for further identification.

US, Vietnam Experts Join Agent Orange Remediation Workshop

The US Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) would sponsor a workshop in Hanoi August 16-18 on destruction techniques for dioxins and chemicals associated with Agent Orange, the US Embassy announced Monday.

The remediation workshop aimed to share scientific and engineering experiences gained from environmental and engineering studies conducted in the United States at former herbicide orange storage and/or loading sites, the embassy said in a press release.

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