Landslide in Nghe An kills 16 quarry workers

A serious mountain slide occurred next to a quarry in Nghe An province’s Yen Thanh district 8 a.m. this morning, killing at least 16 workers and injuring 5 others, local authorities reported. The landslide broke out at the quarry’s rock mining site next to Len Co Mount in the district’s Nam Thanh commune. There were 40 workers at that scene when the slide broke out. Of these, 35 were buried by about 1,000 cubic meters of rocks, said Colonel Nguyen Huu Cau, deputy director of the Nghe An province Police Department. Of the buried workers, 16 have been found dead, including 7 women, he said. Those who died at the scene include Truong Ngoc Manh, Nguyen Thi Quyen, Phan Cong Mai, Ngo Tri An, Nguyen Dinh Phu, Phan Thi That, Nguyen Thi...

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Posted in: Society

Libya air raid 'killed civilians

Dr Suleiman Refardi said a missile hit a truck carrying ammunition, sending out shrapnel Seven civilians died and 25 were hurt in a coalition air strike on a pro-Gaddafi convoy in eastern Libya, a doctor there has told the BBC. Dr Suleiman Refardi said Wednesday's raid happened in the village of Zawia el Argobe, 15km (9 miles) from Brega. The strike hit a truck carrying ammunition, and the resulting explosion destroyed two nearby homes. All the dead were between the ages of 12 and 20, Dr Refardi said. Nato says it is investigating the claim. The news comes as the chairman of the rebel Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, said it would agree to a ceasefire if Col Muammar Gaddafi's troops withdrew from cities. "We agree...

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Posted in: Politics

Scientists Reach Beyond the Clouds With a Mobile Phone App to Explore the Outer Atmosphere

ScienceDaily  — Engineering scientists at the University of Southampton have reached above the clouds in a first-of-its-kind experiment to develop new technologies that probe the stratosphere using an unmanned vehicle. The test flight was part of the ASTRA (Atmospheric Science Through Robotic Aircraft) project, and it demonstrated how a low-cost high altitude platform could be used to send a payload with atmospheric monitoring equipment into the upper atmosphere. The balloon-borne aircraft harnessed the power of 'cloud computing' using an on-demand computing and storage resource, via the GSM mobile phone network. Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing resources and services on demand via the Internet. University scientists worked with Microsoft and University spin-out...

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Posted in: Science

Four New Features Coming to Ubuntu 11.04 'Natty Narwhal'

The combination of Ubuntu Linux's growing popularity with all the big changes coming up in the next version mean that Natty Narwhal, or Ubuntu 11.04, might just be the most widely and anxiously anticipated release of the open source operating system ever. Due to launch officially on April 28, Natty Narwhal will be the first version of Ubuntu to reflect a number of radical changes. The Wayland graphics system won't be ready in time, but 3D-enabled Unity has already replaced the GNOME shell as the default desktop interface, for example. A 2D version of Unity is also available, and Ubuntu 11.04 uses the Compiz window manager rather than Mutter by default. LibreOffice is now included, and a raft of other changes are planned...

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Posted in: Computer

Very very strawberry

Being not only one of the most popular flavors for ice creams and jams, strawberry can also act as a diuretic, cool the body and support treatment for various ailments including tuberculosis, rheumatism, gout and high bloo.  Once known in tropical countries as one of the most popular flavors for ice creams and jams, but almost never eaten fresh, strawberries have become more easily available and are consumed in many forms nowadays, including in alcoholic drinks. But there is more than color, flavor and taste to this sour-sweet red fruit. It acts as a diuretic, cools the body and supports treatment for various ailments including tuberculosis, rheumatism, gout and high blood pressure because it contains ellagic...

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Posted in: Health

Radiation reaches Vietnam, no health risk: experts

Greenpeace radiation expert Jacob Namminga of the Netherlands checks his colleague's boots for traces of radioactivity during decontamination procedures in Kawamata, 60km from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, on March 26. The radiation leaking from Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant has reached Vietnam over the past several days but the levels are so small that there is no health risk, authorities say. Dang Thanh Luong, vice director of the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety under the Ministry of Science and Technology said that the ionizing radiation, iodine-131, was detected in the air in Hanoi on March 28. “The iodine-131 level was 500,000 times below the level...

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Posted in: Society

Gates Defends Action in Libya

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (L) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen testify at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Operation Odyssey Dawn and U.S. Military Operations in Libya, Mar 31 2011 Several influential congressional leaders have spoken out against the United States arming Libyan rebels, warning that too little is known about what they really stand for. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates conceded to the panel that the rebels are not a well-known or cohesive unit."To be honest, other than a relative handful of leaders, we do not have much visibility into those who have risen against Gadhafi," said Gates. "But I think that in a way speaking of the quote unquote opposition is a misnomer....

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Posted in: Politics

Exits are natural part of private equity business

Thomas Lanyi, Investment Director of Mekong Capital Year to date, the stock market has remained volatile given the economic uncertainty, with the VN-Index shedding about 5%. Foreign funds have found it hard to raise capital here in the domestic stock market as a result. The Saigon Times Daily had an email exchange with Thomas Lanyi, investment director of Mekong Capital, over the outlook of the market. Excerpts: The Saigon Times Daily: The stock market has been fluctuating since 2008. How long will this situation last given the current macro economy of Vietnam? - Thomas Lanyi: How long the market’s volatility will last is hard to predict. Sensitivity of the local and foreign investor to macro-economic developments, whether it be inflation,...

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Posted in: Business

Metro to develop integrated fish chain

HCMC – German-invested wholesale chain operator Metro Cash & Carry looks set to build up a high quality integrated fresh fish chain for the Vietnamese domestic market. Customers inspect fish at Metro An Phu store's fresh fish section The company on Wednesday organized a seminar to introduce a buying project for the Mekong Delta’s aquaculture produce and a METROGAP project in the domestic fish supply chain. Metro plans to set up a fish buying station in the Mekong Delta and launch METROGAP standards for domestic fish suppliers. The seminar was to raise fish farm owners’ awareness of the need to improve the quality of their fish production and of the benefits the project will bring to them. Some 150 fish farm owners in the delta...

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Posted in: Business

Billions dollar worth of jewelries exported to Switzerland

Billions dollar worth of high-grade jewelries have been exported in the last two years from Vietnam to Switzerland, where the jewelries are smelted to get gold. The Financial Times has reported that there has been a growing tendency over the past two years that Vietnamese businessmen have been trying to export high-grade gold jewelry to Switzerland as a trick to “dodge” the current laws which prohibits bullion gold exports. In Switzerland, the jewelries are smelted and then cast into bullion gold. Vietnamese businessmen want to export jewelry to Switzerland because the country in the north of Europe is famous for the smelting industry which can turn all gold-made products into gold bullions with international standards. Statistics showed that before 2008, Vietnam only exported...

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Posted in: Business,Vietnam

Maritime Bank to prioritize loans for core business projects

HCMC – Maritime Bank will prioritize lending to corporate clients, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), to implement projects within their core business areas. Nguyen Dinh Tung, deputy general director of Maritime Bank, told reporters in HCMC on Tuesday that the bank was restructuring its credit portfolio with more loans for SMEs operating in the manufacturing sector. Tung said Maritime Bank was preparing to launch some loan packages with preferential interest rates for SMEs in dire need of funds for their production. He told the Daily that the planned interest rates could be 1-2 percentage points lower than market levels and that the bank would manage to reduce operational costs and increase profitability from...

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Posted in: Business

Microsoft takes Google complaint to EU

Microsoft is to take an anti-competition complaint against Google to the European Commission. Microsoft claims that Google has tried to restrict its growth in the search market The software maker claims that Google used its dominant position in the search market to restrict the growth of Microsoft services. It cites a number of practices, including Google limiting the ability of Microsoft Bing to index web content. Google said it was not surprised by the move and would happily explain itself. In a detailed blog, Microsoft's general counsel, Brad Smith, outlined the company's grievances. He wrote: "Our filing today focuses on a pattern of actions that Google has taken to entrench its dominance in the markets for online search and search...

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Posted in: Computer,Science

Ivory Coast: 'Heavy fighting' near Gbagbo residence

Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN's special representative for Ivory Coast: ''The countdown has started'' There has been heavy fighting in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, between forces loyal to the UN-recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, and supporters of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. Witnesses have reported hearing intense gunfire near Mr Gbagbo's residence, while Mr Ouattara's supporters say they have taken control of state television. His government earlier closed Ivory Coast's borders and declared a curfew. Mr Gbagbo has refused to relinquish the presidency since November's election. But the national army has put up almost no resistance since Mr Ouattara's supporters launched an offensive on Monday. ...

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Posted in: Politics

Diseases, rising costs wipe out pig farmers

High interest rates, epidemics, and rising feed prices are making life tough for pig farmers in the southeastern region. K., who owns a farm in Dong Nai with 2,000 sows, says the profession has never been as hard as it is today though pork prices are going up. “The price of pigs is increasing at a slower rate than that of animal feed,” he explains. “Since 90 percent of inputs for animal feed, such as soybean and corn, is imported, any change in global prices immediately affects the local price.” In 2008 K. established a modern pig farm with an investment of VND14 billion (US$666,000), which included a bank loan under the government’s demand stimulus program. He hoped to make a profit of VND100 million...

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Posted in: Business

Obama Hits Low Point in New Poll and Libya Does Not Help

A new public-opinion poll suggests trouble ahead for President Barack Obama and indicates most Americans oppose U.S. military involvement in Libya. President Barack Obama speaks about Libya at the National Defense University in Washington, March 28, 201 The monthly Quinnipiac University poll found voters oppose U.S. involvement in Libya by a margin of 47 to 41 percent, even though 65 percent in the same poll favor the use of force to protect Libyan civilians. The Quinnipiac poll was conducted mostly before President Obama’s Monday speech on Libya aimed at building domestic support. Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown tells VOA that the poll results make it clear that the president will have to continue to build support for any U.S....

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Posted in: Politics

Apps for Taking Inventory at Home

Compartments, left, $10, is tailored to Macs; Home Inventory is a $4.99 app for the iPhone It’s a logistical nightmare. At any moment there are several phones, computers, video game systems and other small electronics strewn around the floor of my home office, and many more in every other part of the house. As if that weren’t enough stuff, my family has too many other things: I’m a sucker for cooking equipment, my wife’s stash of yarn keeps the world’s shepherds in business (she’s a knitter), we both buy more books than we can read, and our baby is constantly showered with toys and clothes. Ascetic readers would advise us to pare down, to lead simple, joyful, stuff-free lives. But that’s not really my style; I’m a materialist...

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Posted in: Entertainment