"Chẳng kiếm chác được gì"

"Chẳng kiếm chác được gì" - đến cướp biển Somali cũng chê 3 đại gia xe hơi của Mỹ. Những tập đoàn này đã cầu cứu Chính phủ Mỹ. CEO của General Motors thống thiết nói rằng sự sống còn của ngành công nghiệp xe hơi liên quan đến toàn bộ nền kinh tế, song các nghị sĩ Mỹ vẫn lặng thinh.

"Hy vọng túi khí hoạt động". Ngành công nghiệp ôtô Mỹ sau khi Quốc hội im lặng trước lời cầu cứu của các hãng.

Tổng thống sắp mãn nhiệm Bush và Tổng thống đắc cử Obama đều mong chóng đến ngày ông Obama nhậm chức 20/1/2009. Nhưng tâm trạng của họ có lẽ khác nhau, nhất là với nền kinh tế được giới chuyên gia nhận định là đã suy thoái.

Cuối cùng thì giá xăng dầu đã giảm. Nhưng xem ra ôtô của người Mỹ, và cả nền kinh tế của họ, cũng không thể chạy như xưa.

Hệ quả mỗi khi người ta đưa ra một gói bảo lãnh (bailout) cho doanh nghiệp đang bên bờ phá sản...

Thực đơn của người Mỹ hiện có nhiều món nghe rất "thời sự" - subprime rib (sườn non - đồng âm với cho vay dưới chuẩn), black Tuesday sundae (mứt - ngày thứ ba đen tối của phố Wall khi Dow Jones mất tới gần 10%).

Bộ trưởng Tài chính Henry Paulson thay đổi "chiến thuật": cứ thử bỏ tiền ra bảo lãnh, được đến đâu, hay đến đó.

City hospital staff dispense drugs to patients in 19 seconds

Medical workers at Ho Chi Minh City’s Nhan Dan (People) Hospital 115 only spend about 19.2 seconds per patient to deliver medicines, a survey released by a group of doctors in the hospital Friday said.

It means they do not have time to instruct people how to use the medicines. The survey also said nearly half the patients do not know how to use them. Around 83 percent of 500 prescriptions surveyed contained drugs not considered essential by the Ministry of Health for treatment, while there was also a high proportion of drugs containing vitamins. Reported by Thanh Tung

Doctors re-identify intersex child’s gender

Doctors from a southern pediatrics hospital are conducting both testicular and ovarian tests on a six-year-old intersex child to identify his “real” sex, a doctor said on Wednesday.

V.B.N., from the Mekong Delta’s Soc Trang Province, was born with male genitalia, said Le Cong Thang, deputy head of the Surgery Department at Ho Chi Minh City’s Children Hospital No.1. But a chromosome test – known as a Karyotype test – showed that N. is female, Thang said. N. was then diagnosed as having ambiguous genitalia. At the same time, a five-year-old child in HCMC was released from the hospital after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The child, P.H.N.T., has the appearance of a girl but was born with undescended testicles. A Karyotype test identified T. as male. In August, Vietnam issued a ruling allowing transvestites, intersex individuals (formerly known as hermaphrodites), and those with congenital defects to have sex changes. Source: SGGP

Dengue fever hits nearly 1,700 in Hanoi

Nearly 1,700 Hanoi hospital patients have had dengue fever this year, the city’s Health Department has said.

The department said 89 percent of the patients were adults. But Dr. Can Phu Nhuan, head of the Examination Department at the Vietnam National Hospital of Pediatrics, said the number of child patients had increased dramatically over the last few days. The Pediatrics Hospital estimates that some 1,200 to 1,500 children have come to the hospital for examinations each day recently. Nhuan said children had been badly hit by diseases, including dengue, due to recent flooding in Hanoi and northern provinces. The floods have created stagnant bodies of water, perfect breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that spread the disease. The agency said 81 percent of the city’s current dengue patients are Hanoi residents, with the rest coming from nearby provinces. The fever has hit 170 communes and wards in the city’s 21 districts, the agency said. Twenty southern cities and provinces have seen a total of 69 deaths from 58,635 dengue fever cases this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute reported early this month. Source: SGGP

Tainted crackers to be sent back to Malaysia

A Ho Chi Minh City-based company has been ordered to return several shipments of crackers found to be contaminated with melamine, the industrial chemical at the center of China’s food safety scare.

The Ministry of Health instructed Hoang Phuc Huy Trading and Services Ltd. to send back three consignments of Cracker and Lexus brand crackers – around 44.7 tons – manufactured by Malaysia’s Munchy Food Industries Sdn. Bhd. When the company imported the first consignment in August, the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3 (QUATEST 3) tested the goods and approved the import, Nguyen Huu Nghiep, head of the Customs Office at Saigon Port Zone No.4, said on Tuesday. On November 4, QUATEST 3 discovered the food contained melamine, a chemical that authorities were not testing for until after the contaminated milk scandal broke in September. Source: Tuoi Tre

Doctors re-identify intersex child’s gender

Doctors from a southern pediatrics hospital are conducting both testicular and ovarian tests on a six-year-old intersex child to identify his “real” sex, a doctor said on Wednesday.

V.B.N., from the Mekong Delta’s Soc Trang Province, was born with male genitalia, said Le Cong Thang, deputy head of the Surgery Department at Ho Chi Minh City’s Children Hospital No.1. But a chromosome test – known as a Karyotype test – showed that N. is female, Thang said. N. was then diagnosed as having ambiguous genitalia. At the same time, a five-year-old child in HCMC was released from the hospital after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The child, P.H.N.T., has the appearance of a girl but was born with undescended testicles. A Karyotype test identified T. as male. In August, Vietnam issued a ruling allowing transvestites, intersex individuals (formerly known as hermaphrodites), and those with congenital defects to have sex changes. Source: SGGP

Discovered 15 years ago, rare mammal already endangered

An extremely rare mammal first discovered in Vietnam in 1992 may be close to extinction, conservationists warned.

Although there are no clear population statistics for the sao la (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has estimated that only around 70-1,000 live in the mountainous regions of Vietnam and neighboring Laos. The foundation said the number was likely to be less than 500. Already listed as critically endangered on the International Union of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)’s Red List, the elusive relative of the cow, buffalo and goat (Bovidea family) was listed as endangered in 1994, with its position moved to critical in 2005. Scientists have only had the chance to observe three individual sao la trapped by locals in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue. Other than that, they have looked as some bones, horns and several pictures. Red alert Park rangers in Thua Thien-Hue Province set a camera trap for sao la in the jungle. The critically endangered species, found only in Vietnam and Laos, has not been spotted for years. A report by the Green Corridor Projects, a program implemented by WWF Vietnam and Thua Thien-Hue Province on an area between Bach Ma National Park and Phong Dien Nature Reserve, said not a trace of sao la had been found in the area for more than two and a half years. The project was launched in 2004 to conserve the region’s wild flora and fauna systems. The report said the last traces of the animal, which were some footprints and half-eaten leaves, were found in March, 2006, in a Huong Nguyen Commune forest in A Luoi District. Scientists have set a number of camera traps but have failed to trace the animal. Though the A Roang jungle had previously been considered one of their main dwellings, none of the area’s camera traps have seen a sao la in months. Some experts said many sao la had probably been killed by rhinoceros and gaur (Bos gaurus) poachers by accident. Meanwhile, scientists and local authorities still hope to have the area repopulated with sao la. The provincial park rangers are currently working to set up a sao la protection area overlapping A Luoi, Nam Dong and Huong Thuy districts. The VND11-billion (US$646,000) project, expected to have a first phase completed in 2015, will comprise of an area of 8,206 hectares of strictly protected forest and a buffer zone of 16,574 hectares. Incredible discovery Scientists were stunned to see such a large mammal for the first time in the 1990s. Little is known about the elusive animal found in a relatively inaccessible habitat. The first trace of the species was a pair of horns found by Vietnamese zoologist Do Tuoc at a local house near Vu Quang Nature Reserve in Ha Tinh Province. He was accompanying a WWF research team at the time. The animal was then named Pseudoryx nghetinhensis. Nghetinhensis refers to the two north-central provinces of Nghe An and Ha Tinh. In 1996, many traces of the rare animal were reported in several Thua Thien-Hue Province districts. Provincial park rangers soon launched a campaign to learn more about the mammal. In January 1998, the first live sao la was chased by hounds and captured by locals in Thua Thien-Hue’s Huong Thuy District. However, the male adult sao la weighing 52 kilograms died before the park rangers’ arrived. Four months later, locals at A Roang Commune in A Luoi District caught a pregnant sao la, weighing between 70-80 kilograms. The animal was freed to its habitat after examinations by official agencies. In August 1999, local Nguyen Van Hinh of Huong Tra District found a baby sao la weighing around nine kilograms when he was cutting rattan in the nearby forest. However, the baby animal died eight days later after being handed to the Bach Ma National Park. Between 1998 and 2000, scientists mapped the population of sao la in the area, with support from WWF’s Indochina program. They estimated that a population of between 120 and 150 sao la may live in an area of around 58,000 hectares near the upper reaches of the Huong and Bo rivers in Thua Thien-Hue. ABOUT SAO LA ■ One of the world's rarest mammals. ■ The species is recognized by two parallel horns with sharp ends, which can reach 50 cm on both males and females. ■ Weight: about 100 kg (220 lb). ■ Habitat: moist evergreen forests with little or no dry season, in central Laos and Vietnam. All known locations for the species are mountainous with steep river valleys, covered by evergreen forests. ■ Diet: Villagers say that they eat the leaves of fig trees and other bushes along riverbanks. Reported by Bui Ngoc Long

FV hospital opens laser eye center

Ho Chi Minh City’s Franco-Vietnamese Hospital opened a laser eye center Tuesday.

FV Hospital General Director Dr. Jean-Marcel Guillon said the US$500,000 eye center would offer laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK) surgery. He said the hospital received some 1,000 patients with vision problems each month. Reported by Vinh Bao

Doctors re-identify intersex child’s gender

Doctors from a southern pediatrics hospital are conducting both testicular and ovarian tests on a six-year-old intersex child to identify his “real” sex, a doctor said on Wednesday.

V.B.N., from the Mekong Delta’s Soc Trang Province, was born with male genitalia, said Le Cong Thang, deputy head of the Surgery Department at Ho Chi Minh City’s Children Hospital No.1. But a chromosome test – known as a Karyotype test – showed that N. is female, Thang said. N. was then diagnosed as having ambiguous genitalia. At the same time, a five-year-old child in HCMC was released from the hospital after undergoing sex reassignment surgery. The child, P.H.N.T., has the appearance of a girl but was born with undescended testicles. A Karyotype test identified T. as male. In August, Vietnam issued a ruling allowing transvestites, intersex individuals (formerly known as hermaphrodites), and those with congenital defects to have sex changes. Source: SGGP

Liver transplant for Vietnam’s youngest receiver successful

A group of Vietnamese and Belgian doctors have successfully performed a liver transplant on a 10-month-old baby, the youngest beneficiary ever in Vietnam, said a doctor of the operation team Monday.

The donor was the mother, Le Thi Van Anh, who has regained consciousness. The baby, named Le Anh Minh Khue, is still on life support but scanning has shown the liver in the baby is functioning well, according to Dr. Tran Dong A of Children’s Hospital 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. A said the surgeons had a bit of a problem as the blood vessels in the mother and the baby are very different. Source: VNA

PM signs plan to boost food safety

Vietnam has come up with a national action plan to accelerate implementation of its commitments to the World Trade Organization’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Agreement (SPS).

Under the plan signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Monday, systemic supervision will assess the risk of food contamination and food-transmitted epidemics. The country will also develop a national program on forecasting insect attacks and epidemics on animals and plants, and take appropriate preventive measures to help minimize production losses. Due attention will be paid to postharvest handling of vegetables and fruits before exporting them, in accord with standards set in the SPS agreement. Vietnam became a WTO member on January 11, 2007. Reported by Xuan Toan

Tainted crackers to be sent back to Malaysia

A Ho Chi Minh City-based company has been ordered to return several shipments of crackers found to be contaminated with melamine, the industrial chemical at the center of China’s food safety scare.

The Ministry of Health instructed Hoang Phuc Huy Trading and Services Ltd. to send back three consignments of Cracker and Lexus brand crackers – around 44.7 tons – manufactured by Malaysia’s Munchy Food Industries Sdn. Bhd. When the company imported the first consignment in August, the Quality Assurance and Testing Center 3 (QUATEST 3) tested the goods and approved the import, Nguyen Huu Nghiep, head of the Customs Office at Saigon Port Zone No.4, said on Tuesday. On November 4, QUATEST 3 discovered the food contained melamine, a chemical that authorities were not testing for until after the contaminated milk scandal broke in September. Source: Tuoi Tre

Medicine prices surge in HCMC

A drugstore in Ho Chi Minh City. The costs of many medicines have increased by up to 30 percent recently. The price of some medicines have increased by up to 30 percent recently despite the drop in the prices of fuel and other commodities, a recent survey of medicine traders by Thanh Nien in Ho Chi Minh City found.

Of the popular medicines, painkiller Efferalgan has increased by 12 percent from VND30,000 (US$1.77) to VND33,700 ($2) per box; Upsa C (vitamin C) by 14.6 percent from VND24,000 ($1.41) to VND27,500 ($1.62) per tube; calcium supplement Rocaltrol by 32 percent from VND97,000 ($5.72) to VND128,000 ($7.55) per box; contraceptive pill Mercilon by 11.5 percent from VND61,000 ($3.60) to VND68,000 ($4) per box. The retail price of these drugs will be between 7 and 10 percent higher. The prices of some domestic traditional medicines have also increased by between 20 - 36 percent. According to many wholesalers, medicine prices have increased during the past two weeks, with some imported drugs rising by 10 to 8 percent, and traditional medicines by 15 - 30 percent. Head of the Health Ministry’s Drug Administration, Truong Quoc Cuong, said the recent increase in medicine prices was acceptable, based on approvals made in July and August. “Actually, the medicine prices weren’t allowed to rise during the increase in other products,” he said, referring to a decision to control the prices from March to June this year. “When the medicine price was controlled, many companies had to face several difficulties from high interest rates, delayed payment from medical centers and increased market prices while they had to follow contracted prices,” he said. Cuong also said the administration had received requests to increase prices on 1,223 imported medicines from 93 pharmaceutical companies since July, of which increases to 247 medicines were approved. The approved ones accounted for 1.23 percent of medicines in the market with an average increase rate of 6.51 percent, he said. Cuong said the provincial health departments would be in charge of controlling domestic medicine prices. However, Cuong said he expected medicine prices to be more stable than in the recent past, because of lower interest rates and US dollar values, compared to earlier this year. Reported by Thanh Tung – Lien Chau

Vietnam faces growing female shortage

Around three million Vietnamese men will have difficulty finding wives by 2030 due to the rising gender imbalance, health officials told a conference in Ho Chi Minh City Wednesday.

At the population and family planning conference organized by the Ministry of Health, a report revealed that the current proportion of males to females nationwide is 1.12 to 1. In some localities, the gap is as wide as 1.28 to 1. Statistics show the gender imbalance has been increasing over the years and the General Department of Population and Family Planning predicts the trend will continue. Reported by Thanh Tung

Orphan with facial tumor to consult with US doctors

An 11-year-old Vietnamese orphan with a massive growth on his face has been offered help by US experts after a Canadian hospital said removing the tumor would be too risky.

Pham Hoang Son was brought to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children in July 2007 by the Ottawa-based Children’s Bridge Foundation. Foundation President Olwyn Walter said after Son left the hospital, she received a letter from Dr. Milton Waner, co-director of the New York-based Vascular and Birthmarks Institute, saying he thought he could help the boy. Waner said Son’s benign tumor could pose a serious health risk, and even threaten his life, as early as Son’s teen years. The Toronto hospital had previously concluded that the growth was not life-threatening. Boston Hospital has also agreed to provide medical tests for the Vietnamese orphan. Son, who suffers from a facial hemangioma – a benign tumor of blood vessels – was abandoned by his parents at the age of three. An orphanage in the northern province of Hai Duong has raised him since. Source: VNA

Dengue fever claims 69 lives in southern region

Twenty southern cities and provinces have seen a total of 69 deaths from 58,635 dengue fever cases this year, the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute said yesterday.

HCMC has seen 11,648 cases, followed by Ca Mau Province with 6,655 and Dong Nai Province with 5,744. Binh Duong Province has seen 10 fatalities, the highest in the country, from a total of 3,916 dengue fever patients. The number of cases and deaths is smaller compared to the same period last year, but figures are expected to rise in the remaining months of the year. By QUANG MINH NHAT

Over 9,000 girls to be vaccinated against cervical cancer by 2010

Around 9,200 11-year-old girls in Vietnam will receive a free vaccine to prevent cervical cancer by 2010, a representative from the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE) has said.

Under the project sponsored by the non-profit international health organization PATH, girls from several districts in central Thanh Hoa Province and the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho City will be given three shots of Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The vaccine series costs around US$300. The project is scheduled to begin this week, with inoculations conducted at local health centers and schools. It marks a significant step to introduce the vaccine into Vietnam’s Expanded Program on Immunization after 2010, NIHE Head Nguyen Tran Hien said. The program currently offers 10 vaccines, including measles and hepatitis B. HPV vaccine prevents infection of certain species of HPV associated with the development of cervical cancer and genital warts. Cervical cancer is one of the leading cancer-related causes of death in Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Health. It is estimated that 17 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and nine die from the disease every day. Worldwide there are an estimated 470,000 new cases of cervical cancer that result in 233,000 deaths per year, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in July. Established in Vietnam in the early 1980s, PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) works in many fields, including maternal and newborn health, child survival, immunization, reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, and tuberculosis. With an office in Hanoi since 1997, PATH has completed more than 35 projects in Vietnam to date. Source: VNA, SGGP

Science in the News - Fat Cell Gene May Reduce Colon Cancer Risk

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell about a fat cell gene linked to colon cancer. We will also tell about new developments in the fight against the disease tuberculosis. And, we will tell about something new at America's Smithsonian Institution.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A new study has found that a fat cell gene may reduce the risk of colon cancer in some people. The study provides what scientists say is the first evidence of a genetic link between a fat cell gene and colon cancer. The finding could lead to better tests for the disease and measures to help prevent it.

Current evidence suggests a relationship between obesity, insulin resistance and colon cancer risk. The scientists say what they have found now is an area of a gene that is connected with the cancer risk. They say this area is most likely not the cause of the disease. But they think it is where the connection comes from.

VOICE TWO:

The gene is involved in the formation of a hormone called adiponectin. Some people have higher levels of this hormone in their blood. Others have lower levels. Higher levels have been linked with lower rates of obesity and insulin resistance. Lower levels have been linked with higher rates.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published the findings last month.

Colon cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths. Every year it kills almost six hundred eighty thousand people around the world. And, doctors find more than one million new cases each year. The disease is highly treatable if discovered early.

VOICE ONE:

The research involved two studies with a total of about one thousand five hundred people. The larger of the two studies involved New Yorkers of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Colon cancer is more common in Jews of eastern European ancestry than in the general population. The other study involved people of different ethnicities from Chicago, Illinois.

Currently, American medical experts advise colonoscopy tests for colon cancer to begin at the age of fifty. A colonoscopy can find and remove growths before they become cancerous. But the test is invasive and can be uncomfortable.

An earlier study expressed support for a test called a virtual colonoscopy. It uses X-ray and computer technology to search for growths, but cannot remove them.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

An estimated one-third of all people are infected with tuberculosis. Most have latent, or inactive, cases. They do not suffer coughing, increased body temperature or other signs of active TB.

But each year, about nine million people develop active cases and two million die. The victims are mostly poor and live in developing countries. TB is an ancient bacterial disease. It can be cured with antibiotics, if patients take all their medicine.

VOICE ONE:

For the past century, a skin test has been used to identify latent TB. When cases are found, treatment can prevent many from becoming active. But the preventive drugs have a risk of side effects.

The skin test depends on the body's reaction to an injection of specially prepared TB protein. But the test often falsely identifies people as having latent TB if they have been vaccinated against the disease.

VOICE TWO:

To avoid needless treatment, scientists have developed a blood test. This test is designed to identify patients with a high risk of developing the active form of TB.

An international team developed the blood test, called ELISpot. A study showed that the ELISpot blood test identifies latent TB while giving fewer false positive results.

The researchers say the ELISpot test has been suggested for use in about twenty countries worldwide. A report on the test appeared last month in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

VOICE ONE:

In another development, scientists have reported a step toward a better vaccine against TB. One currently used is seventy-five years old. The new, experimental vaccine contains a weakened TB bacterium from a strain of the current vaccine. The scientists say their study showed that the experimental vaccine created stronger reactions against TB than the traditional one.

But the new vaccine contains an antibiotic-resistant gene that the scientists do not want released into the environment. So future tests of the vaccine are not planned. But research will continue on a similar one that does not contain the gene.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

From space, our planet looks blue. Earth, after all, is mostly covered with water -- an ocean planet. In September, an exhibit about the oceans opened at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit explores the beauty and mystery hidden under the sea. It uses the Smithsonian's huge collection of underwater life to show that all life on our planet is in some way connected to its oceans.

The first thing that a visitor sees is a huge reproduction of a North American Right Whale. It is a model of Phoenix, a whale that scientists have studied since she was born near the coast of Georgia in nineteen eighty-seven. There are only four hundred of these right whales left. They were once considered the "right whale" to hunt because they are big and slow. Phoenix is the biggest of ninety-seven models in the exhibit.

VOICE ONE:

Near the top of the museum's Sant Ocean Hall are eight huge video screens showing images of underwater life. The video images give the sensation that visitors are surrounded with marine life. The room is also alive with technology. Twenty-four computer stations show videos and educational programs.

Among the rarest sights at the exhibit are two giant squids. These secretive creatures live hundreds of meters beneath the sea. No one had even seen a living giant squid before scientists captured one on video in two thousand four. But the Hall has two, both preserved in a special, clear liquid. The largest one is more than seven meters long. It was caught near Spain three years ago and loaned to the Smithsonian.

VOICE TWO:

For all the big creatures at the exhibit, there are hundreds of smaller ones of interest. Many glass containers hold preserved animal remains that were taken from the museum's collection. With eighty million objects, the Smithsonian's marine collection is the largest in the world.

Visitors can also look back in time. There is an example of a coelacanth. The coelacanth swam the ocean sixty-five million years ago. Scientists thought it had disappeared from the Earth. But this ancient-looking fish was discovered living near the coast of South Africa in nineteen thirty-eight. Scientists consider it a living fossil.

VOICE ONE:

Sharks are of interest to many visitors. They create feelings of both fear and wonder. Visitors can see the huge jaws of sharks lined with sharp teeth. There are also examples of sharks gathered from the deep ocean. They caught the attention of Elim Babylon. He visited the Sant Ocean Hall with his grandmother, Sally Babylon.

ELIM BABYLON: "I really like the one back there, like the deep sea, sea one. It's really cool because it has all these sharp teeth."

SALLY BABYLON: "We want to share this kind of thing with him and we want to make him a better steward. I just want to pass on to him both my appreciation of the beauty of it and also the care that it takes."

Not everything in the exhibit is preserved. There is a four-hundred-liter tank that contains over fifty kinds of brightly colored fish and other sea life. The tank is designed to look like a coral reef in the Indian or Pacific Ocean.

VOICE TWO:

It is difficult to believe that some of the creatures shown at the exhibit come from our own planet. A video, for example, shows organisms that live near the ocean bottom where volcanic activity heats the water to hundreds of degrees. Even at these hot volcanic vents, bacteria survive using the poisonous chemical hydrogen sulfide to create food.

However, human beings are connected to the ocean in more ways than we know. Very small ocean plants called phytoplankton create more than half of the world's oxygen. And it is the ocean that powers the Earth's weather. The exhibit also examines the human connection to the oceans. It explores issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change. Each is designed to bring visitors a deeper knowledge of a largely unexplored territory -- our oceans.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Mario Ritter, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Our producer was Dana Demange. I'm Bob Doughty.

Surfing violent websites linked to violent behavior

Young people exposed to violent media are more likely to lash out violently themselves, new research published in Pediatrics shows.

"Our findings add to the growing evidence that violence in the media is related to aggressive behavior, including seriously violent behavior among youths," Dr. Michele L. Ybarra of Internet Solutions for Kids in Santa Ana, California and her colleagues report. The researchers examined the relationship between media violence and "seriously violent behavior," defined as shooting or stabbing someone, robbing someone, or committing aggravated assault or sexual assault, in a survey of 1,588 young people 10 to 15 years old. The average age was 13 years old and 48 percent were girls. Five percent of those surveyed reported having engaged in some type of seriously violent behavior over the past year, while 38 percent said they had visited at least one type of violent website. With each additional type of violent website a study participant reported viewing, the likelihood of violent behavior increased by 50 percent. Young people who said that "many, most or all" of the Internet sites they frequented featured "real people fighting, shooting or killing" were five-times more likely than their peers who didn't visit violent websites to engage in seriously violent behavior. The odds of violent behavior also rose with the number of types of violent media a young person consumed, but the effect of violent TV, movies, music, games or Internet cartoons was much smaller than that of Internet violence depicting real people. The interactive nature of the Web may be behind its apparently more powerful influence when compared with types of violent media, Ybarra and colleagues suggest. But the current study doesn't answer the question of whether violent media is turning kids violent, whether violence-prone youth are more likely to seek out violence on the Internet, or "more probably," whether a bit of both is going on, the researchers say. Source: Reuters

Girls still sick after tetanus shots in Vung Tau

About ten school girls from Nguyen Du High School in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Chau Duc District were still sick after receiving tetanus vaccines on October 1, a school official said Thursday.

According to headmaster Tran Van Hoa, after the district’s Ngai Giao Town medical center gave 186 school girls tetanus shots, 12 students found it difficult to breathe and were admitted to Chau Duc District Healthcare Center. Some of them were still experiencing difficulty breathing and body tremors, Hoa said. The cause has still not been found, Hoa said. Reported by Nguyen Long

Teen pregnancy linked to sexy TV shows: study

Exposure to some forms of entertainment is a corrupting influence on children, leading teens who watch sexy programs into early pregnancies and children who play violent video games to adopt aggressive behavior.

Researchers at the RAND research organization said their three-year study was the first to link viewing of racy television programming with risky sexual behavior by teens. "We're not saying we're establishing causation, but we are saying this is one factor that we were able to prospectively link to the teen pregnancy outcome," said Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist who led the research at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. The researchers recruited adolescents aged 12-17 and surveyed them three times between 2001 and 2004, asking about television viewing habits, sexual behavior and pregnancy. In findings that covered 718 teenagers, there were 91 pregnancies. The top 10th of adolescents who watched the sexiest programming were at double the risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy compared to the 10th who watched the fewest such programs, according to the study published in the journal Pediatrics. The study focused on 23 free and cable television programs popular among teenagers including situation comedies, dramas, reality programs and animated shows. Comedies had the most sexual content and reality programs the least. "The television content we see very rarely highlights the negative aspects of sex or the risks and responsibilities," Chandra said. "So if teens are getting any information about sex they're rarely getting information about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases." Teen pregnancy on decline Teen pregnancy rates in the US have declined sharply since 1991 but remain high compared to other industrialized nations. Nearly one million girls aged 15-19 years old become pregnant yearly, or about 20 percent of sexually active females in that age group. Most of the pregnancies were unplanned, the report said. Young mothers are more likely to quit school, require public assistance and live in poverty, it said. "We should also look at the roles that magazines, the Internet and music play in teens' reproductive health," Chandra said, acknowledging still other factors can influence teen sex habits. Living in a two-parent family reduced the chances of a teen getting pregnant or causing a pregnancy. The report suggested broadcasters provide more realistic portrayals of the consequences of sex and that parents limit their children's access to sexually explicit programming. Source: Reuters

Prescription puzzles try patients’ patience

Ho Chi Minh City Health Department inspectors inspect a local clinic that sells unlabeled medicine. Doctors in Ho Chi Minh City are ripping off their patients by overcharging for medicines they are not authorized to sell.

They are also writing illegible prescriptions to force patients to buy their drugs from their clinics or recommended pharmacies. When N.M.T. took his mother, who suffers from back pain, to Dr. Hoang Lan’s clinic in District 3, he was charged VND150,000 (US$9) for the examination and four doses of medicine, he told Thanh Nien. “Things were the same when I took my mother there the second time,” T. said, adding that he had asked Lan to write a note so his mother’s cardiologists knew what other medicine she was using. When his mother’s face started swelling a day later, T. took the note and the medicine to several pharmacies, who all told him the same thing – that although the note had the name of an expensive brand, the medicine he had bought was a cheap brand that should only cost VND6,000 (36 cents) for four doses. T. returned to Lan’s clinic and the doctor apologized. A doctor, identified as V.D.T., from Children Hospital No. 1 uses another trick. He sells medicine to patients butthe directions he writes to accompany the medicine is not written clearly enough, so the patients can’t tell which drug they have bought. Klamentin, used to treat respiratory inflammation, costs VND13,000 (77 cents) a tablet if the drug is made overseas, more than three times the locally-produced brand. Meanwhile, sabutamol, priced at VND200 (1 cent) a tablet, is often written to look like ventoline, a French-made drug priced at VND3,000 (18 cents) a tablet. Both treat respiratory conditions. Many patients don’t know which medicine they are taking because the doctor removes most of the labels. Dr. V.D.T. was punished by inspectors from the HCMC Health Department when they discovered many unlabeled medicines at his clinic. He also used abbreviations like Ben for the anti-inflammatory Betalestin or AC for paracetamol. An unnamed pharmacist in District 10 said he usually received prescriptions with abbreviations, leaving him to guess the drug names by reading some of their letters and asking the patients’ symptoms. Many abbreviations are so difficult to figure out that the patients have nooption but to buy the medicine from the doctors or the drugstores the doctors have recommended, according to the pharmacist. “They will never know whether they are buying at a reasonable price then.” Another doctor from a state hospital, who wanted to remain anonymous, said almost all doctors depended on the sale of drugs to boost their income, even though they are only authorized to examine the patients and write prescriptions. “The authorities know this but they ignore it and just impose a penalty when people complain too much.” “Some doctors write beautifully but not when they prescribe and it’s not simply because they are in a rush,” said a private hospital doctor who did not wish to be named. Pharmacist T. said he recently “surrendered” over a prescription of doctor N.T.T. in District 11, which includes the name “Ald 250.” “I have never seen that symbol in my dozens of years running a drugstore,” he said. “It’s likely to be an antibiotic but I’m better off not selling anything. It’s dangerous.” Patient N.V.T.B. could not find any pharmacy that could understand her doctor’s prescription. According to Dr N.H. of People’s 115 Hospital, these doctors are violating medical regulations when giving prescriptions without the most necessary information. “It’s irresponsible and unfair to the patients.” N.N.L., now working for a drugstore in Tan Binh District, said many patients went to hospitals to be examined but then had to run to drugstores to check the directions for taking the medicine. “The doctors’ writing cannot be read and the hospitals’ drugstore workers just don’t have time to instruct,” she said. Reported by Thanh Tung

Tests prove seafood firm’s pollution offense

Environment police in Mekong Delta city of Can Tho Friday received test results confirming the An Do Duong Company has dumped untreated wastewater into a local river.

The seafood processing firm, located in an industrial park in Thot Not District, had released waste with toxicity far exceeding permitted levels into the Hau River through an underground pipe. The lubricant content in the waste was 150 times the authorized level; the COD (chemical oxygen demand) exceeded acceptable levels 21 times; and phosphorous by 10 times, the results reveal. Earlier, on October 17, the firm was caught red-handed dumping reddish colored, malodorous, untreated waste directly into the river. Its underground pipe was measured at being able to discharge thousands of cubic meters of wastewater. In related news, the Taiwanese-invested monosodium glutamate maker Vedan, who was caught dumping waste through underground pipes, uninstalled 1,059 meters of pipe, said Le Viet Hung, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dong Nai Province where the firm is located. However, two bigger pipes three meters below the surface have not been removed despite instructions from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to completely disassemble the pipe system. Reported by Mai Tram

Inspectors blame union leader for selling university land

A sign showing the planned HCMC National University housing project in the city’s District 9. The university’s union chair and chief project manager had already sold land to non-union members before the project was announced. Government inspectors have accused the former chairman of the HCMC National University union of involving in the wrongful sale of union-owned land to 516 non-union members in 2001.

The inspectors said that from early July to late August 2001, the former union chairman and chief project manager, Vu Dinh Chinh, sold over 34 hectares of union land in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 9, half of which was to people outside the university. Under decision No. 222 issued in 2004 by HCMC People’s Committee, 80.8 hectares of land in Phu Huu Ward was transferred to the union to carry out a housing project for university officials and teachers. The union was supposed to publicly select the candidates to invest in the project, according to the decision. But Chinh, who has now retired, had sold the land to outsiders in 2001 knowing that it was earmarked for the 2004 project, according to the inspectors. The non-university people who unwittingly bought the land were angered by the false terms under which they bought the land through Chinh. Unlike university officials and teachers, the land buyers didn’t have to register to be selected for the project, but met directly with Chinh and his then subordinate, Le Thi Thanh Thuy, to buy the plots. Chinh has violated legal regulations about land and construction management, government vice chief inspector, Le Tien Hao, reported to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Documents that the union sent to the project investors after Chinh signed contracts with the outsiders, didn’t mention the 2001 sales worth VND184.8 billion (US$11 million). “We lacked experience and we just approached the matter in a simple way,” Chinh explained. “We intended to use the money from people outside the university to compensate the original residents,” he said. The wrongdoing was first revealed in 2006 by HCMC inspectors, but government inspectors intervened this year to investigate the matter. Hao suggested that the Prime Minister order the director of HCMC National University to punish Chinh and other officials involved in the case and said the university leaders had to take full responsibility for not taking action sooner. To comply with an order from HCMC inspectors, Nguyen Huu Tin, vice chairman of HCMC People’s Committee, in 2007 decided to revoke the plots that Chinh had sold to outsiders and return their money. But the buyers expressed their anger at a meeting with the project managers in September last year. “We want land, not money,” Van Minh, one of the buyers from outside the university, said at the meeting. “Without us, the project couldn’t be carried out,” said another buyer Le Cong Tuyen, adding that the university was too small financially to carry out the project for 3,788 houses without outsiders’ money. “We believed too much in the university leaders,” said buyer Duc Toan at the meeting. “If they had said the project was only for university insiders, we wouldn’t have dared to join in.” They originally paid VND750,000 ($44.60) for a square meter of land in the project, then the price was raised to VND1.25 million ($74) and “we’re about to receive nothing,” Toan said. Another buyer Nguyen Duc Duy said he signed a valid contract, entitling him to “a plot with finished infrastructure.” Nguyen Thi Du from HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment said it was right to revoke the land that was sold to the wrong people. “It is up to the university leaders to solve the problem in a way that satisfies the buyers,” she said. Government inspectors, however, suggested the Prime Minister order the project to continue and let the outsiders keep the land, providing they only have one plot per person to prevent land speculation. Vietnam does not technically allow land ownership but grants land-use rights, which confer the same rights as freehold property. Reported by Minh Nam

New driving license conditions criticized

The Ministry of Justice has called for a delay in the introduction of height and weight restrictions on driving licenses.

Ministry of Justice spokesman Le Hong Son said the proposed new restrictions, announced by the Ministry of Health last month, were discriminatory and unconstitutional. Son said such restrictions should have been jointly agreed on by the ministries of Health, Justice, Transport and Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Under the Ministry of Health’s proposed new rules, people who weigh less than 40 kilograms (88 lbs) or are less than 145 centimeters (4’9”) tall will be banned from holding an A1 motorbike license, regardless of age. The decision, which was to take effect 15 days after it appeared in the official gazette, also set a minimum height for holders for car driving licenses of 150 centimeters (4’11”). More than 80 other conditions, including those relating to mental health, heart conditions and vision, were also included in the decision. Ministry of Health’s Treatment Department Deputy Director Tran Quy Tuong said on Sunday his office was yet to receive any official documents from the Ministry of Justice. Tuong refused to comment on the issue, apart from saying the ministry planned to convene a meeting to discuss the proposed new license requirements, adding modifications to new regulations were common. Reported by Nam Son, Thanh Phong

Vietnam begins checking eggs for melamine

Authorities are checking eggs for melamine contamination after media reports that traces of the industrial chemical was found inside chicken eggs sold in China’s Hong Kong.

Tests over the weekend detected melamine in eggs in Hong Kong imported from Dalian in northeastern China, Reuters reported Tuesday. Dalian province’s Hanwei Group, which supplied the contaminated batch of eggs, has reportedly apologized to consumers and distributors. Vietnam’s Deputy Health Minister Cao Minh Quang said the ministry was tracking eggs that may have been bought from China by residents of Vietnam’s border provinces. The Food Administration was checking if a brand of Chinese dried egg powder identified as contaminated by the World Health Organization (WHO) had been issued an import license, Quang said. He said the Health Ministry will work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and customs authorities to check eggs. “Food inspectors will inspect eggs and egg powder imported into Vietnam,” he said. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is to send officials today to take samples of eggs and chicken food from northern farms to test for melamine. Head of the ministry’s Breeding Bureau Hoang Kim Giao said the results would be known in a few days, adding that the samples would be taken in several cities and provinces, including Hanoi and Bac Ninh and Hoa Binh provinces. However, Quang said he believed local eggs would be found to be free of melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastic. Melamine-contaminated milk in China has killed four infants and sickened more than 53,000 children. Earlier tests of livestock feed, conducted after China’s tainted milk scandal broke last month, found no trace of the chemical. A source from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Vietnam did not import eggs from China but there was a possibility Chinese eggs could have been brought into the country overland by residents of border areas. Reported by Quang Duan – Nam Son

Central commune blames garbage dumps for cancer

Residents of a commune in central Binh Dinh Province have blamed pollution from their local garbage dump for the high incidence of cancer among residents.

Phu Son rubbish dump, which was established ten years ago in Nhon Hoa Commune, has become one of the province’s “pollution black spots” because it is only 500 meters from residences. The dump contaminates the underground water that 1,300 inhabitants from 300 households access from their wells daily. According to locals, many residents were suffering from cancer while others had died from diseases caused by drinking the water. Le Quang Thinh, chairman of the Nhon Hoa People’s Committee said “After testing water samples from wells, relevant agencies discovered it was badly contaminated with bacteria.” Local authorities said the earliest the dump could be moved was mid-2009. Hundreds of households in the province’s Quy Nhon Town are also plagued by pollution from a garbage dump in Long My Commune. Distressed residents had repeatedly blocked garbage vehicles from entering the dump. Reported by Nguyen Phu