Remarkable Daily News (Today: Từ tháng 7: Bắt đầu tổ chức thi TOEFL iBT tại Việt Nam )

Believers Flock to ''''Crying'''' Virgin Mary
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Carrying rosary beads and cameras, the faithful have been coming in a steady stream to a church on the outskirts of Sacramento for a glimpse of what some are calling a miracle: A statue of the Virgin Mary they say has begun crying a substance that looks like blood.
It was first noticed more than a week ago, when a priest at the Vietnamese Catholic Martyrs Church spotted a stain on the statue''''s face and wiped it away. Before Mass on Nov. 20, people again noticed a reddish substance near the eyes of the white concrete statue outside the small church, said Ky Truong, 56, a parishioner.
Since then, Truong said he has been at the church day and night, so emotional he can''''t even work. He believes the tears are a sign.
"There''''s a big event in the future ?" earthquake, flood, a disease," Truong said. "We''''re very sad."
On Saturday, tables in front of the fenced-in statue were jammed with potted plants, bouquets of roses and candles. Some people prayed silently, while others sang hymns and hugged their children. An elderly woman in a wheelchair wept near the front of the crowd.
A red trail could be seen from the side of the statue''''s left eye to about halfway down the robe of concrete.
"I think that it''''s incredible. It''''s a miracle. Why is she doing it? Is it something bothering her?" asked Maria Vasquez, 35, who drove with her parents and three children from Stockton, about 50 miles south of Sacramento.
Thousands of such incidents are reported around the world each year, though many turn out to be hoaxes or natural phenomena.
The Diocese of Sacramento has so far not commented on the statue, and the two priests affiliated with the church did not return a telephone message Saturday.
The Rev. James Murphy, deacon of the diocese''''s mother church, the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, said church leaders are always skeptical at first.
"For people individually seeing things through the eyes of faith, something like this can be meaningful. As for whether it is supernatural or a miracle, normally these incidences are not. Miracles are possible, of course," Murphy said. "The bishop is just waiting and seeing what happens. They will be moving very slowly."
But seeing the statue in person left no doubt for Martin Operario, 60, who drove about 100 miles from Hayward. He took photos to show to family and friends.
"I don''''t know how to express what I''''m feeling," Operario said. "Since religion is the mother of believing, then I believe."
Nuns Anna Bui and Rosa Hoang, members of the Salesian Sisters of San Francisco, also made the trek Saturday. Whether the weeping statue is declared a miracle or not, they said, it is already doing good by awakening people to the faith and reminding them to pray.
"It''''s a call for us to change ourselves, to love one another," Hoang said.
(AP)

Red stains are seen running from the left eye of a statue of the Virgin...
Được dirosemimi sửa chữa / chuyển vào 08:31 ngày 29/11/2005

Foreigners snap up Vinamilk
HCM CITY ?" Foreign investors snapped up 1.462 million of the 1.663 million shares offered by unlisted Vinamilk, the country?Ts largest dairy company, at an auction held yesterday at the HCM City Securities Trading Center.
They comprised eight institutions, including the American fund Kamm Investment and Singaporê?Ts dairy company F&N, and six individuals.
Vinamilk raised VND812.783 billion (US$50.8 million) from the issue as 40 investors ?" including 26 domestic bidders ?" paid an average VND488,747 for the shares which have a face value of VND100,000. The initial price was set at VND420,000.
The highest price paid was VND570,000 and the lowest, VND480,000.
Following the issue foreign ownership in the company has increased to around 11 per cent. Foreign holdings in a joint stock company are capped at 30 per cent in Viet Nam.
F&N bought around 997,000 shares to take its stake in the company to around 10 per cent.
Vinamilk, which has a chartered capital of $100 million, is now over 50 per cent owned by the State. It is slated to list on the Vietnamese stock market next year and later in Singapore.
In an earlier auction the company held on February 17, foreign investors had again bought most of the 1.827 million shares on offer. In fact, between them, eight of them had bought 1.826 million shares, leaving only 100 shares for domestic investors.
The average price of the placement had been VND313,100. ?" VNS

Event gathers disabled to promote social consciousness
HA NOIâ?" Music was a bridge between the visionally challenged and the sighted at a meeting yesterday in advance of todayâ?Ts International Day on Disabilities.
The meeting, held at the World Bank office in Ha Noi, brought persons with various disabilities together to exchange views with each other and with community representatives. The goal was to increase social consciousness about the disabled and to help them improve their abilities to integrate into society.
A German tra***ional lullaby expressed a motherâ?Ts feelings that her child is part of the family and a part of society and that the child will no longer feel alone when singing it.
Visionally challenged people from the Centre on Arts and Vocational Training for People with Disabilities performed the lullaby and other pieces of modern and tra***ional music at the meeting, in a performance they called â?~Happiness and Faithâ?T
"We aim to encourage people with disabilities to overcome their lot to rise up and integrate in society," said Le Dinh Tuan.
The centre won US$10,000 in a competition held by the World Bank on Viet Nam Innovation Day in 2004. Since its inception, it has organised 36 performances at schools in Ha Noi, Vinh Phuc and Quang Ninh to raise awareness about discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and people with disabilities.
Recent years have seen Viet Nam exerting efforts to protect the rights of people with disabilities through regulations and policies. The nation has been recognised for doing more to reform its laws in this area than other countries in the region. However, Nghiem Xuan Tue, director of the National Co-ordinating Committee on Disabilities pointed out that many of the new laws had not yet been implemented or come into effect. He cited a failure to implement the plan to provide inclusive education to 75 per cent of children with disabilities by 2010, and the difficulty people with disabilities can face in accessing information technology.
It was simply a matter of a shortage of funds, Tue suggested.
The number of people with disabilities nationwide totals nearly 5.2 million, more than 400,000 of whom are visually challenged. â?" VNS

People with disabilities can contribute to society if they receive more help. â?" VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Long

Singapore executes Australian
(CNN) -- Singapore''''s government hanged an Australian man for drug trafficking early Friday, hours after making an exception to prison policy by letting the condemned man''''s mother hold her son''''s hand one last time.
Van Nguyen was hanged at 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Thursday GMT) as a dozen friends and supporters, dressed in black, kept an overnight vigil outside the maximum-security prison. His twin brother, Nguyen Khoa, was dressed in white.
"The sentence was carried out this morning at Changi Prison," Singapore''''s Home Affairs Ministry said in a statement. The statement said Nguyen had failed in his appeals to the Court of Appeal, and to President S.R. Nathan for clemency.
A dozen friends and supporters had stood outside the maximum-security Changi Prison hours before the hanging. Candles and handwritten notes containing messages of support and calls for an end to Singapore''''s death penalty were placed outside the prison gates.
Nguyen''''s twin brother entered the prison compound, but did not attend the execution, The Associated Press reported. As the brother left, he hugged a prison officer and shook the hand of another. Van Nguyen had said he was trafficking heroin to help pay off his twin brother''''s debts.
In an unexpected concession, prison authorities granted his mother, Kim Nguyen, permission to hold hands with her son through a visiting-room grille during a final visit -- but would not allow a hug, his lawyer, Julian McMahon, said.
The execution had sparked protest in Australia. Nguyen, 25, was arrested in December 2002 at Singapore''''s Changi Airport after police found him carrying almost a pound of heroin. He said he was trying to pay off his brother''''s debt to a loan shark.
Australia abolished capital punishment in 1967, and it had urged Singapore to commute the sentence. The issue sparked demonstrations in the Australian capital Canberra, and Attorney General Philip Ruddock called the scheduled hanging "barbaric."
"Our view is that there were extenuating circumstances. They ought to have been heard," Ruddock told reporters Thursday.
Vigils were held across Australia Thursday and Friday, with bells and gongs sounding 25 times at the hour of his execution, The Associated Press reported.
"I have told the prime minister of Singapore that I believe it will have an effect on the relationship on a people-to-people, population-to-population basis," Australian Prime Minister John Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW shortly before Singapore confirmed the hanging, according to the AP.
Singapore has stringent drug laws; drug trafficking is one of several crimes that carry a mandatory death sentence there. The city-state is part of a region that carries tough penalties for nonviolent crimes. (Full story)
With about 4.4 million people, Singapore has the world''''s highest rate of executions by population, according to the human rights group Amnesty International. It conducted 19 executions in 2003 and six in 2004, Amnesty reported.
Singapore says its tough laws and penalties for drug trafficking are an effective deterrent against a crime that ruins lives, and that foreigners and Singaporeans must be treated alike. It said Nguyen''''s appeals for clemency were carefully considered.
"We take a very serious view of drug trafficking -- the penalty is death," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Thursday during a visit to Germany, according to the AP.
Loong said the amount of drugs Nguyen was caught carrying -- about 400 grams (14 ounces) -- was enough to yield 26,000 doses of heroin.
But Sinapan Samydorai, president of the Singapore human rights organization Think Center, called that charge an exaggeration.

Khoa Nguyen, right, hugs a prison worker before leaving the Singapore Changi Prison Friday after his brother''''s execution.
Được dirosemimi sửa chữa / chuyển vào 23:28 ngày 06/12/2005

Festival marks 2000th test tube baby given to childless couple
HCM CITY ?" Viet Nam?Ts 2000th test tube baby was born Saturday in HCM City.
The happy event was celebrated at the Dam Sen Cultural Park and was not only an occasion giving hope to childless families but it also marked an obvious advance in Viet Nam?Ts medicine, chiefly the team at Tu Du Obstetric and Gynaecology Hospital.
Seven years after officially launching in-vitro fertilisation, the hospital has implemented more than 6,500 cases, resulting in the delivery of 2,000 babies.
"It is impossible to clearly express our gratitude to doctors at Tu Du hospital?Ts infertility wing, especially doctor?Ts Lan and Tuong," said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh, a mother who underwent the procedure.
"My desire to become a mother was so burning, particularly five years after I had been married," she recalls, "I cried throughout many nights."
An overseas Vietnamese woman, who asked not to be named, married to a Netherlander said: "doctors at the hospital have helped me become a mother, something I was afraid was only in my dreams."
This woman married late and had difficulties conceiving. Since an in-vitro fertilisation in foreign countries is extremely costly, they came to the Tu Du Hospital.
Pham Tuong Lan Vi, a child conceived this way, told doctor Ngoc Lan, considered a fairy-godmother to many test tube babies, that "I will become a scientist when I grow up".
Speaking on the programmê?Ts achievements, doctor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, who initiated and laid the first brick to build Tu Du Hospital?Ts infertility wing said that before the in-vitro fertilisation technique was introduced in Viet Nam it cost a woman at least US$20.000 to go to overseas for the service.
Now, the hospital is able to attract more than 100 foreign patients each year for treatment.
The programme has also raised the image and prestige of local medicine and the country as a whole in the eyes of overseas Vietnamese and foreigners.
Phuong also revealed that in the past few years the hospital has given free in-vitro fertilisation, worth more than VND5 billion, to nearly 1,000 extremely poor families.
This may be a reason why the infertility wing at the Tu Du Hospital was awarded a diploma of merit in recognition of its doctors?T contributions. The award coincided with the commemoration of the 2000th healthy test tube baby born. ?" VNS

Test-tube babies play and dance at the festival. ?" VNS Photo The Anh

Number of cre*** cardholders up 300%
HCM CITY â?" Diversification and increased competition in Viet Namâ?Ts bank services have led to a 300 per cent growth in cre*** cardholders this year, but hurdles remain, according to the Viet Nam Bank Card Association.
The association reported that 17 banks in Viet Nam have issued a total of around 2.1 million cards, 1.6 million of which were domestic cre*** cards.
Six of the banks issued half a million international cards for 1,200 automatic teller machines (ATMs) and 12,000 cre*** acceptance points nationwide.
Nguyen Thu Ha, chairwoman of the Viet Nam Bank Card Association said the card market in recent years has developed rapidly because banks invested to diversify cre*** card services, and competition for market share is heating up.
With banks and other international cre*** organisations looking to expand market share, the cre*** card market is expected to heat up considerably, she said.
According to the association, the cre*** card market in Viet Nam continues to face challenges.
Ninety per cent of transactions in Viet Nam are cash only, with only 6 million people of the nationâ?Ts 83 million utilising modern bank services, the association reported.
Inaccurate information surrounding several legal cases reported between banks and cardholders in December resulted negative press for cre*** card development.
Tu Anh, director of Card Centre of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank) said that bank promotions were aimed at expanding market share, but they forgot about customer care.
"Thus, we want to improve our customer service to increase card holder numbers in the future," said Anh. â?" VNS

Egypt: Not told for hours that ferry sank
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- The presidential spokesman said Tuesday that the owners of the Red Sea ferry that sank, drowning about 1,000 people, did not inform the government that the ship had sunk for nearly six hours after it went down.
Suleiman Awad emerged from a Cabinet session chaired by President Hosni Mubarak to say the government first heard that the ship was in danger at 7 a.m. and that it was feared to have sunk at 7:45 a.m Friday.
By most accounts the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 sank no later than 2 a.m., five hours before the government was notified of any trouble, six hours before Cairo learned it likely had sunk.
Other reports say the ship sank at 1 a.m., which would have made the delay in notification at least seven hours.
"What really happened," Awad said, "was that the port authority was first informed at 7 a.m. by the ship''s owners that they had lost contact with the ferry. Forty-five minutes later, the company told port officials the ship may have sunk," Awad said.
"One minute later the rescue center was notified and by 8 a.m. a plane was over the spot where the ship went down. ... It was followed by another rescue plane and ships of the Egyptian fleet," he said.
''It was so bad, you couldn''t imagine''
Meanwhile, the captain of another ship owned by Al Salam Maritime, the St. Catherine, told a Cairo newspaper Tuesday that he was told by the owners as he left Safaga port in Egypt to try to make contact with the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 because they feared it was in trouble.
The St. Catherine captain, Salah Jomaa, said he left port at 2:45 a.m. That meant that the company was aware the ship was in danger by that time.
After repeatedly failing to make radio contact, Jomaa said he placed a satellite telephone call to the captain of the Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 but received no answer. Jomaa said he finally made contact at 6:57 a.m. with another officer of the ship who was in a lifeboat and told him the ship had gone down.
Jomaa said he reported the sinking to the Al Salam Maritime office in Safaga at 7:05 a.m.
The manager of the company gave a similar account to The Associated Press last week, but did not provide any times, which are crucial.
"Our agent in Safaga informed us that the ship was late, so we started making inquiries. At the same time, one of the ships we operate (the St. Catherine) was heading for Dubah (Saudi Arabia). We informed its crew, which later reported that there were people on a rescue boat in the sea, so we notified the relevant authorities," said Mamdouh Orabi, Manager of El Salam Maritime.
Jomaa said he did not turn back and sail the 25 miles to reach the scene of the sinking because he feared he would endanger his 1,800 passengers.
"I feared the St. Catherine would capsize if I turned sideways into the wind to make a turn to go back," Jomaa said.
"The weather was terrible, the waves were very high, it was so bad, you couldn''t imagine. The wind speed was 45 knots (52 miles an hour). There could have been two disasters instead of one," Jomaa said.
Jomaa said he told Mamdouh Ismail of Al Salam Maritime that it was too dangerous to make the rescue attempt. Jomaa said Ismail agreed and told him to keep on course to Dubah.
''I couldn''t help them''
AP first learned from maritime officials that the ship was in trouble shortly before 11 a.m. The tragedy was not reported by Egyptian media for several hours after that.
The fact that Egyptian authorities did not launch a rescue operation until 8 a.m., which would have been at least six, perhaps as long as seven, hours after the ship sank lends support *****rvivor accounts of spending at least 10 to 12 hours in the sea clinging to life preservers or in life rafts before they were rescued. Some gave accounts of being at sea for as long as 20 hours after the sinking.
The delay in notifying the government compounds other accounts of possible mistakes surrounding a tragedy that could have been avoided.
The Al-Salaam Boccaccio 98 left Dubah, Saudi Arabia at 6:30 p.m. Cairo time on Thursday in fierce winds that were whipping a sandstorm on the Saudi coast. The ship set sail with more than 1,400 passengers and crew, as well as 220 vehicles.
About two hours into the journey the crew discovered a fire in the vehicle parking bay.
According *****rvivors the ship''s captain was told by the crew that the fire was contained and he continued the run for the Egyptian coast.
At that time he would have been about 30 miles from his departure point and had roughly 90 miles to go to reach Egypt.
The strong winds that night apparently fanned the embers of the blaze, which then grew out of control. As the ship struggled in the high winds and waves, it began to list.
That danger was compounded by water sloshing in the hold from the firefighting effort. The ship eventually rolled over and sank 62 miles from the Egyptian coast, according to Awad.
Long before it sank the passengers learned of the fire and stormed to the deck seeking help from the crew. Although there apparently were plenty of life jackets readily available, some survivors said they were discouraged by the crew from putting them on "so as not to cause the women and children to panic."
Other survivors said the crew did nothing to help lower life boats and gave passengers no instructions.
"The captain had four hours to ask for help or to return to Saudi Arabia, but he did not. His pride made him believe that he could control the situation," said Sayed Abdul Hakim, a survivor who worked as a painter in Kuwait. "He was acting as if we were not human beings."
"None of the crew members lowered lifeboats or even told us how to use them," said Abdul Hakim, who battled the waves for three hours before climbing into an inflatable lifeboat. Around him, women and children were calling out. "I couldn''t help them," he said, shame mingled in his words.
Mubarak: Those responsible won''t escape punishment
Many of the passengers on the fated ship were Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, forced to find employment abroad because of a lack of jobs at home. That the tragedy struck so many who were forced to find jobs far from home struck a deep core of anger at the government among many Egyptians
In an unusually biting column in the government-owned Al-Ahram daily Tuesday, columnist Salama Ahmed Salama accused the authorities of "impotence, failure and inefficiency in facing catastrophes."
The tragedy "proves its (the government''s) hardheartedness and indifference in dealing with the human feelings of thousands of citizens who lost their loved ones, as a result of negligence and corruption, the government apparatus and officials, who don''t feel their responsibility, should be questioned about."
Awad said Mubarak told the Cabinet the catastrophe had shaken him and all Egyptians and that the investigation of the tragedy would uncover its true cause.
"Those who are responsible will not escape without punishment," Awad quoted Mubarak as saying. "There is no one in Egypt who is above law or questioning, and as an Egyptian, I am angry and sad for what happened."

Singapore school must compensate for closure: ministries
Vietnamese agencies discussed Wednesday redress for students and employees of a Singapore-run English language center and ministries?T accountability after the center unexpectedly closed down last month.
The Singapore International Teaching Consultancy (SITC) closed its centers in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and other provinces for good Jan. 22, leaving 30,000 students and teaching staff, including foreign teachers, in the lurch.
The exact number of centers it ran is not known since it had several illegal ones though there are estimates it had six in HCMC, three in Hanoi besides others in Can Tho, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Hai Phong, and Da Nang.
The institute, said to be one of those that had the largest student enrolment in Vietnam, owed several billion dong to students, and hundreds of millions of dong in salaries to the teachers.
The Wednesday meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) and Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and education departments in cities and provinces where SITC had branches.
The same day the MoPI also held discussions with the Singaporean Embassy on the matter.
Phan Huu Thang, head of the MoPI?Ts Foreign Investment Office told Thanh Nien consensus was reached at the meeting to close down the group and persuade its investor, Life Knowledge Consultancy Pte. Ltd, to compensate the injured parties.
The ministry is also considering slapping penalties on the owner, including legal action.
The Ministry of Public Security is hunting for Michael Yu, SITC?Ts Vietnam director, and other managers who have all fled, and has sealed its premises.
The ministries will soon report to the government.
The Singaporean embassy has promised to dispose of the matter quickly.
A MoET source said the UK?Ts APOLLO and AEC branches in Singapore had expressed interest in purchasing the institute.
Meanwhile, several local language centers have offered to provide free short courses and discounts to SITC?Ts students.
Infringements
The MoPI reported at the meeting that SITC had submitted two yearly operation reports since being licensed in 2003 but without earnings, staff, or enrolment details.
The education ministry said it had launched investigations in July last year. The probes revealed the institutê?Ts violations, including illegal operations at several places, offering unauthorized distance learning master?Ts courses, and excessive advertising and enrolment.
It repeatedly promised to ?orectify [its] mistakes soon?, but Yu vanished just days before the lunar New Year late last month followed by the shutdown.
However, the investigations failed to uncover any of SITC?Ts financial problems with officials saying they were not eligible to check its financial status since such foreign owned agencies operate under the Enterprise Law.
They admitted to being taken by surprise by the closure with those in Ho Chi Minh City still believing the schools would reopen after the New Year as promised.
Where things went wrong
?oThe incident speaks volumes about the inadequate supervision of foreign-owned educational agencies,? a chief inspector Hoang Minh Luat of the MoET said.
He attributed the fiasco to the lack of coordination between the education and finance ministries.
He pointed out the education ministry played almost no role in licensing such agencies though its finance counterpart did.
?oThe finance ministry often does did not notify our agency of new licensees and so we are in the dark about those who do not register with us,? he added.
Luat called for changing the system which allowed MoPI to issue the licenses.

Mr. Phan Huu Thang.
(source: thanhniennews)

Vietnamese French actress wins César award
Pham Linh Dan, a Vietnamese French actress, won the Best Female Newcomer award at the 31st Academy of Arts and Sciences César Awards in Paris on Saturday.

Linh Dan picked up the golden trophy for the Meilleur espoir feminine award for her role as a Chinese piano teacher in the film De battre mon coeur s''est arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped).
The film, directed by Jacques Audiard, scooped eight prizes at the premier French film awards, including the ones for the Best French Movie and Best Director.
It tells the story of Tom (Romain Duris), a 28-year-old property shark and violent enforcer of real estate scams who tries to become a concert pianist.
In his daily training sessions for the au***ion, Tom is helped by Miao Lin (Pham Linh Dan) a Chinese immigrant who does not speak French. Their communication exists of bare essentials, as if to echo the idea that Tom is really on his own in this quest, since his mother who inspired him and from whom he has undeniably inherited his talent is now gone.
Despite the occasional relapse into his previous lifestyle, Tom does not want to stray from his path, fixing himself steadily on his objectives.
The film was a great commercial success in France and abroad and has been praised by popular film critics.
Born in 1974 in Saigon, Linh Dan moved to France with her parents in 1975. In 1992, she was invited to play as Camille, the adopted child of a French woman (played by Catherine Deneuve) in the film Indochine directed by Régis Warginer.
Dan followed her parents?T aspiration, studying commerce and working as a senior marketing manager after graduating. She had worked in many places, including New York, Singapore, Vietnam and now resides in London.
But the young woman could not resist the allure of the movies. She took part in an actress training course at the Institute Lee Strasberg in the United States and after graduating in 2001 she returned to the movies with the role Lu Ann in the Les mauvais jouveurs by Balekdijian and De battre mon coeur s''est arrêté in 2004.
Dan was nominated for the Meilleur espoir feminine César awards for her role as Camilla in the Indochine 12 years ago.
(Source: Thanhnien news)

Foreign vessel flees as fishing boat sinks, one dead
One fisherman died, eight were injured and seven others went missing in a maritime incident off southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province Monday evening.
An as yet unidentified foreign cargo ship struck a BV 7094 fishing boat around 9pm, sinking the boat after sparking a gas tank explosion.
However, the foreign ship did not stop for help but instead vanished.
Though the crash site was just five nautical miles off the coast, only nine sailors were taken ashore by several small boats due to adverse weather and the darkness at the time.
One fisherman died from heavy burns while several others remained in critical con***ion, said Nguyen Thanh Quy, the ship?Ts owner.
The search continues for the missing crewman, but therê?Ts little hope of finding them, Quy added.
Source: Tuoi Tre ?" Translated by Hoang Bao