UN suspends food handouts in Pakistan's Bajaur

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday it had suspended food distribution in a lawless Pakistani tribal district where a woman suicide bomber killed more than 40 people.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts bordering Afghanistan, in what was Pakistan's first known suicide attack carried out by a woman.

"WFP has temporarily suspended food distribution in Bajaur following the attack at a police checkpoint several hundred metres away from WFP's food distribution point," spokeswoman Jackie Dent told AFP.

"We are talking with the district authorities and hoping to resume the distribution as soon as possible."

"Our top priority is the safety and well-being of our beneficiaries and staff, and we are committed to continue assisting the people of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as they work to rebuild their lives," Dent said.

WFP provides general food rations to approximately 294,000 internally displaced people in Bajaur, where the Pakistani military has been fighting against homegrown Taliban militants since August 2008.

So far this year, WFP has provided assistance to an estimated 2.6 million IDPs, returnees and local people in the northwest.

Zakir Hussain Afridi, the top administration official in Bajaur, said that hair, along with parts of hands and feet "leaves no doubt that the bomber was a woman".

Pakistan has claimed repeatedly to have eliminated the Islamist militant threat in Bajaur, part of the tribal belt that the United States considers the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and among the most dangerous places on Earth.

Around 4,000 people have died in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan since government forces raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in 2007. The attacks have been blamed on networks linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

National Patriotic Emulation Congress opens

The 8th National Patriotic Emulation Congress opened at the National Convention Centre in Hanoi on December 27 with the participation of 1,500 eminent delegates from across the country.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is chairman of the Central Council for Emulation and Reward.

The aim is to review the results of the emulation movement in the past five years and discuss ways of improving the quality of patriotic emulation and rewarding to contribute to the successful implementation of the socio-economic development plan for the next period 2011-2015.

Present at the opening session were Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh, former Party General Secretary Le Kha Phieu, former President Tran Duc Luong, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who is also chairman of the Central Council for Emulation and Reward, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong, permanent member of the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat Truong Tan Sang and President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee Huynh Dam.

The nation’s position further strengthened

In his speech PM Dung said the congress is the great festival of the national patriotic emulation movements which have been launched over the past five years.

On June 11, 1948, late President Ho Chi Minh initiated a patriotic emulation movement, calling on all people to respond to the movement. Over the past 62 years, the whole Party and people have launched many similar movements, encouraging all people and soldiers to overcome difficulties and join efforts to bring the Vietnamese revolution to glorious victories.

In the renewal process, emulation and rewarding has changed in both content and form. The movement is now closely connected with the campaign “Study and Follow President Ho Chi Minh’s moral examples” with a view to bringing into play the integrated strength of the entire people to ensure the steady sustainable development of the nation.

PM Dung affirmed that the patriotic emulation movements have played an important role in the revolutionary cause of the Party and the nation.

Over the past five years, Vietnam has faced a lot of difficulties and challenges, rising from the effects of the global financial downturn, natural disasters, epidemics and acts of sabotage by hostile forces.

Promoting the patriotic emulation tradition initiated by late President Ho Chi Minh and implementing the Politburo’s directive 39 on strengthening the emulation movement, the emulation and rewarding has helped to encourage the entire people to make greater achievements in all fields of economics, culture, social affairs, national defence, security and external relations.

PM Dung said that the results of emulation and rewarding over the past five years have made it possible for the country to weather the global economic crisis, maintain macroeconomic stability, keep the economy in balance, maintain high economic growth rate (6.7 percent in 2010) and improve the people’s living conditions and social welfare. Vietnam’s sovereignty, politic security and social order have been maintained, its position and the national great unity bloc have been strengthened along with the building of the Party and the political system.

Expanding emulation movement across the country

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan who is vice chairwoman of the Central Council for Emulation and Reward, said that over the past five years emulation and rewarding has been given due attention by the Party, government agencies and Fatherland Front organisations at all levels to keep pace with the campaign “Study and Follow President Ho Chi Minh’s moral example”.

It has greatly contributed to stepping up the process of national construction, defence and development.

Over the past five years, the Party and State have presented:

- 80,764 anti-American resistance war medals and orders

- 8,199 anti-French resistance war medals and orders

- 6,329 Prime Minister’s certificates of merit

and completed rewarding those actively involved in the two resistance wars.

Hanoi unveils plan to beautify the city

Hanoi will spend VND3.3 trillion (US$ 165 billion) in the next five years in an effort to improve its infrastructure and beautify the city, according to a new plan released by city authorities.

Under a draft plan proposed by the city's Department of Construction, a total of 174 projects will be carried out from 2011-2015 that are expected to bring about a dramatic change to the face of the capital.

Nguyen The Hung, deputy director of the Department of Construction said most of the planned projects would involve improving water drainage and lighting systems, upgrading road surfaces and burying electricity and telecommunications cables.

The work will start in the city centre and move to the outskirts.

The city would also invest money to upgrade squares, parks and flower-gardens, he said.

According to the plan, which was unveiled last week, the first phase will start next year involving 40 projects costing approximately VND 602 billion ($30.1 billion). Each district and town in the city will have at least one project.

More than 100 projects will be carried out as part of the next phase from 2012-2015, expected to cost more than VND2 trillion ($100 billion)

In 2010, the city carried out 69 renovation projects on the occasion of its 1,000th anniversary. However, the implementation of so many projects in such a short period of time was criticised by many Hanoians, for turning the city into a giant construction site for the first 10 months of the year before the grand ceremony started in October.

Reports from the Department of Construction also showed that a remarkable number of projects were not finished on time, and those that were, did not meet sufficient standards. This was largely due to contractor failings and the complexity of the work.

Failed rocket launch threatens India's space ambitions

The explosion of an Indian space rocket is likely to hit the country's efforts to push further into the global market for launching commercial satellites, experts warned Sunday.

The unmanned Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) blew up live on television Saturday less than one minute after launch, at the start of a mission to put a communications satellite into orbit.

The accident was the second setback for India this year following the crash in April of a rocket that was meant to showcase domestically built booster technology, from the same site in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

On Sunday, scientists at the Indian space project began their search into the cause of the latest failure.

"Teams are looking at the data to find out the reason for what happened," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesman S. Satish said. "A failure analysis committee is likely to be constituted in the next one or two days."

The GSLV veered from its intended flight path and was intentionally blown up 47 seconds after take-off at a height of about eight kilometres (five miles) over the Bay of Bengal.

Experts called on the ISRO to go back to drawing board with the 1.75-billion-rupee (39-million-dollar) GSLV before attempting to offer the rocket as a platform for international satellite launches.

They also warned that India's ambitions to send its first manned space flight in 2016 were under threat.

"Saturday's failure will certainly produce delays," space scientist M.N. Vahia told the Times of India.

"If my payload was being flown on this mission using a GSLV, I would certainly want this rocket to be tested and evaluated more thoroughly.

"What happened is unnerving as India's reputation as a reliable space launching country has taken a serious dent."

India first staked its claim for a share of the lucrative commercial satellite-launch market by sending an Italian satellite into orbit in 2007.

In 2008, it launched an Israeli spy satellite and separately put a probe on the moon's surface in an event that the ISRO hoped would give the country international recognition in the space business.

U.R. Rao, a former ISRO chairman, urged India not to be put off by the recent setbacks.

"There's always a general worry and unhappiness when a launch fails. But we can't allow that to bog us down," he said. "We have to zero in on the problem and work out an appropriate solution."

India sees its space exploration programme as an achievement that underlines its emergence as a major world economy, and many Indians take great patriotic pride in its development.

Vietnam, Cambodia and U.S. embark on horticultural mission

Regional universities are setting out to improve horticultural crop production, marketing, and postharvest activities in Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia.   

The universities will work in coordination with the U.S. Government on a three year project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Horticulture Collaborative Research Support Program recently awarded a $500,000 grant to a research team at the University of California, Davis, for a project that will address some of the greatest challenges facing farmers.

“These funds will be used to help farmers produce vegetables for the Vietnamese and Cambodian people that meet high standards of quality, safety, and nutrition,” said lead researcher, Cary Trexler.

The project is designed to empower small-scale farmers, 59 percent of whom are women, with education and training for sustainable vegetable production that limits postharvest losses, increases food safety, increases market access, and increases income.

Collaborating with the Hanoi University of Agriculture, University of Agriculture and Forestry in Ho Chi Minh City, and the CAM Royal University of Agriculture, faculty members and the local Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development will create a network of people to help farmers solve problems related to producing and marketing safe vegetables and enhance farmers' income and livelihoods.  

The grant for research in Vietnam and Cambodia is one of five projects under the USAID-sponsored program across 15 developing countries that add a research-based approach to horticultural development.

Ho Chi Minh City: road accidents drop, toll down, congestion up

According to the latest statistics, the number of traffic accidents in Ho Chi Minh City has dropped by 969 cases, a 7.7% decrease so far this year.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of traffic-related deaths is also down (788 deaths or an 8% decrease) with 404 injuries (9.8% decrease).

However, traffic congestion incidents have not been tackled successfully.

Local authorities will try to reduce traffic death toll by 5% next year by increasing street patrols and improving infrastructure, assured Nguyen Ngoc Tuong - deputy chairman of the city Traffic Safety Committee.

In related news, so far this year, city police have succeeded in breaking up 270 racing gangs.