Hurricanes cause 5-billion USD damage for Cuba

Havana (VNA) – Preliminary report disclosed by the Cuban government on September 16 showed that the damage caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike to the country has reached almost 5 billion USD.

The two hurricanes have destroyed 63,000 houses and partially damaged 450,000 others, leaving at least 200,000 people homeless.

Additionally, 49,000 tonnes of reserved food were also destroyed. Hurricane Ike even killed seven people.

The most affected provinces were Pinar del Rio, Holguin, Las Tunas, and Camagüey, plus the Isla de Pinos special municipality.

The Cuban authorities are making a special effort supplying construction materials to alleviate the dramatic situation. –

Thailand’s parliament elects new Prime Minister

– Caretaker prime minister Somchai Wongsawat, brother-in-law of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was elected on September 17 as Thailand’s 26th prime minister.

Thai House of Representatives chose Somchai, who was deputy prime minister and education minister in the previous administration of Samak Sundaravej, with 298 votes, the Thai News Agency reported.

After being declared as new prime minister, newly-elected PM Somchai, deputy leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), thanked members of the Lower House for entrusting him to office, saying that he “would perform the duty to his best”.

But his appointment as the Kingdom’s top minister takes place amid warnings by anti-government People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) protesters that they would not accept any member of the PPP as Thailand ’s premier.

The PAD has accused the PPP-led government of being a proxy for former PM Thaksin, who is now living in Britain.

PAD demonstrators have occupied Government House, the Thai prime minister’s offices, since August 26.

Somchai’s nomination as prime minister came after Samak was disqualified from office last week by the Constitutional Court, being found guilty and in violation of the charter by accepting payments for hosting cooking shows on two commercial television stations.-

Bird flu virus reported in Laos’ Oudomsay

Vientiane (VNA) – An outbreak of the deadly H5N1 disease has been detected in a village in the Lao province of Oudomsay, local media reported.

The local authorities have culled 1,170 poultry from 76 households in the village named Ban Nalae in Say district, the Lao news agency (KPL) said on September 17.

A surveillance zone covering 20 villages around the village has been demarcated, KPL said, adding that the local authorities have also set up roadside stations which aim to disinfect all vehicles entering and leaving the zone.

The Agriculture and Forestry Office in Say district would ban the transportation of chicken from and to the region, KPL noted. –

Thailand ratifies ASEAN charter

Bangkok (VNA) – Thailand’s parliament on September 16 approved the ASEAN charter, making Thailand the 8th country in the grouping to ratify the document.

ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan has welcomed the ratification, saying that Thailand has taken an important step as the chair of ASEAN and the ratification also shows Thailand’s commitment to take care of the ASEAN community.

Before Thailand, seven countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam, have adopted the charter.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. –

Japan provides Tamiflu courses to Singapore

Hanoi (VNA) – The Singaporean Ministry of Health on September 16 received nearly 4,000 courses of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir) and 35,000 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Japan.

The provisions to Singapore are part of the Japanese government’s overall donation of 1 million courses of Tamiflu and 700,000 sets of PPE to ASEAN, the Channel News Asia reported.

Half of the one-million courses would be distributed to the respective member countries of he Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), while the remaining would be stockpiled in Singapore, according to the news network. –

Malaysia ratifies UN convention against corruption

Malaysia has ratified the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), local media reported.

The document is proof to the international community that Malaysia takes seriously the fight against corruption and will join efforts against the menace at the international level, Malaysia’s Bernama news agency quoted Foreign Minister Rais Yatim as saying on September 17.

Malaysia is among the first countries signing the convention. The country inked the document on December 9, 2003.

The UN convention entered into force on December 14, 2005, according to Bernama.–

ASEAN and GCC to raise ties to ministerial level

ASEAN and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have agreed to institutionalise their cooperation and elevate their relationship to ministerial level, according to the ASEAN Secretariat.

Foreign ministers from ASEAN and the GCC will hold their first joint meeting next year, the ASEAN Secretariat said in a statement on September 17.

With the rise of oil prices and the growing concern over food shortages worldwide, ASEAN and the GCC agreed that there was a large space for cooperation and closer coordination on issues facing the two regions, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan who visited the GCC Secretariat in Riyadh said.

According to the ASEAN top official, trade volume between the two regions increased from 18.3 billion USD in 2002 to 57.1 billion USD in 2006.

Meanwhile, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Attiyah said that while the GCC exports energy resources to the ASEAN countries and through Southeast Asia to the giant economies of East Asia, it imports food and other manufacturing products from the ASEAN countries.–

ADB supports Laos’ sanitation project

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged to provide over 190 billion kip (roughly 23 million USD) to help Laos implement the “Small Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Project.”

A memorandum of understanding has been signed in Vientiane between the ADB and the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Vientiane Times reported on September 18.

The project will run from 2009-2013, and once it completed, 80 percent of villages nationwide will be able to have access to clean water, Project Head Phomma Veoravanh was quoted by the paper as saying.

Under the project, water supply systems and drainage channels in small towns, especially in crowded areas, will be installed to protect communities and the environment.

Additionally, project officials will also provide education for remote communities about proper sanitation practices to help prevent diseases, the Lao paper added.–

VN to devise environment-for-health programme

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam is calling for assistance from both home and abroad to the country’s national programme on environment for the community’s health, scheduled to last until 2015.

At a consultation conference held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Hanoi on Sept. 17, participants agreed to combine activities for environment and human health protection in order to solve urgent problems in the field.

They stressed the need to help people and State agencies and mass organisations increase their awareness and knowledge of the interaction between people’s health and environmental protection.

In addition, the capacity of authorised agencies should be strengthened in order to swiftly forecast and deal with pollutions that threaten the community’s health.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2006 warned that pollutions are responsible for about 24 percent of diseases and 23 percent of deaths in the world. This proportion was one-third for children, it added.

WHO also said that 85 out of 102 diseases mentioned in the 2006 report originated from the environment, thus they were called environmental diseases.

In Vietnam , around 200-230 out of 1 million people every year contracted with diseases related to air pollution, salinity in underground water sources in coastal areas, arsenic poisoning, and water pollution in river basins.-

Vedan seriously violates environment rules: official

Hanoi (VNA) – A government official has affirmed that responsible agencies have enough grounds to charge the Taiwanese-owned Vedan company with seriously polluting the environment and doing harm to the local people.

“Legal proceedings may be launched against the company”, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen said at a press briefing on Vedan company’s violations of the Law on Environmental Protection on Sept. 17.

The Vedan company had been found to have been evading environmental protection fee, failing to treat waste water at the required standard, intentionally discharging wastes directly to the environment, and violating regulations relating to the management of hazardous wastes.

The Vedan company’s plant in southern Dong Nai province was estimated to discharge around 1,493 cu. m of fluid waste water resulted from fermentation containing hazardous compositions and 5,159 cu. m of untreated waste water a day into nearby Thi Vai river.

Asbestos, a hazardous waste was also found at the Vedan company’s waste storage although it had not been registered to the environmental watchdog by the company. Additionally, Vedan company’s hazardous waste storage was not met the safety standard, threatening to pollute the environment during the rainy season.

Additionally, Vedan company did not conduct assessment of its environmental impacts and violated the State management regulation when increasing the processing capacity without the authorities’ permission, authorised agencies said.

Minister Nguyen stated that the Vedan company case will be handled seriously to deter other businesses from following suit or using obsolete technologies to cause harms to both the environment and people’s health.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) will ask the Chairman of southern Dong Nai province’s People’s Committee to suspend the operation of Vedan company’s plant for inspection of its entire waste water treatment system, Nguyen said.

The Vedan plant needs to be closed to repair its waste water treatment system. If it cannot fix the problem, it will be removed or finally closed down, Minister Nguyen stressed.

Vice Director of the Environmental Police Department Luong Minh Thao said a conclusion on Vedan company’s violations of the Law on Environmental Protection will be made public on September 19. “This will serve as a foundation for related agencies to take legal proceedings against the company,” he said.

The Environmental Police Department will continue to inspect businesses located at the basin of the Thi Vai river and make further inspections over Vedan company’s processing establishments in other localities as well as other businesses, plants and industrial zones around the country in October.

The Taiwanese-owned Vedan company began its operation in Vietnam in 1991, specialising in producing MSG, acid powder, sugary water, NaOH, and bio-products. Its plant covers 120 ha in southern Dong Nai province.-