Realizing the role of water, the United Nations has selected the annual March 22 as World Water Day. The theme of this year’s World Water Day is Water and Urbanization…

Provincial Buddhist Sangha’s Executive Board, provincial Mobilization Board of the Fund for the Poor and Phu Giao district’s Fatherland Front Committee jointly handed over four unity houses to four poor people in the district, including Tran Thi Ty, Pham Kim Thuy and Nguyen Thi Bich Tuyen. It is known that provincial Buddhist Sangha’s Executive Board funded each house VND20mln.

Provincial People’s Committee, on March 9, held a meeting to hear the report of provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (DoLISA) on the implementation of provincial Social Support Center. It is known that this social support center is merged from three centers for orphans, lonely elderly people and other disadvantaged people.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved the national strategy on gender equality for the 2011-2020 period which is seen as a tool to bring the law on gender equality to life.

 This statement was set out by Superior Buddhist monk Thich Bao Nghiem, vice chairman of the provincial Buddhism Society and head of Vietnam Shangha’s Central Buddhism Commission and head of the organizing board of 2011 national Buddhism Seminar.

Early March 8, Di An town’s Police Agency held a meeting to mark the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day and the 1,971st anniversary of the Hai Ba Trung (two Trung sisters) Uprising.

Foot-and-month disease is developing complicatedly. An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease has been discovered in Thuan An town in southern Binh Duong province. Before the complicated development of foot-and-mouth disease, the propaganda work to raise awareness against the disease among breeders need to be intensified.

The biggest and first ever national workshop on Buddhism mission is expected to be on the show from March 9 to 13 in Binh Duong. Attending the event are nearly 1,500 religious leaders and over 30,000 practitioners and followers from cities and provinces. Binh Duong Provincial Authority is committed to support the event as a host. Binh Duong Newspaper reporter interviewed Mr. Tran Duc Thinh who is Deputy Director of Department of Home Affairs, cum head of Provincial Committee for Religion.

To mark International Women Day, a contest for male cooks was organized on March 8 in Binh Duong University under the theme of “family meals – nutrition and food safety” for 10 groups of Binh Duong University’s Labor Union. Each group consisted of 4 males who were offered VND 400,000 each to prepare the meals. The contest brought up great joy and happiness to participants.

The provincial People’s Committee will hold a conference to launch implementation of Resolution 11/NQ-CP dated Feb. 24, 2011 on controlling inflation and stabilizing macro-economy and ensuring social welfare. However, to excel the plan, the provincial People’s Committee chairman Le Thanh Cung worked with agencies and units to allocate concrete tasks for every unit.

Superior Buddhist monk Thich Hue Thong, vice head of the provincial Buddhism society and members of the organizing board of the 2011 national Buddhism Seminar yesterday conducted inspections on preparation for the seminar to be held at the local stadium on March 10.

The provincial Women Union yesterday held a get-together to celebrate the 1,971st anniversary of Trung ladies’ uprising and Int’l Women’s Day. At the get-together, women through stages tracked back tradition of women nationwide and worldwide, role of local women in involving in authorities.

Prof. Dr. Ngo Bao Chau has been appointed Director of the newly-established Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics.

Thousands of Vietnamese people will turn off their lights and electrical equipment for one hour, starting from 8.30 pm on March 26 in response to the 2011 Earth Hour.

Ms Mai graduated from a university in the former Soviet Union and is now Vice Director of the Institute of Information Technology under the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology. She was recognized for her major contributions to pattern recognition and knowledge engineering.