Mobile game maker SocialDeck announced on Monday it has been bought by Google, the latest in a string of acquisitions by the Internet giant.

Mobile game maker SocialDeck announced on Monday it has been bought by Google, the latest in a string of acquisitions by the Internet giant.

"Big news. We're super excited to announce that someone found our social games as fun as you have -- in this case, that 'someone' is Google," SocialDeck said. "SocialDeck has been acquired and we've joined the Google team."

Financial details of the acquisition were not available. There was no immediate confirmation from Google of the purchase.

SocialDeck, which has operations in Toronto and San Francisco, was founded in 2008 and has developed games for the iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry and Facebook including "Shake & Spell" and "Pet Hero."

Google's purchase of SocialDeck comes amid reports that Google plans to expand its social networking presence.

Earlier this month, Google bought Slide, a San Francisco-based startup behind playful or practical applications such as "SuperPoke" and "FunSpace" that have become hits on Facebook and other social-networking websites.

Google this month also purchased Jambool, a company started in 2006 that processes virtual currencies -- make-believe money for online transactions such as games and social networks, including Facebook and MySpace.

The technology allows makers of online games and social networks to mine real money from virtual goods.

The Mountain View, California-based Google last week also acquired Internet search startup Angstro for an undisclosed sum.

http://www.dtinews.vn

Truong Van Thuyet is a war veteran struggling with lung cancer and no place to live.

The veteran soldier has no house, no rice field, and no help from relatives.

Four people live in a torn tent

Thuyet has a wife and two children, the entire is living in a tent at Hamlet 14, Dien Doai Commune, Dien Chau District, Nghe An Province.

In 1961, Thuyet joined the army during the American war and was seriously injured during combat. In 1976, he returned home and got married.

His whole family was living with his parents however, his mother Vu Thi Hue and his wife Dau Thi Hoe often had disagreements and conflicts with each other. In June 2010, Thuyen’s mother asked his wife to get out of her house during an argument and since then, Thuyet, his wife and two children have moved to live in a tent on a field.

I came to visit Thuyet’s family but only their children were in the tent. Thuyet had to be taken to the hospital by his wife.

Their tent covers only 4 square metres and is torn in many places.

One of the children, Hanh, shared, “My mom took my dad to the hospital. My father has got lung cancer. He may die. I wish his disease could be cured so that he can live and help us with our studies. Before going to the hospital, my mother asked my brother and me not to leave school.”

Even though Thuyet’s relatives are aware of his lung cancer, no one has helped him.

Since Thuyet was taken to the hospital in Hanoi, no one has been there to take care of his children. They are still living in the torn tent in the middle of a field.

“We feel pity for the two children but we cannot do anything to help them. We cannot persuade Thuyet’s mother,” said a local.

Thuyet had a serious accident at work. As a result, he suffered a head injury, both of his feet were cut off and his left arm was paralysed. Now, his lung cancer has made his life even more difficult. He has been forced to sell he had for treatment.

Talking with us on the phone, Thuyet shared, “Now I am waiting for death. Only magic can save my life. If I die, my wife and children cannot survive. I hope my children don’t have to leave school.”

Hanh shared with us that she wished to have a house so that her family would not have to live in a tent anymore. She hopes to become a teacher in the future.

Thuyet’s daughter Hanh wishes to become a teacher in the future

 http://www.dtinews.vn

Experts have called on international authorities to reform Inter-country adoption practices to ensure their legality.

Two foreigners carry Vietnamese children down De Tham Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1. Experts have called for increased efforts from Vietnamese and foreign authorities to the ensure legality of Inter-country adoptions.

The recommendations were made following an assessment of Vietnam’s adoption system released on August 11. The assessment was carried out by Hervé Boéchat, Nigel Cantwell and Mia Dambach of International Social Service (ISS).

The study was commissioned by UNICEF Vietnam and by the Department of Adoption of the Ministry of Justice of Vietnam. The study was commissioned to identify and address problems in both the domestic and Inter-country adoption processes, with a view to assisting Vietnam in its preparations to accede to the 1993 Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption.

Inter-country adoption from Vietnam began in the 1970s and an average of 1,000 Vietnamese children have been adopted each year by families in the US, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, according to ISS.

In June, the central legislature passed adoption laws scheduled to take effect in January of 2011.

The authors of the ISS study, which began in May 2009, have made detailed recommendations to Vietnamese and foreign authorities as well as international adoption agencies.

The findings urged Vietnamese authorities to establish a proper system of data collection for children in need of adoption and undertake an assessment of the root causes of child abandonment, relinquishment and separation. The causes should then be addressed through social services such as support for single mothers, family counseling, and social assistance.

Laws regarding parental consent for adoption should be clarified, the researchers found. Fees charged by official entities in Vietnam throughout the adoption process should be clearly itemized, regulated, and placed in the public domain, the researchers advised.

The report further urged increased involvement on behalf of adopting countries.

The researchers found that the governments and the central authorities of “receiving countries” have not effectively committed themselves to applying the basic principles of the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoption (ICA).

The convention, which went into force in 1995, was aimed at the prevention of child trafficking. All signatory and ratifying members agreed that adoption should be a last resort. Every effort should be made to keep a child with its family before putting it up for Inter-country adoption, the Convention agreed.

But the ISS team found that authorities in “receiving countries” routinely fail to uphold the Hague principles when dealing with non-Hague countries such as Vietnam.

Procedures for ensuring free and informed consent for adoption are inadequate and inconsistent, the researchers found. They further recommended that the embassies and central authorities of “receiving countries” enhance their contacts and cooperation with the Vietnamese central authority to determine the number and characteristics of children requiring adoption abroad.

Adoption agencies working in Vietnam have been urged to refuse to process Inter-country adoption applications for babies whose age at referral makes it improbable that sufficient care solutions for them have been sought out at home.

According to the assessment, the overwhelming majority of adopted children in Vietnam are under one year of age — the age-group most sought by prospective adopters. Vietnam belongs to a small and ever-decreasing number of “countries of origin” that offer children of this age for adoption abroad.

http://www.dtinews.vn

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the US’s higher education programme for leading Vietnamese engineering universities was signed in Ho Chi Minh City on August 24.

Under the MoU, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will work together with the Intel group, the Arizona State University (ASU) and the Portland State University (PSU) to carry out the programme.

The five pilot Vietnamese beneficiaries are the Hanoi University of Technology, the HCM City University of Technology, Can Tho University, the HCM City Technical Teaching University and Da Nang University of Technology.

The three-year programme has a total investment of 2.5 million USD, of which Intel is contributing 1.5 million USD. It will focus on training lecturers, helping them to compile curricula, draw up lesson plans and apply advanced teaching methods in Vietnam.

As part of the programme, 25 Vietnamese lecturers from engineering universities will be provided with summer training courses every year at the ASU and PSU. They will continue to receive further help on how to apply new teaching methods from US specialists after finishing their training courses.

The programme will help to train a pool of skilled lecturers for Vietnam’s engineering universities, said US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak.

Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga affirmed that the move is in line with Vietnam’s human recourses development strategy as well as the training goals of individual engineering universities in Vietnam.

It is also expected to partially meet Intel Vietnam’s demand for human resources, he added.

                                                                                                    http://www.dtinews.vn

The Ministry of Education and Training has ruled children should learn English from the third grade onwards but schools, especially in rural areas, are not equipped for this since they face a shortage of textbooks, teaching staff, and facilities.

Third grade of Cau Kieu school in district Phu Nhuan. The ministry has ruled children should learn English from the third grade onwards.

The ministry’s strategy to develop education for 2008-2020 envisages having 70 percent of students learning English by 2015 and 100 percent by 2018.

However, the project seemed to be not feasible as  many primary schools in some districts face difficulties not including educational institutes in rural and remote areas where seriously lack essential facilities.

But even Ho Chi Minh City, and which has held intensive English programs for 10 years now, has complained that some schools do not have enough teachers, lack standard facilities, and have overcrowded classes.

A teacher said having too many children in a class will make it difficult to teach communication and the students can only be taught to read and write.

One hundred teachers who took part in a recent training programme said they are concerned about what textbooks will be used under the new curriculum.

Educational agencies are considering choosing textbooks like Let’s go, Let’s learn and Go go.

Nguyen Ngoc Hung, the ministry’s English expert, said teachers should not be unduly worried since the new syllabus is similar to the old one and provincial education departments can decide on what books to use.

Though the ministry said different textbooks are allowed to be used at the moment to prevent any publisher from establishing a monopoly, it seems to be an unsatisfactory solution.
                                                                                                   http://www.dtinews.vn

Recently, many people in the ethnic minority group of Co tu have changed their surnames, causing confusion amongst themselves and local authorities.

Co tu children will be victims of changing surnames

Dozens of families living in Jo Ngay, Song Kon communes, Dong Giang District, Quang Nam Province, now have 3 surnames within one family.

For example, Alang R from Dao Hamlet, Song Kon Commune, Dong Giang District, has a first-born son carrying the surname Nguyen while his second son carries the surname Le. His surname is Alang.

A family at Ca Dang Commune has 3 sons but they carry 3 different surnames including Le, Cao and Alang. Alang is their original surname.

According to Co tu elderly people, the Co tu ethnic group traditionally has 13 major surnames. However, the number of their surnames has increased to 33. Alang is one of their major surnames. They have a rule that children have to carry the fathers surname and are not allowed to change it.

Briu P’s ram, who was former Chairman of the People’s Committee of Dong Giang District, said that changing surnames here started during the American war in a bid to protect people who joined the army. By that time it was normal when one person carried 5-6 surnames. He also shared that changing surnames now is absolutely unacceptable.

In fact, many Co tu people have difficulties because of changing their last names. Take Arat N as an example. All his family members carry the surname Alang however, he carries the surname Arat. He encountered much trouble when he applied for his children’s birth certificates or conducted other procedures which are related to his family.

Many 1st grade pupils have changed their surnames themselves after their friends convinced them to follow their surnames. After comparing information from their application forms with their original birth certificates, their teachers discovered these pupils did not declare their real surnames.

In addition, some people want to “modernise” their surnames by changing from Poloong to Phong.

Le Thi Thuy, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Dong Giang District spoke about this issue, “Changing surnames of people here has caused a lot of difficulties and confusion for local authorities and schools in managing and collecting personal information of their people.”

“The main reason is that civilians lack awareness and knowledge about laws in addition to irresponsibility of several local justice officials,” explained Thuy.

She added, “We hold meetings every year to discuss and discover solutions to prevent and improve this issue to help people, local authorities and schools avoid troubles caused by the changing of surnames.”

Nguyen Quang Khoi, Vice Manager of Dong Giang District’s Department of Culture & Sports said that changing surnames of people here has seriously affected the culture and tradition of Co tu people.

“It poses a threat of incest marriages and losing major surnames of Co tu if this issue still continues,” shared Khoi.

                                                                                                   http://www.dtinews.vn

Vietnam's best chess players are ready for the Chess Olympiad 2010 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, from September 19 to October 4, reports Vietnam Chess Federation general secretary Dang Tat Thang today.
 

Le Quang Liem.

They are International Grand Masters Le Quang Liem, who finished second at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting, Dortmund, last month, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Dao Thien Hai, Nguyen Anh Dung, Nguyen Duc Hoa, and the women Hoang Thi Bao Tram, Hoang Thi Nhu Y, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung, Nguyen Thi Thanh An and Pham Le Thao Nguyen.

"The team includes both veterans and youth," said the general secretary. "It will give the young the chance to gain experience and skills.

"The team's aim is to finish in the 20 of the more than 160 countries taking part in the tournament."

The tournament will also be an opportunity for the Vietnamese players to test themselves against such Asian rivals as China, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Qatar and the Philippines in preparation for the Asian Games in China in November.

It is the 39th edition of the Olympiad and follows the Dresden Chess Olympiad 2008 and precedes the Chess Olympiad 2012 in Turkey.

Vietnam sent four players, Liem, Son, Hai and Nguyen Van Huy, to Dresden where they finished ninth ahead of such countries as India, Germany, Bulgaria and England.

The German Chess Federation sent six of its best players to contest friendly tournaments in Vietnam during April.
                                                                                                  http://www.dtinews.vn

Miss Vietnam World 2010 Luu Thi Diem Huong.

The title of first runner-up went to Nguyen Ngoc Kieu Khanh from Germany, who was crowned Miss Beach, and the second runner-up was Pham Thuy Vy Victoria from the US, who was Miss Sports.

Outclassing 40 outstanding contestants, the 20-year-old girl gave an excellent answer to a question about the Temple of Literature in Hanoi in the Q & A session to become the winner of the beauty pageant. She also won the title Miss Photogenic.

Huong weighs 50kg and has perfect measurements: 84-61-92 and is 1.71m tall. She is studying at the faculty of hotel management and tourism at Hoa Sen University in Ho Chi Minh City.

The top five of Miss Vietnam World 2010.

Huong will keep the crown worth VND1 billion and a prize worth VND500 million.

The judges also announced other titles including Miss Friendly to Nguyen Thanh Lan, Miss Popular to Nguyen Thu May, and Miss Elegance Nguyen Mai Anh.

According to the organizing board, the contest has raised more than VND4.5 billion for charitable activities.

Il Divo performed with 41 contestants.

Three hosts from the left: Jennifer Pham, Anh Tuan and Diem Quynh.

The 41 contestants appeared on the stage with flags of Vietnam and other countries.

From the left: Miss USA Asia Michelle Nguyen Thuy Trang, Miss Vietnam World 2007 Ngo Phuong Lan and Miss Vietnam Russia Phuong Nga.

Singer Tung Duong

"Nam dong ke" band.

First runner-up and Miss Sea Nguyen Ngoc Kieu Khanh.

Miss Ao dai Ha Thi Hoang Anh

Miss Vietnam World 2010 Luu Thi Diem Huong

Ha Anh Tuan and Nam Dong Ke band

The top five

The second runner-up Thuy Vy Victoria

Jennifer Pham talked with Il Divo

Luu Thi Diem Huong received Miss Photo title

Charming Face title winner Daniela Thu May

Miss Charming Nguyen Mai Anh

Miss Vietnam World 2007

The top three contestants

The World Bank will provide US$180.4 million for Vietnam in the form of preferential credit to build the Vietnam-Germany University.

An agreement to this effect was signed between the State Bank of Vietnam and the World Bank (WB) in Hanoi on August 13.

The project, which is scheduled to be completed in November 2017, will develop infrastructure facilities as well as build a policy framework to make the Vietnam-Germany University a leading technological training and research centre in Vietnam that meets regional and international standards.

The university is expected to enrol 5,000 students each year, half of them will be following post-graduate courses.

The university will include specialised faculties for electronic and information technology, civil engineering, bio-technology, economics, industrial technology, computer science and natural science.

Addressing the signing ceremony, State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Giau spoke highly of the WB’s assistance to Vietnam for strengthening its education capacity and development, especially in tertiary education.

Construction of the university will help improve the quality of tertiary education in Vietnam, he said.

The project will receive technical assistance from a group of German experts.

The German government will finance the development and implementation of teaching programmes and cover expenses for the lecturers who will teach at the university.

                                                                                                  http://www.dtinews.vn

Hanoi’s Van Xuan flower garden on Quan Thanh Street, has become a free haven for book lovers.

Children gathering books at the library

Driven by a passion for reading and sharing knowledge with others, Dinh Thanh Long (from Hanoi Foreign Trade University) and Nguyen Xuan Hoang (Brand Manager of Thangbesport in Ho Chi Minh City), have established the Youth Book Club.

The main activity of the club is to collect books and bring them to Van Xuan flower garden to allow people to read without charging them a penny.

Long is the chairman of the club and Hoang supports him from Ho Chi Minh City.

Long shared that he was very fond of reading books ever since he was young and that he has always shared interesting books with his friends.

Being born in Hanoi, Long loves the city very much. He wanted to do something for his hometown with the 1,000 year anniversary of Hanoi approaching. Long shared a vision with Hoang after being told the story of two girls who opened a free library in Ho Chi Minh City. Long was enthusiastically on board.

Long shared, “The club members want to give something back to society by creating and sharing reading as passion and a habit. The club’s activities are expected to connect and influence young people all over the country.”

After being open for two weeks, the club members have now collected 2,000 books, newspapers and magazines in different fields. They have 20 members and many fans on Facebook.

Long shared some memories that on the first day, a man thought they were selling old books and tried to persuade them to allow them to buy a book which he liked very much.

Another day, it suddenly started raining. Club members did not care about themselves getting wet but instead tried their best to protect the books from the rain.

Elderly people, kids, street vendors, taxi drivers and more, come to the garden and read books under the luscious shadows of the trees.

Shoe-shiners and restaurant workers near the library now can have a chance to read their books which they cannot afford to buy.

One little girl, Viet Anh, has joined the club and takes care of the comic books while an elderly man praised the club’s activities and donated many magazines.

The free library is open from 7am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. However, Long plans to ask for permission from his university’s leaders to open the library every Tuesday and Thursday at the university.

The club members are also completing textbooks for children in remote areas of Vietnam.

They hope to collect more books so that they can expand reading activities in other places throughout Hanoi.

Dinh Thanh Long (left) and a club member at Van Xuan flower garden

Organising books

Supermodel Vu Nguyen Ha Anh has been appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Vietnam.

Supermodel Vu Nguyen Ha Anh has been appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Vietnam.

Ha Anh is the second Vietnamese person to hold this honor after former football star Le Huynh Duc.

Before returning to Vietnam to become a famous model, Ha Anh studied and worked as a model in the UK.

Danny Kaye was the first to hold the position, with the title of Ambassador-at-Large granted in 1954. Other celebrities have followed, acting as international, regional, or national ambassadors, depending o­n their profile, interests, and desired level of responsibility. The goal of the program is to allow celebrities with a demonstrated interest in UNICEF issues to use their fame to draw attention to important issues. This may take the form of public appearances and talks, visits to troubled regions that draw media attention, or using their political access to advocate for UNICEF causes.

Many stars have been appointed as UNICEF goodwill ambassadors, such as Lucy Liu, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claudia Schiffer, Liv Tyler, Selena Gomez, Won Bin, Robbie Williams, Ralph Fiennes, etc.

                                                                                                   http://www.dtinews.vn

Indian president Pratibha Pati gives the Fields Medal- the highest honour in Mathematics- to Professor Ngo Bao Chau.

The prestigious Fields Medal has been long regarded as mathematics' version of the Nobel Prize. It is the first time it has been bestowed upon a Vietnamese, leading millions throughout the country overjoyed with pride.

Ngo, 38, recently made decisive advances in two central areas of modern mathematics: number theory and representation theory. “He proved a basic result, a matching conjecture called ‘the fundamental lemma,’ so named because it represents the central gate for progress in the Langlands program,” said Peter Constantin, the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor in Mathematics and Chairman of the Mathematics Department of the University of Chicago.

According to Professor Le Tuan Hoa, Vice-Director of the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics, the Fields Medal given to Prof Ngo Bao Chau is not only of significant meaning to Vietnam but also to the region as well as the world. “Vietnam is a poor country which has never showed a strength in science,” Hoa said. “Therefore, this award proves that with proper investment, we can achieve the highest possible achievements in science.”

Time Magazine described the Langlands program as “an ambitious and revolutionary theory” that connects two major branches of mathematics. Named for Robert Langlands, a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., the Langlands program consists of a conjectural set of general correspondences between algebraic and geometric objects, Constantin explained. “The proof by Ngo opens dramatically new avenues for the geometric Langlands program,” he said.

Langlands tried to prove the fundamental lemma during the 1970s. In later years, the University of Chicago’s Robert Kottwitz and three colleagues from other institutions developed approaches to the problem. Constantin said Ngo “added numerous striking ideas” to their work in “a 200-page masterpiece.”

Hearing about the good news, Chau’s former teacher Duong Hoang Giang, who taught Ngo Bao Chau from 1987 to 1989 at the Gifted High School of Hanoi National University of Natural Sciences is bursting with happiness, “I am so happy, I remember that Chau had showed a special aptitude for mathematics right from the time he started to study in my class. At that time I had thought that he would succeed if he was trained properly and now my instincts have been proven true.”

PhD Nguyen Vu Luong, head of the Gifted High School said that Chau’s success is not only bringing pride to himself but to all the teachers that have taught him. “He has won a great prize that many countries in the world desire,” he cried out happily, “More than that, what Chau gives us a great encouragement to our education system. We are confident that we can produce many talents for our country as well as for the world.”

Ngo Bao Chau was born in 1972 in the capital city of Hanoi, Vietnam. His father, Ngo Huy Can was a Professor in hydromechanics and his mother, PhD Tran Luu Van Hien, was working at the National Traditional Medicine Hospital.

A native of Hanoi, North Vietnam, Ngo received his doctoral degree from Université Paris-Sud in 1997. Currently a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., Ngo received the Oberwolfach Prize in 2007, the Prix Sophie Germain de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris in 2007 and the Clay Research Award in 2004.

The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), which will be held in Hyderabad, India from August 19 to 27, is the largest mathematics congress in the world and meets every four years. Held under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), each ICM awards the Fields Medal to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age. The Fields Medal, which is often described as the “Nobel Prize of Mathematics”, is viewed as the top honour a mathematician can receive.

The Fields Medal is an award that is given at every ICM to no more than four mathematicians under the age of 40. Since the ICM is organised every four years, the Fields Medal is only awarded once every four years. Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields is the award founder.

The three mathematicians who received the Fields Medal with Chau are Elon Lindenstrauss (Israel), Stanislav Smirnov (Russia), and Cedric Villani (France).

                                                                                                 http://www.dtinews.vn

The Prime Minister has approved a 651 billion VND (33 million USD) maths development programme during the 2010-2020 period.

All six members of the Vietnamese team won medals at the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) 2010 in Kazakhstan.

The programme focusing on maths research, application and lectures aims to bring Vietnam maths to the world’s 40th place by 2020 from the current 50-55 th position.

By 2020, Vietnam strives to have enough qualified maths lecturers at universities and colleges, more than 70 percent of whom are PhD degree holders. Maths institutes and a number of major universities’ maths faculties are expected to become regional maths training and research centres by that year.

The programme aims to improve the quality of maths training and broaden its scale at general education and higher education as well.

Under the programme, the number of internationally announced maths publications is expected to double from the 2010 figure.

To achieve these targets, the programme will build the Maths Research Institute (MRI), to assist key maths application schemes, send maths researchers and teachers overseas for further training and organise domestic and international maths conferences.

Maths is among basic sciences that have developed well in the country since 1954, said Prof Le Tuan Hoa from the Vietnam Maths Association, adding that Vietnam won one gold, four silvers and one bronze at the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) 2010 in Kazakhstan .

Vietnam has attended the IMOs 34 times since 1974 with 45 golds, 82 silvers and 63 bronzes. The country has been among the top 10 countries of almost 100 countries and territories over the past 10 years.

Noteworthy, Prof. Ngo Bao Chau, who is the country’s youngest maths professor and famous for the Langlands’ fundamental lemma project, is a candidate for the Fields prize. The prize will be announced at the International Congress of Mathematicians in India on August 19, 2010.

                                                                                                  http://www.dtinews.vn