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

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

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