S'pore grants ASEAN scholarships
S'pore grants ASEAN scholarships
SINGAPORE: The Singapore government said on Monday it awarded 60
scholarships to students from the region as part of the island's
efforts to provide technical assistance to fellow members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grouping.
"These scholarships are not only recognition of your academic
abilities, they are an affirmation of the importance Singapore
attaches to people-to-people contacts within ASEAN," Minister of
State for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim said.
For the first time since the scheme was launched in 1998, this
year's intake will see students from the other nine ASEAN member
countries enrolled in pharmacy and biomedical sciences courses,
in addition to the traditional disciplines such as engineering
and computer science.
There are now 167 students from ASEAN countries studying under
the program. --AFP
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Aglance-Thailand-AIDS
Thailand developing two HIV vaccines
JP/11/ASEAN
Thailand developing two HIV vaccines
THAILAND: Thailand will develop two more HIV vaccines for human
trial in the next two years following last month's announcement
it would soon embark on the world's largest HIV vaccine trial,
the health minister said in a statement received on Monday.
Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said the BCG-gag E and Vaccinia-
gag E vaccines, aimed at combating HIV's E strain which is
widespread in Thailand, have already shown impressive results on
monkeys.
The two vaccines proved effective at reactivating the monkeys'
immune systems and reducing their HIV prevalence, the Nation
newspaper cited a Department of Medical Science report as saying.
Last month Thailand announced it would begin in December the
world's biggest HIV vaccine trial, lasting five years and
involving 16,000 volunteer participants from two eastern
provinces. --AFP
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Aglance-Vietnam-drought
Drought hits central Vietnam
JP/11/ASEAN
Drought hits central Vietnam
VIETNAM: Nearly half a million people in central Vietnam are
suffering from water shortages caused by a two-month drought,
state-controlled media reported on Monday.
The drought has hit 84,000 hectares (207,500 acres), or nearly
one-third, of the rice fields in the central region, Thoi Bao
Kinh Te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) quoted Nguyen Dinh Ninh,
deputy director of the Water and Irrigation Projects Management
Department, as saying.
About 42,000 hectares of rice fields are badly affected and
23,500 hectares of crops could be lost, Ninh was quoted as
saying.
The drought is not expected to affect Vietnam's rice exports
because the central region is not a main rice growing area.
As water levels in the rivers have dropped, salt water from
the ocean has encroached as far as 15 to 30 kilometers up the
rivers, hurting farm production, Ninh said. --AP
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Aglance-RP-ship explosion
Engine room blast kills 2 in ship
JP/11/ASEAN
Engine room blast kills 2 in ship
PHILIPPINES: An accidental blast killed two crew members and
injured three others in a docked passenger ship's engine room in
the central Philippines, officials said on Monday.
The blast struck the M/V Tacloban Princess on Sunday while the
3,351-ton ship was undergoing regular checks at an Ormoc city
pier in Leyte province. It unloaded an undetermined number of
passengers from Manila hours earlier in nearby Masbate island,
coast guard officials said.
Engineer Nicasio Champlon of Sulpicio Lines, Inc., which owns
the ship, said the crew members were checking an electric
generator when an air tank exploded, killing an apprentice
engineer and another crew member. The blast ignited a small fire
that was immediately extinguished, he said.
The blast and fire only caused minor damage to the ship's
engine, he said. The coast guard is investigating the accident.
Ormoc city lies 560 kilometers southeast of Manila. --AP