Society

-- Local authorities will exert effort to prevent banned chemicals from being used in agriculture by the end of this year’s second quarter, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam announced at Wednesday’s conference on food hygiene and safety in Ho Chi Minh City.

-- Le Hong Quan, head of the water supply and drainage bureau of Hanoi’s Department of Construction, has predicted that the capital will face a shortage of around 60,000 cubic meters of water per day in the middle of this summer.

-- An earthquake measuring three on the Richter scale hit Bac Tra My District in the central province of Quang Nam on Wednesday, making it the second tremor to occur near the Song Tranh hydropower project within five days, according to the earthquake and tsunami warning center under the Hanoi-based Institute of Geophysics.

-- According to statistics from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak’s Ea Sup District, more than 130 cows in the locality have died due to drought while thousands of livestock and poultry are exhausted as they lack water to drink.

Business -- The People’s Committee of Quang Nam Province has decided to establish a credit guarantee fund for local small and medium enterprises with an initial charter capital of VND30 billion(US$1.34 million) taken from the state budget.

Education

-- RMIT University Vietnam has said it will spend VND31 billion ($1.38 million) on its 2016 scholarship program for students of many nationalities.

-- According to a new regulation promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training, college students are banned from smearing individuals and organizations on the Internet. The regulation will take effect on May 23, 2016.

Lifestyle -- ‘Petal of Peace,’ the four edition of ‘Tuoi Tre Vietnam – Cau Chuyen Hoa Binh’ (Vietnamese Youth – The Story of Peace), will take place at 5:00 pm on Thursday in Tokyo, featuring performances by many Vietnamese and Japanese artists. The event is jointly organized annually by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and the Vietnam National Union of Students Central Committee.