| 3 fined for dumping
sludge in Vung Tau beach The Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province people’s committee Monday
slapped a fine of VND100 million (US$5,000) on three men for dumping sludge in
the waters off Vung Tau beach. Nguyen Thanh Tong, captain of dredger SG 5586, Nguyen Cong
Chanh, captain of SG 4877, and Le Van Rieng, captain of SG 3728, had been
caught red-handed while dumping 1,300 cube meters of dredged sludge at the Bai
Truoc (Front Beach) area last Friday. The sludge had been dredged from Vung Tau’s Dinh River,
and should have been dumped in designated sludge disposal sites. Rieng said they chose Bai Truoc to cut costs. Authorities demolish
exceeded construction Authorities have demolished all exceeded construction in six
buildings in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh city.
These buildings were built with one to seven extra stories
than the permitted height under the construction license. A building at 20-22
Thai Van Luong Street that exceeded five stories,
a building at 24 Thai Van Lung
Street that exceeded seven stories, a building at 17/15 Le Thanh Ton Street
that exceeded 4 stories and a building at 17/19 Le Thanh Ton Street that exceeded 6
stories were torn down. All these buildings were in Ben Nghe Ward. The other two buildings are at 219/8A and 219/9 Pham Ngu Street in Pham Ngu Lao
Ward, with each exceeding one story. Thai Duc Do, head of the district Construction Inspection
Agency, said that after tearing down the extra built up floors, owners have
torn down any other illegal construction on their own. Hypertension affecting
many Vietnamese According to a recent survey conducted by the Hanoi-based
Vietnam National Heart Institute in eight provinces and cities, about 25
percent of Vietnamese aged 25 and above suffer from high blood pressure. One out of every four Vietnamese is suffering from high
blood pressure. This figure was released at a science seminar on hypertension,
held in Hanoi
on May 15 by the Ministry of Health and the Vietnam National Heart Institute to
mark World Hypertension Day on May 17. The figures are alarming as more than 52 percent of
hypertension patients do not know they suffer from the disease. Thirty percent
do not have access to proper medical treatment and 64 percent are incurable. Speaking at the seminar, Nguyen Thi Xuyen, deputy health minister,
said hypertension is a chronic disease in the country and across the globe.
According to the World Health Organization, around 1.5 billion people across
the globe suffer from high blood pressure. The theme of the seminar was ‘Remember your blood pressure
number like your own age’. Ministry explains
higher car value for state offices The Vietnamese Ministry of Finance has rejected recent news
reports that it wanted to break a rule by allowing government officials to
switch to more expensive cars. Local news website VnExpress on Sunday cited the ministry as
saying that it planned to raise the maximum value allowed for state office cars
to VND1.1 billion (US$53,500) from VND800 million, but it was only because car
prices have been rising. The new ceiling does not mean the ministry wanted to buy
higher-end cars for state offices, VnExpress cited a source as saying. Vietnam’s
government in February ordered ministries and agencies to withhold 10 percent
of non-essential expenditures for the rest of this year. The country had 29,524 vehicles at state offices, worth
VND13.3 trillion ($647 million), Hanoi Moi newspaper reported in March, citing
the Public Property Management Department. Six Senses among
world’s 50 best hotels The Six Senses Hideaway resort on Con
Dao Island
in Vietnam is on the list of
50 best hotels in the world by Travel & Leisure magazine based in New York City. The resort is spread over 13 hectares of land and has 50
wooden villas spread along the beach for about one kilometer. The resort was listed on the 19th position on the list of
world’s best hotels. It also received a Property Award for the “Best Hotel
Construction and Design for Small Hotels” in the Asian Pacific Region in
2010. The travel magazine’s list contains mostly independent
hotels, but it is sprinkled with a few recognizable names such as Starwood (4
hotels), Ritz-Carlton (2), Waldorf Astoria (1) Four Seasons (1) and Marriott
(1). Vietnam, UNICEF join hands to prevent child
injuries Child injury accidents are becoming a global problem that
results in 2,000 fatalities every day, said Deputy Minister of Labour,
Invalids, and Social Affairs Doan Mau Diep. Mr. Diep said this at a seminar on developing a child injury
prevention programme for the 2011-2015 period, jointly held by the Ministry of
Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MOLISA) and the United Nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF) on May 16 in Hanoi. The Deputy Minister said, in Vietnam alone, an average of 20
children die every day from injuries caused by accidents. Drowning is the
number one reason for child fatalities (50 percent), followed by traffic
accidents, burns, and falls. The new programme, co-ordinated by the MOLISA and related
ministries and agencies, aims to reduce the number of child injury accidents. Along with the national programmes for preventing traffic
accidents and workplace safety, the child injury prevention programme aims to
provide first aid skills to reduce child injuries and fatalities by 10 percent. Vietnam attends 64th General Assembly of the World
Medical Association A Vietnamese delegation led by Minister of Health Nguyen
Quoc Trieu has attended the 64th General Assembly of the World Medical
Association in the US. Minister Trieu met with health ministers from Laos, Myanmar,
Thailand, Cambodia, China, billionaire Bill Gates who
is president of the Bill & Melinda Gates Fund to discuss real situation and
the anti-artemisinin. In a letter dated May 16 sent to the UN General Secretary
Ban Ki-moon, Minister Trieu said the Vietnamese Government supports the Global
Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health launched on September 22, 2010. He
said Vietnam
gives top priority to women and children’s health care and added that the index
of women and children’s health has improved in recent years. MoF provides 5,000
tonnes of rice for localities The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has started to provide 5,000
tonnes of rice for poor households in five drought stricken localities, under
the instruction of the Prime Minister. They include 1,450 tonnes of rice for Kon Tum, 1,345 tonnes
for Ha Giang, 500 tonnes for Lao Cai, 1,500 tonnes for Yen Bai and 200 tonnes
for Gia Lai. The PM asked the provincial People’s Committees to
distribute the relief aid to the right people. First heart transplant
patient discharged from Hue city
hospital State President Nguyen Minh Triet has congratulated Hue central hospital on
its first successful heart transplant operation. Tran Mau Duc, a 26 year-old patient from Phu Hoi ward, Hue city who had suffered
from the fourth-stage heart failure, was just discharged from hospital after
about 10 weeks of treatment. Professor Dr Bui Duc Phu said that the successful heart
transplant has opened up new prospects for Hue Central
Hospital to treat
patients with heart disease. The hospital also has performed heart surgery on many
infants weighing 3.5 kilo. Vietnamese,
Australian trade unions bolster cooperation The Vietnam
General Confederation of Labour and the Australian Council for Trade Unions
signed a memorandum of understanding in Hanoi
on May 15 to boost their cooperation in improving workers’ living and working
conditions. Signatories were Dang Ngoc Tung, President of the Vietnam
General Confederation of Labour, and Ged Kearney, President of the Australian
Council for Trade Unions. The two sides agreed that protecting labourers’ rights,
improving their living and working conditions, reducing unemployment and
eliminating poverty are urgent issues that need addressing. They will boost cooperation in implementing the Labour Code
and the Trade Union Law to ensure and promote labourers’ right and interests in
line with international standards as well as guaranteeing salary and good
working conditions for labourers through collective negotiations at grassroots
and sector levels. They will also cooperate in carrying out educational and
vocational training and social welfare programmes for the benefit of labourers
and their families. City hospital reports
another ‘pig bacterium’ case The Tropical Disease Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City reported
another patient contracted with the Streptococus Suis virus or ‘pig bacterium’
on May 16, raising the number of infected cases to 11 since the beginning of
the year. The patient N.T.B, 57, resides in Ninh Thuan Province and was hospitalized with high
fever and organ disorder. Doctors say the patient was infected with the Streptococus
Suis virus, or commonly known as ‘pig bacterium’, because of eating pig-blood
curd. Fortunately, the patient is showing signs of recovery. According to health experts, people can contract the
Streptococcus Suis bacterium through unhygienic or diseased pork. Infected patients show symptoms of nausea, fever, vomiting
and bleeding. Doctors have warned people not to eat diseased pigs. Hanoi suspends two drugs from the market The Hanoi Department of Health suspended the sale of two
medication drugs on May 15, for failing to meet the required safety standards. Sale
of the two medication drugs, Genzivit plus syrup 100ml and New Cobex tablet
have been ordered to be removed from shelves across the country. Tests conducted by health experts showed that Genzivit
syrup, a vitamin supplement (manufacturing date October 7, 2010; expiry date
October 6, 2012; registration number VN-4928-07) did not have the required
content of B2 vitamin as stated on the label. Khanh Hoa Pharmaceutical Joint
Stock Company imported the drug, manufactured by general Pharmaceuticals LTD in
Bangladesh. New Cobex tablets, a prescribed vitamin for adults and kids,
was withdrawn from pharmacy shelves due to insufficient content of vitamin
B12. The drug was registered under
number VD-5054-08 with manufacturing date October 20, 2010 and expiry date
October 20, 2013. N.I.C. Pharma Co. Ltd. made it. Hospitals, medical clinics and pharmacies in the country
have been ordered to remove the two drugs from shelves in view of patients’
safety. 6 accidents occur in
a day in Vietnam,
8 dead In 24 hours until yesterday evening there were six major
accidents around the country in which eight people were killed, including three
children. Yesterday afternoon, on National Highway 1A in Binh Tan District,
Ho Chi Minh City,
a tanker travelling in the wrong lane hit a motorbike driven by Nguyen Van
Chung. His wife, Nguyen Thi My Luon, and son, Nguyen Van Bin, fell
on the road and were run over by the truck. The driver, Le Hong Khanh, 24, helped take them to the
nearby Van Phuoc General Clinic, but they were declared dead on arrival. “The woman was run over on her chest while the boy was
severely injured in the head and legs,” a nurse, Le Duc Duong, said. “They may
have died on the way here.” The victims belonged to Hung Dien commune, Tan Hung District in neighboring Long An
Province. Earlier, on Sunday night, a concrete pillar left behind
after some construction in the Rach
Cam River
in Can Tho fell on a small boat carrying bricks, sinking it. On board were Duong Dac Thang, 42, of Vinh Long province,
and his wife and daughter Pham Thi Bich Hanh, 39, and Duong Thi Diem Hang, 10. Hanh and Hang were carried away by strong currents and local
rescue workers found their bodies yesterday morning. The pole had been installed five years ago for construction
of a bridge and never removed, a local official said. The local police said the column was badly eroded. Yesterday morning a stationary truck that was being repaired
on National Highway
1A in Thang Binh District in the central Quang Nam Province was hit from by another truck. The driver of the rear truck died on the spot and both vehicles
were damaged, police said. Evan as the police were working at the scene, another
collision occurred 200 meters away between a truck and a container trailer,
injuring one of the drivers. The two accidents blocked the highway, leaving vehicles
queued up for 15 km on the highway. At 10 pm yesterday two young men were killed in a major
accident on National Highway
1A in Ben Luc District, Long An province. Huynh Thanh Tung, 34, a local, and Phan Thanh Nguyen of Can
Tho were on a motorbike and tried to overtake a container truck at high speed,
according to the local police. After they got past the truck, they crashed into the road
divider, fell on the road, and were fatally run over by the truck. Yesterday afternoon a child died in an accident in Buon Ma
Thuot city in Dak
Lak Province. It happened when a motorbike driven by Cao Son Tuyen, 25,
was swiped by a truck at the Phan Boi Chau-Phan Chu Trinh crossroads. His wife Tran Thi Tuyen, 20, had been carrying their
three-month-old baby Cao Gia Tue who died instantly. The couple were seriously injured and are in hospital in
critical condition. Vietnamese confirmed
missing from Japan-quake The foreigners include nationals of China, South Korea, the
Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam have been confirmed missing from devastating
March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Japan Today cited Japan government’s
announcement on Monday. Japan has
also confirmed the deaths of 24 foreigners including nationals of China, Canada,
South and North Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines
and the US.
Japan Today quoted an official as saying police have asked
families of those unaccounted for via diplomatic missions in Tokyo to submit DNA samples for
identification of the bodies. In the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, which struck the
western Japan city of Kobe and its vicinity,
around 150 foreigners were confirmed dead among 6,434 victims. As of May 15, the death toll from the March 11 twin
disasters reached 15,057, with 9,121 people still unaccounted for. Vietnamese surrogate
mothers arrive home Ten out of fifteen Vietnamese women recently freed from a
surrogate baby ring in Thailand
arrived in Vietnam safely
Monday, said Pham Minh Tuan, the First Secretary of the Vietnam Embassy in Thailand. Tuan said the remaining 5 women had to stay in Thailand to
recover after giving birth, and would fly back home at the end of this month. Earlier, these women were rescued by the Thail police from a
Taiwanese company, Baby 101 Co., which offers illegal surrogacy services. Pier of unbuilt bridge
sinks boat, kills mother, daughter A woman and her daughter were killed when a 10m-tall
concrete pier of a bridge that was never built fell on a boat Sunday night in
the Mekong Delta City of Can Tho. The accident happened when Duong Dac Thang, 42, was driving
a boat carrying 17 tons of bricks on the Rach
Cam River
to make a delivery at Rach
Cam Bridge.
His wife, 39-year-old Phan Thi Bich Hanh, and his daughter, ten-year-old Duong
Thi Diem Hang, were also on board. As they passed the pier, it toppled over and fell on it. The
pier had been installed five years ago for construction of the Binh Thuy No.2
Bridge, a project that was later abandoned because its location was changed to
a few kilometers away. Thang managed to swim to the river bank to ask for help,
while Hanh and Hang went missing as the boat sank. Hanh’s body was recovered later the same day, with her chest
broken by the pier. Hang’s body was found the next morning. Nguyen Hoang Nam, secretary of Binh Thuy District Party
unit, said although local authorities and the city’s transport department had
asked the bridge’s investor many times to remove the pier but the latter had
not made any effort to do so. The bridge’s contractor, Civil Engineering Construction
Joint Stock Company No 586., also made no plans to remove the pier or set up
warning signs, Nam
said. Locals said hundreds of accidents have taken place around
the pier over the past five years. An investigation has been launched into the accident, local
officials said. Hanoi raid nets over 140,000 smuggled cigarette
packs Police in Hanoi
have confiscated over 140,000 packets of foreign cigarettes worth about VND4.5
billion (US$218,128) with no import stamp or documents found during a raid of a
local house. Thanh Kien Trung, chief of the city’s anti-smuggling team,
said the raid was conducted after police caught 43-year-old Nguyen Viet Dung
red handed, transporting 500 packets of cigarettes Saturday. Dung said he bought the foreign cigarettes in the northern province of Quang Ninh and transported it to Hanoi. He stored the
goods in his house as well as his mother-in-law’s before selling them to local
vendors. Police said it was likely that Dung has been doing this
business for many years. They are investigating the case further, the police said. Businessman raping
intern arrested A business executive in the southern province of Binh Duong
was arrested yesterday for raping an intern in his company, said the police of
Binh Duong’s Thuan An Town. HMD, an intern at Dat Thu Company in Thu Dau Mot Town,
accused the company’s CEO Nguyen Viet Hung, 37, of raping her at his private
residence on May 14. Hung has admitted guilty to the police. Tax official arrested
for bribery A tax official in the southern province of Dong Nai
was arrested Monday for receiving a bribe of VND10 million (US$500), said the
Dong Nai Police. On the afternoon of May 14, the police said Nguyen Chi Dung,
40, head of the tax investigation unit of the tax department in Nhon Trach
District, was caught receiving the bribe from Loc Huu Phat, deputy manager of
Luu Vu Co.,Ltd in a café in Nhon Trach. According to Phat, Dung investigated his company’s tax
accounting last November and said his company was subject to a VND300 million
($15,000) fine for violations. Dung, however, told Phat the latter wouldn’t have to pay any
fine if he gave Dung VND70 million ($3,500). Phat immediately reported to the police. Men behind bars for
drunk raping Police in southern Soc Trang Province detained two men on charges of
kidnapping and raping a waitress of a restaurant in Vinh Chau town, Dan Tri
cited Tran Hoang Thu, a local police chief, as saying. Lai Hoang De, a 26-year-old local, and his friend Thach Meo,
27, last Saturday drank beer at the restaurant and asked the waitress to have
sex with them at a guest house nearby when they got drunk after several
bottles. The two blatantly seized and took her to My Hung guest house
in the neighborhood for raping despite the girl’s strong resistance. Police caught them red-handed committing the crime inside
the guest house shortly after. Meo has a record and just been released from prison. Local police are carrying out further investigation into the
case. Workshop looks at
land management corruption A round-table workshop with a focus on the prevention of
corruption in the management and use of land was held in Hanoi on May 16, as a preparation for the
ninth anti-corruption dialogue. Deputy General Director of the Government Inspectorate Tran
Duc Luong opened the workshop, reaffirming that in Vietnam, land and minerals were
under the people’s ownership and State management. Careful management and appropriate, effective exploitation
of land and minerals were a premise for sustainable development, ensuring social
security, he said, adding that in fact there were shortcomings and
ineffectiveness in management and use of natural resources. Mari Ottotson, Minister and Deputy Head of Mission
of the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam,
said the workshop was an open and frank forum to share views on corruption in
land use and management. She said she hoped to receive positive contributions
to strengthening probity in land issues in Vietnam, especially after the
eighth dialogue six months ago. Participants acknowledged positive changes in
anti-corruption, particularly management of land, procedural transparency,
administrative reform, plus detection and handling of corruption cases. They discussed shortcomings in fighting corruption in the
country, as well as anti-corruption measures taken from the eighth dialogue. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment would
continue to study regulations relating to land assignment and leasing,
anti-corruption measures and administrative reform, improve and train
managerial human resources and modernise the land administration dossier
system, creating a mechanism to increase community oversight of officials and
state management agencies at all levels, on land management and use. The workshop was scheduled to run until May 17. Policeman prevents
drowsy driver from causing accidents A policeman in Hanoi
has been effusively praised for timely preventing a drowsy driver from crashing
into street-goers and causing a possible dreadful accident at the busy Nguyen
Van Linh T-junction in Long Bien district in rush hours. On May 12, lieutenant colonel Nguyen Huu Tam found a truck
driver was sleeping and swinging a hammock on street when he was patrolling . Tam immediately speeded up his specialized motor to chase
the truck struggling to wake the driver up. He also alerted street-goers
through loudspeaker at maximum volume. Just dozens of meters away from the Nguyen Van Linh
T-junction, the brave police officer even swerved sharply in front of the truck
to prevent a possible dreadful accident. However, forturnately the driver timely woke up and slammed
on the brake. The driver was identified as Le Van Truong, 21, hailing from
Bac Giang northern province.
He told police he was weary from lack of sleep. Four charged for
cheating pawnshops A court in Tay Ninh province has charged four people with
fraud for selling gold-plated silver jewelry as if they were pure gold
products, cheating pawnshops out of nearly VND300 million ($US14,500). The Tay
Ninh Province’s
Duong Minh Chau District People’s Procuracy is charging the four for using
fraud to appropriate assets. The indicted are Vo Thanh Phong, 26, Dang Thi Phuong Nhung,
25, both from Hoa Thanh District, and Tran Dang Khoa and Mai Nhat Truong, both
21 from Duong Minh Chau District. Phong, the leader of the group, told investigators they
bought old jewelry, mainly made from silver, and then plated them with a layer
of gold using a complicated processing method to make them appear to be
24-carat gold. Phong was responsible for plating the jewelry and was aided
by Truong, who was assigned to mixing chemicals and making molds. Meanwhile, Nhung and Khoa were in charge of pawing the
jewelry. For each piece successfully pawned, Phong paid his
accomplices VND300,000 ($14.50) each. Because their products had real gold features, the group
successfully cheated many pawnshops, earning between VND14 to 16 million
($US680 to $US775) for each 0.5 tael piece pawned. In late December 2010, Nguyen Thi Dung, the owner of the
Ngoc Dung pawnshop in Suoi Da commune, Duong Minh Chau District, paid Nhung and
Khoa VND26 million for what he thought was a 0.5 tael gold bracelet. Another victim was Han Vu pawnshop, also in the district,
where the group sold two fake gold bracelets weighing 1 tael for VND30 million
($US1,450). Local police have launched an investigation after they
received numerous complaints from pawnshops, before catching the group in
action. Phong and his accomplices said they had deceived pawnshops
on 10 separate occasions, appropriating nearly VND300 million ($US14,500). The police are investigating the case to determine how many
pawnshops have fallen victim to the group and how much money has actually been
pocketed. Man threatens to kill
mom, detained after standoff A man was arrested after a standoff with police when he
chased his mother with a knife and threatened to stab her at their home in Vung
Tau Sunday morning. Nguyen Thi Kim Vang, 77, of Vung Tau, said she was sleeping
when her son Nguyen Quang Lanh, 39, returned home and knocked on the door. After she answered, she said her son began to chase her
around the house with a knife in his hand, threatening to kill her. The mother managed to get into her bedroom and lock the
door. She said she begged her son to stop the attack, but he insisted she come
out of the room. After hours of pleading with Lanh in vain, Vang called local
police around 5 a.m. City and emergency police arrived and surrounded the
house.They asked Lanh to put down his weapons and come out of the house. But Lanh,
with two knives in his hands, said he would kill himself if anyone entered the
house. The police continued to try and talk Lanh out, but he
refused and demanded police provide cooking and cigarettes to him. At 8:30 a.m., the police broke a window, sprayed tear gas
into the room where Lanh was and jumped into the house through the broken
window, quickly detaining Lanh. Vang did not suffer any injuries during the incident. At the police station, Lanh said he has worked as a
fisherman for 10 years. Recently he said he has found it difficult to sleep and
has often had nightmares. He said he returned home on May 12. His wife, Hien, told police that her husband is usually
good-natured, and never disturbed anyone until recently. “He had recently fallen into a bad mood and sometimes
experienced panicky feelings,” she said. “He once jumped into the sea while
working on a fishing boat, but he was rescued later by his mates.” Vung Tau police are holding Lanh to investigate the cause of
his attack on his mother. Poland fire causes $15 mil loss to VN traders A huge fire that completely destroyed the warehouse of
Vietnamese traders at the Wólka Kosowska Trade
Center in Warsaw, Poland
on May 10 has caused an estimated loss of US$15 million to them, according to
the Vietnamese embassy on Sunday. The fire, which has also affected Turkish and Chinese
traders, has caused a total of $100 million in damages, commercial counselor
Nguyen Van Thiem said. Thiem said the Vietnamese embassy is scrambling to
coordinate with local authorities to offer timely assistance to the Vietnamese
victims. He also advised Vietnamese traders to authorize their
businesses so they are able to receive more support and assistance from the
Polish government in case of future incidents. In August 22, EACC, another Vietnamese trade center in Wólka
Kosowska, was burnt to the ground causing $10 million in damages, Thiem said. Student honored for
designing flood-resistant home Pham Huu Thuy, a five year student from Ho
Chi Minh City’s Hong Bang University,
has decisively won the top prize for a competiton seeking the most effective
housing model to minimize losses in flood-hit areas in the central provinces. Launched by Vietnam Architecture Association for the first
time, the contest is to challenge local and overseas Vietnamese architects to
come up with an innovative idea for building houses in flood-prone areas. All designs are required to be practical, low in cost, able
to adapt to severe weather conditions, and suit flood-prone residents’
lifestyles. “Two devatasting floods last year killed dozens of my
neigbors and submerged and wrecked numerous houses in my hometown,” Thuy said.
“Therefore, I was determined to design a house to withstand floods.” His house features an automatic float system located under
the house’s foundation. If the house becomes surrounded with water, it
automatically floats and is able to stay balanced using a support system at its
four corners. When the flood subsides, the float automatically lowers back down
to its initial position. If needed, people can bring their property to the roof with
a pulley system as illustrated in the photo below. The house is also equipped
with an escape window. Bubble artist brings
magic to disabled kids Vietnamese-Canadian bubble artist Fan Yang, who performed in
Ho Chi Minh City’s Hoa Binh Theater last month,
visited disabled and disadvantaged children around Hanoi on Sunday. He brought 1,000 gifts including books, notebooks, rice and
candies to Hanoi SOS Children’s Village and Bo De pagoda orphanages, the dioxin
victims support center Friendship
Village and the hearing
impaired children supporting school Xa Dan. The “Bubble Magician,” a nickname he earned for his
fantastic use of bubbles made from a variety of substances, hypnotized children
with his performances. Although he left Vietnam at the age of two, Yang
still speaks Vietnamese well. “Vietnamese is my mother tongue,” he said. “I just naturally
want to speak it. I remember my homeland all the time and always dream that one
day I can perform for Vietnamese children.” Yang spends his life looking for ways to make soap bubbles
last. He has developed his own secret solution formulas and equipment to create
the bubbles. He first performed in Vietnam in 2006. Giant cigarette
smuggling operation busted in Hanoi The Hanoi anti-economic crime police yesterday busted a
cigarette smuggling operation, arresting three people and seizing 120,000 packs
of cigarettes worth around VND4.5 billion (US$218,000). They found Nguyen Viet Dung, 43, of Hoang Mai District,
transporting two packages on a motorbike in doubtful circumstances. When they stopped him to check, they found inside 50 cartons
of cigarettes (500 packs) without documents indicating their origin. On searching his house later, the police found nearly 7,000
cartons of cigarettes of various brands like 555, Esse, Hero, Davidoff,
Sobranie, and Kent,
Lieutenant Colonel Thanh Kien Trung, head of the Hanoi anti-smuggling police, said. Dung failed to produce any documents to prove their origin. Private company
director arrested for titanium smuggling
Vietnamese police on Friday arrested the director of a
private company for illegally exporting titanium to China. Le Van Chien, the 33-year-old director of Trung Viet Export-Import
and Investment Company based in the central province of Binh Dinh,
was charged with smuggling and is detained pending investigations. According to the police, Chien hired three companies to buy
seventy-five-thousand tons of crude titanium between 2009 and 2010 when he was
an officer of Binh Dinh Province Customs Department. He allegedly faked papers to prove the titanium ore was
meant for trading inside Vietnam.
After he quit the job, he opened his own company earlier
this year. Chien then hired cargo ships to sneakily transport the titanium to China from Quy Nhon Port, according to the police, who are
still investigating the case. Companies that export titanium ore and other kinds of
mineral resources must satisfy certain requirements under Vietnam’s
Mineral Resources Law. Two Vietnamese
killed, two missing in Taiwanese boat explosion
Vietnamese Embassy in South Africa is searching for two
Vietnamese sailors who went missing after a gas explosion onboard a Taiwanese
fishing boat. The accident left two other Vietnamese sailors dead last
month. The eight other Vietnamese sailors injured in the explosion
returned home Saturday after medical treatment in South Africa. The bodies of the two
dead sailors were also brought home. On April 29, the Lai Ching suffered from a gas explosion
while it was fishing on the southwest Atlantic, 2,963 kilometers (1,600
nautical miles) east of Paraguay,
the Taipei Times reported. After the accident, the Taiwanese vessel Hsiang Man -Ching,
the nearest vessel in the vicinity, rescued crew members who abandoned the ship
and were in lifeboats. Of 37 crew members, six, including two Vietnamese, were
killed. Eighteen sailors were injured and four went missing. The Vietnamese sailors that died are Le Xuan Sang and Hoang
Tri, and the two missing are Nguyen
Chau Bay
and Luu Dinh Tuan, according to Vietnam News Agency, which quoted the boat
owner. There were 12 Indonesians, 12 Vietnamese, eight Filipinos,
three Chinese and two Taiwanese on the boat. Arrest warrant issued
for firms’ directors in $48.6-mln fraud Prosecutors in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong
Friday approved the arrest of two companies’ directors for allegedly cheating a
bank out of over VND1 trillion (US$48.6 million). According to initial information, since 2009, Cao Bach Mai,
director of Minh Nhat Services and Trade Co. Ltd., and Tran Thi Xuan, director
of Nhat Tan Co. Ltd, both were located in Buon Ma Thuot Town, have faked
contracts with some foreign companies to make loans from Vietnam Development
Bank. The duo got the loans totaling over VND1 trillion with the
help of several bank officials and foreigners, according to investigators. A bank in Ho Chi
Minh City also signed an agreement to act as a
guarantee for Mai and Xuan, meaning that it would pay their debts when they
couldn’t, investigators said without revealing which the bank is. As the duo failed to pay their debts and was out of contact,
the bank verified their documents and found all were faked, so it informed
police. Further investigation into the case is now underway. Farmers to get
compensation for crop loss caused by street lights A farmer stands in front of his rice field along the Ho Chi Minh City-Trung Luong Highway
in the southern province
of Long An. Vietnam’s transport ministry has agreed to give VND1.3
billion (US$63,260) in aid to farmers whose rice plants failed to blossom last
year due to high-voltage street lights from a highway in the southern province
of Long An. The Management Board of My Thuan Project, which manages the Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong Highway,
will cooperate with Ben Luc Distric’s compensation board to pay affected
farmers next week, Do Ngoc Dung, deputy director of the management board said
Friday. Last December, the farmers who planted rice along the
highway demanded compensation after several scientists informed the media that
their rice couldn’t blossom in November as expected because they were exposed
to high-voltage light from the streets during the night. The provincial agriculture department estimates that the
street lights arrested growth on 63 hectares of rice planted by some 170
farmers. After interrogating him, the police searched the house of
his mother and found another 5,000 cartons, which took the total number at the
two locations to more than 120,000 packs. The police also impounded four cars, which they said were
used to transport the contraband. They took in two more people involved in the storage of the
cigarettes. It is the largest cigarette smuggling case they have ever
uncovered, the police said, adding Dung’s ring could have been one of the main
suppliers of smuggled cigarettes in Hanoi in the last few years. The police are continuing their investigations to find out
the origin of the cigarettes and others involved in the smuggling. Dau Tieng
Lake under pollution threat Dau Tieng Lake
in Tay Ninh Province
is facing worsening pollution due to the discharge of huge amounts of untreated
wastewater from cattle farms, cassava manufacturers, rubber factories and many
fish farms. The lake, covering 27,000 hectares and having a designed
capacity of 1.8 billion cubic meters, is also threatened by farmers encroaching
on its surface to build their own farms. The reservoir has been operational for 25 years as the main
supplier of crude water for tens of millions of people as well as for farming
in the lowlands. Besides, the lake regularly discharges large amounts of water
to repulse the salt intrusion in the Saigon
River. Source: TN/SGGP/VNA/VNE/VOV/SGT | 
