Northern region swarmed by mosquitoes

Mosquitoes have swarmed several parts of the northern region for the last few weeks, causing a great deal of discomfort to residents.

Hanoi City and Vinh Phuc, Phu Tho, Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces are some of the areas were mosquitoes are swarming homes after dusk.

Mr. Thanh from Ha Dong District of Hanoi said that if he travelled on the streets by motorcycle around dusk without a muffler or sunglass, he found it near impossible to open his eyes as the mosquitoes continuously plunged onto his face.

Another resident from Hoai Duc District Ms. Hong said that she had to close all doors and windows at dusk as the mosquitoes swarmed the walls, TV screens and other articles all over the house. By the morning, dead mosquitoes covered the house floor in the thousands.

Ms. Van from Thanh Xuan District lamented that although she had sprayed anti-mosquito repellents, her two children were still being bitten by mosquitoes.

She added that even though there were many anti-mosquito repellents in the market, people were afraid to use them, as they feared the chemicals in the repellents would be harmful to their health.

The most popular method being adopted by people was the electric racket. However, Ms. Tao from Hoai Duc District said that she could not keep awake all night to drive mosquitoes away.

The hot and muggy weather, combined with the mosquitoes has made people in the north very uncomfortable.

Ms. Thuy, a My Dinh tenant, says her apartment is located on the tenth floor and mosquitoes have never disturbed her before now.

The worst hit areas are the suburbs, especially the residential areas along the Nhue, To Lich, Red and Day rivers.

According to Dr Ho Dinh Trung, deputy head of the National Institute of Malaria and Parasites, the mosquitoes have multiplied because of the hot and muggy weather.

Five die in illegal gold mine collapse

The Peoples’ Committee in Tuong Duong District of Nghe An Province disclosed that they had recovered five dead bodies on May 2 from the rubble of an illegal gold mine that had collapsed on May 1.

Earlier, a group of people from Ding Huong village of Tam Ding Commune in Tuong Duong district went in search of gold in a mine near the Lam River. By 5.00 pm on May 1, the mine unexpectedly collapsed while the group was still excavating, burying five people while two escaped.

According to an initial investigation, the accident occurred because of manual methods of excavation. Water flowed into the mine while people were still excavating and caused the collapse.

Last month, 18 people died while six were injured when a quarry collapsed at Len Co Mountain in Yen Thanh district.

On May 2, Nguyen An, Chairman of the Peoples’ Committee in Hoai An District of Binh Dinh Province said that to prevent illegal gold excavation in Kim Son village of An Nghia Commune, local authorities will pursue illegal gold exploiters and monitor all mines that may have gold reserves.

Recently, illegal gold mining in Kim Son area has become a serious problem and recurring more frequently.

The latest incident occurred on April 30 in Ho Khe area, leaving three dead and one injured.

In 2001, a similar accident in the area killed four people.

VTV to air documentary on VN workers evacuated from Libya

A documentary film on the evacuation mission to assist Vietnamese citizens to return to their homeland will be aired on television on May 1.

Two journalists from the Vietnam Television (VTV) who had participated in the campaign recorded the evacuation mission on camera. The 30-minute film will feature live pictures of the evacuation of the Vietnamese workers. This is the first time VTV sent a team to a foreign country to cover such a campaign.

In March 2011, over 10,000 Vietnamese laborers faced a difficult predicament when political unrest broke out in Libya. A large-scale evacuation campaign was undertaken to bring back Vietnamese citizens back to the country.

The government had established five rescue teams in neighboring countries to speed up the progress. An interdisciplinary delegation represented by Vietnamese ministries and labor companies camped in the neighboring countries to assist Vietnamese people to return home.

Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affair said Vietnam was prepared to hire military vessels or aircrafts to save Vietnamese workers stuck in Libya.

Vietnam Airlines carried eight tons of cooking to Cairo in Egypt for thousands of Vietnamese waiting for transit at the border crossings.

National workshop on reducing harm to sex workers

The National Anti-Social Evils Department estimates that by 2012, at least 9.3 percent of Vietnamese female sex workers will contract HIV.

A representative of the Department stated this at a National workshop on reducing harm to sex workers, held on April 27-28 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The HIV epidemic in Viet Nam is concentrated amongst people who are sex workers, clients of sex workers and men who have sex with other men. People who inject drugs are also susceptible to catching the disease.

According to the latest data, HIV is rampant amongst sex workers in many cities. Twenty percent of street sex workers in Hanoi, twenty three percent in the northern province of Hai Phong and sixteen percent in Ho Chi Minh City have contracted HIV, according to Dr. Duong Van Dat, Reproductive Health Manager of the United Nation’s Population Fund.

Moreover, the number of HIV-positive female sex workers stands third only after drug users and gay groups. The northern and southeastern regions have the largest number of HIV-infected female sex workers.

Only a small number of sex workers have regular access to essential services for HIV prevention, such as condoms and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. Besides HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, sex workers are exposed to other serious harm, like drug use, violence, discrimination, debt and exploitation.

Speaking at the workshop, Nguyen Trong Dam, Vice Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) stressed the necessity to include the fight against prostitution in the social welfare policy and adopt practical, effective methods to minimize its impact.

Julia Cabassi, Regional HIV Adviser at UNFPA, informed participants of the ways to ensure success in HIV prevention, treatment and cure. While representatives of HCMC Department of Social Evils Prevention said, the city has strengthened prevention methods because prevention is better than fight to cure.

UNFPA representatives said it welcomed MOLISA’s initiative to include the prevention and reduction of sex workers in the next five-year Plan of Action on Sex Work Prevention for 2011-2015.

A former sex worker who is working for the HCMC Women’s Union delivered a presentation at the seminar. She said that sex workers must be the driving force in the development, implementation and enforcement of harm reduction programs. The woman spoke of her experiences to encourage her colleagues to use condoms.

She said that in 2010, she and her colleagues in the city Women’s Union and Department of Social Evils Prevention helped two women to stop sex working but earn their living with other jobs.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh, Vice-president of the city Women’s Union, petitioned the MOLISA that the government should develop policies to penalize those who pay to have sex with a prostitute and support sex workers to integrate into the community.

Le Thi Ha, Deputy Chief of the Department of Social Evils Prevention under MOLISA, Dr. Nguyen Minh Tam, Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control (VAAC) and Le Trong Sang, deputy director of HCMC Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs along with World Bank representatives and relevant agencies attended the two-day workshop.

Woman dies after breast lift surgery

On May 1, Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong, chief inspector of the Hanoi Health Department officially confirmed the death of Bui Bich Loc ( born 1973 and living in 281 Le Duan street, Hanoi). was found dead at a Beauty salon yesterday morning after going through a plastic surgery on Friday afternoon.

On April 29, Loc came to the Hanoi Beauty Salon at 257 Giai Phong road , Dong Da District to take a surgery of eyelid lift and breast lift. Dr. Pham Van Ai, Director of Hanoi Beauty Salon carried out the surgery.

After the one-hour operation, Loc was taken to the postoperative-care room.

Early in the morning of April 30 Loc telephoned Dr. Ai , telling him about her symptoms such as feeling nauseous, hard breathing…Dr Ai ordered two doctors to join him to implement emergency rescue of Loc, but Loc died at 3:45 of the same day.

Dr. Pham Van Ai, Director phoned Thuy, a relative of Loc, to tell the bad news at 6 a.m. yesterday.

It was Thuy who recommended the beauty salon to Loc, who went through a double eyelid and breast lift surgery.

At noon, the local police took Loc’s body away from the scene for an autopsy.

Hanoi Police and Inspectors of Hanoi Health Department examined the Beauty salon and interrogate Dr. Ai… Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong, chief inspector of the Hanoi Health Department said the salon was licensed to perform simple surgeries such as eyelid lift, not breast lift and other more complicated operations.

Dr. Cuong said earlier this year, the salon was already fined for providing unlicensed services.

Hoang Tuan Tu, Director of the company where Loc had been working as the chief accountant, said she was a healthy person who played tennis regularly.

The local police are still investigating.

Vietnam sees need for more staff in health care

Heath experts from Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh discussed measures to improve human resource development in the heath care sector at an international conference in Hanoi on April 28.

The event was organised by Hanoi School of Public Health and the Health Ministry.

With an aim of increasing equality in the health care services in Asian countries by renewing personnel training, speeches delivered at the conference focused on analysing national plans on human resource development and orientations for the renovation. The participants also took the occasion to share their countries’ experience in this field.

Vietnam now has 26 medical and pharmaceutical training establishments, which have trained 43,292 doctors and over 77,000 nurses and orderlies.

In an effort to deal with human resource shortages in localities, the Health Ministry will carry out an array of measures such as dispatching in shifts more health workers to localities, revamping policies benefiting health workers in remote areas and increasing investment in infrastructure.

An Giang caught up in rainstorm, whirlwind

A one hour of rainstorm and whirlwind has seriously damaged many houses throughout the southern province of An Giang.

On the evening of May 2, a rainstorm accompanied by powerful winds blew off the roofs of 91 houses located in Binh Long, Binh Thuy and Binh Chanh districts and Cai Dau Town.

Some residents said they also suffered from icy rain, which is an unusual thing to happen in this province.

Local authorities yesterday gave financial support of up to VND6 million to each of the families whose houses were destroyed by the storm.

Traffic accidents pile up misery during holidays

Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City admitted hundreds of victims of road accidents during the April 30 — May 1 holidays, most of them with brain injuries.

Other hospitals around the city too reported receiving dozens of such patients every day.

Dr Truong Minh Giang of Cho Ray’s emergency department said people involved in accidents are likely to suffer brain injuries if they wear poor quality helmets.

In HCMC, there were three accidents in which people suffered severe injuries and 64 other less serious collisions during the holidays.

Ground cracks occur in Di Linh plateau

Unusual ground cracks have recently occurred at Di Linh plateau in the Central Highlands, causing anxiety among local people in Di Linh district, Lam Dong province during the past week.

The cracks are getting bigger day by day with the smallest one measured 200m long.

They have crossed 20 houses and coffee gardens, said locals.

Even a house reportedly fell down due to the cracks and some others are on the verge of collapse due to the bizarre geographical phenomenon.

By May 3 morning, no one knows what the phenomenon really is.

A mud mining project nearby has been blamed, local residents said.

The District’s Department of Natural Resources & Environment Monday promised to conduct further investigation into the phenomenon and fix the problems in the coming days.

When asked why authorities don’t evacuate residents, Nguyen Canh, chairman of the Di Linh People’s Committee, said: “We have carried out field research and concluded that there is no need for a large-scale evacuation”.

“We will organize a provincial meeting on Tuesday morning to seek solutions,” he added.

According to Huynh Van Chinh, director of Lam Dong province’s Department of Natural Resources & Environment, the phenomenon seems to be similar to ground cracks happening in Duc Trong district some years ago due to a sharp drop in underground water.

Sisters nabbed over 5,900 ecstasy pills from China

Authorities in the northern province of Quang Ninh Monday initiated criminal proceedings against two sisters caught red handed one day earlier transporting 5,900 ecstasy pills from China, reported Nguoi Lao Dong.

Han Thi Xuan, 42 and Han Thi Nam, 32 from Phu Tho were arrested on May 1 at Mong Cai border.

At the police station, Xuan and Nam admitted to their offense. They said they were working for a Chinese man named Khuan.

Xuan and Khuan had regularly contacted each other when she and her sister were living in China.

Xuan had a visit to her family in Vietnam at the end of last month when she accepted to ship ecstasies for Khuan from Guangdong province in China to Mong Cai city at Quang Ninh for a ‘wage’ of RMB4,000.

Nam was in charge of shipping the cargo from China to Mong Cai.

First voters cast ballots at Ba Ria-Vung Tau

Officers and soldiers on the marine platform GK1/2 at Phuc Tan ground off shore from the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on May 2 morning cast their ballots to elect deputies for the 13th National Assembly and People’s Council at all levels for the 2011-16 term.

They were first voters in the country, casting ballots 20 days earlier than other localities of the countries.

Sen. Lieut. Col. Le Dinh Viet, Deputy Political Commissar of the Naval Brigade 171, Head of the Early Election Mission on the Sea, said that as many people on ships of the naval and sea police forces, marine platforms, oil rigs as well as fishermen are working in the country’s southern seas region, the mission was allowed to organise elections earlier than the day of the elections nationwide.

According to Viet, the process of the elections still follows regulations. Ballot boxes are sealed, strictly protected and handed over in adherance to the law.

Lieut. Col. Le Van Thu, Political Deputy Chairman of the Naval Brigade 171, Deputy Head of the Early Election on the Sea, said that on May 2, the mission went to all platforms in Phuc Tan ground and will go to platforms in Huyen Tran and Que Duong grounds on May 3 to ensure that all officers and soldiers cast their ballots.

The mission plans to complete their trip and return to the mainland on May 20.

Election campaign in HCM City starts on May 3

827 candidates for the 13th National Assembly election and nearly 6,000 for the People’s Council election at all level for the 2011-2016 term in Ho Chi Minh City will start campaigning as from May 3.

Their biographies will be introduced at the meetings, organized by local chapters of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, to help voters make the right decision.

Candidates also have the chance to present their action plans and answer voters’ questions about their concerned issues.

During the campaign that will last until May 18, each NA candidate will attend 10 meetings while each candidate for the People’s Council election will meet with voters five times.

They will also be allowed to campaign through the internet, blogs, and press interviews until May 20.

Truong Sa affirms sovereignty with gifts

Truong Sa (Spratly) Island District has presented the central mainland provinces of Quang Tri and Thua-Thien Hue city with coral stones and almond trees as a gesture of solidarity.

Truong Sa’s Navy Command handed 21 pieces of coral stones and almond trees native to the island to each of the two neighboring provinces on Liberation Day, April 30.

These corals and trees symbolize the 21 islands all over the Truong Sa archipelago which is being claimed by both Vietnam and China.

Yet another ATM theft foiled

There was yet another attempted ATM theft today morning at a Techcombank ATM in Dong Nai province’s Bien Hoa city.

The ATM belonging to Vietnam Technological Commercial Joint-Stock Bank (Techcombank) on Ha Huy Giap Street of Quyet Thang ward opposite the Quyet Thang Petrol Station was seen to have its door smashed at 2.30 am.

Locals discovered two young men on a motorbike running away from the ATM.

Police were called in but could not obtain any evidence.

Luckily, the thieves left before taking any cash. However, they managed to take away all their tools.

At the site, authorities found they used a welder to cut the money box. A Techcombank official said at the time, the box contained around VND700 million (US$35,000) in cash.

Police have barricaded the site and are hunting down the thieves.

Just last month, Vo Manh Cuong, a Ho Chi Minh City resident, was arrested for stealing cash from ATM stations by hacking.

35-year-old Cuong installed microchips into ATM stations to steal hundreds of millions dong.

Trained in IT, Cuong used microchips to stop the cash flow from the ATMs when customers tried to withdraw money from their accounts. The ATMs then notified the customers there was a technical error.

After the customers left, Cuong took the money from the ATMs.

Then, in January, a thief, also in Ho Chi Minh City, was caught after returning to an ATM booth to wipe clean his fingerprints.

Vu Viet Hung, 34, of Phu Nhuan District was a Sacombank ATM on Cong Hoa Street in Tan Binh District.

He later told the police he had worn a mask and used a wire cutter to steal two security cameras from an ATM booth belonging to the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) on Ba Thang Hai Street.

Realizing how easy it was, he used the same method to steal the Sacombank camera.

In December last year, another thief was caught in the act of attempting to crack an ATM machine in Hanoi’s Dong Da District, the 9th ATM theft in the previous two months.

The thief was found by security officers when he used a butane torch to cut open the cash machine belonging to Vietcombank on Trinh Hoai Duc Street.

A week earlier, police in the central Nghe An province caught red-handed three boys in mid-teens using a welding device to cut open an ATM in Vinh City.

A few days afterwards, police in the northern province of Thai Binh also foiled another ATM theft.

On Nov 26, thieves broke open an ATM machine in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Phu District and stole VND1.3 billion.

Previously, on October 21, they took away VND822 million ($42,000) from a cash machine on Cong Hoa Street in Tan Binh District.

The same day, three thieves attempted to crack open an ATM on Truong Chinh Street, also in HCMC but fled the scene after being caught by security officers.

Another dies of food poisoning in Quang Tri

Following the death of a person who had eaten infected pork, another person died in Quang Tri Province last Sunday night, six days after eating the same pork.

The death of the second victim was confirmed on Monday morning by Pham Van Kien, chairman of Trieu Long Commune in Trieu Phong District, where the two victims had lived.

On April 25, the two ate the meat of a pig that had died from a disease, according to their relatives.

Four day later on April 29, they developed food poisoning symptoms and were rushed to Quang Tri Province General Hospital for emergency treatment.

Doctors said they suffered from respiration failure and serious bleeding.

One of them died right away.

18 babies turn livid after antibiotic injections

The government has recently instructed health authorities in the northern province of Thai Nguyen to carry out an investigation into a case where 18 babies suddenly turned black and blue after receiving antibiotic injections late last month.

Any violations of professional practice must be strictly punished, the government told the Thai Nguyen Health Department.

On April 21, an hour after 55 babies received injections at Dai Tu District General Hospital, 18 of them, between three months and four years old, developed symptoms including fever and livid skin coloration.

Two of them suffered respiratory difficulties.

Doctors provided emergency treatment. Most of the babies have recovered and been discharged, the doctors said.

In the meantime, Thai Nguyen’s Health Department has collected the empty containers of the antibiotics that the babies were injected.

The drugs will be sent for testing at central agencies. Unused ones of the same batch were withdrawn as well.

The department’s initial conclusion was that the coloration was not caused by the babies’ response to the antibiotics as they were administered in accordance with instructions and technical procedures, as reported by Thanh Nien.

Saigon Co.op uses “green” shopping bags

In an effort to protect the environment, all 21 Saigon Co.op supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City have replaced common plastic shopping-bags with self-biodegradable ones.

Over one year ago, the Saigon Co.op, Vietnam’s largest supermarket chain, looked for a replacement for shopping bags made of plastic.

It was then recommended some kinds of biodegradable bags but in fact, those products were just disintegrated into segments and were not biodegradable into water and carbonic dioxide, Do Thi Thuy Hang, deputy director of quality control of the Saigon Co.op., said.

Meanwhile, imported self-biodegradable bags are of good quality but they are very expensive, Hang said.

Two months ago, HCM City-based Vafaco Packing Joint Stock Company successfully produced bio-degradable bags from HDPE and reverte, an additive imported from the UK. Saigon Co.op later selected Vafaco as its suppliers of the new kind of shopping bags, she said.

The self-destruction mechanism consists of 2 stages. In the first stage, under the direct effect of the sunlight, or a source of heat of over 50 degrees Celsius, for 48 hours, the molecular structure of the bag will begin its disintegration process, said Nguyen Phuoc Dong, chairman of Vafaco.

Three to nine months later, the structure will become a kind of fine powder and the powder will be eaten up by micro-organism, bacteria and fungus that are available in the natural environment.

If left in normal temperature conditions, not being exposed to sunlight, the bag will begin to disintegrate in 2 years.

The cost of eco-friendly bags is about 10 percent higher than that of a plastic bag, but it will not cause a rise in goods prices, since the Cooperative and Vafaco will share the increased cost.

Dalat rescues wild animals from restaurants

Authorities in Dalat City in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong last week seized more than 100 wild animals from 27 restaurants citywide to return to the wild.

These animals include bamboo rats, doves, varans, jungle cocks, snakes, monkeys and weasels.

All of the animals are in good health.

In the raids, the city also confiscated 88 kg of frozen meat of wild animals.

According to a report by the Wildlife Conservation Society of Vietnam (WCS), over 84 percent of restaurants in Dalat serve food made from wild animals.

WCS said current penalties for these violators were still too mild to prevent further violations.

WCS urged Da Lat authorities to take stronger actions such as revoking business licenses.

Lam Dong and two neighboring provinces, Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai, share the 72,000 –hectare Cat Tien National Park which is the habitat of nearly 200 animals named as endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Japan helps in express rail personnel training

The Vietnam Railway Corporation is to send four workers to the Central Japan Rail way company, JR Tokai, for training in signalling, rail procedures and handling carriages.

The training was made clear in a memorandum of understanding on personnel training for 2011 signed recently by the two companies.

The national strategy for railway development up to 2020 and the vision for 2050 call for an effort to bring into operation some transnational express rail sections.

However, Vietnam , a developing country, is facing numerous difficulties in implementing a high technology project such as automation and electrification. This has made human resources a big challenge for the rail sector along with the need for huge investment, which is hard to mobilise.

To help Vietnam address the problem, Japan has trained 14 rail workers in express rail technology over the past two years.

In addition, the world’s third largest economy has offered a joint research programme on designing two express rail stretches, one from Hanoi to Vinh, capital city of the central province of Nghe An, and the other from Ho Chi Minh City to the beach resort Nha Trang town in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa.

In an official letter sent to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment in November, 2010, Japan offered to add the joint research programme to its aid list in the 2010 fiscal year. In an official letter to the Japanese embassy, Vietnam has agreed to accept this additional technical aid.

Vietnam students donate 900 bowls of pho to Japan

After collecting around $40,000 from philanthropists, a group of Vietnamese overseas students named Exryu Japan in Japan have decided to cook pho (Vietnamese traditional noodle soup) for nearly 900 Japanese evacuees struck by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami who are sheltering in Watari village in Miyagi province of northern Japan.

“We decided to offer them pho to express our deep gratitude for previous Japan’s kind assistance to Vietnam,” Nguyen Vinh Truong, head of Sakura Japanese-language school and a member of Exryu Japan, told Tuoi Tre.

During the past month, the group has visited some damaged areas and some refugees where a large number of Japanese just have a meager meal consisting of only rice, sauce, and vegetable [no meat].

“I hope the hot bows of pho can warm their hearts,” Truong said.

The dishes were cooked in a Vietnamese-owned restaurant based in Japanese capital of Tokyo and volunteers handed them out to the victims.

The group went across 400km from Tokyo to Miyagi at nights to avoid disturbing the government and local people in their destinations.

“I wish my wife were still alive to enjoy the pho,” a man said with watery eyes.

Meanwhile, some Japanese try to speak out the ‘delicious or yummy” in Vietnamese to say thanks to kind Vietnamese friends.

“We will return to Miyagi in early May to cook more pho for the Japanese victims in need. Miyagi is now home to more than 1,700 refugees but we just only serve around 900 people,” Truong said.

“We intend to do the charity work until August. Our aim is to give 20,000 bows of pho to the victims at refuges in which around 130,000 Japanese are sheltering.”

Public display of affection causes debates

A video clip that captures a young couple displaying too much affection on a beach allegedly in Vung Tau northern coastal city on April 27 made its way onto YouTube, resulting in heated discussions among the public and online community.

As shown by the tape, a man named T confessed his love by making a heart from rose and candle petals in the beach, featuring the words “I need you”, “I love you,” and “K-T”.

The guy took his girlfriend to the middle of the heart, and then kneeled and expressed his affection for her amid deafening applause and supports from hundreds of curiosity-seekers.

Free Vietnamese domains cause website overload

As website names in Vietnamese (with diacritic marks) that end in country domain “.vn” have been given out since Thursday, thousands of subscribers have rushed to register, causing registry websites like tenmientiengviet.vn, tênmiềntiếngviệt.vn, ten.vn and tên.vn to be overloaded.

Access to these websites have been extremely slow since yesterday morning, when the internet domain registry Vietnam National Internet Center announced they would offer this new service for free.

According to Tran Minh Tan, deputy head of the center, there have been 4,000 new website names in Vietnamese (with diacritic marks) registered until Thursday afternoon.

The center has braced for the surge, he said, but too heavy traffic has overloaded the websites.

20-year-old girl shot dead on Hanoi street

A 20-year-old girl was shot and killed on Xa Dan Street in Dong Da district, Hanoi early Friday and a second was seriously wounded in the attack by “unknown assailants”, Hanoi police said.

According to preliminary investigation, a Thanh Cong taxi driver carrying Nguyen Thi Lien and a young man only known as Quang was chased by a group of young men on four motorbikes.

One man took out a gun and shot the driver, causing the man to collapse.

The taxi car then lurched and crashed into the roadside. After that, the gang smashed the car’s glass window, shot Lien and immediately fled the scene.

Quang then drove the taxi to take the two victims to Giao Thong Van Tai Hospital for emergency treatment. However, Lien died while the taxi driver survived and were taken to Viet Duc hospital.

Mrs. Thanh, the deceased’s mother, said Lien had been absent from home in the past three days.

On the evening of April 28, Lien told her that if someone looked for her, she had to call police. After that, two young men came to her home and told her that Lien owed them VND10 million (US$500). They asked Lien’s family to pay them or else their lives would be endangered.

Highway project landslide kills two kids

Two dead children were today morning pulled out of a 50 cubic-meter soil heap in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

Authorities at 10am found the bodies of 8-year-old Hoang Minh Quy, a second grader and 15-year-old Hoang Van Hoa.

Meanwhile, fifth grader Hoang Minh Quyen, 10 is missing and feared dead

They all come from Con 2 village, Cam Con commune in Lao Cai.

The landslide occurred at 5.30 pm yesterday (Thursday) when three children who were tending buffalos played with soil at a roadwork site under supervision from Alpha Nam company.

The section is being built into a highway leading to Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi.

Rains caused the soil to slide down.