Disadvantaged youths to have free Operation Smile surgeries; Front aids natural disaster victims; Southern workers killed in water pipe; Murder suspect caught on run in central province;Consultant hired for Hanoi elevated railway

The patients, born with cleft lips and palate deformities, are mainly from southern provinces including Bac Lieu and Soc Trang. They will undergo the operations from September 21-25, according to OSV.

OSV said it will partner with the National Hospital of Odonto-Stomatology and My Thien Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City to implement the mission.

The mission to cost some US$15,000 will be sponsored by Away Vietnam, a US-based company.

Since 1989, OSV has provided free surgeries to over 13,000 children born with cleft lips and cleft palates in Vietnam.

Front aids natural disaster victims

The Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee has decided to provide VND660 million from its relief fund to assist southern central provinces which have recently been hit by a tropical depression.

The sum will go to Thua Thien-Hue city, Quang Nam , Quang Tri, and Quang Ngai, with each receiving VND100 million , and Da Nang city, Binh Dinh, Dak Lak and Giai Lai with each granted VND50 million .

Of the sum, VND42 million will be used to assist the families of those dead or missing because of the disaster and VND21 million will go to support seven families which lost loved ones when a boat sank on September 2.

A tropical depression caused whirlwinds and floods that have killed seven people, injured nine and left six others missing in the central region and Central Highlands over the past several days.

The natural disaster also caused hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong in damage, according to the Centre for Flood and Storm Control in the Central Region and Central Highlands.

Southern workers killed in water pipe

Two construction workers might have been drowned in a Ho Chi Minh City water pipeline on Friday while they were repairing it.

Co-workers found the bodies of Nguyen Tri Nguyen, 27, and Nguyen Tan Dat, 29, stuck inside a pipe one meter in diameter.

Rescue workers arrived at the site on Huynh Tan Phat Street in District 7 shortly thereafter, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Nguyen and Dat were rushed to hospital but it was too late to revive them.

Both were working for the Public Traffic Construction Company under Saigon Water Corporation (Sawaco) at the time.

Their bodies are being kept at the District 7 Hospital and district police are investigating the cause of their deaths.

The circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear.

According to witnesses, the workers might have been drowned when their co-workers pumped water through the pipe from one kilometer away.

Local residents said workers on the pipeline have been living in makeshift accommodations on the sidewalk near Nha Be Martyr Cemetery for almost a year as the pipe keeps breaking.

Murder suspect caught on run in central province

Police in Quang Ngai Province arrested a local resident Friday for killing and robbing his neighbor in her sleep.

Nguyen Van Linh has been accused of breaking into Lu Thi Cam’s house in Nghia Hanh District early on August 25.

Police said Linh stabbed Cam to death while she was sleeping.

Linh took two tenths of a gold tael and several other valuables, according to investigators. He fled the district four days later, hiding in Kon Tum and Lam Dong provinces in the Central Highlands, and Binh Phuoc Province, police said.

He had disguised himself as a worker from the city’s Cu Chi District while in hiding, according to police reports.

The 23-year-old is also under investigation for stealing from a company in HCMC’s Binh Tan District in 2008 when he was employed there, said police.

Consultant hired for Hanoi elevated railway

A Japanese-Vietnamese consortium has been chosen to provide consultancy services for Hanoi’s first elevated railway project.

The JKT consortium, made up of three local and five Japanese firms, signed a VND840 billion (US$47.46 million) contract with Vietnam’s Railway Project Management Unit to advise on the first phase of the Yen Vien – Ngoc Hoi Project for 74 months.

Under the contract, JKT would provide assistance on technical design, project management, site clearance and training.

Tran Van Luc, director of the Railway Project Management Unit, said the 28-kilometer railway would be built with VND611 billion ($34.3 million) in aid from Japan.

In the first phase of the project, a 15.36-kilometer section linking the Gia Lam and Giap Bat areas and a major terminal will be built with an investment capital of VND19.5 trillion ($1.1 billion).

The Yen Vien-Ngoc Hoi line is one of the five public transport projects in a plan to develop the capital’s infrastructure and ease congestion in Hanoi by 2020. The plan was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last year, according to local newswire VnExpress.

Dong Nai traffic officer killed by truck

A traffic police officer was hit by a truck and killed at work early Friday in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Nguyen Thanh Trung, 24, was finalizing a traffic ticket when a truck driven by Duong Ngoc Thao, 26, from the south central province of Ninh Thuan, sideswiped him.

Trung was rushed to a nearby general hospital but soon succumbed to the injuries.

Sectors coordinate in A/H1N1 flu control

Representatives from 15 cities and provinces in the central region and Central Highlands on September 11 gathered at a seminar in Nha Trang city, in the central coast province of Khanh Hoa to discuss measures to coordinate the control of the A/H1N1 flu.

They presented case studies on the disease and solutions for treatment of A/H1N1 patients. They also asked the Ministry of Health to help equip local medical stations to perform the tests needed to ease the overloaded occurring in central hospitals in the region.

At the seminar, the Ministry of Health’s Department for Preventive Medicine and Environment said that foreigners who are H1N1 patients or suspected of suffering from the disease will receive tests and treatment free-of-charge in Vietnam. However, foreigners requesting the test as a precautionary measure must pay for the service.

Deputy PM lauds People’s Courts

The People’s Courts have always thoroughly grasped and seriously implemented the Party’s policies and State laws in judgement procedures, said Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong.

Trong was speaking at the 64th anniversary to mark the People’s Courts traditional day held in Ha Noi yesterday, highlighting its great contributions to the national revolutionary cause.

He praised the sector’s officials and staff for their efforts to significantly contribute to protecting the Party and socialism, as well as ensure the people’s legitimate rights and benefits, and political and social security.

The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the People’s Courts had to be an effective judicial tool to protect citizens rights and fight against violators of laws.

He asked all the sector’s officials and staff to further study and practise, improve their knowledge and professional competence, and follow the moral example of late President Ho Chi Minh to better accomplish their assigned tasks.

In reaction to Trong’s direction, Supreme People’s Court Chief Judge Truong Hoa Binh affirmed that the activities of the People’s Courts would always be based on the Party’s policies and the State laws, and accurately apply President Ho Chi Minh’s ideals and his testament.

Previously, on Thursday, Trong worked with functional agencies on handling people’s complaints and petitions in Ha Noi.

He suggested the work be comprehensively resolved at the local level, limiting the cases which had to be transferred to the higher levels.

From the beginning of the year, more than 58,000 out of nearly 69,000 cases of complaints and petitions have been resolved by ministries, sectors and localities, making up 85 per cent of the cases, according to the Government Inspectorate.

Moon cake makers fail to meet standards

Food hygiene and safety regulations had not been met by 44 of the city’s moon cake producers, said health inspectors from HCM City’s Department of Health on Thursday.

Fifteen of the producers were fined and the others received warnings from the authority.

Most violations were the use of substandard tools, unhygienic production and storing processes, and hiring staff without knowledge of cooking safety.

Pollution blamed for death of farmed fish

A mass of fish raised by households in many northern Hai Phong City’s districts, especially Kien Thuy and Do Son, have died recently, according to the municipal Department of Agricultural and Rural Development.

Allegedly, the problem was a result of water pollution in the fish-raising area.

The department took water and fish samples to officially identify the cause of the deaths.

Tonnes of rotten animal lard seized

The Environmental Police Department of Ha Noi found three tonnes of rotten animal lard in a truck on Phap Van Street on Thursday.

Truck owner Nguyen Kha Quynh, 34, admitted to the police that he bought the animal lard in Thuong Tin District and was on his way to nearby Dong Anh District.

He received a VND2 million (US$110) fine for transporting and trading the substandard and unquarantined animal product.

Australian jailed for smuggling gold

A Vietnamese Australian woman, Ma Diana, 56, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for smuggling 32.5 kilos of gold worth VND5 billion (US$280,400), said HCM City’s People’s Court.

On July 9, 2005 a customs official at Tan Son Nhat airport discovered that Diana was hiding 32.5 kilos of gold in her luggage and handbag.

PV