Orphanage managers arrested for selling children; Local hero wins two int’l architecture awards; Taxi drivers reject company offer, continue strike; Noodle maker accused of polluting waterways

The president of an orphanage in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong has been arrested for further investigations into allegations the children were being sold.

Provincial police said besides president Nguyen Van Manh, they are also investigating To Tuan Anh, who had established the Tia Sang (Ray of Light) School for homeless and disabled children. Anh has been accused of selling five children for VND20-25 million (US$1,122-1,400) each from 2007 onwards.

Three of the children have been identified, police said.

Anh was also found to be trading in banned goods in the name of raising funds for the school, the newswire Vnexpress said.

School official Tran Van Huu who allegedly demanded and received money from people looking to adopt children has also been arrested.

The case, which according to the police was “serious”, has been reported to the Ministry of Public Security and Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong.

Tia Sang School was a private social welfare institution that opened early in 2002. As of May 2009, the school was taking care of 31 children, most of them homeless and some having cerebral palsy.

The school was dissolved late July after it was found to be in poor condition and unable to provide for the children’s needs; and also due to rumors that some children had been given for adoption for a price.

Local hero wins two int’l architecture awards

Vietnam’s top architect Vo Trong Nghia took home two prizes at the 2009 International Architecture Awards in Helsinki, Finland, earlier this month.

Wind and Water Café and the Trung Nguyen Coffee Culture Center, designed by architect Nghia and partners, both took special prizes at the event, widely recognized as one of the world’s most prestigious architecture competitions.

Wind and Water Café, which is built almost entirely of bamboo and uses a central pond as a natural air conditioner, is located in Binh Duong Province’s Thu Dau Mot Town, 20 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City. The Trung Nguyen Coffee Culture Center is located in Hanoi.

Last May, Nghia won the Silver prize at the Global Holcim Awards 2009 along with Japanese architects Kazuhiro Kojima and Daisuke Sanuki, with whom he designed a project to build a low-impact, ecologically-friendly university campus in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

Major fire breaks out in Hanoi paint factory

A big fire broke out in Hanoi on Friday night and explosions were heard, but no death or injury has been reported.

The incident occurred at the 2,000-square-meter-plus premises of the Xuan An Company in Gia Lam District’s industrial zone at around 8.45 p.m. The company produces and trades in paint and oil.

The damage caused has been estimated at VND8 billion (US$448,933).

By 11.30 p.m., around 200 firefighters were able to contain the fire, local newspaper An Ninh Thu Do reported.

The cause of the fire is being investigated.

Taxi drivers reject company offer, continue strike

Taxi drivers of Vinasun company in Ho Chi Minh City on September 18 continued the strike they began Tuesday, dissatisfied with the company’s response to their demands.

The company had met with the drivers and offered to increase the share of takings by 1 percent for four-seat taxi cab and 2-3 percent to seven-seat ones but the drivers said this was not enough.

They said the raised income still would not let them meet daily expenditures. They wanted a 2-percent rise for four-seat taxi drivers and six percent to seven-seat ones.

Ta Long Hy, director of Vinasun Taxi Company, said the company “has done all it can” while the drivers insisted they would continue to strike until their demands are satisfied.

Around 250 taxi cabs on Friday were parked in three lines on Dien Bien Phu Street in front of the company headquarters. There were some skirmishes between the drivers on strike and those not.

The wildcat strike on Tuesday occurred on several streets in Districts 7 and Binh Tan. On Thursday the drivers gathered in front of the company headquarters with banners, forcing the company to meet with them on Friday to find out a solution, which has turned out not satisfactory to the drivers at all.

The drivers said they’d been promised 55 percent of the daily collection, but this had been cut to 51 percent by the company, citing the economic crisis and higher gas prices.

However the drivers argued that they, and not the company, were paying for the gas.

Their monthly incomes had dropped from VND5-7 million (US$278-389) each to VND3-4 million, depending on the size of the cars, they said.

Ta Long Hy, director of the Vinasun Taxi Company, had said the proportion was “reasonable and not small at all compared to other large taxi companies.”

Several small strikes have been carried out by the drivers since late August and the company labor union has asked the company leaders to meet with the drivers to solve the problem.

The company has reportedly asked the police to find out who incited the strike and damaged its business.

Noodle maker accused of polluting waterways

More than 500 families in a Quang Ngai Province village have complained for days that pollution from a noodle factory is killing their rice crops and livestock with dirty oil.

The Long village resident Luong Van Hoa said the Tinh Phong Factory has been discharging thick, black oil around a canal near the village’s residential area.

“We now no longer dare to let the cattle drink from the canal.”

Director of the factory in the central province, Tran Ngoc Hai, said the oil discharge was only a one-time accident.

He said it was raining heavily then and the oil was swept into the canal and that the problem had been solved.

But local resident Le Van and others living next to the factory said it usually discharged the oil into canals around local rice fields at night.

Several villagers said they had sent unanswered complaints to local authorities.

Dead babies found in capital city garbage can

Three babies were found dead in a garbage can in Hanoi on Sunday afternoon, according to local newswire VTC News.

The babies, found wrapped in plastic bags, were discovered by Nguyen Thi Hop, an employee at the state-owned Hanoi Environment and Urban Company, when she was collecting garbage near Thong Nhat Park, the newswire reported on Monday.

Upon opening one bag and finding a baby of around five months old, Hop alerted the park’s security guards who then found another two more in other bags, VTC quoted Hop as saying.

The report did not mention whether or not police had been informed of the case.

According to VTC News, five dead babies have been found in Hanoi this year, including one found in a local lake and another in a dustcart.

Bee attack kills children in northern mountains

Two children in Buong Village, Lai Chau Province, were killed Saturday by wild bees that suddenly attacked and chased a group of five people.

The deceased – Ma Nhu Quynh, 10, and Ma Van Cuong, 9 – were siblings.

Three adults also attacked – Lu Van Van, Lu Van Hao and Lo Thi Hue city – are under treatment at the Than Uyen district hospital. They have recovered from previously critical conditions, doctors said.

The five were going to have a look at their cattle in the forest when they were attacked, police said.

Local police officer Ha Hong Sim said there were many bees in the mountainous forest not far from the Chinese border.

The bees followed the group part of the way home as they ran back to their village. All five people were stung in numerous places all over their bodies. They were rushed to the hospital where the adults recovered, but the children succumbed to their injuries late that night.

Ma Van Ngoi, father of the children, was given VND2 million (US$112) for the funeral.

Hanoi cops arrest infant kidnapper

Hanoi police Tuesday arrested a woman for kidnapping a five-month-old baby and selling him for VND10.5 million (US$589).

Le Thi Huyen, 26, kidnapped Nhat Anh from the Duc Giang Hospital on September 8 after Anh’s mother, Bui Thi Thuong, asked her to take care of the baby while she went out to get some lunch. Anh was being treated in the hospital for for bronchitis.

The two women had come to know each other after meeting several times at a pagoda in the capital city.

Huyen sold the baby to 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Oanh in the northern province of Hung Yen, police said.

They also said Huyen had sold her newborn baby last month for VND6 million.

Two women get death, ex-cops jail in drug scandal

A Hanoi tribunal official is pictured adding petrol to burning heroin and opium at a stadium in Hanoi

Two women leaders of a drug dealing ring in Hanoi were sentenced to death on Friday in a case that also saw six former police officers of the capital city get prison terms.

The Hanoi People’s Court handed down the death sentence to Tran Thi Thuan and Tran Thi Hieu, both of Hanoi, while the former policy officers of the drug squad were sentenced from three to 17 years in prison for protecting the ring members.

The former police officers found guilty of “accepting bribes” were among 23 people convicted by the Hanoi People’s Court for their roles in the drug scandal ten years ago.

Another woman and two men belonging to the 17-member ring received life imprisonment, while 12 other members of the ring were sentenced from 15 to 20 years in prison. The ring was charged with “trafficking and storing drugs”.

Ten years ago, the group set up a “drug market” in Hanoi’s Thanh Nhan Ward and sold more than 10 kilograms of the heroin. In Vietnam, anyone found guilty of possessing more than 600 grams of heroin can face the death penalty.

Pham Dinh Tieng, the policeman in charge of investigating the case, was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment.

Vietnam, ranked as one of the world’s most graft-ridden countries, this year ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption.

Motorbike racers jailed in southern hub

The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Friday sentenced from two to four years in prison six men for illegally racing motorbikes and betting on the results.

Nguyen Duy Khanh and Nguyen Quoc Tam, both from the neighboring province of Long An, and city resident Dang Hoang Trinh were each given four-year jail terms.

Three others including a city college student received two and three years in prison.

All the punished were found guilty of illegal racing.

The defendants said at the court they had divided themselves into groups and bet on the winners.

They were caught while preparing for a motorbike race last September on Nguyen Van Linh Street, Binh Chanh District. Khanh was found with VND10 million (US$561) of the betting money.

Seven others involved in the race were let off with cash fines.

Hospital sacks expectant mothers without explanation

Le Thi My Hanh, recently fired from her job at a Ho Chi Minh City hospital without prior notice, is three months pregnant and was given no reason for her dismissal.

Several other Anh Vu International General Hospital employees, some department heads, also said they had been suddenly dismissed during their pregnancies.

Hanh, head of the hospital’s customer service department, told Thanh Nien her latest contract was valid until March 2020.

But on June 29, she was told by hospital director Truong Thi Tuyet Nga to stop working at the beginning of July.

She said the hospital accused her of tardiness and not fulfilling her tasks but she had received an A on her performance evaluation.

Likewise, Dung and Ngan from the Pharmacy Department and Kieu from the Restoration Department said they were astonished by the hospital’s decision to fire them during their pregnancy.

They said they were worried as they now no longer had any source of incomes and their babies were coming soon. The women all said they had been denied severance pay.

Truong Quoc Thai, head of the Human Resource Department at the hospital, said the women were fired because they had not performed well and had violated “certain” hospital regulations.

Hanh said the decision might have been based on superstitions as the hospital had invited a feng shui practitioner who said it was not good to have pregnant women working at the hospital and dealing with many customers every day.

Another Anh Vu employee, who wished not to be named, said after the feng shui practitioner came, her room was rearranged and many of her pregnant co-workers were dismissed.

Nguyen Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the hospital, said the hospital only applied feng shui to arrange space at the hospital.

Thanh Nien spoke with the hospital after speaking with Hanh and officials there promised to pay each of the fired expectant mothers more than VND500,000 (US$27).

But none of the women have received the money yet.

Hanh said she planned to file a lawsuit against her former employer.

PV