Remains of 36 soldiers reburied in central Vietnam; Flood tides cause havoc in HCM City; Japanese knowhow to halve road fixing times; Phu Tho student killed by police traffic car

The remains had been found over the last four days during excavation work at the construction site of a drainage system in Tran Phu Ward, Quang Ngai Town.

According to local agencies, the soldiers died in an attack on Quang Ngai Prison under the US army control in 1968 in an attempt to free 1,500 of their comrades-in-arms.

The town’s authorities are completing necessary procedures to launch more searches for soldiers’ remains around the area.

So far the remains of more than 27,000 soldiers have been found in Quang Ngai Province.

Flood tides cause havoc in HCM City

Flood tides December 5 submerged many areas in Ho Chi Minh City including Thu Duc, Binh Thanh and District 2.

The water inundated Hiep Binh Chanh Ward’s Health Center as well as the police department in Linh Dong Ward, Thu Duc District. Employees had to wade through muddy water to get to work.

Some houses in districts 2, 3, 5, and Binh Thanh were flooded early Saturday forcing residents to bail water out of their homes.

In addition, several roadways were flooded including Kha Van Can, road No.25 in Thu Duc District; 13 Highway street near the East Region Bus Station, and Ung Van Khiem Street in Binh Thanh District, causing major traffic jams.

Many transport vehicles also broke down, affecting local travel.

Run for cancer patients in HCMC this weekend

The 13th annual Terry Fox Run for cancer research takes place in Ho Chi Minh City this Sunday.

The run, hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the HCMC Union of Friendship Organizations and the Canadian Consulate General, will be held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center, 799 Nguyen Van Linh Parkway in District 7’s Phu My Hung Urban Area.

Last year’s run attracted over 7,500 participants with some VND720 million (around US$39,400) raised for cancer research, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s website.

The event, renamed the Run for Children 2009, took place in Hanoi on November 22. The name change in Hanoi was an attempt to widen the donor base and attract funds for both cancer and heart patients, organizers said.

Since 2000, the Terry Fox Run has attracted 37,000 people in Vietnam and raised over VND2.2 billion for cancer research in the country, according to the Canadian Embassy.

For more information on the run this Sunday, email hcmc@canchamvietnam.org.

Japanese knowhow to halve road fixing times

Ho Chi Minh City plans to apply Japanese technology to its road works that will halve the time taken for repairs and cut costs by one third, the city transport authority said Wednesday.

The new way would dig up the road foundation and consolidate it, recycling the materials, said the city Department of Transport.

The old method would add new material to the street, raising the height of the road and leaving houses on the side at lower levels. This problem can be avoided now.

The new technology is also believed to cause less pollution to the environment.

Tran Quang Phuong, director of the department, said the technology will be applied soon as many streets in the city have been severely damaged.

Phu Tho student killed by police traffic car

The police traffic car after killing a student girl in Phu Tho Province Thursday.

A police traffic car killed a girl in the northern Phu Tho Province Thursday morning as it crashed into three students cycling to school in the opposite direction.

Nguyen Thi Ha, a 15-year-old student of Phu Ninh High School in Phu Ninh District, was killed on the spot, the local newswire Vnexpress said.

Phuong Vy, an eyewitness, said at around 7 a.m., the police car had swerved to the left to avoid another car that had applied its breaks when it hit the students.

Two other students were rushed to hospital. School principal Doan Minh Duong said he has deputed teachers to take care of the students.

Local police are investigating the case.

Motorcyclist dies falling over short safety rail on HCMC bridge

Many observers have said the Nguyen Van Cu bridge’s safety rail is not tall enough.

One person died and two were injured falling off a new Ho Chi Minh City bridge Thursday in the sixth such accident since the overpass opened this April, a local official has said.

Many observers have said the Nguyen Van Cu bridge’s safety rail is not tall enough.

Asked about whether the 0.8-0.9 meter rail was too short, Le Quyet Thang, director of HCMC Urban Traffic Management Area No.1, said the height was designed in accordance with regulations. He said the rail’s height couldn’t be changed because it would damage the bridge’s look.

The most recent incident occurred as Nguyen Giang Sang, 21, was driving his two friends, Nguyen Hong Phuc and Nguyen Tri Quang on a motorbike on Nguyen Van Cu Bridge at 4 a.m.

They came into a sharp turn on the bridge at a high speed when the bike crashed into the bridge’s safety rail, tossing the young men off the bridge and into a canal below.

Sang and Phuc were rescued immediately by workers at a nearby construction site and local police. Quang went missing and his body was not retrieved until 10 a.m. the same day.

Five other motorists have been injured falling off the bridge, which connected districts 4, 5, 1 and 8, in only seven months, said Ha Quoc Uu, head of the District 4 police.

District 4 police have proposed that the HCMC Urban Traffic Management Area No.1 place a signboard on the bridge warning of danger at the turn, said Uu.

Thang said a signboard posting the 20 kilometer per hour speed limit and a lighting system were already set up at the turn. He attributed the accidents to the motorcyclists’ high speeds.

However, he said the management board had consulted the city’s transport department for solutions to the problem. Authorities would consider placing a net under the bridge to catch anyone who might fall in the future, said Thang.

Begging racket busted in Binh Duong

Police in the southern province of Binh Duong on Wednesday raided a local house where six people were allegedly exploiting old people and children by sending them to work in the street to earn money for them.

According to the police, Trinh Viet Thuan, 31, his wife, 30-year-old Pham Thi Hoa, and Hoa’s older sister, Pham Thi Dat, hired three men to take nine old people and children to markets, pagodas and gas stations to beg for money and sell lottery tickets.

Every day, five old people between 60-80 years old and four children between 12-15 years old were made to work until 10 p.m. and hand over all the money to Thuan and Hoa.

It is estimated that each of them earned VND200,000-400,000 on average per day, while Thuan paid them VND600,00-700,000 a month and rented rooms to put them up, said Phu Hoa Ward police.

They are investigating the case further, the police said.

Road project manager arrested on embezzlement charges

Police in Hanoi on Wednesday detained a former project manager involved in the construction of the north-south Ho Chi Minh Road to investigate allegations he had stolen VND10 billion from the work.

Tran Hoai An, 57, of Ba Dinh District will be kept in custody for four months as the Hanoi People’s Procuracy has already pressed embezzlement charge against him, local newswire Vnexpress reported.

From 2001 to 2005, An allegedly made fake contracts and invoices to the tune of VND9.5 billion (US$530,000). He has reportedly told the police that he does not have the ability to return the money now.

The wrongdoings were committed when An was directing construction of parts of the Ho Chi Minh Road in the central Quang Binh Province, police said. The work was then being done by the Construction Technology Development Joint Stock Co.

Ho Chi Minh Road, also called Ho Chi Minh Highway, runs to the west of National Road 1A. The route roughly coincides with the Ho Chi Minh Trail built during the Vietnam War. It is planned as an 8-lane highway running 3,167 kilometers from Cao Bang Province at the border in the north to southernmost Ca Mau Province.

Under a special mission to track down embezzlement at construction projects, the city police are also investigating An’s “abuse of power” in allegedly pocketing VND5 billion from the construction of the Phuong Dong (Oriental) Hotel in the central Nghe An Province, carried out by a state-owned leading construction firm LICOGI 12.

Bribery case appeal cuts two jail terms, upholds one

The Supreme People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City reinforced a former police officer’s 14-year jail term in an appeal that took years off two other defendants’ sentences on Friday.

The three defendants were accused bribery and originally sentenced in September.

Vo Van Ly, 46, former deputy head of the maritime crime squad at the nearby Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province Traffic Police Department, had appealed his sentencing as too harsh, but failed to have it reconsidered.

But Nguyen Chi Thanh, a 29-year-old squad member, managed to have his term shortened from 11 years to nine as he confessed and the jury ruled that he had not instigated the crime.

Ly and Thanh had been charged with receiving bribes.

Bui Ngoc Sen, former deputy director of Thanh Cong Ltd., a gasoline transporter based in the city of Vung Tau, got eight years in prison for giving bribes at the Ba Ria-Vung Tau People’s Court trial in September, but his penalty was cut to six years as the appeals court ruled that he had voluntarily reported the wrongdoing to the police.

Ly and Thanh were accused of taking bribes worth VND1 billion (US$54,700) from Sen last March to allow his ship to pass without an inspection.

The ship contained 3,000 liters of oil, which Sen kept for himself instead of discharging at PVOIL port.

The money was split by the two officers but Thanh said Ly, who had settled the deal with Sen, had told him that the two were lent the money to start their own businesses.

Thanh said he hadn’t taken bribes because he hadn’t dealt with Sen and only meant to borrow the money via Ly.

Road to link southern ports

Construction began on a road through the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau Friday as part of a plan to connect major seaports throughout the southland.

The 21.3km Inter-port Road will run from the Cai Mep Ha port complex in Tan Thanh District, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, to Phuoc An Port in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province.

The speed limit on the road will be 70 kilometers per hour.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau Transport Department is overseeing the VND6.3 trillion (US$344.5 million) project.

The Inter-port Road is expected to be lengthened to more ports in Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta as part of the new North-South Highway, currently under construction.

Doctors, nurses rebuked for pronouncing live baby dead

The general hospital in Ninh Thuan Province on Tuesday cut a doctor’s salary, reprimanded another doctor and two nurses who last month falsely informed that a baby was born dead.

Doctor Tran Thi Hong Hoa, head of the night shift on Nov.11 at the hospital’s Obstetrics Department, had her payment cut while doctor Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuan and nurses Le Thi Hong Van, Nguyen Thi Tuyet received warning notes. The hospital didn’t specify how much will be cut from Hoa’s salary.

Tran Phuc, director of the hospital in the south central province, said a baby was born prematurely on that night with low weight and slow heart beat.

Phuc blamed the team on duty for being “ignorant and irresponsible” as they “hastily” concluded that the baby was dead.

The family had brought the baby home to hold its funeral, but found that it was still alive. The baby was taken to Ho Chi Minh City’s Pediatric Hospital No.1 for treatment and is reportedly getting better.

Foot-and-mouth disease still uncontained, says official

Vietnam is yet to curb the foot and mouth disease among cattle, which has recently recurred in 15 provinces, Hoang Van Nam, deputy head of the Animal Health Department said on Tuesday.

The viral disease is spreading strongly mainly because of the low rate of vaccinations and the lack of proper checks on cattle transported among localities and across borders, Nam said at a meeting on controlling bird flu and foot-and-mouth diseases held in Hanoi.

Nam said the department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has established four teams of inspectors to check the epidemic status in the affected localities, mainly in the northern and central regions, and seek solutions to control it.

For the moment the National Committee of Bird Flu and Foot and Mouth Disease Control has asked the provinces to quarantine sick cattle instead of killing them, and strengthen vaccination at the same time, according to the meeting.

In June the department had said that Vietnam had successfully curbed the spread of the foot-and-mouth disease as well as bird flu and the blue ear pig diseases.

Danish-funded project raises Vietnam NGOs’ capacity

A project funded by the Danish Government has effectively helped raise the capacity of Vietnamese non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The evaluation was given out at a conference to review the project, “Effective Networking for a better learning environment,” in Hanoi on Dec. 4.

The project, which started in early 2008, supported NGOs operating in poverty reduction, rural development and natural resources management in northern Vietnam.

Those organisations learned new methods for working with the community and government agencies.

PV