HCM City launches volunteer campaign; Vietnamese longevity increases by 4.6 years; Stiffer sentence proposed in major HCMC land scam; Doctor stabs three, kills himself in central Vietnam; Woman rescued from prostitution in China

Due to the wide spread of cholera disease in the capital city of Hanoi, the Department of Health July 10 ordered dog meat businesses to shut down temporarily, in an effort to disinfect the environment.

The department has tested samples of raw vegetables, ice water and dog meat from business and dog meat processing centers in Hanoi’s Duong Noi Commune.

Tests confirmed that cholera bacterium was present in such samples. The department decided to halt operation of these establishments in order to spray chemicals.

The commune has 19 slaughterhouses and dog meat processing plants that supply restaurants with imported dog meat from Laos.

In the northern region, the choleric bacterium has been found present in fresh water sources in Bac Ninh and Hai Duong provinces and in Hanoi.

According to the Hanoi Preventive Health Department, of the 150 reported cases of cholera over the past month, over 60 percent of them involved patients that had to be hospitalized due to their consumption of dog meat, raw vegetables and shrimp paste.

HCM City launches volunteer campaign

The Youth Union in Ho Chi Minh City organised a ceremony on July 11 to launch the 17th volunteer campaign themed “Green Summer”.

The event drew the participation of thousands of young people from 24 districts and students from different colleges and universities.

This campaign will be deployed in 12 cities and provinces nationwide and also in some areas bordering Laos.

The campaign will focus on improving the environment, beautifying the landscape along the Sai Gon River, planting 25,000 trees, building 100 friendship houses and organising classes to train workers in English, using computers and soft skills.

Volunteers will conduct a customer survey of 30,000 rural households’ response to the “Vietnamese using Vietnamese goods” campaign.

Immediately after the launching ceremony, nearly 4,000 young people dredged and cleared 5 canals flowing into the Sai Gon River.

Vietnamese longevity increases by 4.6 years

Vietnamese people’s life-span has increased by 4.6 years, according to the latest survey on the country’s population quality announced by the General Department for Population and Family Planning on the occasion of the World Population Day (July 11).

Duong Quoc Trong, Head of the General Department, said with the decreasing birth rate, the growth of the population in Vietnam reduced considerably, and the life-span also rose to 72.8 years old in 2009, up 4.6 years compared to 10 years before.

However, the population’s quality is still facing many challenges, he added.

The survey showed that each person in life must deal with 12 years of illness on average. Also, the imbalance of gender is increasing quickly and remains at a dangerous level.

In 2000, the gender ratio in Vietnam was 106.2 boys per 100 girls. It has now spiked to 111 boys per 100 girls. In some provinces in the Mekong River delta, the rate is as high as 115 boys per 100 girls.

It’s forecast the gender imbalance will rise to 115 boys per 100 girls in 2015 if Vietnam doesn’t apply tough measures.

Stiffer sentence proposed in major HCMC land scam

Tran Kim Long, former chairman of the Go Vap District People’s Committee, was sentenced to 26 years in jail on June 22

HCMC Prosecutors have recommended stiffer punishments for a former high-ranking official and a female real estate agent for their role in a land scheme that nearly resulted in an execution.

If the courts listen, this will represent the third shift in sentencing for the pair.

The story began in 1999, when a female real estate agent named Pham Thi Tuyet Lan began buying and selling land for cash without proper titles. She passed kickbacks to an official at the Urban Management Agency to legalize her rights over the lands, prosecutors have said.

In 2001, the state-run Go Mon Real Estate Company paid Lan handsomely for the land— VND16.6 billion (US$876,452) in government cash. Company brass took a healthy cut of the loot and paid off government officials to make the deal look small on paper the court has found.

The scandal spiraled throughout the whole of the Go Vap District and eventually went all the way up to Tran Kim Long, Chairman of the People’s District Committee, the local government.

In February, 2007, after a string of arrests, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court handed down a death sentence against Lan. Long got 25 years.

The Court of Appeals in HCMC repealed the verdicts six months later and ordered a fresh investigation of the case citing violations in investigation and prosecution process. Nearly all of the defendants appealed their sentences.

On June 22, during the appeals hearing, prosecutors asked an HCMC court to sentence Tran Kim Long, former Chairman of Go Vap District People’s Committee to 30 years on charges of “receiving bribes,” “offering bribes” and “abusing official capacity to influence others and appropriate property.”.

The court dropped the charges of “receiving bribes” and sentenced Long to 26 years.

Prosecutors urged the court to consider locking Lan up for life. They had charged her with “offering bribes” and “violating state regulations in land management”. The court gave her to 25 years in prison

In this week’s appeals, prosecutors asked the court to reinstate charges of “receiving bribes” against Long, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on July 8. They also recommended stiffer sentencing for the official.

Prosecutors didn’t propose any new charges against Lan but said she should receive a stiffer sentence, the paper said.

Other defendants in the case received sentences of between four and 28 years in prison.

Doctor stabs three, kills himself in central Vietnam

A doctor in the central province of Nghe An allegedly stabbed three people in a meeting before committing suicide on Friday.

Investigators said the incident began when Dr. Tran Duy Thanh, 36, argued with midwife Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh at Tan Ky District General Hospital at 7 a.m.

Thanh then slashed Hanh with a knife. He also cut Dr. Nguyen Van Suu and Dr. Lo Van Cung, who tried to stop him.

Thanh later ran to the meeting hall’s corner and stabbed himself in the chest. He died at the scene.

Director of the hospital, Cao Tien Thanh, said Tung and Hanh had both professional and personal conflicts before the incident.

Woman rescued from prostitution in China

Border guards in the northern province of Lao Cai have rescued a woman who was trafficked into China’s Yunnan province.

Dao Thi Nhuong, 31, came to China on July 3 and was sold to a prostitution business in Hekou Market, according to border guards.

The woman from Lao Cai’s Bao Thang District texted her husband who later informed border police. She was returned to her family on Thursday.

Pham Ba Hoc, deputy chief of Lao Cai Border Guards, said this year they have received reports of 30 cases of trafficking. Fifty two women and children have been taken China, Hoc said. So far, only 48 have been rescued.

Military plane crashes in Hanoi field

The scene of an incident where an Vietnamese Air Force plane crahsed into a field in Hanoi on Wednesday

A military aircraft crashed into a field north of downtown Hanoi Wednesday night, but no casualties were reported, according to local news website VnExpress.

The incident happened at around 8.30 p.m. when the MiG-21 hit the field in Thach Da Commune of Me Linh District near Noi Bai Airport, creating a crater four meters in diameter, the news source said.

The pilot managed to eject himself and parachute to safety before the crash, the report said, adding that local authorities cut power in the area until midnight, and didn’t extinguish the fire until 11 p.m.

The Russian-produced supersonic jet fighter aircraft belonged to an Air Force division, VnExpress said.

However, local authorities and air force agencies have not commented on the event.

Hanoi police seek fraud charge against honored businessman

Hanoi police proposed fraud charge against a prominent businessman who was once exonerated from an 18-year jail term.

Nguyen Dinh Chien, 59, head of Bac Ha Investment and Trade Joint Stock Company and Bac Ha Hong Kong Group was arrested on Tuesday.

Chien stands accused of falsifying financial documents, including papers from foreign banks, in order to hide the value of his businesses and to cheat others.

Investigations showed that Chien had appropriated VND20 billion (US$1.04 million) from Nguyen Trai University, and VND6.5 billion ($340,670) from Dai Vien Duong Company.

The director general was also accused of using land titles from the Dai Vien Duong Company to secure an VND80 billion ($4.2 million) loan from Dai Duong Bank. Police say Chien did not use the money for his stated purposes.

In 1996, when he was the director of a Hai Phong real estate company, Chien was arrested by Can Tho police in the Mekong Delta following accusations that he had misappropriated public assets.

Chien allegedly owed more than VND152 billion ($7.9 million) worth of loans and goods to several state-run companies.

Chien spent 28 months in custody and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1998.

He later appealed to the People’s Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City, and had all charges cleared in 2006 after two appeals found a lack of proper evidence.

In 2008, Vietnam’s highest court also ordered Can Tho prosecutors to publicly apologize Chien, and compensate him for 28 months in custody and some 10 years of legal limbo.

The man once demanded VND568 billion ($29.8 million) in compensation to make up for lost profits as his business closed following his arrest and imprisonment.

In May 2009, Chien appeared as a successful business figure on the well-known national VTV1 channel television talk show Nguoi duong thoi (Contemporary People).

PV