| Vietnamese student beaten up in Australia A
Vietnamese student was severely beaten up by a group of Australian youths on a
crowded street in Melbourne
last Sunday. Vu Ngoc
Minh, 19, of Deakin University is suffering from brain injuries and in a
trauma after being taken to the Melbourne
Royal Hospital
the same day. Minh and
his friend Tung, also a Vietnamese, entered a shop and were reportedly
followed. Tung
asked the shop’s security officer for help to no avail. Tung
signaled for Minh to run in two separate ways, but the group was also divided
in two to chase after them. Tung was
surrounded by 7-8 boys, with one of them using a knife to attack him but he
escaped the stab. After failing to beat him, the group went away. When Tung
caught up with Minh, he saw the latter lying in a pool of blood. After being
taken to the ambulance, Minh fell into a trauma. According
to doctors, Minh is in critical condition. The case
has been transferred to the Melbourne
crime investigation police. Police
said they had yet to find the motive behind the attack. Minh’s
parents left Ho Chi Minh City for Australia
Thursday. Nearly 500 hospitalized for cooking
poisoning Food at a
company canteen (for illustration purposes only)After having lunch at their
company canteens, 460 workers from 4 firms in District 12 and Hoc Mon District
were hospitalized Thursday with signs of food poisoning. Most
suffered from diarrhea, headache, dizziness, and vomiting. Many had to receive
a fluid transfusion due to severe vomiting and diarrhea. Fortunately,
there was no fatality. They have
all been discharged from hospitals this morning. All the
four companies - Truong Vinh, Jade Luck, Takson Vina and Smart Elegant VN -
used food supplied by Toan Cau Company based in Binh Chanh District which is
now facing suspension. The city
Health Department has taken samples from the dubious lunch for testing. This
incident is the third collective food poisoning case this week in the city and
is the largest in the past six months. A couple
of days ago, hundreds of students in District 12 were hospitalized after having
lunch. Test results later showed their canteen food was contaminated with
bacteria. The city
Heath Department has set up a provisionary inspection team to inspect all
suspicious meal providers to guarantee no similar incident during the New Year
holiday. Man kills neighbor over loud music A man in
the Mekong Delta province
of Soc Trang stabbed his
neighbor to death because the neighbor ignored a request to turn down the
music. Dao Van
Hai, 53, of Soc Trang City
turned on the music in his newly-opened clothing shop. Trang Thi
Hoa, 63, the owner of a noodle shop next door, came over to his shop to
complain about the loud music. After Hai
ignored her request and turned the music even louder, Hoa told Trang Thanh
Tuan, her 43-year-old nephew, about the incident. Tuan
brought two knives used for cutting meat in the noodle shop and rushed to Hai’s
store, stabbing him several times. Upon
seeing their father being stabbed, Dao Van Quy and Dao Van Quan used bricks and
iron pipes to beat Tuan. Hoa and
another employee of her noodle shop also joined the brawl, causing a mess along
the street. The
fighting ended when emergency police showed up. Hai was confirmed dead at the Soc Trang General Hospital shortly after. Tuan and
Hoa were seriously injured and are reportedly in critical condition. Police
have arrested other people involved in the fight. Vietnamese studying abroad meet in Hanoi Fifty-two
young people who had studied in foreign universities came together in Hanoi Wednesday for the
Festival of Overseas Students to celebrate the New Year. Organized
by Tien Phong and Sinh Vien Viet Nam
newspapers, Vietnam Television, and Quoc Anh International Education
Consultancy Company, the event saw people who studied in Japan and China attend for the first time. In the
morning, the delegates visited the Peace
Village on Nguyen Huy Tuong Street
where they interacted with children affected by Agent Orange. They sang
with the kids, visited their classrooms, watched them make handicrafts, gave
gifts, and donated money to the Village’s fund. Later
they met Vice State Minister Nguyen Thi Doan at the Presidential Palace and
told her the government should make it easier for people to study abroad and
enable them to find suitable jobs upon returning to the country. “Vietnam needs
talents like you,” Doan said. “There’s no better place to work than your
homeland.” In the
evening, the delegates joined an incense-offering ceremony at the Temple of Literature and a program where they
spoke about their experiences studying abroad. The
program wrapped up with the presenting of certificates of merit and gifts to
the 52 delegates. “By
studying abroad, I found myself maturing quickly,” Nguyen Xuan Dat, now
president of the Vietnamese students association at Japan’s
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific
University, said. The
annual event, which began in 2001, gives a chance for people who studied in
various countries to meet each other and apprise authorities about the
situation of Vietnamese students studying abroad. Vietnamese sailors seized by pirates
off Madagascar Pirates
seized a fishing boat with a crew of 26 Taiwanese, Chinese and Vietnamese
nationals off Madagascar in
the Indian Ocean, the European Union naval
forces said Thursday. The
Taiwanese vessel reported coming under attack on the morning of Christmas Day,
December 25, some 120 nautical miles off the north-eastern tip of the island,
the EU-Navfor anti-piracy mission said, adding that no contact has been
possible since then. “Strong
indications are that FV Shiuh Fu No 1 has been pirated,” it added in a
statement. “The conditions of the crew or the vessel are not known.” The EU
said there are now 26 vessels and 613 hostages being held by pirates. The
latest attack, following two further Christmas attacks even further south off
central Mozambique in east Africa, underlines the extent to which international
anti-piracy efforts, with China also cooperating with EU forces, have forced
pirates to move further away from Somalia. Wanted executive nabbed after 13 yrs
on the run Ho Chi
Minh City police have arrested the director of a rice export-import company
based in the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang who absconded with more than
VND100 billion (US$5.1 million) of the company 13 years ago. Ly Kiet,
56, of District 10 was wanted by the police in 1997 on charges of
“appropriating properties” after he fled the country to Cambodia. Kiet, the
executive director of an unnamed rice export-import joint stock company, took
off with the money that was supposed to be spent on purchasing rice for export
under the company’s contract with foreign partners. Recently,
Kiet returned to Ho Chi Minh City
to treat his illnesses and was arrested while hiding in District 7. City party chief charged with abuse
of power Police in
the northern province of Vinh Phuc have laid
“abuse of power” charges against Nguyen Ngoc Quyen, Party chief of the capital
city of Vinh Yen,
for appropriating public land. When he
was head of the Personnel Office of Vinh Phuc Province People’s Committee, 52-year-old
Quyen ordered his subordinates to forge the signature of Nguyen Van Hoa, the
committee’s deputy chairman, to revoke and then hand over more than 25 hectares
of farmland in Dong Tam Commune to the committee for a farm plan. Police
said Nguyen Xuan Lien, one of his subordinates, photocopied Nguyen Van Hoa’s
signature on another document, pasted it onto the forged paper and sealed it
with the committee’s stamp. They then
turned the land plot into a property project for sale. Five
other officials, including Lien, involved in the forgery were also prosecuted.
85 percent road accidents caused by
drivers’ faults Eighty
five percent of traffic accidents occurred due to drivers’ carelessness,
Transport Minister Ho Nghia Dung told Sai Gon Giai Phong newspapers at a
conference on traffic accidents. Mr. Dung
said that the authorities have tried to reduce road accidents by raising
residents’ awareness of traffic safety issues, and by imposing heavier
penalties for violating traffic laws. However,
there are many causes of traffic accidents, but most happened due to the
carelessness of drivers. Drivers
travel at high speed along streets and encroach onto opposite lanes on the
road. This has clearly showed that all efforts to educate people, regarding
traffic laws have failed, said Mr. Dung. The
minister admitted that the use of textbooks, at drivers’ training classes for
obtaining a license, has not concentrated on raising awareness of motorcycle
hazards on the road. Therefore, the transport authorities have made some minor
adjustments in the textbooks. These
adjustments include three additional chapters, which include predictions of
dangerous situation in streets, knowledge on how to prevent traffic accidents
and how to protect oneself, and first aid knowledge about road injuries. Transport
authorities may cancel and revoke a driver’s license, if a driver has violated
traffic laws many times. For Tet
(lunar New Year) holidays, authorities will try to further reduce road
accidents by way of prohibiting unsafe vehicles, from traveling on streets, and
by controlling boats without lifebuoys. Street
wardens will impose harsh penalties on those drivers that violate law
regulations. These traffic violations include vehicles that travel at high
speed, vehicles who encroach onto opposite lanes, driving while drunk and over
laden vehicles. The
National Traffic Safety Committee, the Ministry of Transport and local
government’s officials will work to ensure that all drivers on the road adhere
to traffic regulations from January 24 to February 7. The
National Traffic Safety Committee in Hanoi
held the conference. The
number of traffic accidents in 2010 in Vietnam is 14,442, an increase of
over 1,788 cases. Although the road crash fatalities have dropped by 47 cases,
it is still high with 11,449 people dying on the roads. The
injury toll is also up by 2,500 cases, according to the National Traffic Safety
Committee’s statistics. The northern province of Lai Chau, the highlands province of Kon Tum
and the Mekong delta province
of Bac Lieu have
witnessed a high number of traffic-related deaths. The
National Traffic Safety Committee plans to further reduce road accidents and
traffic death by at least 3 percent. PV
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