SOCIETY IN BRIEF 20/1

Published: 19/01/2011 05:00

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Gay man demands sex at knife point, killed


A Vietnamese man has been arrested for stabbing his gay friend to death early Sunday morning in Ward 15, Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh district after the latter took out a knife and allegedly proceeded to rape him.

Locals told police they heard a loud shout from a barber shop on Pham Van Bach Street.


They looked through a crack in the door and found 35-year old Tran Dinh Hoa, the owner of the barber shop, in a pool of blood.

Police besieged the shop and arrested Truong Van Manh, 22, who was fleeing the scene.

Manh confessed he has known the victim for a half a month and that the barber often touched his “sensitive” parts.

He added he paid little attention to it as he considered such behavior a joke.

On Saturday night, Hoa invited Manh to sleep at his shop after they attended a wedding ceremony.

Hoa continued to touch him, but Manh turned him down.

Manh claimed that Hoa took out a knife to force him to have sex that night.

During the quarrel, Manh disarmed Hoa’s knife and with it, stabbed him to death.

The case is under investigation.


Medications removed from sale for failing to meet health requirementsÂ

The Vietnamese health authorities have issued a recall and remove from sale some over-the-counter drugs, which include: Atefulton or Atenolol, traditional medicines Song Long, Tho Long and an herbal tablet named ‘Ong gia chong gay’ because they have failed to meet standard health requirements.


The Vietnam Drug Administration has decided to remove the drug Atenolol 50mg. This drug is supposed to treat heart diseases such as angina pectoris (chest pain) and arrhythmia (irregular heartbeats). It has the lot number 0060.


It was made by Fulton Medicinali S.P, Italia and imported by the Sai Gon Pharmaceutical Company. The drug was removed from sale because it failed to meet and satisfy the requirements of dissolvability and disintegration.


The Ho Chi Minh Department of Health also announced a ban on the sale and use of three traditional medications. These include: Song Long, which is used to treat coughs; Tho Long, used for fortifying the spleen; and ‘Ong gia chong gay’, a drug to help sufferers from rheumatism.

The Song Long Oriental Medicine Company produces the Song Long medication, with an expiry date of November 7 and the registration number of V-517-H12. The Tho Long drug, made by the Bao Long Herbal Medicine Company and the Quang Vinh Company, from the Mekong delta province of An Giang, developed the drug for people that suffer from rheumatism.


Police impound 131 ‘fast and furious’ motorbikes

The impounded bikesAt 2:30 am January 16, police impounded 131 motorbikes after rounding up around 400 daredevil motorcyclists who blared horns, did wheelies and rode zigzaggedly at furious speeds on major streets in district 7.


The number of bikes detained is one of the largest ever.


These motorbikes gathered near the Kinh Te Bridge and stormed through Nguyen Huu Tho and other nearby streets.


One day before, police detained 16 out of about 1,000 motorbikes running at extremely high speeds into Binh Thanh district from neighboring Phu Nhuan District.


Rallying in large numbers to ride at fast speeds is illegal and is dubbed “di bao” in Vietnam, translated as “tempestuous rides”.


Three more stand trial for trapping motorbikes

A court Monday started trying three bike repairmen for laying sharp metal objects on the highway to trap passing motorcycles after which they would charge rip-off fees to mend their punctured tires.


The court in southern Binh Duong Province heard testimonies against Le Van Khoi, 19, Pham Tuan Anh, 20, and Le Xuan Chin, 25.


Khoi, hailing from Ha Nam Province was caught red-handed scattering 100 triangle-shaped metal pieces on the Binh Duong Highway by local police on August 20, 2010.


Based on his testimony, police arrested his two co-workers at the Quang Tien Bike Shop.


The three confessed to spreading 200-300 metal objects every day on a 1-km stretch of road near their bike shop.


But police did not reveal exactly how the three men made profit from flat tires.

Last Tuesday, Nguyen Van Cong, 20 was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for the same crime, becoming the first person to be jailed in such flat tire scams.

After puncturing tires, he would charge fees three times higher than normal.


Police arrest blackmailer disguised as journalist

Police in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho arrested Tuesday a man who allegedly posed as a journalist to blackmail a company executive for money.

Le Tuan Cuong, 27, called up the director of his girlfriend’s company (no names have been released), claimed to be a reporter of Can Tho newspaper, and said he had information the latter had raped one of his employees.

He demanded VND30 million (US$1,540) for not writing about it in his newspaper, before reducing the amount by half.

He said the money had to be sent to a bank account.


The executive recorded the conversation and handed over the tapes and Cuong’s SMS messages to the police.

Cuong has a colorful history. He was once convicted of robbery and fined on two occasions for “causing injuries to other people.”


The police claimed he is a married man with a child but is having affairs with three women at the same time.


He planned the blackmail with one of the three and wanted her employer to send the money to another woman’s bank account.


60 high school girls pass out en mass

For illustration purposes onlyA total of 60 female students from one high school in the central province of Phu Yen unexpectedly fainted during classes Monday and Tuesday mornings under mysterious circumstances.


40 of them who are in their 10th and 11th grade collapsed at the same time at Tay Hoa district’s Son Thanh Junior High and High School yesterday afternoon.


These girls have recovered and went to class today morning.


However, 20 other 10th and 11th graders fainted this morning while studying on the school’s premise, prompting a wide scare. Classes were then called off.


The girls were hospitalized at Son Thanh Tay commune’s medical center where doctors attributed the fainting to a decrease in calcium levels in the girls’ blood.

Though mass hysteria is suspected, the exact cause is still unknown.


School officials said at first only a few girls felt tired, then fainted and another 30 girls followed suit.


As the patients exceeded the medical center’s capacity, a group of doctors and nurses had to be deployed from the district’s hospital.


15 girls had to undergo intravenous injection to increase calcium levels while less serious ones were fed sweet drinks and given psychological consultation.


Former officials jailed for embezzlement

The northern mountainous province of Dien Bien’s People’s Court on Monday wrapped up the trial of eight former officials accused of corrupt practices during the construction of the Dien Bien Phu Victory Monument.


The eight were accused of embezzling VND8.3 billion (US$415,000) from the construction of the VND49 billion ($2.45 million) project by using substandard and inadequate amounts of materials.


The court sentenced Luong Phuong Cac, former deputy director of the provincial Department of Culture and Information, and Le Van Vien, former deputy director of the project management board, to 44 months’ imprisonment for embezzling public property.

The other defendants included Tran Quoc Hung, former accountant of the project management board; Nguyen Duc Sung, former head of the Industrial Design Faculty of the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts; Vo Thi Hong, former director of the Central Fine Arts Company; and Nguyen Trong Hanh, former deputy director of the Doan Ket Company Limited, who were jailed from 24 to 43 months for embezzlement and abuse of power.


Le Huyen, former rector of the Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts, received a warning due to a lack of responsibility which had serious consequences.


Defendant Nguyen Van Chinh, technical official of the project, was exempt from criminal liability for deliberate violation of economic management regulations.


The monument was part of a project to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu Victory (May 7th, 1954 – May 7th, 2004).

The statue was completed in 2004. However, it soon developed cracks and began rusting, and rapid deterioration, prompting authorities to launch an investigation.


According to the Ministry of Public Security’s Criminal Science Institute, some 97 tons of bronze was missing from the invoiced total, worth VND2.7 billion ($135,000).


Northern highway likely to call halt due to insufficient capitalÂ

The Cau Gie – Ninh Binh Highway, which had been finished 75 percent of the total project, is not likely to open to traffic as scheduled on June 30 this year as the project currently faced a shortage of capital.


With a total length of 56 kilometers, the first highway project to be built in the north was approved an investment of VND5.42 trillion, funded from debentures under government’s guarantee. However, the cost of the project was later adjusted to VND8.97 trillion due to price changes.


According to a report by Vietnam Expressway Services Joint Stock Company (VEC), the project had 75 percent completed and the company was in dire need to issue debentures to ensure the capital at that time. However, the Ministry of Finance asked Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to stop guaranteeing for VEC in issuing debentures as its debt-to-capital ratio was too high.


VEC said that the company had been guaranteed to issue debentures for two times, funded VND1.4 trillion. After that, as the deposit rates raised, the project had to use the capital from the national budget. Although VEC used nearly VND1 trillion from other sources to pay to contractors, many contractors, including Cienco 4, and Cienco 5, have not received enough money for work that they had done. Meanwhile, the company is also expected to face difficulties to access the national budget until the end of June.


At the beginning of January, the Ministry of Transport proposed the Government to supplement chartered capital for VEC and continue to guarantee for the company to issue debentures to prevent the project from coming to a standstill.


PVA

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