Nursery suspected of drugging babies shut down

Authorities have permanently closed a private nursery where two babies were suspected of being drugged and fell into a coma for hours Wednesday.

Authorities in the southern Binh Duong Province have permanently closed a private nursery where two babies were suspected of being drugged and fell into a coma for hours Wednesday.

They also fined 57-year-old Vo Thi Y for running the nursery without a license.

After the parents of Nguyen Vu Yen Nhi and Ich Minh Duc, both 15 months old, found their babies in a coma after picking them up from the nursery Wednesday, police searched the school and seized sleeping pills found there.

Police said they found 16 types of medicine, including sleeping pills, at the nursery.

However, the police said they had not found enough evidence to charge her with drugging the babies.

The two babies had fallen ‘asleep’ for six hours at the hospital during which they could not be woken up.

They have woken up and gone home now.

The public is angry that the nursery teachers could have given the babies sleeping pills so as to make their childcare job easier.

Plastic rice found in Ho Chi Minh City?

A city-based reader yesterday handed Tuoi Tre a sample of rice she considers fake and which could be made of plastic.

“On February 17, I bought 1 kg of rice for VND10,500 from a peddler. The rice is slim and in ivory yellow. There were no broken grains in the rice.”

After cooking half a kilogram of the rice the same day, she found the cooked rice grains were just a bit larger than the uncooked ones and were separated with each other.

“The cooked rice grains could not be crushed … and after I held them tightly in my hands, they rebounded elastically as if made of rubber.”

The cooked rice was not sweet-smelling as boasted by the vendor. However, one day after it was cooked and put in normal temperature condition, it still did not get stale or change its color.

After examining the rice, Mr. Dao Quang Hung, an official from Horticulture Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, commented, “This rice looks very strange. I have never seen it before. However, we need to perform some physical and chemical analyses on the rice before concluding whether it is counterfeit rice or not.”

“The grain length of the strange rice is about 10 mm, 3-4 mm longer than the normal rice, while in terms of width, the strange rice is much thinner. The best rice in Vietnam now is the 5 percent broken rice, while the strange rice has no broken grain,” he said.

In addition, unlike normal rice, the strange rice is totally transparent and has no opaque ‘seed’ in it, he added.

Pending a conclusion from relevant agencies about this odd rice, Mr. Hung warned consumers not to buy or consume it.

Power to be turned off in HCMC for tree pruning

Power will be switched off in many parts of Ho Chi Minh City between February 23 and March 1 to enable pruning of trees on streets, Electricity of Vietnam said Thursday.

During the week 14 districts, including 1, 3, and 10, will see power switched off for a five-hour period, either from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm or from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, as workers cut off branches growing close to power lines.

In the central districts, almost 20 wards will see the power switched off.

EVN has predicted a 30 percent power shortage this year in the country.

Death from suspected bird flu reported in Hue city

A 15-year-old girl died at hospital in Hue City after developing suspicious A/H5N1 bird flu symptoms.

The girl, from Nam Dong mountainous commune in central Thua Thien-Hue province, was hospitalized at the Hue Medicine and Pharmacy University Hospital on February 14.

The girl suffered from fever, pneumonia, and acute respiratory failure and her health conditions got worse despite treatment at the hospital.

Later the same day, she was transferred to Hue Central Hospital, but she died only two and a half hours after hospitalization.

Mr. Nguyen Dung, director of the provincial Health Hospital, said the sample taken from the girl was sent for testing and the result would be available in the next three days.

After her death, all doctors, nurses and medical technicians who had contacted with the patients were isolated from others.

The Hue Medicine and Pharmacy University Hospital carried out sterilization of all areas of the hospital.

The provincial Health Department carried out sterilization at the house where the girl had lived in Nam Dong.

The department gave Tamiflu, a antiviral medication used to treat and prevent influenza infections, to those who contacted or took care of the girl’s during her illness.

Phu Bai airport to close for a month

The International Phu Bai Airport in Hue City is expected to close from May 05 – June 05 for a runway repair, according to the Middle Airports Corporation (MAC).

MAC has announced the expected closure to the Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific, and Vietnam Air Service Company (VASCO).

Vietnam Airlines will work with the central Thua Thien-Hue Province People’s Committee to set an official time for the closure, said Bui Chi Thanh, director of the airport.

As the airport has only one runway, both its inbound and outbound operation will have to be suspended, he said.

India pledges cooking to stranded Vietnam sailors

Indian shipping authorities yesterday required the Chennai port’s managing board to deliver food to the 12 Vietnamese sailors stuck aboard the MV Bien Nam fishing vessel that has been stranded off the port for nearly six months.

The instruction was announced only one day after Indian authorities received a report about the sailors’ current situation.

Times of India has quoted Nandhu Anand Kumar, head of the port’s supervising department, as saying they heard about the problems yesterday morning and pledged to take immediately action to provide the victims with food and other supports.

A top port official said that if the port couldn’t settle this issue, it could cause diplomatic troubles between Vietnam and India, according to VnExpress newswire.

There are currently 12 Vietnamese and 6 Myanmar nationals on board the vessel, which was stranded after its owner filed for bankruptcy.

HCMC’s southwest gateway to be expanded

Authorities will carry out two projects to widen major entrants into Ho Chi Minh City’s inner urban areas in the southwest in an attempt to ease traffic flow, the city Urban Traffic Management Zone No. 1 said yesterday.

Total investment in the two projects is estimated at VND2,172 billion (US$111.3 million), including expenses on site clearance and compensation, Le Quyet Thang, director of the Zone, said.

The first project will upgrade and widen a 764-meter section on Truong Chinh Street. The section lies between the two intersections of Truong Chinh – Cong Hoa streets and Truong Chinh – Au Co streets, running through Tan Binh and Tan Phu Districts.

Upon completion, the section will be 60 wide.

The second project will widen a 636.3-meter section on Tan Ky Tan Quy in Tan Phu District.

The section, located between the two intersections of Tan Ky Tan Quy – Le Trong Tan streets and Tan Ky Tan Quy – Truong Chinh streets, will be 30 meter wide when the project is complete.

These projects will also facilitate the building of two metro systems No 2 and 6 that will run through the areas, Thang said.

Passenger leaves $51,000 on Vietnam Airlines plane

A passenger left behind her purse containing valuable assets worth around $51,000 on a Vietnam Airlines plane during her VN321 flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City on February 13.

The assets were found at the 37B seat by an employee of the Tan Son Nhat International Airport Ground Services (TIAGS) the same day.

TIAGS made a report of the found assets, which included US$4,000, VND7 million ($360), 1 wrist-watch, 3 diamond rings, 2 diamond necklaces, 4 Visa cards and some other valuable items.

The purse indicates that the passenger is probably a woman.

Total value of these assets is put at over US$51,000.

TIAGS has handed over the assets to the Vietnam Airlines’ unit in charge of lost and found in order to return them to their owner.

It is common for passengers to leave behind their properties but this is the most expensive item ever found by TIAGS.

Another charged in infamous nail trap scam

Prosecutors have laid charges of “damaging properties on purpose” against a man caught red-handed spreading nails on a highway in the southern Binh Duong Province in a so-called infamous nail trap phenomenon.

‘Nail trap’ refers to a scam whereby thugs would scatter pointed objects on the road to cause flat tires and then charge passers-by exorbitant fees to fix them.

Nguyen The Cong, 30, of the northern Thanh Hoa Province was caught spreading 150 hand-made metal objects on National Highway No. 13 in Thu Dau Mot Town on Feb 7 during the lunar new year holiday.

He was arrested by local police but then released due to lack of evidence for criminal punishment.

After the police collected enough evidence from nearby residents and passers-by, they have formally laid charges against him.

In related news, Binh Duong police recently raided three motorbike repair shops, detaining 5 people involved in the scam and seizing nearly 300 home-made steel objects.

Among them is Pham Van Canh¸ 32, owner of the Thuan Phat shop.

Canh was about to scatter more than 200 star-shaped ‘nails’ when he was caught red-handed.

Examining Canh’s shop, police seized 65 such metal objects.

Local said the shop charged their victims VND50,000-100,000 (US$2.5-5) for a new motorbike tube and VND20,000 ($1) for mending a tube puncture, around 3 times higher than normal.

Tuoi Tre has found that a 4.5 km road stretch from Binh Phuoc Overpass to Linh Xuan crossroad in Binh Duong boasts around 150 motorbike repair shops.

Specifically, more than 40 shops have sprung up along the National Highway 1A connecting Dai Nam tourism spot to My Phuoc town in Binh Duong province near Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition, the 1.2 km road-stretch from Song Than to Linh Trung Overpass boasts 43 such shops.

Most of them couldn’t provide a business license. The shop-owners just rent kiosks or private houses on the road to do ‘business’.