Court to rehear principal’s sex trial

The Ha Giang Provincial People’s Court will conduct its first hearing on the case of a high school principal sentenced for having sex with underage students Thursday.

The defendants, 54-year-old Sam Duc Xuong, former principal of Viet Vinh High School in Bac Quang District and Xuong’s former students, 20-year-old Nguyen Thuy Hang and 19-year-old Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy will be present at the hearing.

In November 2009, a district People’s Court sentenced Xuong to 10 years and a half in prison for having sex with Hang and Thuy and through them, other underage students since 2008.

Xuong paid at least nine students aged between 13 and 17 to have sex with him since 2008.

Hang and Thuy were sentenced to six years and five years respectively for procuring other students for Xuong.

Last year, however, the provincial People’s Court ordered fresh investigations into the case after Hang’s and Thuy’s lawyers alleged the involvement of 16 senior provincial officials.

The lawyers, Tran Dinh Trien and Nguyen Van Tu, charged the district investigators with protecting these officials.

The two lawyers won’t attend tomorrow’s hearing as Hang and Thuy have asked to defend themselves.

As for the 16 senior officials allegedly involved, the Ha Giang Police said there wasn’t enough evidence for criminal charges.

The hearing will be closed to protect underage victims.

Project to boost legislative research, communications

A United Nations-funded project was launched on March 8 in Hanoi to help the National Assembly’s Institute for Legislative Studies improve the group’s legislative research capacity and information and communication technology (ICT).

The project will be implemented by the institute during the next 18 months with technical support provided by the United Nations Development Programme.

“A well-governed society needs a well-informed parliament. The Institute for Legislative Studies is there to serve that need, through providing parliamentarians with excellent in-house research and policy analysis,” said UNDP Country Director in Vietnam Setsuko Yamazaki.

The institute’s improved research capacity would contribute to improving the assembly’s operations and applied research on drafting laws, policy and parliamentary oversight, she said.

The project aims to enable the institute to more effectively fulfill its mandate through enhanced priority short-term legislative research and ICT capacities, which focus on supporting policy-oriented legislative research and enhanced ICT.

This is the first co-operation project between the institute and foreign partners, said the institute director Dinh Xuan Thao.

Prof. Vo Tong Xuan heads Tan Tao Univ

Professor Vo Tong Xuan has taken up the post of president at Tan Tao University in Long An Province, which begins its first school year in 2011.

The privately held university expects to enroll 500 students who will all get “For the Future” full scholarships. Students with outstanding performance at high schools, high scores at national and international academic contests and high marks at the 2010 national university entrance exams are entitled to the scholarships and given a free laptop, said Professor Xuan, who is widely known as an agronomist.

Operating in the liberal arts model of higher education popular in the West, the university in the first academic year will launch programs including civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, accounting, finance and banking, international business, business management and English.

The university, covering 103 hectares in Duc Hoa District, is one of the first private universities in Vietnam to apply international teaching standards with 60% of lecturers coming from foreign countries. Tuition is from US$19,000-27,000 each year.

Abandoned newborn found dead in plastic bag

A newborn girl was found dead, wrapped in a bag yesterday morning that was left in front of a house in the northern province of Yen Bai.

At 9 a.m, Ms. Do Thi Huong, 51, found a large plastic bag in front of her house, at 413, Nguyen Hong Ha Ward.

She could see through the bag some votive paper inside.

She did not touch the bag as she thought it could have been left behind by its owner.

Until noon, as the bag remained in its place, she reported the case to local authorities.

The bag was later opened up, exposing a newborn girl carefully wrapped in a towel.

The dead baby still has an umbilical cord.

Along with votive paper was a small piece of paper that read, “Anyone with a kind heart is kindly requested to take this newborn girl, named Minh Thanh, to a temple or pagoda for care. Many thanks.”

The local government and some local residents buried the ill-fated baby at the Da Bia cemetery in the province.

Local police and other relevant agencies are investigating the case.

New road connects Mekong Delta provinces

The Ministry of Transportation inaugurated a road connecting Can Tho City and the Mekong Delta provinces of Hau Giang, Soc Trang and Bac Lieu today.

The road, with a length of over 147 km, is paved with plastic concrete and has 39 crossover bridges.

The project started in early May in 2005 with a total investment of VND3,296 billion (US$158 million) of government bonds.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said this road would facilitate vital transportations of goods and contribute to security protection in the fast-developing Mekong Delta region.

Saigon raises nearly US$100,000 for Christchurch earthquake

Organisers announced that a total of US$97,000 was raised for the Christchurch earthquake at two events last week.

Raffle ticket sales and a live auction at the New Zealand Wine and Food Festival on Saturday added a further US$30,000 to the US$67,000 already raised at Thursday night’s earthquake fundraiser at the Caravelle Hotel.

“The Mayor of Christchurch, Mr Bob Parker, has an official Mayoral appeal fund which has been set up for donations to the citizens of Christchurch, and it will be contributed to that fund,” said Kiwi and CEO and Managing Lawyer of Frasers Law Company, Mark Fraser, who helped organize the fundraisers.

“It was an enormous effort of the expatriate and local community living in Vietnam. It was not just New Zealanders, who were contributing, but people from Vietnam, Australia, the UK, the U.S., Netherlands, Switzerland, and numerous other countries,”

We would especially like to thank all of the donors of gifts, the purchasers of raffle tickets, and bidders at auctions. It would not have been possible without the support of Auscham and the Vietnam Swans in particular, as well as the BBGV, Cancham, Hong Kong Business Association of Vietnam, Eurocham, and Amcham for informing their respective members, Fraser said.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is contributing by sending the money through to the Mayoral Appeal Fund free of charges.

Khanh Hoa resident charged with wild animal trading

Hoang Van Tuan, 38, of Khanh Hoa Province’s Ninh Hoa Town, has been caught capturing a black-shanked douc, an endangered species listed in Vietnam’s Red Book.

Ninh Hoa’s police have recently charged 38-year-old Hoang Van Tuan with illegal trade of rare, precious and endangered wild animals.

Tuan is banned from leaving his residence.

On Jan 21, the local police found the 10-kilogram black-shanked douc (Pygathrix nigripes) along with a 10-kilogram monkey, 9 civets, 12 porcupines and 13 snakes as well as 52 traps for poaching in Tuan’s house.

Tuan confessed he had poached wild animals to supply meat to restaurants in Ninh Hoa District and Nha Trang City for the past four years.

According to a venison trader who wanted to remain anonymous, a big trader of wild animals named V. in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak often bought black-shanked doucs from poacher like Hoang and sold them to China at high prices.

Since late 2007, six trading cases involving 22 black-shanked doucs have been reported in Khanh Hoa but only four have been prosecuted.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has requested the Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee to set up a conservation center for black-shanked doucs on Neo Isle.

Vietnamese sailors stuck in Indonesia receive aid

The Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia handed nearly US$7,200 to the crew of Phuc Hai 5.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Indonesia handed nearly US$7,200 to the crew of Phuc Hai 5, a Vietnamese cargo ship which ran out of fuel and has been docking for months at Indonesia’s Surabaya port.

The money from the Financial Leasing Company II (ALC II) in Ho Chi Minh City is meant to support the crew in buying cooking, drinking water and medicines, said Dao Hong Hai, chargé d’affaires of the Embassy.

ALC II has leased the ship to Hai Phong City-based Phuc Hai Shipping Co., Ltd. for cargo transport since December 31, 2008.

Phuc Hai has been suffering losses since May 2010, said Hoang Ngoc Tien, general director of ALC II.

Consequently, Phuc Hai has ceased providing food, drinking water and fuels to the ship, leaving the crew of 27 Vietnamese sailors in hunger and thirst. They were also unpaid and had to beg for food and drinking water from other ships to survive.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tai, ALC II deputy general director, said the company will send its representatives to Indonesia to resolve problems faced by Phuc Hai 5.

Some sailors told Tuoi Tre that while docking at the port, Phuc Hai 5 was hit by container boat Karyaciata 8 on March 4 and oil tanker Nusantara Berjaya on March 6 – both of them of Indonesian nationality.

The sailors also said Surabaya port authorities worked with Phuc Hai 5’s captain, Sin Yury, who later informed the crew that he could be detained.

Ho Chi Minh City police bust restaurant sex ring

Police in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 yesterday detained the owner of a restaurant after catching two of her employees having sex with customers in a nearby hotel.

Nguyen Thi My Phuong, 28, from the Mekong Delta province of Ca Mau, runs the Hoa Ly Restaurant on Cao Ba Nha Street, District 1.

She was arrested after the police raided K.A. Hotel in Co Bac Street and discovered two couples having sex.

The two young women told the police they were waitresses at Hoa Ly.

According to the police, a group of customers from the Mekong Delta province of Long An had sung karaoke at Hoa Ly and two of them were sent with the waitresses for VND2 million (US$95). Phuong allegedly received VND200,000.

Their report also alleged that Phuong has dozens of “young, beautiful, and tall” women who provide sexual services.

They are continuing investigation, the police said.

Students skip classes for gold

Students from a junior high school in K’roong Commune, Kon Tom City, Kon Tum Province sometimes skip classes to go panning for gold in the Dak PoKo river to help support their families.

Writing to Tuoi Tre, local readers say some of these students are as young as 9 years old and earn only VND15,000-17,000 (US$0.73-0.82) for a day of gold panning.

Tran Huu Loc, President of Le Quy Don Junior High School admitted his students did skip classes to pan gold for money.

The school has asked their families repeatedly to stop sacrificing their children’s schooling for money.

Loc said he would continue to persuade the students and their families.

12 fishermen rescued off central Vietnam

12 fishermen were rescued from fishing boat bearing plate No QNg-98138 hit by reef off the central province of Quang Ngai yesterday, an official said.

According to lieutenant colonel Le Van Dinh, head of frontier post No. 304 in Sa Huynh commune, the boat - owned by Nguyen Van Tam hailing from the province’s Duc Pho district - hit a reef yesterday afternoon.

Sea water began to flow into the boat.

Two other fishing boats nearby rushed over to rescue the sailors.

One more patient dies at same private clinic

Police are investigating into the death of a young man who died following treatment at a local general clinic in southern Dong Nai province yesterday.

The clinic is the very place where a boy last year died after being injected with an antibiotic.

Ngo Van Nhat, 22, of Phuoc Thai commune in Long Thanh district, died after being treated at the Viet My General Clinic’s second unit in the district’s Phuoc Binh commune.

He was transferred to the Long Thanh General Hospital but died before hospitalization.

Doctors at Long Thanh hospital said Nhat’s heart did not work and his body turned blue when they received him yesterday morning.

As written on the Viet My’s transfer sheet, Nhat suffered from “high fever with unknown causes,” said Dr. Anh.

In October 2010, little boy Duong Ngoc Hai Thuy, 5 years old, of Long Thanh district, died at the very branch of the clinic, said the provincial Health Department.

A Viet My doctor administered an injection of Gentamycin TB, an antibiotic used to treat infections, to Thuy, who was suffering a high fever.

The boy died only three minutes after being injected and the health department later concluded that the death was caused by an adverse reaction to the medication.

The clinic, located in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh district, has yet to meet conditions regulated for medical operation, the department said.

International University grants over VND300 million in scholarships

International University under the Vietnam National University in HCMC on Sunday granted study encouragement scholarships worth VND315 million to 21 HCMC-based high schools. Each school received VND15 million. The scholarship that every school received will grant to students with good study results.

Moreover, the International University spends VND9 billion equal to US$450,000 to students who will register to the university and get high marks at the university entrance examination for the academic year 2011-2012.

Associate Professor Ho Thanh Phong, director of the International University, told the Information Day, “We have three kinds of scholarships including full scholarships, half scholarships, and encouragement scholarships for every semester.”

In addition, the school’s international counterparts to grant scholarships to support students who finish two academic years with good achievements and wish to transfer studying abroad and learning the rest two years at the International University’s foreign partners.

The International University which has 2,800 students learning bachelor and master degrees signed Memorandum of understanding with Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (U.S.A.); State University of New York (SUNY) - Binghamton (U.S.A.); University of Houston (U.S.A.); The University of Nottingham (U.K and Malaysia) and The University of the West of England (U.K);among others.

Phong said in the academic year 2010-2011, the university will train doctorate degrees.