Three Taiwanese tourists killed in bus crash

Three Taiwanese tourists and a local were killed in a head-on collision between a truck and a tour bus that occurred yesterday on National Highway 1A, in Cam Thinh Dong Commune, Cam Ranh City, Khanh Hoa Province.

The four dead include bus driver Ly Thanh Xuan, 56, and 3 Taiwanese/Chinese passengers, including two women – Li Lian Ping, 26, and Wang Min, 25 – and a man, Tu Chao, 37.

Nine were injured and are being treated in Khanh Hoa General Hospital and Cam Ranh General Hospital.

Earlier, at 4:30 a.m., the tour bus, a 16-seat Mercedes, that carried passengers, most of them Taiwanese, from south to north collided with the truck that transported wood northwards on the national highway’s section in Cam Thinh Dong Commune, Cam Ranh City.

The accident killed Xuan and a Taiwanese woman on the scene. Nine injured passengers were taken to hospital for emergency treatment.

About 30 minutes after hospitalized to Khanh Hoa Hospital, Chao died due to severe wounds. In the afternoon, one Taiwanese woman died at Cam Ranh Hospital.

Currently, two of the injured, including the truck’s driver, are in critical conditions at the Khanh Hoa Hospital.

Local authorities offered VND3 million (US$145) for each family of the dead and VND1 million for each injured people.

The truck’s front was seriously damaged while the bus was almost destroyed in the accident.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident.

Slashers of Tay Ninh schoolgirls indicted

The Tay Ninh Province’s Hoa Thanh District Procuracy has filed an indictment against four hooligans who targeted beautiful female students and slashed them on the thighs or butts last month.

According to the Procuracy, Nguyen Thanh Tai, Pham Thanh Duy, Vo Le Hoang Ngu and Phan Ca Li committed 17 slashing cases in the southern province and they would be prosecuted for “assaulting” and “humiliating others”.

All the four said they wanted to seek “strong feelings” and make their victims feel ashamed and cause them to return home to change their clothes.

In addition, Tai recently admitted that he fell in love with a schoolgirl and wished to take her to school and pick her up after class everyday.

He then asked Duy, Ngu and Li to join him in assaulting other girls with a view to making this student fearful and thereby agree to let him escort her.

Their first victim was D. Q., a 12th grade schoolgirl, who was travelling to Tay Ninh High School on her electric bicycle on March 7. When Q. got to Nguyen Chi Thanh Street, just a short distance from the school, two young men riding a scooter behind her suddenly sped up to get closer.

To Q.’s astonishment, the guy sitting behind the driver slashed her on her left thigh with a small knife. The slash, about 10 cm long, torn her white trousers and made her bleed from the thigh.

Another victim was H., also a student of the school. “About 6:30 a.m March 8, when I was 100 meters away from my school, a young man riding behind me cut me on my right thigh with a cutter looking like a paper knife,” H. recalled.

Some schoolgirls fell down from their vehicles to the ground after being attacked and some of them had to be hospitalized for emergency aid due to blood loss.

The hooligan’s violent acts have caused panic among school girls in Tay Ninh and many girls in Tay Ninh dared not to ride motorbikes or bicycles to school alone.

Local police launched an investigation to track down culprits and most of local high schools, including Hoang Le Kha, Tran Dai Nghia and Chu Van An, warned their students to be high alert.

On March 18, the local police stopped Duy and Tai, both aged 28, while they were riding a scooter on local streets as they showed some suspicious signs.

The police later found two Thai knives and a paper knife hidden in their scooter’s coffer.

Tai later confessed to the police that within two days March 7 and 8, he himself attacked eight schoolgirls.

From the two guys’ declaration, the police later arrested Ngu, 29, and Li, 17, the same day.

All the four are residents of Hiep Binh ward, Tay Ninh town.

Ministry rejects rumour on high radioactive level

The Ministry of Science and Technology rejected the news recently carried by several e-newspapers saying that radioactive cloud from Japan arrived in Vietnam with a high level of radiation that nears the level that can affect the people’s health.

“The information is groundless”, the ministry said on April 9.

The ministry also said that it has found radioactive dusts from the quake-damaged Fukushima reactor explosions in Japan, but the radioactive I-131 and Cs-137 trace level was very low.

It cited reports from the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, saying that they are yet to find radioactive from the plant explosion in Vietnam’s sea water as well as abnormal increase in radiation level in Vietnam.

Father beats 10 year-old son unconscious

Dong Nai province’s Department of Social Welfare and Child Protection on Saturday received a 10 year-old boy with serious injuries which were allegedly caused by his father.

Scratches and bruises were found on the body of Tran Ngoc Bao, a fourth-grader in Long Binh Tan Ward in Bien Hoa City in the southeastern province of Dong Nai.

Bao’s mother Le Thi Thu Hoai said his father had beaten him.

According to Hoai, who is now divorced, on April 8, Bao’s father, Tran Ngoc Chuong, a lieutenant who is working for a military unit, banged a firewood log on Bao’s head, face and back until he was unconscious after finding the boy didn’t do his homework.

Hoai said she had divorced Chuong earlier this year because of his violent temper. He had beaten her repeatedly since she gave birth to Bao.

After the divorce, Chuong wanted to take care of Bao and Hoai agreed. Yet, she later found Chuong beating Bao several times.

Doctors at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital of Pediatrics said Bao had abdominal injuries.

Pham Thi Le Thuy, Deputy Director of the Dong Nai social welfare and child protection department said the department had asked the mother to file a complaint so that the department could report the case to the police.

ATM thief caught

Vo Manh Cuong, a Ho Chi Minh City resident, has been arrested for stealing cash from ATM stations by hacking.

35-year-old Cuong from Tan Phu District installed microchips into ATM stations to steal hundreds of millions dong.

Trained in IT, Cuong used microchips to stop the cash flow from the ATMs when customers tried to withdraw money from their accounts. The ATMs then notified the customers there was a technical error.

After the customers left, Cuong took the money from the ATMs.

Several commercial banks reported to the police after they found money was still deducted from accounts even though the ATMs earlier reported technical errors.

The police proceeded to catch Cuong, who often wore a helmet, a mask and glasses while stealing from the ATMs.

Police raid lottery ring, arrest 25

After several months of investigation, the Ho Chi Minh City police broke up an interprovincial lottery ring on Friday, arresting 25 people and confiscating US$16,400.

The ring was led by Tran Ngoc Phung, 36, of District 6, and Tang Gia Oai, 31, of District 11, said Lieutenant Colonel Phan Chi Hung of the Social Order Crime unit.

The two men operated a lottery network sprawling HCMC and neighboring cities and provinces, he said.

After monitoring the ring’s routine activities, at 5 p.m. on Friday the police raided a house on Mac Thien Tich Street, Ward 8, District 5, where they arrested 5 people who were working on illegal lottery sheets and seized around VND20 million (US$960).

The police later raided nine other locations of the ring in Districts 5, 6, 8, 11 and Binh Chanh District and arrested 20 more.

On searching Phung’s house on Van Than Street, Ward 8, District 6, the police seized VND20 million, a lot of lottery sheets, and several computers used for illegal lottery activities.

The police are tracking down other locations of the ring, Hung said.

VN fishermen detained in Malaysia released

25 Vietnamese fishermen who was detained for up to 6 months in Malaysia for violating the Malaysian waters returned to Vietnam Saturday.

The fishermen arrived at 11 am at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

Of these, 17 are from the central province of Quang Ngai Province, 7 from the central province of Binh Dinh Province and 1 from the southern city of Vung Tau.

The fishermen said the Malaysian coast guards arrested them in November and December last year after their boats, three in all, were drifted to the Malaysian waters by violent waves and winds.

The Malaysian authorities, however, sentenced each of the three boats’ captains to 6 months in prison and gave a 4-month sentence to the rest of the crews for violating Malaysia’s territorial waters.

Nguyen Dinh Trung, captain of one of the boats, said their personal assets including the boats, which were worth a total VND3.5billion (US$167,000), were confiscated.

According to an official from the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia, about 150 Vietnamese fishermen are still being jailed in Malaysia for allegedly violating Malaysia’s territorial waters and will be deported back to Vietnam after serving their sentences.

Malaysian authorities usually do not notify Vietnam when they imprison Vietnamese fishermen, except in serious cases, the official said.

The fishermen who saw the other Vietnamese detainees said they had been suffering from bad prison conditions.

22 houses razed down by fire, no human casualty

22 houses were burnt to the ground and three others badly damaged in a fire in Dong Thap southern province last night, causing an estimated loss of VND3 billion. Fortunately no human casualty has been reported.

According to an initial source, the fire broke out from a private house owned by Nguyen Van Hau who resides in Hamlet No. 1, Thuong Phuoc 1 Ward, Hong Ngu District, and quickly spread to some houses nearby.

Most of the houses on fire were constructed from highly flammable materials, so it was very difficult for locals to put the blaze down.

However, the fire was put under control two hours later after firefighters arrived at the scene.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, chairman of Hong Ngu People’s Committee, this morning donated VND7 million to each family of the 22 burnt houses and asked relevant authorities to investigate the cause of the fire.

Huge illegal tin mining site busted

Yesterday afternoon, authorities in Lam Dong Province raided an illegal tin mining site, seizing 20 diesel engines, 6 tin sifting machines, 1 air pump compressor, 9 grinders, 11 generators, many specialized transport means, a water pipeline system 5,000 meters long and other tools.

The site in Lac Duong District is located in forest subzone 119, part of which is under management of Da Nhim upstream protective forest management board and the other part controlled by an eco-tourism project developer.

Authorities also took down 15 camps serving as accommodation for the unlicensed miners.

There were many children found at the site.

Earlier, on April 7, the force cracked down on another illegal tin mining site in the Con River area nearby, removing 20 camps, filled up dozens of tin pits, blocked ways to the site, and destroyed 14 diesel engines.

Last month, the force raided other illegal sites in three forest sub-zones 142, 143 and 144 in district, seized and destroyed many mining tools, said Doan Quang Giao, head of the district Natural Resources and Environment Department.

Man nabbed for carrying 11.5kg marijuana

Police in the central province of Ha Tinh Thursday arrested a man who was carrying a large amount of marijuana weighing 11.5kg on a passenger car en route from Thakhet (Laos) to Nghe An.

The man was identified as Nguyen Van Quy, 35, hailing from Nghe An province’s Yen Thanh district.

At the police station, Quy admitted to transferring the drugs from Laos into Vietnam twice.

Since early 2011, Ha Tinh’s authorities have busted 7 drug smuggling rings, arrested 7 criminals, confiscated 22 heroin cakes, 3.1g of drugs, 0.5kg of methamphetamine, 0.123g of opium, VND39.5 million in cash, and some specialized transport means.

VN, US talk tertiary education

The Ministry of Education and Training and the US Embassy in Vietnam have organized the fourth annual conference on Vietnam-US tertiary education in Hanoi.

Themed “Promoting Vietnam-US cooperation ties in tertiary education”, the event saw Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade at the US Department of Commerce, Francisco Sanchez.

Addressing the event, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga underlined that the Vietnam-US cooperation in tertiary education has become an important bridge for the two countries’ comprehensive cooperation and sustainable development.

He also highlighted encouraging results of the bilateral cooperation in the field over the past time, citing the signing of bilateral agreements and implementation of student and lecturer exchange programs between Vietnamese and US universities, and programs on educational cooperation with the US non-governmental organizations, companies, and foundations.

Representatives of US education organizations said they are willing to join Vietnam’s efforts to seek solutions to improve the country’s tertiary education.

At present, 13,000 Vietnamese students are taking training courses at various levels in the US’s universities, representing a fourfold rise from 2006.

Annually, hundreds of US lecturers have come and taught in Vietnam’s 23 leading universities, which have also enrolled a large number of students from the US to undertake study courses and research as well.

Guru rescues 5-storey tilting building

Do Quoc Khanh, a guru building mover in Hanoi, and his fellow workers today measured the decline angle and reinforced the foundation of the five-storey building located at 11 Huynh Thuc Khang Street, Dong Da district in Hanoi.

The house earlier slanted and showed signs of a possible collapse.

The investigation shows that the house was built on a shallow foundation, which was made of bamboo stakes [not concrete], Khanh said.

“It’s just suitable for a three-storey house,” he claimed.

“Hence, after construction, it’s obvious that it [the foundation] has sunk, causing the building to tilt,” he added.

Besides, six years ago, workers dug deep into the earth to install water pipes for three newly-built apartment blocks nearby, which caused many buildings in this area to suffer tilts due to land subsidence.

Khanh said that his team will replace the old foundation with a concrete one.

His team comprises 12 workers, including two skilled engineers. And it takes around 75 days to fix the house, which costs around VND500-600 million.

The recent collapse of a five-storied building in Dong Da has caused panic in Hanoi since a number of other buildings in the capital suffer tilts due to subsidence and show signs of possible collapse.

On March 31 a building on Huynh Thuc Khang Street collapsed shortly after the owner renovated his house to lease it out.

Five days later, just a few hundred meters away, hundreds of people working and living near a five-story building off Nguyen Chi Thanh Street rushed outside and were asked to leave after they were told the building showed signs of collapsing.

The same story was repeated a day later in Lac Long Quan Street, Cau Giay District, when residents panicked after finding a widening gap between two five-story buildings and one of them tilting.

Similar happenings have been reported in place after place.

More buses for holiday season

Ha Noi is to put additional buses and coaches on the road for the Hung King anniversary holiday (April 12), National Reunification Day (April 30) and May Day (May 1).

Passenger numbers are expected to double or treble during the long holiday weekends, Ha Noi Bus Station Management Company director Nguyen Hoang Trung said.

“The company plans to operate an additional 630 coach trips per day during the holidays on more than 100 lines from Ha Noi to 50 cities and provinces nation-wide,” he said.

Additionally, the company would put on 400 more bus trips each day after the holiday period for passengers travelling back to Ha Noi.

It would also work with transport companies to provide better services, including clear instructions at terminals.

The company planned to co-ordinate with local and traffic police and transport inspectors to ensure order and security at bus stations and to prevent traffic congestion, Trung said.

Headmistress dismissed over sex scandal

Can Tho City’s Ninh Kieu District Party Committee has fired the headmistress of Ngo Quyen Primary School after she was caught having an extramarital affair and accused of making love right in her school office last year.

Accordingly, Nguyen Thi Anh Dao was removed from her headmistress post and transferred to another job.

The discipline was passed at a meeting of the Party Committee chaired by Secretary Tran Viet Truong, who said Dao’s wrongdoings have caused anger among the public and damaged the local educational sector’s reputation.

Earlier, residents in the southeastern city of Can Tho were outraged as a primary school’s principal cum school’s Communist Party secretary is yet to be fired from her posts though she has been caught having an extramarital affair.

Last September, Le Thi P.M. lodged her complaint with relevant agencies in Can Tho, accusing Dao of having an affair with her husband, H., for three years.

M. said in her complaint that Dao frequently dated H. and her colleagues repeatedly caught the two making love inside Dao’s office.

When the affair was uncovered, H. confessed to local authorities while Dao apologized to M. and promised to end her relationship with H.

On January 10 this year, the Party Committee of Tan An Ward, Ninh Kieu District where the school is located, issued a disciplinary decision to give a warning to Dao.

However, the district’s Party Committee on April 1 gave Dao a much milder warning, which allowed her to stay in her posts until the Standing Commitee of the Party Committee decided to hold the above meeting to dismiss her.

Big fire rages Biduop – Nui Ba national park

A huge blaze was reported to hit Bidoup-Nui Ba national park located at the central highlands of Lam Dong at 10:00 a.m. today.

The fire swept through the protective forest bounded by Lac Duong town.

More than 100 people were mobilized to extinguish the fire.

However, by 5:00 a.m. the same day, the blaze wasn’t put under control because it’s very hard for firefighters to approach the site and they didn’t have enough water to put it out.

The fire has burned down 10 ha of green vegetational, but it didn’t cause damage to big trees.

Nguyen Duy Hai – chairman of Lac Duong’s People Committee, promised to put subdue the fire.

The actual cause of the fire remains unknown.

Rotting corpse floats on Hanoi lake

A man’s decomposing body was found at 9:00 a.m. today floating on Hanoi’s famous Thu Le Lake, opposite Daewoo Hotel.

Local police identified the victim as a 30-year-old man wearing a yellow T-shirt and Kaki trouser with a lot of money including US dollars in his pocket.

The dead victim’s hands and feet curled up and it’s very hard to recognize his face due to decomposition.

According to locals, the victim could be a thief, who jumped into the lake five days ago to run away from chasing cops.

They added police used a boat to track him down but couldn’t find him so far.

After being informed, relevant authorities arrived at the scene to retrieve the body and made an autopsy report for further investigation.