6,000 smuggled cigarette packs seized in Phu Quoc

About 6,000 packs of smuggled foreign cigarettes were discovered and confiscated in the southern province of Kien Giang.

Early yesterday morning, the high command of Coast Guard Zone 4 and Phu Quoc District police investigated and seized an unnumbered boat in Ham Ninh marine area in Kien Giang Province's Phu Quoc District. The boat was reportedly transporting 6,000 packs of Hero cigarettes of dubious origin.

The boat driver, 31-year-old Nguyen Vu Phuong from Ham Ninh Village in Phu Quoc District, and two other persons present on board were detained. The goods were confiscated and sent to Phu Quoc District Police for further investigation.

Woman dies as truck plunges into abyss

One woman was killed and two persons were injured, when a truck plunged into an abyss at km47 of national highway 4H in Dien Bien at noon yesterday.

A rescue team said all three victims were members of a family. The driver of the truck and a three-year-old child were slightly injured.

The child narrowly escaped death, despite being thrown out of the truck. The accident reportedly happened because the driver lost control of the vehicle after he had an asthma attack.

Authorities reached the accident site in the northern province to repair the damage and to investigate the cause of the accident.

HCM City authorities uncover fake beer racket

The HCM City division of economic crimes and management positions investigation (PC46) has detained five persons for allegedly producing fake beer in Tan Phu District, HCM City.

On April 10, the authorities caught Tran Phu Long, 33, and four others -- Tran Van Nam, 30; Phan Van Ly Em, 29; Tran Van Nghiem, 19; and 17-year-old Tran Thi My Tien -- in the act of producing fake beer in a surprise raid at a house located at 378/1A Thoai Ngoc Hau Road, Phu Thanh Ward.

All five persons are residents of An Giang Province.

The authorities seized nearly 6,800 empty bottles, 1,600 fake beer-filled bottles, 6.8kg of bottle caps and a truck, besides several other materials used for producing fake beer.

The police are investigating the case further.

Vinh Long sees an increase of int’l visitors

Nearly 25,000 local and international tourists have visited the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long from the beginning of this year until now, according to the provincial People’s Committee.

It presents a year on year increase of 9.6 percent, including 8 percent of foreign visitors.

The number of international tourists accounted for 66 percent of the total travelers to Vinh Long.

The province is focusing on investing and promoting historical and cultural sites, traditional handicraft villages, eco-tourism sites and typical festivals as well as training local tour guides.

Vinh Long is one the localities in the Mekong Delta region has the best connection in combining waterway tourism, eco-tourism, and trade villages.

Over 6,000 Vietnamese suffer Hemophilia

Vietnam Hemophilia Association and the National Institute of Blood Transfusion  and Hematology yesterday held a meeting in Hanoi with theme "Forming a family to support people living with hemophilia" in response to the World Hemophilia Day.

This activity has been held across the globe since 1989 in order to raise people’s awareness of the disease and hereditary bleeding disorder, aiming to help better treatment for hundreds of thousands of people who are living with the disease.

Dr. Nguyen Anh Tri, director of the National Institute of Blood Transfusion  and Hematology cum chairman of the Vietnam Hemophilia Association said that the country currently has more than 6,000 people living with Hemophilia disease but only 40 percent of them are detected and received proper treatment.

Dr. Tri stressed that people with Hemophilia can live independently and contribute to the society if they receive assistance from the community. Therefore, we should give them a hand and basis treatment to them.

Hemophilia is a group of hereditary genetic disorders that impair the body's ability to control blood clotting, which is used to stop bleeding when a blood vessel is broken. Platelets are small blood cell fragments that form in the bone marrow—a sponge-like tissue in the bones. Platelets play a major role in blood clotting. When blood vessels are injured, clotting factors help platelets stick together to plug cuts and breaks on the vessels and stop bleeding.

Vietnamese veterans honoured for assistance to Cambodia

Cambodian Ambassador to Vietnam Hul Phany expressed thanks to Vietnamese volunteer soldiers for their support to the Cambodian victory over the genocidal Pol Pot regime in 1979 at a gathering of the veterans in Hanoi on April 12.

Large numbers of former Vietnamese soldiers, who volunteered to fight in Cambodia to help defeat the Khmer Rouge, gathered on the occasion of the 36th founding anniversary of the Vietnamese volunteer force in Cambodia under the name of Front 479 (April 14, 1979).

During the event, organised by the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Association, certificates of merit were presented to dozens of individuals, including five Cambodian students in Vietnam for their contribution to the friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Young woman ‘exports’ Vietnamese yoga coaches

An enterprising Vietnamese woman has tasted the first fruit of her ambitious quest to ‘ship’ local yoga coaches to other countries, including those where the discipline has gained a strong foothold.

A female Vietnamese yoga coach on April 7 left for Thailand, where she will work as such.

The country is currently home to many yoga centers.

According to 28-year-old Le Thi To Hai, board chair of Ho Chi Minh City-based Golden Hearts Co., the above-mentioned woman is the first of the company’s batch of over 100 coaches who are poised to work in Japan, Australia, UAE, among other countries.

In October last year, the company also provided coaches for yoga clubs which operate under the Vietnamese branch of Renaissance, a major Japanese fitness and health care company with 120 subsidiaries across Japan.

These trainers met the Japanese company’s exacting requirements, including graduation in advanced anatomy and an international-recognized certificate awarded by the Mumbai-based Yoga Institute.

Established in 1918, the institute is the oldest yoga center in India and in the world.

The Vietnamese trainers were also required to have at least three years of working experience in the discipline, adequate communicative English, and needed professional skills and qualities.

At 15, Hai, the Golden Hearts Co. board chair, took up yoga in the hope of shedding weight and fixing her crooked arms, which failed to rest straight along her hips.

Practicing yoga was simply another effort made by the teenager to have a slim figure and straight arms after her attempts with aerobics and jogging failed.

Noticing marked changes to her body after some time practicing yoga, Hai became hooked on the sport, which remained in its infancy in the country back then.

The spurt of passion urged her to delve further into the practice.

Hai then tried to contact Ayuni, a noted Japanese coach who was teaching at Sofitel Saigon Plaza, located in District 1, but the Japanese woman declined to take Hai as her student without citing any reason.

Undaunted, the girl persistently came to see the coach at her home for one week, and her efforts finally paid off.

Only one month after being admitted, Hai acquired much of what Ayuni had to pass on to her.

Hai then went on to take more courses run by a foreign yoga coach for US$100 per month, with no limit to class hours.

She made sure she sat all the four classes given each day.

She also learned with Joe, an American coach, for US$60 per hour to hone her yoga skills and improve her English command.

At 16, on a limited budget, Hai traveled to Thailand, which was home to many yoga centers, most of which offered a free one-week trial then.

The girl visited India – a yoga mecca – later. Following the trip to India, the tuition that she charged her students rose to US$24 per hour.

At 21, Hai gambled VND100 million (US$4,629) on establishing her own company, which offers yoga training courses.

She had closed down two cafés and a cosmetics stall at a local market, and given up tutoring at students' homes, which provided her with a good income at that time.

Her profuse training experience in several countries cemented her vision that the great potential of sending Vietnamese yoga trainers to other countries remains untapped.

After relentless efforts, Hai managed to get internationally-recognized certificates issued to her students.

The woman is the current director in Vietnam of Yoga Alliance International – India’s first international alliance in the sport – and also the global ambassador of The Yoga Institute with nearly 100 years of prestige in India.

Hai told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that though basically anyone can train to become yoga instructors, Vietnamese people are particularly cut out for the profession.

Like those in other Asian countries, Vietnamese yoga practitioners are typically endowed with suppleness and small skeletons, and are naturally zealous, attentive and hospitable, which is key to a fruitful yoga coaching job, she explained.

Hai added optimistically that she is currently in negotiation with some other countries, with 50 to 100 trainers expected to be ‘shipped’ to each country every year.

1 Vietnamese, 2 Nigerian email hackers jailed for fraud

A court in the central province of Khanh Hoa last week sentenced a Vietnamese woman and two Nigerian men to between 12 and 15 years in prison for hacking into emails of local companies to swindle money from their foreign partners.

Le Thi Kim Quyen, 35, and her accomplices – Christian Nnadikwe, 34, and Collins Deke, 37 – were also found guilty of another fraud scheme, in which they pretended to be a British friend of two

Vietnamese women on Facebook and asked them to send money as shipping fees to receive gifts.

Quyen got 15 years while Nnadikwe and Deke each received 12 years.

Another Nigerian suspect and Quyen's de facto husband, Mark Mamado Abdallah, 39, is still at large.

The group pocketed over VND3.3 billion (US$150,000) between April and August 2013, according to the indictment. Most of this came from the email hacking scheme.

Prosecutors said over the four months, Quyen and Abdallah hacked into the emails of several Vietnamese companies doing business with foreign companies.

They gave the information to Nnadikwe and then Deke, who would later transfer it to another Nigerian man living in Malaysia.

This man, referred to as Chief Brother, then used the compromised email accounts to contact the victims’ foreign partners, asking them to send payments to a bank account opened by Quyen and Abdallah.

Taiwanese-owned firm allegedly dumps untreated industrial waste

The environmental crime prevention police agency in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai on April 11 said they are conducting a further investigation into a case related to Taiwanese-owned monosodium glutamate maker Vedan which reportedly hired two trucks to dump untreated industrial waste earlier this week.

Local police on April 9 afternoon caught two trucks red-handed unloading 50 tons of stinking industrial sludge at an unused land area in Bien Hoa City, the capital of the province.

After being detained, the drivers, Nguyen Huu Chung, 43, and Nguyen Minh Quang, 51, both from Vinh Cuu District told police officers that a person working for the Taiwanese-owned firm had hired them to dump the industrial sludge.

According to police, the untreated industrial waste, which is black smooth mud with an unpleasant odor, might have been discharged from the production line of monosodium glutamate at Vedan Vietnam Co., located in Long Thanh District, around 35 kilometers from Bien Hoa City.

In 2008, environmental police officers discovered that a secret pipeline was installed by Vedan at its plant to discharge untreated wastewater, causing destruction to fish farms and riverside crops of many farmers in Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

About 105 million liters of the untreated wastewater were dumped into the Thi Vai River each month for fourteen years beginning in 1994, according to police.

Statistics by farmers’ associations showed that Vedan’s wastewater caused damage worth VND107 billion (US$4.92 million) to 839 fish farmers in Ho Chi Minh City and more than VND191 billion (US$8.78 million)  to 1,134 farmers in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, who only asked for VND53 billion (US$2.44 million) in compensation, according to Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.

In 2012, when Vedan announced compensation of VND220 billion (US$10.1 million), the farmers’ associations in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Ho Chi Minh City promised that after receiving the money, they would give it all to the affected households as identified by the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Environment and Natural Resources.

Vietnam’s struggle for liberation remembered in France

The Vietnamese Ambassador to France, Nguyen Ngoc Son, has recalled the arduous but glorious struggle undertaken by the Vietnamese people for national liberation in the years 1945-1975.

Speaking at a seminar in France’s Malakoff city, the Ambassador claimed that the leadership of the Communist Party has helped unify all Vietnamese people and attracted the support from international peace-lovers.

The diplomat spotlighted the great achievements Vietnam has gained since it started reforming in 1986.

He expressed his gratitude to author Léo Figuères, who used his articles and books to strongly condemn the French invasion of Vietnam and sway public opinion. His book “Je reviens du Vietnam” (I return from a free Vietnam), which demanded the French end their unjust war in Vietnam, has received particular public praise over the years.

At the seminar, historian Alain Ruscio delivered a speech on Vietnam’s resistance wars for independence, and mentioned the foreign soldiers who devoted their lives to the country’s struggle, namely Henri Martin, Raymonde Dien and Madeleine Riffaud.

The seminar, jointly organised by the Vietnamese Embassy and the Léo Figuères’ Friends Association (Amis de Léo Figuères) on April 11, aimed to mark the 40th anniversary of the Liberation of South Vietnam and National Reunification, and late President Ho Chi Minh’s 125th birthday.-

Retired teacher offers free education

Retired Hanoi teacher Nguyen Tra has been offering free classes to homeless and poor children in the capital city for two decades, helping hundreds rise up in life and opening the path for tertiary education for many.

Tra, 83, has been teaching for free since he retired in 1992.

“I want to provide homeless and poor children with knowledge, a helpful tool to change their futures," he said.

To keep the children coming back, Tra often organises picnics to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Temple of Literature and parks and zoos.

He had led four classes a week, but failing health has meant cutting back to one a week.

The class has become popular in the community and attracted the attention of many teachers. Eight teachers have volunteered to provide lessons on different subjects to help Tra.

Tra received a letter last November from President Truong Tan Sang commending his contribution to education.

Private hospitals complain of unfair treatment in Vietnam

Private hospitals in Vietnam complain their development is being constrained because of unfair treatment by government authorities and regulatory agencies.

Representatives of the private health sector met members of the National Assembly's committee of social affairs in HCM City on April 12 to voice their complaints.

"In 2009, we wanted to upgrade from a clinic to hospital and it took us two years just to complete all documents," said Vu The Hung, director of Trang An General Hospital in Hanoi.

"But then an official refused to approve our documents, without giving any reasons. The head of the Office for Private Hospital Management, under the local Department of Health, had to come and 'plead' our case."

Nguyen Dang Quang, from Le Huu Trac Clinic, said, "As president of the Golden Heart Charity Group, I asked permission to use a plot of land to build a charity hospital 15 years ago -- I am still waiting for a response."

Other doctors said that while the Health Ministry allowed public hospitals to provide personnel and expertise to private hospitals, many public hospitals banned their doctors from supporting the private sector.

Private hospitals were also subjected to more inspections than public hospitals, they said.

Doctors asked the Health Ministry and relevant agencies to review regulations on medical examination and treatment, and sought clarification on such issues as training courses, medical publications and hosting overseas doctors wanting to work in Vietnam.

Nguyen Van Tien, vice chairman of the National Assembly committee, acknowledge there were problem.

"Many public hospitals lack adequate waste treatment systems but are still allowed to operate, while private hospitals must have everything ready to be given license," Tien said.

The Planning and Investment Ministry plans to remove a series of regulations in the Law on Enterprises considered unnecessary to create more favourable conditions for private enterprise in the health sector.

Additional 1,162 MW supplemented to national grid in Q1

Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) reported that it added 1,162 MW to the national grid in the first quarter of 2015 after successfully connecting two turbines, from the Mong Duong 1 thermal power plant (540MW) and the Duyen Hai 1 thermal power plant (622MW), to the national grid.

In the first quarter, the national power group built and put 39 power lines into operation, including eleven 500-220kV power lines and twenty-eight 110kV power lines. EVN also commenced construction of 20 other 500-110kV lines.

According to the EVN, the group has provided a secure and stable power supply to serve production and requirements of daily life, with the total output of electricity in the first quarter reaching 35.81 billion kWh, an increase of 11.8% compared to the same period in 2014.

The power group plans to put a series of power lines into operation in the second quarter of this year including the 220kV Thuong Tin-Kim Dong, Mao Khe-Hai Duong 2, Phan Thiet-Phu My 2 and Cau Bong-Duc Hoa power lines.

It will also accelerate the progress of other power projects such as Duyen Hai 1 thermal power plant and the 500kV Pleiku 2 transformer station among others.

Recycled motor oil smokes out village

Since 2008, villagers of Phuong Linh, Dong Loc Commune, Hau Loc District, claim to be suffering from a home-run business that recycles used oils to make kerosene and causes pollution.

After several failed efforts, the villagers of Thanh Hoa Province are turning to the media for help.

Dan Tri online newspaper interviewed villagers, who said that this business, owned by Nguyen Van Tung, allegedly collected used motor oils from various places, mixed them with chemicals and boiled the fluid to produce kerosene, without utilising methods to protect the environment.

Columns of black smoke are spewed from the boiling of waste oils, which pollute the air and water of the local community, villagers explained, on the condition of anonymity.

Neighbours told the newspaper that they had to keep their doors and windows closed and wore face masks when sleeping.

Even residents who live one kilometre from the business can smell the foul odour when it operates.

Moreover, local residents claim that since the beginning of 2015, six villagers had died of cancer suspected to have been caused by the running of this kerosene business.

Some said they feel dizzy and nauseous, and even develop headaches due to the smell of the fumes.

In addition, some families reportedly relocated because of the conditions.

According to villagers, when the business began operating, some residents forwarded complaints about the pollution it caused to authorities, and consequently they were threatened and even chased by the owner wielding a knife.

In late 2013, the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment inspected the business and concluded that it caused extensive pollution.

"After the inspection was carried out, everything returned to normal," a villager pointed out. "Before the inspection, they would work only at night, but now they work at any time."

The newspaper interviewed Nguyen Van Thai, vice chairman of the Dong Loc Commune People's Committee (CPC), which governs the village where the business operates.

Thai noted that the owner of the business, Tung, had been summoned to the CPC office on several occasions and ordered to shut down.

In 2013, the district and communal police raided his business and confiscated all equipment. Tung and his wife Tranh fought back. Tranh also attacked the police with a broken bottle and injured a policeman, for which she was prosecuted and jailed for two years. There, she was found to be infected with HIV and released early.

Thai added that since the incident, he had not heard any complaints from the villagers regarding this business, and that despite revisiting the place every year, the police could not find anything.

He also rebutted claims there had been cancer-related deaths caused by this business.

The local government was puzzled when they dealt with this family business because the HIV-infected couple was unemployed, he said, adding that if they shut down their business, they would have no way to feed themselves.

Furthermore, the newspaper talked to Nguyen Van Ap, the party chief of Hau Loc District.

Reiterating that the Dong Loc authorities had been harsh with this family, Ap added, "While banning them from running the business and confiscating their equipment, the local government should have created an alternative means of livelihood for them."

"However, this was not done by (the authorities of) Dong Loc Commune," he added.

"If people continue to complain about it, we will have competent agencies visit the place and check it," the district party chief promised.

Ha Noi to demolish illegal apartment floor

Inspector General Huynh Phong Tranh has asked the Ha Noi authority to promptly knock down the illegally-built 30th floor and other construction work at an apartment building in the city.

He made the request after meeting the citizens of the apartment building located at Ha Noi's 93 Lo Duc Street on Thursday, in which they denounced the violations made by Kinh Do Capital Hotel Company Ltd in the management and operation of the building.

The company was said to have illegally constructed the 23th, 28th, 29th and 30th floors, and encroached on the passageway in the garage area, which was listed as common ownership of the tenants and landlords.

The company also built a gas storage unit at the rear exit of the building without the consent of the tenants.

Inspector General Tranh said the Ha Noi authority had not been strict enough, and asked it to quickly pull down the illegal construction work and report to the government before May 30.

Mekong tackles irrigation issues

Provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta have strengthened measures to control drought and saline intrusion, including dredging canals and closing sluice gates, as thousands of hectares of rice and coastal locals are facing a water shortage.

Truong Van Phuong, deputy head of the Bac Lieu Province Sub-department of Irrigation, said the province had to pump water into rice fields and dredge canals to take water.

Saline intrusion occurred earlier than expected this year and was more severe than in previous years. By mid-March, many canals in Bac Lieu's Gia Rai District had dried up while rice fields were in bloom, a crucial stage of growth when they need more water.

Drought has damaged about 30 per cent of 200ha of rice fields in Gia Rai District, according to the district's Agriculture and Rural Development.

Pham Thi Dung, who had planned to harvest 6ha of rice in Gia Rai's Phong Tan Commune, said her family would have a bad harvest this crop as her rice field lacked water.

"My rice yield will likely be 70 per cent less than expected," she said.

In Tien Giang Province, residents in Loi Quan Islet on the Tien River in Tan Phu Dong District have faced a shortage of fresh water for daily use since last month.

Truong Huu Quan in Tan Phu Dong's Tan Thanh Commune said ponds and lakes in his area had dried up.

"My family has to buy water for daily use," he said.

Nguyen Thien Phap, head of the Tien Giang Sub-department of Irrigation, said the saline intrusion had occurred in the entire area of Tan Phu Dong.

Tien Giang has used barges to transport fresh water from Chau Thanh District to Tan Phu Dong. The transport will continue to the month-end and cost about VND1 billion (US$47,000).

On the Tien River, saline intrusion with salt content two times higher than the same period last year reached Tien Giang's My Tho City, 65 km from the river mouth, according to the Southern Irrigation Science Institute.

The institutes said the peak for drought in the delta would occur this month.

In Soc Trang Province, local authorities planned to grow only 38,000ha of the spring-summer rice crop, but farmers have sowed 57,000ha.

The Soc Trang Province Sub-department of Irrigation is monitoring river tides to pump fresh water for storing in canals.

However, fresh water is rare this month, so the Soc Trang Province Sub-department of Irrigation has proposed to mix water with a salt content of less than 0.15 per cent with water left in rice fields to ensure water for rice cultivation.

Lam Van Vu, deputy head of the Long Phu District Agriculture and Rural Development in Soc Trang, said the salt content of water in rivers had increased in recent days.

Long Phu had closed sluice gates at rivers to prevent saline intrusion, he said.

Farmers had been urged to speed up harvesting their rice soon to reduce damage caused by saline intrusion.

Long Phu had harvested more than 5,000ha of its 13,000ha of rice, he said.

In Hau Giang Province, about 30,000 ha of rice are at risk of damage because of drought and saline intrusion.

Hau Giang farmers have sowed more than 40,000ha of summer-autumn rice. The province plans to grow 75,000ha of summer-autumn rice this year.

Nguyen Van Dong, director of the Hau Giang Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said drought and saline-intrusion prevention measures had been taken in all communes.

The province has closed all sluice gates to prevent saline intrusion.

"The weather is complicated this year, so Hau Giang has actively taken many measures to ensure production," Dong said.

The Southwest Region Steering Committee has instructed the delta provinces to guide farmers to change their crop structure and cultivation schedule to mitigate the damages of drought and saline intrusion.

VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri