Seoul exhibition spotlights China’s illicit island reclamation

Visitors at the exhibition at the Kyung Hee University.

A photo exhibition on China’s illegal construction of artificial islands in the East Sea was opened at the Kyung Hee University, a renowned school in Seoul of the Republic of Korea (RoK), on November 29.

The event is held by the association of descendants of Vietnam’s Ly dynasty family in the RoK as part of the 11 th festival of Vietnamese students in the country.

It features more than 40 photos on China’s illegal island reclamation and building in the East Sea and copies of old maps proving Vietnam’s sovereignty over Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagoes.

Opening the display, Chairman of the association Lee Seung Young said the East Sea is home to an international shipping route which is important to all countries inside and outside of the region. The maintenance of an environment of peace, stability and development in the waters is the responsibility of all nations and crucial to ensuring peace, security, navigation and aviation freedom, and international trading activities.

He added that the exhibition is meant to give visitors an insight into Vietnam’s sea and island sovereignty and China’s illegal island construction that changed the entities and reefs in Vietnam’s Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, causing impact on regional peace, stability and navigation safety as well as the marine environment and ecological systems in the waters.

In his speech at the Vietnamese students’ festival, Vietnamese Ambassador to the RoK Pham Huu Chi said he hopes that the event will help RoK and foreign visitors gain a better understanding of China’s illegal island building which is a serious violation of Vietnam’s sovereignty, along with Vietnam’s efforts to protect its sovereignty in the East Sea throughout history.

The photo exhibition is the fourth of its kind on this topic held so far in the RoK. The previous events were organised in Busan, Gwangju and Daejeon cities.

Police charge teen for killing cellmate

Local police yesterday completed their investigation and decided to prosecute Vu Van Binh, 17, from Bac Giang, for allegedly beating to death one of his cellmates while in a custody in Ha Noi.

The victim, Do Dang Du, 17, from Chuong My District in Ha Noi, was put in custody in August by Ha Noi police for stealing some money from his neighbor. He shared a room with Vu Van Binh in Detention Center No 3 in Chuong My District.

According to the investigation document, on October 4, Du was beaten by Vu Van Binh while in custody for a personal conflict and then fell into unconsciousness. He was later taken to a hospital, but remained in a coma and died six days later. 

Five die in farm truck crash

Five people were killed and nine seriously injured when a farm truck collided with a container truck in the central highlands province of Gia Lai on Saturday.

At 9pm, a small farm truck carrying 14 people was suddenly hit from behind by a container truck on Highway 14 in Ia Khuoi Commune. Five people on the farm truck died immediately and nine were transferred to a hospital. After the crash, the container truck driver drove for two more kilometres, then jumped out and ran away.

Police arrest eight in bus mugging ring

The HCM City criminal police have arrested eight people for allegedly attacking and robbing money and other belongings from passengers on buses they operated illegally from the city to Mekong Delta provinces.

Colonel Le Ngoc Phuong, head of the HCM City police's crime division, said the eight included drivers, their assistants and agents operating illegally from places near Mien Tay Coach Station in Binh Tan District to cities and provinces in the delta.

After collecting passengers along the route, they would threaten them and snatch their belongings before forcing them off the bus.

A person from Hau Giang Province accused of the same crime remains at large, Phuong said.

Fire guts store in Kon Tum Province

A fire ripped through a store at 11pm on Saturday in Ngoc Hoi District in the Central Highland province of Kon Tum.

It took firemen three hours to stamp the fire out. No casualties were reported.

Estimated damages from the fire are nearly VND10 billion (US$444,400).

Initial investigations showed the fire was caused by an electrical short circuit. The store was reported to be the big gest of its kind in Ngoc Hoi District.

Vietnam attends World Radiocommunication Conference 2015

Vietnam has been active at the recently concluded World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) in Geneva, Switzerland, bringing three proposals to the event.

The Vietnamese delegation, led by Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Pham Hong Hai, also joined other Asian-Pacific countries in 12 other proposals submitted to the conference.

The proposals are aimed at ensuring harmony in the use of radio frequencies between Vietnam and other countries in the world while protecting the national interests in the use of radio frequencies and satellite orbits, particularly frequency bands used for its VINASAT satellite system

The WRC-15, wrapping up on November 27, approved a resolution on maintaining the current Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) time scale with leap seconds until the WRC in 2023.

A suggestion on abolishing the leap seconds surfaced in 2000 but countries around the world have contradictory viewpoints on this issue due to their specific conditions in technological infrastructure, history and communication.

If the adding of the leap second is stopped, the gap between UTC and the Earth’s rotation speed will be about 30 minutes by the year 2700.

The WRC-15, held by the International Telecommunication Union from November 2, also made decisions about the use of radio frequencies in the world. Outcomes of the event are said to directly affect the development of the radiocommunication application in the future.

Singaporean donates MRI scanner to help AO victims

A Singaporean entrepreneur has donated a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to the Da Nang Hospital in central Da Nang city to assist with the examination and treatment of local Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin victims.

Harold Chan Soo York presented the 33 billion VND (1.45 million USD) scanner to the hospital at a ceremony on November 29.

The businessman said he will continue to work with the Da Nang Association of Victims of AO/dioxin to raise 150,000 EUR (158,890 USD) for the purchase of medical equipment serving the treatment of AO/dioxin victims.

On this occasion, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Huynh Duc Tho presented a certificate of merit to the entrepreneur in recognition of his contributions.

According to the Vietnam Association of Victims of AO/dioxin, between 1961 and 1971, the US army sprayed 80 million litres of herbicides, including nearly 400 kg of dioxin, onto the southern battlefield.

Among 4.8 million people exposed to the toxic chemical, about 3 million are AO victims.

Da Nang is one of the worst dioxin contaminated hot spots.

Workshop in Poland highlights Vietnam’s development

A workshop highlighting Vietnam’s Doi Moi (renewal), development and integration was held in the Polish capital of Warsaw on November 27 as part of activities to mark the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The participants discussed the socio-economic performance of Vietnam and the country’s status now 30 years after the launch of Doi Moi. They examined the prospects for Vietnam’s development following the conclusion of negotiations on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement as well as the establishment of the ASEAN Community at the end of 2015.

The ties between Vietnam and Poland in the context of complicated developments in the region and the world, including the tensions in the East Sea, also attracted participants’ attention, as did the deeper integration of the Vietnamese community in Poland in recent years.

Former Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee under Polish lower house Tadeusz Iwinski expressed his hope that Vietnam and Poland will serve as a bridge to forge cooperation between ASEAN and the EU as part of the Asia-Europe overall relations.

Damian Wnukowski, an expert from the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), highlighted Vietnam’s engagement in regional and international agreements as an important premise for the country to continue luring big investors.

Meanwhile, Piotr Gadzinowski from the Polish Democratic Left Alliance put forth measures to drive the Vietnam-Poland relations forward in the coming time, focusing on cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

A celebration of the fifth founding anniversary of the Vietnam Institute of Science and Culture in Poland was also held on the sidelines of the workshop.

HCM City boosts tourism cooperation with Japanese region

Ho Chi Minh City is keen to develop tourism partnership with Japan and particularly Kansai region.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Hoang Quan made the remark while receiving Governor of Hyogo prefecture Ido Toshizo on November 28.

Quan said he hopes more tourists from Kansai region will visit HCM City in the coming time. He invited Japanese businesses to attend the city’s annual international tourism fair in September to boost bilateral cooperation in the field.

Governor Ido Toshizo said a number of programmes have been held in Vietnam to promote Kansai to Vietnamese people. The region hopes to greet more Vietnamese tourists in the time ahead, he added.

A business delegation from Hyogo prefecture has also conducted a trip to study investment environment in several Vietnamese localities, he noted.

The Governor expressed his delight at the growing economics and tourism ties between the two countries, which has helped increase mutual understanding and friendship.

In 2014, Japan welcomed nearly 130,000 tourists from Vietnam. The figure is predicted to reach over 180,000 by the end of this year, he said, adding that the same period more than 830,000 Japanese visited Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City.

Currently, some 5,000-6,000 Japanese citizens are living and working in HCM City, Quan said, recognising the significant contributions of the Japanese business community, including enterprises from Kansai region, to the development of the city and Vietnam at large.

Vietnam intensifies protection of women, children’s rights under ASEAN

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs recently held a conference on directions for the operation of the Vietnam chapter of the ASEAN Commission on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Women and Children (ACWC).

Participants at the November 27 event focused their attention on the ACWC and the ACWC-Vietnam’s working plans after 2015 – the year the ASEAN Community is formed.

They also debated how to effectively implement the ASEAN Regional Plan of Action on the Elimination on Violence against Women (RPA EVAW) and the Regional Plan of Action on Elimination of Violence against Children (RPA EVAC).

The two action plans are set to be carried out during 2016-2025, which is in line with the ASEAN Community blueprint. The main target of the two action plans is to build a legal framework and put in place preventive measures regarding the issues.

In the first five years of the plans, the ACWC will set up regional guidelines, develop regional campaigns on EVAW and EVAC through the use of social media platforms and TV channels.

ACWC members are responsible for devise and implement their own national blueprints to bolster the ACWC’s activities.

Danish Footprints event held in HCM City

The Danish Embassy in Vietnam in collaboration with Danish enterprises operating in Vietnam held the Danish Footprints 2015 themed “For sustainable development goal – towards human” in Ho Chi Minh City on November 28.

The event aimed at creating a venue for enterprises to share human- and community-oriented business management policies as well as activities to carry out their social responsibility for sustainable development targets.

A series of activities including a walk, sport dance performance, an exhibition calling for environmental protection and climate change prevention, and film screening, were arranged within the framework of the event.

Danish Ambassador to Vietnam Charlotte Laursen said Danish businesses want to invest in Vietnam because of favourable investment climate of the country.

Around 130 Danish firms are operating in Vietnam, focusing on environmental services, agriculture, textiles, food and water.

The two countries have shifted their ties from development assistance to multifaceted cooperation, the diplomat said, adding that they are working to further promote their relations in the coming time.

Over 18,000 people join Terry Fox Run

More than 18,000 residents of Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring provinces joined in the Terry Fox Run on November 29 to raise funds for cancer research and treatment activities.

The annual event, held by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, the Consulate General of Canada and the HCM City Union of Friendship Organisations, took place at the Phu My Hung area in District 7. This is the 19th year the event has been organized in Vietnam.

Participants were from all social strata such as children, students, employees of organisations and businesses, and foreigners. Since the run was a community activity, they could walk, cycle or roller skate along the 5km distance, organisers said.

The Terry Fox Run commemorates Canadian cancer activist Terry Fox, who made a Marathon of Hope run across Canada to raise funds for cancer research in 1980 after losing his leg to osteosarcoma.

Since the first run in Canada in 1981, the event has taken place annually in more than 60 countries with millions of participants, becoming the world’s biggest fund-raising campaign for cancer research and treatment.

The 18th run in Vietnam in 2014 attracted 16,500 participants and raised 1.3 billion VND (57,200 USD), which was earmarked for the project of early detection and diagnosis of oral cancer in Vietnam in the two following years.

Camp for the disabled opens in HCM City

More than 7,000 people with disabilities in Ho Chi Minh City and neighbouring provinces took part in the 2015 Camp for Disabled People at the Suoi Tien Cultural Tourist Park in HCM City on November 28.

Organised by the city's Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs in cooperation with its partners, the 16th event is part of the city's cultural and charity activities to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3).

It included cultural programmes and games. More than 500 volunteers participated to support the participants during the camp.

Dozens of local and foreign organisations and companies have donated over 1.9 billion VND (86,000 USD) for the event.

English teaching in Vietnam discussed

A seminar on English teaching in Vietnam was held in Hanoi on November 27.

Gathering state and provincial officials, experts from Vietnam and international organisations, the event aimed to boost teaching and research capacity in Vietnam as well as reinforce connectivity among individuals working in the field.

Participants focused on a range of topics, including impact of media and technology, culture differences, and capacity building. They discussed online learning, the use of social networking in teaching English, developing speaking skill and critical thinking, among others.

At the seminar, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said the Government has implemented a project to completely overhaul the teaching and learning system of foreign languages nationwide from 2008 – 2020.

Improving the quality of local teachers is key to the project, he noted.

Cycle for newborns journey finishes in Da Nang

The 1,600-kilometre “Cycle a Difference” journey, which began in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai on November 15, successfully concluded in the central city of Da Nang on November 28.

UK Ambassador to Vietnam Giles Lever, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Dang Viet Dung and Director of the municipal Health Department Ngo Thi Kim Yen joined 30 local and foreign cyclists in the final stage of the journey.

The event aimed to raise funds for charity activities of the UK registered Newborns Vietnam organisation.

Sharing the pride of participating in the final stage, the UK diplomat hailed the operations of the Newborns Vietnam, which have helped improve the professional skills of Da Nang Hospital for Women & Children’s staff, and reduce the number of newborn fatalities.

This is a manifestation of the sound relations between the UK and Vietnam, he added.

Ho Chi Minh City: 4,000 people join major firefighting exercise

A large-scale firefighting drill was organised at a 32-storey building in Ho Chi Minh City on November 28.

The event attracted the participation of nearly 4,000 people, including around 1,000 firefighters and emergency responders, and 3,000 local residents playing the part of the victims.

The scenario was a gas leak in a restaurant which led to a big explosive, and an incident causing thick smoke in an apartment in the Vincom Centre B building.

The drill helped improve the capacity of search and rescue skills of participating forces in the context of the increasing risk of fire incidents in multistoried buildings.

Job arrangements for disabled people hard

Job placements for people with physical disabilities in Vietnam remain a tough task, heard a seminar in HCMC last week.

Vietnam ranks fourth in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of people with disabilities.

Le Huu Thuong of the Disability Research and Development Center, told the seminar on opportunities and challenges for the handicapped that Vietnam has more than six million disabled people aged from five years old, representing 7.8% of the country’s population. Of them, 75.5% are in rural areas.

Statistics in 2010 showed that there were 44,325 people with disabilities in HCMC.

The educational level of disabled people in Vietnam is low, with 41% of them literate, 19.5% finishing elementary education, 2.75% having secondary or vocational education, and less than 0.1% having college or university degrees. This makes finding jobs for them difficult.

Thuong said only 50% of disabled people of working age in Vietnam are employed, with over 70% of them working in the agricultural sector.

The disabled find it more challenging to land a job at a time when Vietnamese enterprises are feeling the impact of the global economic malaise. Another challenge for them is that most employers require workers to do jobs right after recruitment.

Doan Ngan Ha, a hearing-impaired resident in HCMC’s Go Vap District, said at the seminar that she was fortunately employed as a painter for a small company after graduating from the HCMC University of Fine Arts. However, she earns lower than normal staff though she has to work 10 hours a day.

Another hearing-impaired, Nguyen Thi Bich Huyen, in District 10 said after her graduation from Van Lang University, she could work at a graphics company for only five months as the new director fired her due to her problem with hearing.

Kieu Thi Phuong Dung, human resource consultant at Jiashin Company in Long An Province, said her firm currently has 2,300 workers including 17 disabled. The company needs to prepare appropriate facilities for workers with disabilities to support their jobs.

Dung said disabled people can work as well as ordinary people if they are given favorable conditions, and that enthusiasm, diligence and high concentration on work are their advantages.

Economic efficiency makes many employees hesitate to hire disabled people, Dung said.

Thuong said inferiority complex, families who do not want their disabled members to work, social prejudice and State policies deprive the disabled of opportunities to work.

US$30 million needed for injury prevention amongst children

Although accidental injury prevention measures have been adopted over the last few years, the number of child deaths in Viet Nam remains high.

This was announced at the Accidental Injury Prevention Programme Development Conference for the 2016-20 period, held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs yesterday in Ha Noi.

The programme under development by the ministry has estimated funds of VND670 billion (US$30 million).

Of this total, VND160 billion ($7 million) comes from the state budget, VND420 billion ($19 million) is from the local budget and the rest will be mobilised from international sources.

The programme aims to avoid injuries and fatalities amongst children, especially those caused by drowning and traffic accidents, Deputy Head of Child Care and Protection Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Vu Thi Kim Hoa said.

Measures to prevent injury amongst children in the coming period will focus on eliminating the risk of accidents such as drowning, traffic accidents and poisoning.

Accidental injury amongst children is a pressing problem around the world, especially in Viet Nam, where the rate of accidental injuries and deaths is among the highest in the world and region.

Some 18 children aged 0-19 years died of accidental injuries each day in Viet Nam in 2013.

Among the sources of fatalities and injuries are drowning, traffic accidents, falling from a height and severe burns, as well as being bitten by animals and being cut with pointed objects; drowning and traffic accidents are the most common.

The program aims to build five million safe houses, 7,000 safe schools and 1,000 communes with safe community standards.

It also aims to see a 10 per cent decline in road accidents affecting children and a 10 per cent decline in drowning cases, compared to figures for 2015.

By 2020, the government aims to see at least 90 per cent of children using life jackets and life bags while traveling on waterways and 100 per cent of public pools and beaches in tourist areas holding a safety licence.

Urban water supply sector to improve infrastructure

 

An estimated VND72,000 billion (US$3.3 billion) will be needed for supplying water to urban areas in the 2016-2020 period, the Co-operation in Viet Nam-Finland Water Sector forum, held yesterday, said.

The forum was organised by the Vietnamese construction ministry.

The Vietnamese urban water supply sector would give priority to improving and expanding the water distribution system, the technical infrastructure department under the construction ministry said.

Investment will focus on facilities such as raw water collection pipelines, water transmission pipelines, and transport and distribution pipelines.

The Vietnamese water sector has to handle delays in the development of these facilities and ensure that the efficiency of the systems was maximized, the department said.

The construction ministry will offer support in implementing public private partnership (PPP) projects in the water supply and drainage and urban solid waste treatment sectors in the near future.

It was necessary that a complete mechanism for PPP projects in this sector and appropriate reciprocal capital were available, the department said.

Given that ODA and the state budget are shrinking, it is essential to mobilise capital from domestic and foreign individuals and businesses for water supply investment and development.

The Finnish side said they would continue to offer preferential projects in water supply and drainage to Viet Nam.

Besides water supply projects in small towns in the northern provinces of Dien Bien, Hung Yen and Bac Kan, Finland will continue to implement other projects in the near future.

Finland has revised its regulations on preferential credit, but Viet Nam continues to be its priority partner.

Quang Binh lacks good water, roads

Hundreds of households in Quang Binh province's Dong Hoi city have complained about a lack of clean water and a poor road network for years.

They said they had reported the situation to authorised agencies, but received no reply.

Le Huan, resident in Bac Ly Commune said that the soil roads around his house were seriously damaged with holes and became slippery on rainy days.

On sunny days, the situation got worse as dust covered the roads when a vehicle passed by, he added.

Dao Thi Duyen, another resident in the commune said she and four other households had no water pipelines installed to supply clean water to them.

As a result, they were forced to use water from a well nearby.

"My guests sometimes don't dare to drink the water I offer them," she said.

Duyen said one family had managed to move. She and three households were still living there as they had no choice.

Nguyen Van Hao, representative of the households said that there were about 1,600 metres of road that needed to be concreted.

"We have reported the situation to authorised agencies many times, but there has been no improvement," he said.

Hao said the households would ask the city's People's Committee to install water pipelines and build concrete roads.

Nguyen Chung Nguyen, vice chairman of the city's People's Committee, told Viet Nam News that he had not received any petitions regarding a shortage of clean water or poor road facilities.

Nguyen said the committee would work with residents to find measures to improve the situation.

Experts urge more measures to protect women from abuse

The lack of safety of women and girls in public places and sexual abuse is quite serious, but does not receive proper action from relevant ministries and organisations, experts said at a policy dialogue in Ha Noi yesterday.

Le Thi Van Anh, an expert from the Department of Criminal and Administrative Law under the Ministry of Justice, said that the present laws did not have detailed regulations about sexual abuse in marriage and erotic activities of children.

As a results, many wives were forced by her husbands to have relations, but there is not enough of a legal foundation to punish them, she said.

As many as 87 per cent of women and girls have been sexually abused at public places, according to a study of the ActionAid.

The study was conducted from December 2013 to January 2014 in HCM City and Ha Noi on 1,506 women and girls and 540 men and witnesses. All of them were over 16 years old.

More than half of the women and girls were sexually abused more than once, said the study.

But most of the women and girls did not inform to the police or concerned offices due to feeling ashamed or afraid of revenge.

Tran Thi Bich Loan, deputy director of the Gender Equality Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, suggested to open a centre to solve the crisis and give support to victims of sexual abuse.

A separate hotline to receive information about the issue should be set up.

More instruction and education on sexual abuse should be expanded so that the victims and the community would raise their voice and express their opinion on the issue.

Phan Thu Hien, a gender expert from the United Nations Population Fund, said that gender equality policies should be inserted into the daily work of workers.

Authorities at different levels should have programmes to solve basic socio-economic reasons of abuse, including poverty and lack of education, she said adding that one of the programmes could be to supply jobs to youth.

Closer co-operation between domestic and international organisations should be promoted to conduct, supervise and access projects on the issues, she said.

Languages help blind students in job search

Mastering a foreign language, particularly English, has become an advantage of job seekers in cities but language competence is even more meaningful to visually-impaired students.

Dang The Lam, director of Viet Nam And Friends (VAF) – a Vietnamese non-governmental organisation dedicated to an inclusive education – said that with English, blind people were expected to be more competitive in the labor market and narrow the gap between them and their peers.

For the last three years, the organization co-operated with Nguyen Dinh Chieu School in Ha Noi to offer English classes for visually-impaired students during lunch time.

The classes not only offered grammar and writing lessons but also focused on communication skills with the support of international and local volunteers, Lam said.

He said that the English classes made blind students more confident to attend high school and higher education as the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School where children with or without disabilities learned together was just a primary and secondary school.

"The classes also aim to help provide students effective tools to find a job in the future as job opportunities for people with disabilities are still narrow," Lam said.

They usually oriented students to jobs which require little mobility such as receptionist and administrative staff, Lam said, noting that such positions usually required English.

However, he said that teaching English for blind students was never easy as the students had to overcome at least two language barriers – one is the barrier between English and Vietnamese and the other is that they could pronounce words but found it difficult to imagine things.

The learning was more difficult to innate blind students.

Trinh Kieu My, 18, who has joined teaching English there voluntarily for almost four months, said that the students' excitement for English motivated "teachers" like her.

"Despite the disability, blind students study seriously," My said.

"Some told me that they want to be a teacher or an interpreter, so they try to learn English well," she said. "Their desire really motivated me."

My said they were short of learning materials for the students.

All the voluntary teachers learned Braille and made handouts manually by themselves, she said, noting that they also cut clothing and paper to make illustrations so that the students could feel different items by hand.

Khanh Van, a visually-impaired student, said with support from volunteers, she was studying for the International English language Testing System (IELTS) so that she could study overseas and became a book translator for the blind.

Michelin star chef to present exquisite dinners in HCM City

The Park Hyatt Saigon is introducing French dining experiences at its Square One restaurant featuring delicious cuisines of Michelin star Chef Jean-François Rouquette from Paris during his trip to Vietnam from November 23- 28.

Jean-Francois earned his stripes in the kitchens of the most famous French restaurants including Taillevent, Le Crillon, La Cantine des Gourmets, and Les Muses.

He is currently an executive chef of Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme.

His unusual approach is immediately recognizable by his use of flowers and the inspiration from his travel journals.

The event is co-organized by the Dubai-based Emirates airline and Park Hyatt Saigon hotel.

The airline has also launched a direct air route from Dubai to Ho Chi Minh City using Airbus 330-200 and Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft with economy and business class seats.

‘Winning' ticket unlucky for lottery seller

A winning lottery ticket is not just a nice surprise, but sometimes a disturbance.

Shortly after Quach Thuan Minh and his wife, Ho Thi Thanh Bang from Soc Trang City, southern Soc Trang Province, realized their fortune they claimed the cash from their eight winning tickets, worth VND20million each (US$900), from ticket seller, Danh Hon.

Hon asked Bang to fill in her name, identity card number, address and sign the tickets. All the cash was then handed to the lucky couple.

Two days later, Hon brought the tickets to Kien Giang Lottery Company in Can Tho city to exchange for cash and realized that the number on the tickets in his hands did not match the exact winning number.

The winning number was announced to be 42276 while the number Hon had got from the couple was 44276.

Hon said it was his fault, an "occupational accident".

Of course, the couple was unwilling to return their winnings and said that they checked the number very carefully before asking Hon for cash.

They thought Hon exchanged the tickets and claimed that they would return the cash if ticket number 42276 was given back to them.

The careless lottery seller decided to bring the case to Soc Trang City's People's Court and asked for an investigation.

Police are scratching their heads and wishing for a time machine to return to the past to know who was right.

University expels student for their mistake

In Viet Nam, "sitting in the wrong class" is a phrase referring to students who move up to a higher grade despite poor performance.

The phrase applies to Tran Tan Luc, a sophomore from southern Ben Tre province.

In 2013, Luc received a surprise when he was admitted to HCM City-based Tran Dai Nghia University after applying for college (a lower level).

The university recruitment board thought that Luc had applied for the university level and not until two years later did they realise that they mistakenly put him into the wrong class.

Luc was shocked to be asked to move to college level

"We have the right to expel him because he knew the mistake but still continued the course," said Le Xuan Phong, from the university's Education and Training Department.

Seemingly, incidents like this have happened frequently at this university as they admitted that mistakes during recruitment processes are normal.

And the solution is to blame the students who are the victims.

Luc's name was deleted from the university class attendance list. He had nothing to say but decided to drop out of school and go back to his hometown. All of his tuition fees and learning over the past two years have been wasted.

Petrol station rage

A one-minute video clip in which a tattooed man slapped a petrol station worker went viral on Facebook recently.

Hong Van Vuong went to a petrol station located on Tran Cung street, Ha Noi to fill up his car.

Vuong was stunned to see the screen at the pump showed 56.6 litres when he thought his tank only held 50 litres.

He was charged VND1.02million ($45) but said he would only pay VND1million ($44).

"I've never had to pay more than VND1million, even when the petrol price hiked," Vuong said while accusing the staff of cheating.

Whether the staff cheated or not is still up for debate but one thing lawyers know for sure is the punishment imposed on the aggressive customer. The money he will be fined may be much higher than the VND20,000 (nearly $1) that he refused to pay.

Apartment building residents forced to crawl

More than 100 families in Block G of Den Lu Resettlement Area in Ha Noi's Hoang Mai District are sharing one elevator as their three other elevators are out of use.

Not only is the elevator overloaded but accessing the only working elevator is an issue for residents.

Block G, built in 2004, consists of two 11-storey apartment buildings. The only way to go from one building to the other is to go to the top floor, the so-called technical floor.

The technical floor, however, is only one metre high, so people have to bend their body to walk or crawl through it.

Resident Le Thi Dan said that it was normal to see people hitting their heads on the ceiling and crawling in the dark in the evening.

"It's like in wartime," she said.

Claim the ownership and pay the debt

Viet Nam Aviation Academy has asked the transport ministry to allow them to use an unowned plane in Noi Bai International Airport as a teaching tool.

The unowned plane – a Boeing 727-200 – has been unused since 2007 because of technical errors. The plane used to belong to Cambodian Royal Khmer Airlines but Cambodian authorities said they cancelled the registration of the plane.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese authorities cannot liquidate the plane because there is no legal basis for airplane liquidation in Viet Nam.

As of last year the plane had accrued parking fees of US$600,000.

Who will pay this debt?

The Viet Nam Aviation Academy would surely invest that sum for students to practice on a "real plane", right?

Longest Long An bridge built illegally

Residents in Tuyen Minh Commune in southern Long An Province hold their breath when crossing Chua Noi Bridge on Vam Co Tay River as there are a few cement stakes, instead of strong pillars, to hold the bridge.

The 170-metre-long bridge, the longest one in the province, vibrates whenever people and vehicles crossed it, said the commune People's Committee chairman To Van Dep.

"The committee has to assign staff to restrict traffic on the bridge during rush hours or holidays," he said, adding that the five-year-old bridge was close to collapse.

"The bridge builder from HCM City who did the work as a donation disappeared before finishing the bridge," Dep said, noting that the bridge was built with donations from local residents.

However, according to the province's transport department, the bridge was built without any licence.

Vice director of the department Nguyen Van Chinh told HCM City Legal newspaper that he was afraid to cross the bridge when inspecting it.

It was an inside job

Pham Thanh Tuu, aged 39 from the southern province of Dong Nai, was hired as a security guard for a small workshop in District 9, HCM City.

Tuu failed his duties in a major way not only because the workshop, which was his charge to oversee, and a number of other valuables vanished over night but also because he was the one who sold them.

Late in August, Tuu called a local garbage collector and sold the entire workshop for just under US$270, which was quite the bargain sale considering that included everything, including the metal frames and everything else in it.

He was found last week in a local park and taken to the police. The case is under investigation to determine the motive behind the security guard's "bargain sale".

Love thy neighbour…or else

Tran Dinh Chau, a resident in the town of Ha Lam in central Quang Nam Province sued his neighbour Phan Tan Hiep because he believed that Hiep's under-construction building was on his land. To be exact, 27cm on his land.

Chau reasoned that 27cm turned into almost 8sq.m given the length of the land lot, which was measured at 29m. Chau, who was regarded widely as one of the richest men in the town, said the case against his neighbour wasn't about the money or the land but about principle.

The Ha Lam local People's Committee in their first ruling rejected his claim and told Hiep to continue with the construction. Not quite satisfied with the decision, Chau decided to bring the case to the district's court. The district's court suspended Hiep construction to verify the measurement data provided by both sides. It has been months since Hiep had to put everything on hold because of the legal battle.

In the mean time, locals found the case to be quite upsetting. "All we can hear about recently was the Hiep vs Chau case. I'm quite embarrassed to see neighbours treating each other like enemies in our town," said a local resident.

The local chief judge said there was a discrepancy in measurement data provided by the two sides and that was likely the cause of the dispute. Stopping the construction was part of the procedure in cases like this.

When asked if he was concerned about losing his neighbour over the land dispute, Chau said he didn't really care as his family owned seven houses and therefore they had quite a few neighbours.

Vietnamese often say that neighbours are important, perhaps even more important than far away relatives simply because they are the ones who will be there when you need help. That's usually the case unless you are Chau, a man with so many neighbours that he felt he could afford to lose one or two.

 The value of small change

Last week, sales people in a phone shop in Ha Noi were surprised when a woman came into the shop with an old hessian bag over her shoulder. The woman, Vu Le Hang, said she wanted to buy an iPhone as a present for her husband's birthday.

The seller showed her some phones and told her what they were all about. Eventually, she decided to buy an iPhone 6 Plus at a cost of VND18.5 million (US$840).

The woman then thrust her hands into the bag, which looked like it once held rice, and pulled out crumpled wads of small notes, most of it the lowest denomination, VND1,000. None of it had a value higher than VND5,000.

The shop's cashier wasted more than half an hour counting the money. Hang said she saved all the small change in about five months selling street food.

Hang said she also planned to continue saving money to buy a dowry for her child. Help!

Man grieves over ‘lost boyhood'

Recently, the People's Court in HCM City granted a divorce sought by a Vietnamese woman from her American Vietnamese husband.The wife told the court she was tired of her husband's jealousy and scolding.

The man did not agree with her request to end the marriage because he said he still loved her and promised to change his hot-tempered ways. But the woman had had enough. Not only did she refuse to join him in America, she wanted to call it quits.

Despite his promises, this made the man angry again and he demanded compensation of US$30,000 for the loss of his "boyhood", plus all his wedding expenses. He also sought compensation for losing his job after taking many days off from work to handle the marriage crisis - without permission from his bosses.

During the trial, the judge explained to him that women were often more disadvantaged in divorce. But he didn't agree.

When the hearing was adjourned, the man flew back to the United States. In his absence, the judge decided in the woman's favour.

Just horsing around

A gent flying along a new stretch of dyke road in Long Bien was lost in admiration for the size of the project - and the quick and professional way it had been carried out.

As he rounded a bend he noticed a black rope pulled tightly across the road at chest height. Screeching to a halt just in time to avoid being knocked off his motorbike, he was stunned to find that at one end of the rope was a horse. The other end was tied to a lamp post erected as part of the new roadworks.

The horse was presumably supposed to be feeding on the lush grass growing on one side of the dyke. But it was a hot day and the poor animal was seeking some shade offered on the far side of the new bitumen.

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