Quang Binh prosecutes five Sua timber robbers    

Police in Bo Trach District in the central province of Quang Binh on Tuesday prosecuted five people in connection with stealing Sua timber from the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

Le Xuan Ban, head of the Investigation Police Agency in Bo Trach District, said that among the five people prosecuted was 42-year-old Nguyen Van Hieu, a policeman from Xuan Trach Commune.

Four others are 30-year-old Nguyen Van Cuong and 43-year-olds Nguyen Ngoc Hoan, Nguyen Van Cam and Ho Van Phuong. All the culprits are residents of Bo Trach District.

These five people used knives, swords and sabres to rob Sua timber from others in the forest park. Policeman Hieu even cornered and pushed Sua timber carriers into a cave with the intention of threatening them to part with the timber.

On the same day, the district People’s Procuracy in Bo Trach District approved the decision to prosecute the five men and hold them in custody for four months.

Meanwhile, Luu Minh Thanh, director of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has been temporarily suspended by Nguyen Thanh Tri, deputy head of the forest management station No.37. Thanh has been asked to clarify accusations of taking Sua timber while on duty at the park.

Police seize 62 bars of heroin in Bac Giang

Two people carrying 62 bars of heroin were arrested on June 10 by the Bac Giang provincial Police Department for Drug-Related Crimes, in coordination with other relevant agencies.   

The two people arrested are 46 year old Trang A Chu and 37 year old Soong A Lu, both from Noong Luon village, Moc Chau district, Son La province.

Police also confiscated four mobile phones and some other items.

Chu and Lu have both initially admitted they are guilty.

The police are currently continuing to investigate the drug-trafficking ring.

“I Like Giving” festival opens

A large number of young people and students in Hanoi joined the “I Like Giving” festival on June 10, aiming to encourage the community to donate blood to save people’s lives.    

Participants registered to set a record for shaping “the world’s largest drop of blood” and demonstrated their willingness to donate blood anytime.

During the festival, the organizing board assigned groups of “red volunteers” to disseminate information and organize blood drives to help meet the increased demand for blood in hospitals during the peak season between July and September. Hanoi’s outstanding blood donors were also honoured and a “Summer Youth Volunteer” campaign was launched with the message “No shortage of blood this summer”.

After the launch, more than 500 volunteers went to various localities and industrial zones to encourage local people and other workers to donate blood.

Dao Thu Trang, head of the blood donation unit at the National Economics University, said the campaign will send a message to everyone that donating blood can save people’s lives. She said she hopes those who have donated blood more than 100 times will promote the message to more people.

Several other activities were also held during the event including a “Red Hero” exhibition and a meeting with outstanding blood donors.

Ha Tinh jumpstarts the repair of Vietnam's 'most beautiful road'

Ha Tinh provincial government requested investors of National Highway 8A to quickly repair aging sections on the highway which is considered by many the most beautiful road in Vietnam.

The highway is under the care of the Ministry of Transport's Project Management Unit 4 in Vinh City, Nghe An Province. The first phase of the repair project is estimated to cost VND1.2 trillion (USD58 million), and is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year. Because of a shortage of capital, however, the contractors have ceased construction.

The construction site poses a danger to vehicles that use this section of road. In order to avoid accidents, traffic jams and an unsightly landscape, Ha Tinh authorities requested that the road be finished as quickly as possible.

Sections from km0 to km2.6 were ordered to be finished first because they already have a foundation and drainage system.

The section from Nghieng Bridge to the headquarters of Trung Le Commune People's Committee and section from km24 to km29 will be repaired next. These two sections have been severely damaged, so that they need not only surface repairs, but also additional warning signs, barriers, traffic lights and guards.

The provincial government of Ha Tinh also asked local authorities in Hong Linh Commune, Duc Tho and Huong Son Districts to review the site clearance work and send their reports back by June 10. Compensation rates for the affected households will be proposed, and they will receive the money once the funds have been approved.

Father, son prosecuted for assaulting traffic policeman

On June 8, police in Hoang Mai District in Hanoi decided to prosecute Vu Xuan Hien and his son Vu Xuan Hung, residents of Tran Phu Ward, for assaulting and abusing a traffic policeman on duty.

Earlier, it was reported that around 9am on June 7, at a traffic intersection on Den Lu-Tam Trinh Streets in Hoang Mai District in Hanoi, traffic policeman Luong Dinh Hai and a few others on duty detected Vu Xuan Hung driving a motorbike without a helmet and also ignoring a red light signal at the crossing.

Policeman Hai signaled to Hung to stop immediately, to which Hung did not comply but deliberately drove the motorbike into the police team, loudly using rude and abusive words challenging them.

Policeman Hai asked Hung to produce his driving licence and papers, but he failed to show his licence. Then Hung kept shouting and challenging and slandering that the police had hit him. He also called his father Vu Xuan Hien.

About 15 minutes later, Hien arrived at the scene and asked policeman Hai to put on record that he had hit his son. Afterwards, Hien unexpectedly snatched a helmet from Hung and banged it straight across policeman Hai’s face. Hung also joined in with his father to knock Hai to the ground. Father and son repeatedly kicked and beat policeman Hai.

Another police officer Le Hoang Minh tried to intervene but was also hit by Hien. After receiving this information, Hoang Mai District police officers arrived at the scene and seized the helmet as exhibit, which was broken. At the same time the authorities invited other witnesses to the police station for questioning.

Some people living on Tam Trinh, including Nguyen Van Hai, owner of a shop near the incident site, said they only saw the father (Hien) hit the policeman.

The consequence of this villainous act was that policeman Hai was badly wounded with a swollen face, and is currently being treated at the Post Office Hospital.

Immediately after the incident, Hoang Mai District police arrested Hien and Hung.

By evening of June 7, anti-crime police of Hoang Mai District in Hanoi issued a notice to temporarily detain Vu Xuan Hien, 54, and his son Vu Xuan Hung, 19, for assaulting a police official on duty.

Meeting marks Sea and Islands Week

Lecturers and 1,000 students from universities in Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Quang Ngai provinces met in Quy Nhon city on June 9 to mark Vietnam’s Sea and Islands Week and World Ocean Day.   

At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, Tran Quang Quy said more than 23 million pupils, students and teachers across the country will be a strong force for disseminating information to raise public awareness of protecting the environment and natural resources and promoting the value of Vietnam's islands as well as national sovereignty over its territorial waters.

Minister Quy urged the education and training sector to continue carrying out activities on the country's sea and islands and encouraged teachers, students and local people to clean up the coastal environment and support the residents and soldiers living on the islands, especially the Truong Sa (Spratly) and Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelagos.

After the meeting, the Ministry of Education and Training and Quy Nhon University launched an environmental protection campaign to collect rubbish and clean up coastal areas.

Outstanding blood donors meet in Hanoi

The top 100 blood donors in 2012 met in Hanoi on June 8 to mark World Blood Day, with the theme “Every Blood Donor Is A Hero”.    

The outstanding donors shared their experiences and encouraged others to donate blood.

Vu Ngoc Linh from Ho Chi Minh City, who has donated blood 65 times, said hisgood deed will help save someone’s life.

Nguyen Anh Tri, Director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (NIHBT), said most provinces and cities across the country, including Thai Nguyen, Haiphong, Dien Bien, Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City have reported that they now have enough blood in their supplies.

The blood donors met earlier with Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan, who said she hopes they will continue to maintain their own good health and urge others to join the good-deed campaign.

On June 9, the blood donors took part in a programme called “journey to the roots” and offered incense at the Hung Kings Temple in Phu Tho province. They will also attend a blood drive festival on June 10.

Vietnam, Laos hold talks on searching for martyr remains

Two special government working groups of Vietnam and Laos met on June 8 to discuss the search and repatriation of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers and experts who had laid down their lives in Laos during war time.
   
Deputy Minister of National Defence Nguyen Thanh Cung and his Lao counterpart Chansamon Channhalath compared notes on recent search activities and praised the results of effective coordination between the two groups.

Since 1994, 16,000 sets of remains of the Vietnamese fallen combatants have been reburied and repatriated and both sides will further search for remaining 1,000 sets of remains in the near future.

Vietnam joins WB’s Eco2 Cities program

The Vietnamese translation of the Eco2 Cities book was released in Hanoi on June 8, which explains in detail the concepts and strategies of the World Bank’s Eco2 Cities program.    

Vietnam is one of the first countries to begin work with the new Eco2 Cities program, which supports cities and metropolitan regions in planning, managing and investing in sustainable urban systems that are integrated, multifunctional and beneficial in the long term.

Rapidly growing cities driven by a vibrant economy are transforming the urban landscape in Vietnam, providing an excellent opportunity for the country to ensure that the changes lead to real and lasting improvements in quality of life, and to urban development that is both inclusive and sustainable.

“Cities in Vietnam have a strong entrepreneurial spirit, as well as a rich cultural and social fabric. They are also endowed with valuable ecological and natural systems,” said Arish Dastur, who is the co-team leader of the Eco2 Cities program, and one of the principal authors of the Eco2 Cities book.

“We hope that the Eco2 Cities program can help support a development process that reinforces and enhances these multiple aspects of Vietnamese cities,” he said.        

Ho Chi Minh City and Haiphong have been the first two cities in Vietnam to take on elements of the Eco2 Cities approach.

“With strong support from the People’s Committee and the Departments of Construction and Transport, we have introduced innovative planning approaches that are resulting in integrated urban design, land use and transportation strategies that will enhance both the quality of life and economic competitiveness in these cities,” said Andre Bald, a Senior Infrastructure Specialist with the World Bank, who is managing the Eco2 Cities work in Vietnam.

Two years ago, Ho Chi Minh City hosted the East Asia and Pacific regional Eco2 Cities workshop, which generated the momentum for this work. The workshop brought together high level officials from key national ministries in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos. It also brought together some of the leaders and practitioners from different cities in these countries.

“Vietnam has been a strong proponent of this approach since the beginning. The Ministry of Construction as well as the Vietnam Institute of Architecture, Urban and Rural Planning have provided proactive and valuable support from the national level,” said Mr Victor Vergara, the World Bank’s Urban Practice Leader for the East Asia and Pacific Region.

“At the same time, cities like Haiphong and Ho Chi Minh have shown solid local initiative. We hope to further build on this great energy in the years to come.”

A fake ice-cream producer detected in the capital

 A big case of counterfeit Trang Tien ice cream, Viet Nam's most popular brand, was yesterday detected in Hoang Mai District by Team 14 of the Market Watch Department of Ha Noi.

According to a team's official, the Trang Tien 25 Technology Joint-Stock Company sold ice cream products mimicking that of Trang Tien Ice Cream Joint-Stock Company.

He added that as many as 4,500 fake ice cream sticks and over 143 kilos of Trang Tien's packets were seized after the inspection.

Doan Van Quyet, 35, director of the company, admitted to faking the ice cream products of Trang Tien Ice Cream Joint-Stock Company.

The official said that all the fake ice cream will be destroyed and the company will be fined for their violations.

According to Hoang Dai Nghia, captain of the team, Trang Tien's ice cream brand-name is so popular that many producers try to fake Trang Tien's ice cream products, which causes great damage to the company and consumers' health.

Vietinbank builds kindergarten in HCM City

The Vietnam Bank of Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) invested VND20 billion to build a kindergarten in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, on June 9.

It also presented 150 savings books worth VND10 million each to local people.

The bank has actively contributed to reducing poverty in recent years with total donations of VND2,000 billion and it plans to spend more than VND1,000 billion on social welfare in 2012.

In HCM City alone, the bank has donated more than VND100 billion to build 56 homes for poor households and offer gifts and savings accounts to the poor. It has also funded VND66.5 billion to build schools in Hoc Moon district and Districts 2 and 3.

No insurance payouts for 22 missing sailors

The families of 22 sailors of Vinalines Queen cargo ship who went missing after the ship sank off the Philippine coast in late December 2011 have yet to receive compensation from the insurer, PetroVietnam Insurance Joint Stock Corporation (PVI).

Tran Cong Hop, brother of Tran Ba Truc, chief engineer of the missing boat, told Tuoi Tre that every family of the victims has so far received only VND300 million (US$14,400) as initial support from Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) and an amount out of the VND1.1 billion humanitarian donation given by Hudson Shipping Lines, a US sea transporter.

Meanwhile, six months after the accident, PVI has yet to pay any insurance compensation to these families, Hop said.

Bui Van Cac, deputy director of Vinalines, confirmed with Tuoi Tre that the company has completed all procedures required by PVI in relation to compensation but he did not know why PVI had yet to make payments.

The maximum total insurance coverage for each sailor is US$40,000, said Nguyen Canh Viet, general director of the Vietnam Maritime Cooperation, the holding company of Vinalines.

Vu Bao Lam, deputy general director of PVI, said the firm has transferred VND4.4 billion ($211,000) as advance payment to a bank account belonging to the Vietnam Maritime Corporation in January 2012.

This file photo shows Vinalines Queen in one of its voyages before it sank off the Philippine coast on December 25, 2011   

This payment can be verified by examining banking documents, Lam said.

With such a payment, every family would have received about $10,000 in advance, he added.

Lam said the firm would make additional payments after concerned agencies complete conclusion about the accident, as stipulated in the Law on Maritime.

Under the signed insurance policy, the maximum compensation for each victim is US$25,000, he clarified.

Do Duc Tien, deputy head of the Vietnam Maritime Corporation, disagreed, saying the investigation into the incident is aimed at identifying the cause of the accident and not at serving the insurance payouts.

As previously reported, the ship with 23 sailors on board sank on December 25, 2011 in the area northeast of the Philippines’ Luzon island while carrying 54,400 tons of nickel ore from Indonesia to China.

The only survivor of the accident is 31-year-old Dau Ngoc Hung, who returned to Vietnam on January 4, 2012. He was rescued by British ship London Courage on December 30, 2011 when he was drifting at sea.

Vinalines organized a requiem for the 22 missing sailors at Thang Phuc pagoda in the northern port city of Hai Phong on January 9.

Girl studies in friend’s name for 7 years

Ho Thi Dom, a twelfth grader at Bac Tra My high school in the central province of Quang Nam could not attend the graduation exam this year as she has studied under her friend’s name since secondary school.

In 2005, Dom (then 12) and her friend Dinh Thi Kim (11) applied for sixth grade in a secondary school in the province’s Tra Bui commune. Due to problems with documents, Kim had her name in the class list while Dom did not make it.

However, Kim quit school to get married while Dong wanted to continue her study. Instead of asking Dom to make a new application, a teacher “flexibly” told her to study under her friend’s name.

Dom did not then anticipate the consequences and did as she was told. As a result, all of Dom’s transcripts and secondary school graduation are under Kim’s name.

In 2011, Dom came to realize if she continued to study like that, she would lose everything as the acquired graduation certificate would not bear her name.

Dom confessed her story to the head teacher, Nguyen Thi Loan, saying that she did not want to go to school any more. Surprised, Loan discussed the issue with the school principal Nguyen Thanh Tu, who met Dom directly and advised her to continue study and promised to find a solution.

Nguyen Thanh Tung, head of the province’s education and training office said if the local justice office approved the modification on Dom’s civil records, they will grant her a new secondary school certificate under her name.

However, Bui Viet An, head of the justice office said they were unable to handle the issue. Although the school reported the problem to the People’s Committee in Bac Tra My district, the problem still remains unsolved.

To apply for the high school graduation exam, Dom needed Kim’s birth certificate but her friend has lost it. Even though the school tried to support her on legal issues, Dom decided not to take the exam as she was disappointed with the chaotic situation.

Principal Tu said he will try to transfer the academic results from the name Dinh Thi Kim to Ho Thi Dom and encouraged her to study and take the exam next years.

Meanwhile, Kim, who is 18 by now, has been married for 4 years and given birth to a 2-year old daughter. She had no clue that Dom had been studying under her name in the past seven years.

Earthquake occurs off southern Vietnam coast

An earthquake measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale occurred off the southern Vietnamese coast on Thursday night but caused no damage, Center for Earthquake and Tsunami Warning of the Institute of Geophysics reported.

The quake happened at 11:21 pm at 8.58o North latitude and 107.53o East longitude, with the epicenter being 12 km under the seabed.

There were no reports on damage to human life or vessels in the area where the weak quake occurred, the institute said.

Earthquakes in the sea area are usually triggered from movements of the offshore Thuan Hai-Minh Hai fault that is located along the 109o meridian in the south central region, according to the institute.

Experts at the institute are observing geographical changes to the seabed in the area.

Nearly 18,000 houses built for the poor

Nearly 18,000 houses have been built for the poor in the northern province of Vinh Phuc since the year 2000.

Most of the VND900 billion (US$43 million) budget was raised from the campaign "the day for the poor" over the last 12 years, according to the campaign's Steering Committee.

Other funding came from the central Government and provincial budgets.

Fish-farms told to certify employees

The central province of Phu Yen will properly sanction any individual who authorises foreigners to work unlawfully in fish-rearing enterprises in the Vung Ro Bay, says the chairman of the provincial People's Committee, Pham Dinh Cu.

The Phu Yen People's Committee has launched inspections of all fish-rearing enterprises in the province to stamp out any unlawful operations, Cu said, noting that he had assigned the People's Committee office to investigate the case of two Chinese who were working in a fishing enterprise in Vung Ro Bay.

"If their employment is contrary to Vietnamese law, they must be deported" Cu ordered.

Cu blamed himself for negligence in monitoring illegal fishery activities in the bay since 2007.

"The operation of fisheries in the Vung Ro Bay has had negative impacts on security and the environment," Cu said.

He conceded that the People's Committee had been weak in its administrative oversight over the employment of foreigners by fisheries in the bay, along with other relevant agencies, including the logistics office of the provincial military headquarters, the Vung Ro Border Guard, and the Phu Yen departments of Agriculture and Rural Development, Natural Resources and Environment, the Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and Planning and Investment.

Former accountant gets 24 years for embezzlement

Ho Van Lam, 34, former chief accountant of Thoai Son District Social Insurance in An Giang Province, forged signatures to withdraw the funds from July 2008 to December 2010.

His accomplices, company director Nguyen Hong Mau and Ngo Phuoc Truong, Mau’s deputy, also received three years of probation each for allowing Lam to use the unlawful signatures. They were charged with “irresponsibility causing serious consequences.”

Before the trial, Mau, 45, and Truong, 46, had been expelled from the Communist Party of Vietnam by the District Party Committee.

Lam used the money to gamble, including betting on football matches. The court also ordered three others implicated in the gambling to spend at least a year in prison.

In total, Lam withdrew nearly VND16.5 billion ($792,000) from the retirement accounts and pocketed roughly VND12.6 billion of it.

During the investigation, Lam and his family returned nearly VND8 billion, so the court directed him to pay the remaining amount, VND4.6 billion, back to Thoai Son.

According to the indictment, Lam submitted 129 checks to Mau and Truong, who approved them without authorization. Lam also forged Mau’s signature on 41 other checks.

The three other defendants who gambled with Lam were Nguyen Thanh An, 42, who received a two-year sentence, and Vo Van Thuan, 44, and Nguyen Tan Tham, 26, each sentenced to one year.

Couple imprisoned in $64k sex extortion case

A young man and woman in Da Nang were sentenced yesterday to 14 and 4 years in prison, respectively, after they blackmailed a man who had sex with the woman when she was underage.

At first, Nguyen Ngoc Huyen, 19, admitted to repeatedly trading sex for money in 2009, according to the indictment. When her boyfriend, Nguyen Trung Thanh, found out about the other man, he told Huyen to demand more money from him. Otherwise, they threatened to report the man, Tran Minh Son, to police for having sex with a minor.

Over the course of a year, the couple collected eight payments totaling VND1.34 billion (US$64,300) from Son, who did not attend the trial. Son, director of the Da Nang-based Urban Works Investment and Construction Company, reportedly paid the bribe to save face.

But he also called the authorities, who arrested Huyen in May 2011 as she met Son at a café for the last payment of VND150 million. Five days later, police detained Thanh, a 25-year-old from Da Nang’s Son Tra District.

Once in court, Huyen retracted the statement she had given police, instead telling prosecutors that she had never had sex with Son, who was just an acquaintance.

She testified that she was following the directions of Thanh, who she said had instigated the extortion and spent all the money on himself.

Her testimony prompted Thanh to also revoke his statement to investigators, telling the Da Nang city People’s Court that Son had transferred money to Huyen many times.

The judge rejected both revisions as groundless, despite a request from Thanh’s lawyer, Tran Van Hung, to verify Huyen’s previous statements to police.

The court maintained the original evidence and case file, which showed that Thanh was the chief culprit and that Huyen had received money from Son, once in a VND200 million deposit to her mother’s account. Thanh and Huyen both sent their threats to Son via text message.

Hung also asked to have the trial suspended because of Son’s “abnormal” absence yesterday, but the judge replied that Son had made sufficient declarations out of court.

Coffins turns out to be smuggled wood

Police in central Thua Thien-Hue Province have discovered a creative new trick of wood traffickers: disguising smuggled wood into two coffins detailed enough to look like real ones.

Yesterday police in A Luoi District handed over to the local forestry protection agency 17 wood boards measuring more than 1 cubic meter that they seized in a wood trafficking case on Wednesday.

At 3 pm that day the police stopped a suspicious truck for examination and found two coffins in the cargo area.

On the coffins were many decorative wood details that are commonly seen in every coffin.

However, with a sharp mind, police officers carefully examined the coffins and then surprisingly discovered that the caskets were formed from 17 wood boards that had been loosely attached to each other.

The decorative details had been glued on the false coffins to make them look like real ones, police said.

The owner of the “coffins” is Le Van Binh, a local resident in Huong Vinh District. Both Binh and the truck’s driver failed to show the police any documents to prove the origin of the wood.

The police are investigating into where the wood had been taken from.

Unknown bug swarm damages star anise

An unknown bug has damaged around 200 ha of star anises (Illicium verum) trees in northern mountainous Lang Son Province.

The bug is believed to first appear in March in Van Quan District's Khanh Khe Commune. The bug's density is estimated to be 30-1,000 each tree.

The provincial Plant Protection Department deputy head Sam Ngoc Thanh highly recommended local farmers spray chemicals to exterminate the bug while calling for supports from the State to identify the bug and curb the situation.-

Police claim driver guilty for tragic accident

Police in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak claim a coach driver was the cause of a tragic coach accident that killed 34 people and injured 21 others middle last month on the bridge over the Serepok River.

At a press conference yesterday, colonel Pham Minh Thang, chief secretariat of the provincial Police Department, said driver Pham Ngoc Lam was speeding at the time.

He further claimed the accident occurred when Lam lost control driving the coach to Serepok Bridge on a journey from Dak Lak to HCM City.

Initial investigations show that a front right wheel of the coach crashed into the edge of the bridge and blew out.The vehicle became unbalanced and plunged into the river.

"The driver violated road safety regulations and caused serious consequences but he died in the accident, making it impossible for him to take responsibility," said Thang.

The 47-seat coach was reportedly carrying 57 people, including four children, when the accident happened. Trip monitoring equipment installed on the coach reveabled it was travelling at more than 70km/h while the speed limit was only 70km/h.

Stilt houses help cope with climate change

Residents are building stilt houses to adapt to rising sea levels in the southern most Ca Mau Province's Ngoc Hien District.

Chairman of the district People's Committee Nguyen Truong Giang said the province was below sea level and its 254km coastline and 800km of river and canals were the most threatened by climate change in the country.

"In the last five years, the sea level has risen higher and higher in this district, and only the old style houses with stilts are unaffected by the problem," Giang said.

Stilt house suited the conditions and also the tight economics in Ngoc Hien District where the rate of poor households ranked as one of the highest in the country, Giang said.

A stilt house cost VND20-50 million (US$1,000-2,500) and stands on 1-1.5m piles made from mangrove timber. It helps people avoid the moisture of coastal salt water, especially at high tide.

Tran Van Phung, in Dat Mui Village, said such houses costs less because timber from mangrove trees was cheap and the homes did not have much furniture, such as beds, chairs and table.

The houses lasted about 10 years and could withstand 1m sea levels, said Phung. In the past, traditional houses went under 20cm of water."

In the last five years, Ngoc Hien had helped 1,200 poor households build the houses. Most offices, companies and residential houses were also built on stilts.

However, Giang warned that stilt houses could only adapt to rises in sea level, not strong storms. The district banned people from building their houses near the sea and encouraged those who had houses there to move to safer areas.

Along coastal rivers there were thousands of vulnerable households facing high tides regularly.

Along with stilt houses, Ngoc Hien District was asking for money to build sea dykes to mitigate further climate change.

Three children injured in bomb explosion

Three children aged 10-12 were injured yesterday after a fragmentation bomb suddenly exploded in northern eastern Quang Ninh Province's Vinh Ninh District.

The accident occurred because the children, who were playing on a local hill, tried to smash the bomb into pieces after they found it and mistook it for an iron cylinder.

The children are in critical condition and have been treated at Viet Nam-Cuba Friendship Hospital.-

Vietnamese boat goes missing in Hoang Sa sea

A fishing boat from Quang Ngai Province which was attacked by a Chinese boat last February went missing with a crew of 10 people off the Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago on Wednesday, authorities reported.

Before its disappearance, the boat QNg 90281TS had operated in an area off Hoang Sa, one of the traditional fishing grounds of Quang Ngai fishermen, said Nguyen Thanh Hung, deputy chairman of Binh Chau Commune People’s Committee, Binh Son District.

The boat’s owner is Dang Tam, a 43-year-old fisherman in the commune's Chau Thuan Hamlet..

Local authorities and residents have failed to contact the missing boat so far.

The boat is the same one that was attacked and driven away by a Chinese boat while it was fishing legally in the sea off Hoang Sa on February 24, 2012, authorities said.

According to Tam, the attack occurred at 3:30 pm that day while his boat was approaching the archipelago’s Xa Cu Island to shelter from strong winds.

In his report to the authorities, Tam said the Chinese boats shot three bullets into the air and then shot two more into the cabin of his boat before approaching the fishing vessel.

People on the foreign boat then jumped from their vessel to Tam’s boat, forced the crew to the end of the boat, and threw fishing tools, navigation items, diving equipment, nets, 1.2 tons of fish and many other assets into the sea.

The attacking boat then left, leaving behind total damage of hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million = US$4,800) to Tam’s boat.