Hanoi hosts int’l agricultural forum

About 200 Vietnamese and foreign delegates attended a two-day forum on agriculture and rural development, which opened in Hanoi on November 9.

They shared ideas and discussed possibilities of cooperation between central and local agencies in Vietnam as well as international organizations in policies and the implementation of programs for building new rural areas in a number of countries. They proposed new mechanisms and approaches to these programs taking into account Vietnam’s situation until 2020.

Also high on agenda are approaches to community development and the connection between rural communities and economic development.

Tang Minh Loc, Head of the Cooperatives and Rural Development, said Vietnam wishes to cooperate with international organisations in building new rural areas. He asked the sponsors to give high priority to training, completing infrastructure, improving rural environmental conditions and sharing their experiences in the management of different projects and programs for rural development.

Yuriko Shoji, a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Vietnam, said the UN will continue to help the Vietnamese Government implement their policies on agriculture and rural development by providing policy consulting and technical assistance during the country’s process of developing new rural areas.

Steve Jaffee, Coordinator at the World Bank (WB) Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said every year WB sponsors nearly US$2 billion for rural and community development projects in countries around the world including Vietnam.

From the initial results of such projects implemented in 11 pilot communes, Vietnam should consider its investment priorities and mobilize the active participation of local people for long-term strategies.

US tourist leaves wallet on taxi, driver takes off

An American tourist Wednesday reported to police he had left his wallet with US$1,700 in cash, a passport, credit card and other important documents on a taxi in Hanoi before the driver drove off and could not be found.

Mark (L) said he hopes to get his passport back so he could go back to the US this weekend. (Photo: VNN)

Mentally ill woman climbs high-voltage pole

A woman, probably in her 30s and mentally ill, climbed up a high-voltage pole on National Highway 1A in the central province of Binh Dinh Wednesday morning, causing panic in the area before calmly coming down by herself.

It happened in An Nhon District where witnesses said she had been dancing, pointing around, and shouting at people for a while before climbing up the pole.

Bystanders reported to the Binh Dinh Electricity Company, which immediately cut the power to prevent her from being electrocuted.

“We could not climb up after her or throw her anything for rescue for fear she would let go and plummet down,” a company official present at the scene explained.

“We informed local authorities.”

The authorities later showed up, maintaining order and clearing the traffic as more and more people gathered to watch, blocking the highway.

At 10.25am, after almost four and a half hours, the woman climbed down.

Driver of truck in deadly accident had no license

22-year-old Tran Thanh Thien, who drove the trailer tractor that killed himself and 9 others and injured 23 passengers in Binh Thuan Province last Monday, has been identified as the assistant who didn’t have an appropriate driving license.

Tran Xuan, Thien’s uncle who has received Thien’s dead body, told Tuoi Tre that he didn’t know why Thien was assigned to control the truck at that time of the accident.

“Thien had worked as a driver assistant for one year including 2 to 3 months as a trailer tractor driver’ assistant,” Xuan said.

Meanwhile, the chief driver of the vehicle has been identified as 33-year-old Nguyen Dao from the central province of Khanh Hoa.

Dao told the police that on the night of November 7, Dao felt sleepy after driving for a couple of hours and asked Thien, his assistant, to take over the wheel.

Nguyen Thai Hieu, deputy director of Hung Thinh Ltd. Company headquartered in the Suoi Dau industrial zone in Cam Lam District in Khanh Hoa confirmed with the police that before the accident, the company had given Van Cong Tuan residing in Loc Tho Ward the right to use the tractor.

Both Hieu and Tuan claimed that they didn’t know who Thien was or why Thien was allowed to drive the truck and then caused the accident.

Hieu told the police that Hung Thinh Company had only signed a contract with Nguyen Dao who has a FC (tractor) driving license.

The accident happened in Hong Son Commune at 2:30 am on November 7 when the truck traveling southward from Khanh Hoa Province crashed into a bus of Tien Bo Thai Binh Transport Cooperative traveling on the opposite lane, and then hit another bus of Hoang Long Transport Company which was running on the same lane.

The truck and the Tien Bo Thai Binh bus, driven by 40-year-old Vu Manh Hung, exploded after hard collision, killing 8 people on the spot and seriously wounding 25 others.

The injured were taken to Binh Thuan General Hospital, but 2 of them died on the way to hospital.

Ho Chi Minh City river tunnel all set to open

Thousands of engineers and workers are hard at work, completing their final tasks to get the Thu Thiem tunnel beneath the Saigon River in Ho Chi Minh City ready for use on November 20.

The lighting, fire safety, ventilation, and dust absorption systems are being checked, Hoang Nguyen Bao Long, an engineer from the HCMC Urban Traffic Works Investment Management Board, said.

Workers are beautifying the roof of the tunnel while others are completing the road surface.
At both ends, in Districts 1 and 2, workers are completing the drainage system.

The tunnel, 1.49 km long and 33 meter wide, is part of the 22-km East-West Highway, which runs through Districts 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, Binh Tan, and Binh Chanh and has 10-14 lanes in most places.

It cost $189 million and was built by four Japanese contractors: Obayashi Corporation, Taisei Corporation, the Kumagai-Kajima consortium, and Toa Corporation.

A brochure on traffic regulations for using the tunnel will be distributed to the public.

Man, 2 children caught acting against state

A local man and his two children have been indulging in “propaganda against the party and state,” the Quang Nam Province Information and Communications Department said Tuesday.

Earlier that day officials from the department’s Inspectorate searched the house of Huynh Ngoc Tuan, 48, and Huynh Thuc Vy, 26, and Huynh Trong Hieu, 24, in Tam Ky town.

They said they had seized five notebooks containing reactionary articles against the state that undermined national unity.

The articles are similar to those posted by Tuan and his children on some blogs and websites, including foreign ones, the officials said.

Tuan and his family had also violated a government decree against the use of technology to conduct activities against the party and state, they said.

They seized a computer and a USB which had been used in the illegal acts.

Tuan is an old offender. In 1992 he was sentenced to 10 years in jail for acting against the party and state. But he continued to commit the same offense after being released in 2002, the department said.

It was carrying out the necessary procedures for relevant agencies to take over the case, it said.

Police bust gang smuggling people to Australia

The Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province police have arrested three men for allegedly trying to smuggle more than 120 people to Australia by boat.

Nguyen Dinh Chien and Nguyen Van Son of Nghe An Province and Nguyen Van Toan of Ba Ria-Vung Tau were taken in after they were deported by the Australian authorities.

They are charged with “organizing the illegal immigration of people abroad,” the police said.

Chien, the leader, had tried to smuggle people to Australia on three occasions but failed each time, they said.

He had confessed to visiting Australia many times, learning about the conditions in some Vietnamese communities there, and using the information to persuade his victims that they would get secure jobs and a stable life there, they said.

Each had to pay VND150 million (US$7,100), half in advance.

He would smuggle them into Australia in 13-17 days aboard a fishing boat he had bought for VND500-700 million.

In May last year he had allegedly taken 26 people to Lo Voi fishing port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau’s Long Dien District, where they had to pretend to be deep-sea fishermen to begin the illegal journey to Australia.

The boat used for making the third trip. Chien’s boats were seized each time by the Australian authorities.

But the Australian authorities seized the boat and held everyone aboard in a detention center. They also burned down the vessel.

Chien and a number of others were later sent back to Vietnam. But he organized two more trips in February and May this year but was caught both times.

Many of his victims reported to the provincial police, who launched an investigation and arrested Chien and his accomplices.

Only around 20 of his victims had been deported by Australia while the rest remain in detention camps awaiting expulsion, the provincial police said.

VNN/VOV/Tuoi Tre