HCM City continues blitz on unsafe food sales

Authorities in HCM City plan to buy more testing equipment and spend more money on food-safety and hygiene inspections at the city's wholesale markets.

Hua Ngoc Thuan, deputy chairman of the city People's Committee, said the city had been working closely with other provinces to manage the origin of food from areas outside the city.

The city had managed to trace the source of 70 per cent of food from other provinces, with close coordination between the Department of Health, the Department of Industry and Trade and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Thuan spoke during the "Listen and Exchange" programme that aired live on HCM City Television on Sunday.

HCM City targets controlling the origin of 85 per cent of food items by 2015 and aims to have no more food items without label of origin by 2020.

More than 80 per cent of food consumed in the city is supplied by other localities, according to Nguyen Phuoc Trung, deputy director of the city's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

"Although the city has signed agreements on the management of origin of food with 22 cities and provinces where vegetables, seafood, livestock and other products originate, it is impossible to control the quality and hygiene of all food entering the city," Trung said.

During the TV programme, participants spoke about the poor awareness of consumers who bought food at open markets on pavements and from street vendors because of cheap prices.

Thuan advised residents in the city to choose food items from reputable producers and suppliers.

During the first six months of the year, only one case of mass food poisoning was reported in the city, according to Huynh Le Thai Hoa, head of the city's Food Safety and Hygiene Division.

Hoa attributed the positive results to the city's beefed-up efforts to inspect and fine traders selling unsafe food items.

Five men get death penalty for drug trafficking

The appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday upheld death sentences for five members of a 14-member trans-national drugs ring that trafficked drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam.

Nguyen Xuan Dan, 37; Vo Anh Tuan, 40; Vo Tien Thang, 37; Luu Hoang Thao, 30; and Hoang Phung Bac Son were given the sentences by the city People’s Court at their trial on December 30, 2011 but appealed for a commutation.

However, the Supreme People’s Court on Monday rejected their appeal, saying that their acts were especially dangerous to society, and that thus there was no ground for a remission.

The court also turned down the appeals of three others – Truong Van Hoa, Tran Ngoc Dinh and Lu Huu Loi – who had received life sentences at last year’s trial.

The six remaining defendants, who had been sentenced from seven to 20 years, did not appeal their verdicts.

All 14 traffickers had been detained in 2009 after being caught red-handed smuggling seven kilograms of drugs in HCMC’s District 3.

The criminals, led by Dan, bought the substances in Cambodia at a price of US$6,000 a cake (three cakes make up a kilogram), transported them into HCMC, and distributed them to users for $10,300 a cake, according to the case file.

They were also found smuggling 300 grams of other drug-related addictive substances.

Two French students help candidates prepare exams

Two French student volunteers have been assisting candidates who are due to take their entrance exams for Hue University.
After class hours, when the youngsters at the Duc Son orphanage study English, French, and painting, Paul Nicaise and Jean Baptiste Lorics from the École Superieure de Commerce de la Rochelle University then turn to help with daily activities at the orphanage such as cleaning, cooking and looking after the kids.

During the entrance exams, both the students, with the help of Buddhist monks and nuns, prepared free vegetarian meals for the young potential scholars and their relatives.

This is part of the Thua Thien-Hue Buddhist church management committee’s plans to provide 12,000 free meals.

Both Paul and Jean said they are delighted to have the chance to support the young candidates during the entrance exams.

They also said that they will come back to Hue again in later year as well as tell their friends all about Hue in July, to drum up more support for the youngsters during exam season.

Dak Lak launches contest on Vietnam-Laos special relationship

More than 300 youth union members attended the launch of a writing contest on the special relationship between Vietnam and Laos in Dak Lak on July 10.

A representative from the provincial Dak Lak Party Committee called upon all Party officials and members, local people and youth to actively take part in the contest which will last until September 30.

The contest will focus on key factors in establishing the bilateral ties of special friendship and close cooperation through different stages of history, the role of late President Ho Chi Minh and late President Cayson Phomvihan and other Party and State leaders in developing these special relations and the time-honoured tradition of friendship and solidarity between the two countries.

Nguyen Thuy Linh, a student, said the contest provides a good chance for young generations to gain a better understanding of the special relationship between Vietnam and Laos and to fulfill their duties and responsibilities.

The organizing board will select 50 outstanding entries for the final contest at the central level.

Heavy rain causes 1-meter deep flood in HCMC

A downpour yesterday afternoon caused serious flooding at the Go Dua Crossroad in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc District, affecting about 50 households there, local authorities reported.

The flood water measured more than 1 meter in depth at some places, and about 15 of these households were moved to safe places.

The flooding also caused a great deal of motorbikes to break down in the area, which is located in Tam Binh and Binh Chieu Wards.

The fire police of District 9 sent several fire engines and 10 firefighters to the scene to pump floodwater out of the area.

About 30 police officers, militiamen, and workers of the HCMC Urban Water Drainage Co Ltd were mobilized to use pumps, water-sucking trucks and sandbags to prevent floodwater from entering the area from the Ba Bot canal.

While explaining the cause of the flooding, Pham Hoai Anh, chairman of the Binh Chieu Ward People’s Committee, said, “The canal section that runs through the area is being upgraded and could not drain the huge amount of water caused by the heavy rain.”

Bridge project held up by land issues

A plan to open the new Ghenh 2 Bridge, which was built following an accident last February, is likely to lag behind schedule for at least five months due to slow land clearance in the southern province of Dong Nai.

The construction of the bridge started after an order by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung following a tragic accident that killed two and injured 26 others early last year.

The accident occurred between a north-south train and six cars while they were crossing the Ghenh Railroad Bridge.

The Ghenh 2 Bridge is being built to separate trains and other vehicles to curb deadly collisions.

At the beginning of this year, the Viet Nam Railways Corporation began to build Ghenh 2 connecting Buu Hoa Ward and Hiep Hoa Commune in the province's Dong Nai City.

However, the construction has met with troubles in relocating 30 local households around the area.

According to the investor, only nine local households have been relocated so far.

According to a Viet Nam News Agency correspondent in the province, slow hand over of land for resettlement purposes from the city's Land Fund and local people's dissatisfaction over compensations rate were the main cause of the delay.

In response to the situation, chairman of the provincial People's Committee Dinh Quoc Thai discussed the situation with relevant agencies and the investor to solve the situation at a meeting on Wednesday meeting.

To ensure the progress of the construction, Thai ordered the city's Land Fund Management Board to quickly finalise compensation for local people.

The 500-metre Ghenh 2 Bridge, costing over VND578 billion (US$27.7 million) and funded by the State Budget, will be 18 metres wide with four lanes.

Kids who pore over books and online games get eye problems

The lack of outdoor activity is causing eye problems like myopia and astigmatism for children, especially in large cities like Ha Noi and HCM City, a top ophthalmologist has said.

Dr Tran Anh Tuan, head of the HCM City Eye Hospital, told the media last week that kids pored over books and play online games for too long, developing refractive problems.

Data from the National Institute of Ophthalmology shows that nearly 3 million children in the country have refractive errors, and the number is rising at an alarming rate in both urban and rural areas.

In places like HCM City and Ha Noi, the rate is nearly 40 per cent.

Schools for gifted students are hotbeds with a large of number of students wearing glasses.

Tuan said in his son's class in one of the schools, the rate was more than 60 per cent.

A report by Thua Thien – Hue Province's Preventive Medicine Centre in 2010 said children who stay indoors and learn intensively are nine times more likely to become myopic than those indulging in a lot of outdoor activities.

Tuan said research in many other countries – such as a recent one by the Australian National University in Canberra – shows that environmental rather than genetic factors cause myopia.

Indulging in outdoor activities under the sun for two or three hours a day would prevent myopia, he said.

Parents should create conditions for their children to go outdoors and not force them to study too hard, he added.

Diplomats, residents donate blood in City

The Consul General of Indonesia in HCM City, Bambang Tarsanto, his wife, counterparts from other countries and others participated in a blood donation camp on Sunday.

Around 60 Indonesian expats and Vietnamese students also donated blood.

The charity event, which collected 71.5 blood units, was held at the office of the General Consulate of Indonesia in HCM City for the fifth time.

Student cycles 300km to sit university exam

A poor student from central Nghe An Province has captured the nation's imagination.

The youth, Nguyen Van Thuan, cycled 300km from Nghe An to Ha Noi to sit for his entrance university examination last week.
A local newspaper reported on Sunday that he left his home town in Yen Thanh District at 1pm and arrived in Ha Noi at 9:30am the next day.

Thuan travelled to the capital city despite his parents' objections.

They told him they could not afford paying for his tuition if he passed.

The student was fortunately offered free accommodation in Ha Noi by a local police officer, who later helped him finding a bus to get home after the exam.

Joint ILO project creates jobs for youngsters

The central province of Quang Nam and the International Labour Organization (ILO) held a meeting on July 9 to summarize and evaluate the results of a joint project to create jobs for youngsters by developing local economies.

The project, funded by the United Nations (UN) Foundation, examined the obstacles that youngsters face when trying to acquire work skills or start a business, by preparing them for jobs created thank to local economic development.

It focused on improving the supporting environment for businesses, stepping up vocational training and providing youngsters with the skills to start their own businesses and join the labour market.

Through this project, many beneficiary localities have carried out surveys of the kinds of problems enterprises have to overcome and have helped them to draw up action plans, while appointing selected agencies to manage the training courses and act as business consultants to the budding young entrepreneurs.

Sandra Yu, the ILO's representative from the sub-regional office in Bangkok, praised the efforts the province has made to carry out the project successfully, adding that the ILO will continue to help Quang Nam with other programs.

Throwing diseased pigs into pond earns fine

The People's Committee of Tay Ninh Province fined a resident VND50 million (US$2,500) for throwing out but not destroying 13 pig carcasses infected with blue-ear diseases.

The woman, Mai Thi Cong Danh, headed a pig-raising business in Trang Bang District. In April, the province's environmental police found her throwing the carcasses into a fish-raising pond.

Blue-ear disease has appeared in many provinces bordering Tay Ninh, including Binh Duong and Dong Nai. The habit of throwing away infected dead farm animals is strictly punished.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre