New bridge to curb train-car accidents

The Viet Nam Railways Corporation began construction of a bridge yesterday to separate Ghenh Railroad Bridge in southern Dong Nai Province from vehicle traffic in order to prevent traffic jams and deadly crashes between trains and vehicles.

Dong Nai Bridge, with a total investment capital of more than VND578 billion (US$27.7 million), will connect Buu Hoa Ward and Hiep Hoa Commune in Bien Hoa City. It is part of an urgent Government project to construct three bridges to separate vehicles from trains in Dong Nai Province, Hai Phong and Ha Noi.

The 500-metre bridge will have four lanes across its 18-metre width and is expected to open to traffic next January.

The Ghenh Bridge, which runs along the Ha Noi-HCM City railway route and connects the banks of the Dong Nai River, is currently open to both trains and cars. Last February, a deadly crash occurred when a train ploughed into six cars stuck on the tracks. Two people were killed and 26 others were injured.

Police bust ring faking Tet train tickets

Police in Ho Chi Minh City have cracked down on a ring producing fake train tickets for train trips departing from Saigon during Tet (Lunar New Year), detaining two suspects and 55 counterfeit tickets.

The police seized from them 55 fake tickets and a USB drive that contained about 100 samples of fake tickets for various routes. (Photo: VNN)

The police have yet to reveal personal details of the two suspects, who were arrested yesterday, Jan 11.

On January 9, a woman arrived at the terminal to return a ticket for the SE16 train on the HCMC – Vinh route. After screening the returned ticket on a scanner, the terminal staff found signs of counterfeit, and then secretly informed the station and police, said Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy head of the station.

After questioning the woman, the District 3 police launched in investigation and two days they arrested two people who confessed they belonged to a ring that had faked tickets for Tet train trips.

The police seized from them 55 fake tickets and a USB drive that contained about 100 samples of fake tickets for various routes.

Thanh warned all passengers that such fake tickets are nearly the same as genuine ones, so they cannot be identified visually.

They can only be detected by scanners; therefore, passengers should not buy any tickets sold by anyone outside the terminal, he advised.

On January 14, the station will set up eight inspection teams to check tickets from passengers at the terminal to detect and seize fake tickets, he said.

The police are continuing with their investigation to track down other members of the ring.

The Lunar New Year falls on January 23, 2012.

Vietnam Golden Heart Fund makes debut in Hanoi

The Vietnam Golden Heart Fund made its debut in Hanoi on January 12, calling on individuals, organizations, and benefactors both at home and abroad to join hands to help the poor, AO/dioxin victims and families of martyrs and invalids.

At the launch ceremony held by the organizing board of the fund and the Hanoi Trade Corporation, war veteran-turned entrepreneur, who is one of the fund founders, said the aim is to support poor people nationwide and students who excel in their studies and three food stores with around 300 tonnes of rice in stock, will be set up in the southern, northern and central regions.

Khoi added that representative offices will be set up in Russia, the Czech Republic, the US and Japan to call on entrepreneurs and intellectuals to help poor people back home overcome their difficulties.

On their occasion, the Vietnam Golden Heart Fund and Hanoi Trade Corporation presented 3,000 gifts and VND500 million to poor families and families of martyrs and invalids in Lao Cai, Bac Giang, Son La, Lai Chau, Thai Binh, Phu Tho, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Hai Phong and Hanoi.

Soc Trang party inspection official held for gambling

Police in Soc Trang City have detained 56-year-old Dinh Van Muoi, deputy chairman of the Soc Trang City Party Committee’s Commission for Inspection, for playing Chinese chess games with another person, through which he won VND2.5 billion (US$119,000).

Muoi will be detained for two months pending investigation, police said.

The arrest was made yesterday, following the testimony of Nguyen Thanh Leo, deputy director of the city Department of Transport, who along with Tran Van Tan, director of a drivers’ training center, were detained in December for playing Chinese chess for high stakes: VND1-5 billion ($47,600-238,000) per game.

Leo told the police that he had also played games many times with Muoi and lost VND2.5 billion to him, although Muoi had paid him VND1.9 billion.

The police also searched Muoi’s house and office the same day.

Leo and Tan were arrested on December 22 when they were playing a game of Chinese chess at a local café. By the time the police showed up, Leo had lost VND22 billion ($1.05 million) to Tan, but had only paid Tan VND5 billion.

The police also arrested two others, Nguyen Thanh Hung, 50, and his son Nguyen Thanh Truyen, who had been hired by Tan to force Leo to pay his debt and threaten to kill his family if he failed to do so.

Hung is a loan-shark and a leading gambling broker in Soc Trang, said Colonel Phan Huu Thuy, spokesman of the Soc Trang Province Police Department.

Gambling for money is illegal in Vietnam, except for at certain casinos where only foreigners are allowed to play.

According to local authorities, Leo had been head of Soc Trang city’s Board of Management of Construction Works and secretary of Ward 6’s Party Committee for many years before he was appointed to his current post.

Leo has recently borrowed money from numerous individuals and organizations. Meanwhile, Tan is the owner of many large cafés and restaurants in the city.

The police are continuing with their investigation.

Vietnamese, Lao youths boost cooperation

A delegation of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee, headed by First Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh, is on a working visit to Laos from January 10-14.

The Vietnamese delegation held talks with a delegation from the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union, led by Secretary Vilayvong Bouddakham, on January 11.

At the talks, the two sides exchanged information and experience on youth education and youth-related work, and agreed to support each other in regional and international youth activities.

The two sides discussed projects to build the Vietnam-Laos Youth Friendship Palace in Vientiane and the Vietnam-Laos Youth Friendship Village in the Lao border province of Bolikhamsay.

The two sides signed a cooperative agreement for the 2012-2017 term saying they will create conditions for their businessmen to establish cooperative ties.

They also planned to hold meetings for the two countries’ youths and organise training courses for officials of the Lao Youth Union.

Taxi burned, driver seriously injured

A Vinasun taxi driver was seriously burned when his taxi suddenly burst into flame in front of Nam Phat Dat Gas Station in HCMC’s District 12 on Wednesday.

The driver, 22-year old Phan Duc Hoa, was sleeping inside the taxi at the time of the accident.

The rear and side mirrors of the car were broken and the ceiling collapse. The outer part was not affected.

According to local residents, they heard shouts for help from some people who found the taxi was on fire. Many tried to put out the fire and slam on the door to wake Hoa up. As the fire spread, people broke the door and pulled him out.

He was later taken to Hospital 175 and is now in serious conditions as 80% of his body was seriously burned. According to a manager at the gas station, Hoa often stops in front of the station to rest at night.

An initial investigation by the police shows that Hoa had mistakenly turned on the heater instead of the cooler before he went to sleep.

14 Vietnamese women held after raid in Malaysia

During a raid at an entertainment center in Taman AST, the State of Seremban, on Monday night, a Malaysian police team detained fourteen Vietnamese women for suspected prostitution.

The women, aged between 23 and 47, were held for abusing their tourist visas to work as sex workers at the center, Dat Viet newspaper cited Seremban police chief Hamdan Majid as saying.

Following a tip-off from the public, the raid was made at 9 pm and ended at 11pm, and resulted in the arrest of the women, Majid said when contacted by the New Straits Times on January 10.

All of the women were brought to a prison in Seremban and were being investigated under Section 55B of the Immigration Act, Dat Viet reported.

During the raid, police also detained eight local customers and three employees at the center for investigation.

"We are investigating everyone said to be working on the premises and checking their travel documents," he said.

In December of 2011, during another raid at two condominium units in Klebang Kecil, Malacca, Malaysia, police also arrested 29 Vietnamese women, aged from 18 to 55.

Of the detainees, 19 had a valid visa, two others had expired visas, and the rest had no personal papers, but all of them had worked as sex workers, Dat Viet quoted the Malacca Immigration Department as reporting.

The eldest among them is believed to be the "mummy," according to The Star/Asia News.
Following a tip-off, the officers had monitored the premises for two weeks before moving in.

"We had to force open the doors when our knocks were not answered," state Immigration director Kamalludin Ismail said.

The women had worked at entertainment centers in the city, investigations showed.
They have been detained in the Machap Umboo prison in Alor Gajah, Kamalludin said.

Three Vietnamese missing after ship fire in Antarctica

Three Vietnamese crewmen aboard a 40-member South Korean fishing boat have gone missing and are believed to have died after the ship caught fire in Antarctic waters early Wednesday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The 51m-long vessel Jeong-woo 2 issued a distress call at 3 a.m. on January 11 after it was engulfed in fire while catching fish in the remote Ross Sea, about 3,700 km southeast of New Zealand, the Rescue Coordination Center New Zealand (RCCNZ) said.

According to rescuers, the vessel was still burning and appeared to be sinking.

"The 3 missing sailors, all of whom are Vietnamese, are believed to have died in a cabin where they were sleeping when the fire broke out," Woo Suk-dong, the South Korean consul in New Zealand, told Yonhap.

Among the remaining 37 seamen rescued, 6 were South Korean.

The other 31 come from Vietnam, Indonesia, China and Russia, and other countries.

6 crew members (not including South Koreans) were injured in the flames and 2 of them suffered serious burns.

The US research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer equipped with medical facilities on board is on its way to help the injured crewmen and bring them ashore.

Gasoline tested for possible link to vehicle fire

After many vehicles caught fire or exploded inexplicably since last December, the Ministry of Science and Technology has ordered agencies to test 3,000 samples of gasoline to determine whether poor gasoline quality is the cause.

Many people have voiced their suspicions that poor gasoline may be the reason behind those fires and explosions that have recently destroyed many motorbikes and cars.

However, the ministry’s chief inspector Tran Minh Dung told local media on January 10 that it was too early to say.

Dung said the Ministry of Science and Technology is responsible for gas quality.

However, according to him, the testing results of the first gas samples show their rates of methanol, ethanol, and acetone meet safety requirements.

According to Dung, machinery maintenance or equipment installation may be to blame.

Dung told Tuoi Tre that current inspections had discovered many gas stations nationwide selling poor quality gasoline to customers while some gas stations in Ho Chi Minh City were found cheating on the rates of octane in their fuel.

However, inspectors have yet to find any impurities in the gas used by the vehicles that had been destroyed by fires.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre