Children to play bigger role in reducing risks

Discussion of the role of children and adolescents in reducing disaster risks dominated a conference held in Hanoi on October 12 to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

“We need to change public attitudes toward the roles of children and adolescents in the prevention and reduction of disasters, especially at the community level,” said Nguyen Thi Ha, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union.

Children’s involvement in disaster reduction should be encouraged by adults, Ha said.

This year’s event, themed ‘Step up for disaster risk reduction – Making children and young people partners for disaster risk reduction,” was organized by the Communist Youth Union and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Other organizers include non-governmental organizations such as Plan International and Save the Children.

The meeting drew hundreds of students from five secondary schools in Hanoi and a group of Mong children from northern Yen Bai Province and central Quang Tri Province.

In the meeting, they discussed what would happen if a disaster struck their areas and ways to brace for and reduce risks of a disaster through short plays, songs, pictures and speeches.

Road crashes kill, injure 1,000 in city

Road accidents remain a nightmare in Ho Chi Minh City with more than 1,000 people being killed or injured in 750 accidents this year.

The number of fatalities during the traffic safety month was the highest for this year, with the biggest increases seen in border districts like 2, 7, 12, Binh Tan, Thu Duc, Binh Chanh, and Can Gio.

Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the city people’s committee, who chaired the meeting, criticized the leaders of some districts with a large number of fatalities for failing to understand the government’s decree No. 88 on strengthening traffic safety measures.

Experts said accidents in the city were mainly caused by poor awareness of traffic laws.

Encroachment of roads by vendors and shops in places like the Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal also contributed to the increase in accidents, Quan said, adding that local authorities would be held responsible for this.

He also urged the authorities to approve funds to buy necessary equipment for the traffic police like speed guns and breathalyzers.

Colonel Ngo Minh Chau, deputy director of the city police, said a citywide hotline would be set up to combat illegal street racing which was becoming rampant.

“All authorities have their own responsibilities in reducing accidents. Every month is a traffic safety month,” Quan said.

Doctors’ panel tests woman who aged overnight

Nguyen Thi Phuong, 26, who seemed to physically age overnight after contracting an allergy, arrived at the Ho Chi Minh City University medical center on Tuesday for checks by 10 experts.

Phuong covered her face to avoid curious glances and went into a private room for the diagnosis.

A team of professors and doctors in endocrinology, dermatology, cardiology, and anatomy from the University Medical Center and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy led by Dr Dang Van Phuoc, deputy director of the former, met with her for three hours.

Phuoc said he could not yet diagnose her condition and doctors had to wait for the results of further tests and agree on a course of treatment before making a public announcement.

Dr Hoang Van Minh the University Medical Center saw Phuong in her house in Ben Tre Province a week ago and said she had mastocytosis, a disorder caused by the presence of too many mast cells which bring a number of symptoms like skin lesions, diarrhea, abdominal discomforts and other infections.

Many people have called on the unfortunate woman to encourage her and wish her luck.

Many Samaritans have offered to pay for her treatment abroad if local doctors cannot cure her.

Phuong’s travails began in 2008 when she had an allergic reaction to eating seafood. When western medicines did not work, she switched to Chinese traditional medicine. But soon her body began to swell and cracks appeared on her hands, legs, underarms, and groin.

After a while her skin started to turn wrinkled and saggy, making the 23-year-old look like an old woman.

4 firms found using $1m pirated software

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MoCST) inspectorate, in co-operation with the Hi-tech Crime Department of the Ministry of Public Security, found four companies using pirated software valued at nearly US$1 million in separate raids in Ha Noi, HCM City and Hai Phong.

The companies, which operate in the manufacturing, construction, trading and real estate industries, were found to be using 712 unlicensed software products in their business operations, including Lac Viet and BKIS software made by Vietnamese software developers.

"The companies are large ones. They can certainly afford to buy genuine software," said Pham Xuan Phuc, deputy chief inspector of MoCST. "One of them even has registered capital of $10 million."

Under Vietnamese law, using illegal software is punishable by a fine of up to $24,000.

Viet Nam's PC software piracy rate in 2010 was 83 per cent, falling 2 per cent from the previous year. The regional average PC software piracy rate in Asia Pacific was 60 per cent.

In August 2008, the Copyright Office of Viet Nam, the Inspectorate of MoCST, the Business Software Alliance and Viet Nam Software Association formed a Partnership in Protection of Software Copyright. Recent enforcement actions are the fruits of this partnership.

Three driving centres closed for 3 months

Three driver training centres, one in Da Nang and two in southern Can Tho City, are facing three-months' suspension after Transport Ministry inspectors completed random checks in six provinces.

The centres include Lien Chieu Centre, Vocational School No 9 under the National Defence Ministry and Can Tho Vocational School.

The inspection, which started on September 20, also came up with a proposal to improve the teaching of ethics to future drivers.

One more bank official seized in $240mil swindle

Another Vietinbank official in Ho Chi Minh City has been arrested in the alleged swindle of VND5 trillion (US$240 million) by faking loan documents and signatures.

Vo Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Nha Be branch of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade – as the bank is known formally -- was taken in yesterday five days after Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, 33, director of the Dien Bien Phu transaction office was arrested, the Investigation Police Agency said.

The two officials have been charged with “swindling to appropriate assets.”

They allegedly falsified documents, seals, and signatures, and falsely acted in the name of Vietinbank to sign deals with several securities and insurance companies.

They later asked their partners to transfer money to some designated accounts for executing the contracts and pocketed the money.

Among their victims were Saigonbank Beraya Securities Joint Stock Company, which had transferred more than VND200 billion ($9.6 million), and the Global Insurance Company, which had transferred over VND100 billion, Dau Tu Chung Khoan reported.

The two also allegedly counterfeited Vietinbank documents to offer deposit interest of 5-7 percent a month and pocketed thousands of billions of dong they mobilized in this manner.

The total amount of money they had appropriated amounted to around VND5 trillion, the investigation agency said.

The police are expanding their investigation.

Ca Mau to spend $52m building dock system

To improve waterway safety and efficiency, the southernmost province of Ca Mau will spend about US$52.8 million on a new dock system away from residential centres.

The docks will be built on the basis of the public-private partnership.

The province now has 220 dock areas capable of catering to more than 220,000 boats. Most of the docks are located in residential centres and near markets.

28 Vietnamese jailed in S Arabia for theft

Twenty-eight Vietnamese workers have been detained in Saudi Arabia since September 2010 for allegedly committing a theft, but the labor agencies that sent them there are in the dark, the Overseas Labor Management Department has admitted.

Tien Phong newspaper quoted Dao Cong Hai, deputy head of the department, as saying that the Vietnamese embassy in Saudi Arabia had informed his department about the detention.

Three of the detainees had been sentenced and the rest were awaiting trial, he said.

The families of the detainees had been informed about the detention and the department was keeping track of the situation, he said.

The Vietnamese were reportedly caught stealing 10 tons of copper from Mohammed Salim Al Suwaidi Company.

Asked why they have not been tried for so long, Hai said it had taken the police until recently to investigate the theft and they had referred it to a court on September 19.

The six labor agencies that had sent them to Saudi Arabia had not bothered to assist them, he said.

Thirteen of them had been hired by the Vietnam Manpower Supply and Commercial Company (Vinamex), six by the Hanoi Housing Development and Investment Corporation (Handico), four by the Trade and Investment Consultant Company Ltd (Intraco), and the other five by three other agencies, he said.

An Intraco executive said the company had only recently heard about the situation and through the detainees’ families since their employers had failed to inform it.

Trieu Thi Thin of Bac Giang Province said her husband Trieu Du Long had been hired and sent by Intraco in August 2009. After a few months she had stopped hearing from him until he had called last month to inform her about his detention since October 2010, she said.

Long had not revealed the reason for his arrest, she said. 

She had informed Intraco, but the company had said it had not heard anything, she added.
Dinh Van Bac also of Bac Giang recently managed to call his brother Dinh Van Ngoc to inform about his arrest.

An Intraco executive cited a source as saying that Long and Bac had quit their jobs within six or seven months and joined a gang of thieves.

Hai quoted the detained workers as saying they had been paid the equivalent of US$213-226 a month which had not been enough considering the high service charges the labor agencies had demanded.

The department had ordered the six companies to report on the fees it had collected from the workers, keep their families informed about the situation, and work with their former employers to monitor the court proceedings.

In addition, those companies must hire lawyers to protect the detainees, said Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, head of the department.

Vietnam had begun to send guest workers to Saudi Arabia in 2003 and some 7,000 are now working there, mainly in construction, the department said.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre