Nha Trang releases breeding shrimp, fish into sea

Nha Trang city authorities yesterday, June 12, released more than 400,000 shrimps and 7,500 barramundi fish into the sea at Tam isle and Bay lagoon to improve stocks in the sea.
It serves as a call for everybody to protect the country's marine ecosystem, Le Xuan Than, deputy chairman of the central Khanh Hoa Province People’s Committee, said.
“Besides exhorting the public to contribute to the protection of marine resources, relevant agencies themselves must take regular action,” he added.
The event was also part of the 2011 Sea Festival that opened Saturday, the authorities said.

The released shrimps and fish were contributed by the Khanh Hoa Province Aquatic Resource Exploitation and Protection Sub-department, the Nha Trang Oceanography Institute, the Aquaculture Research Institute III, and a number of seafood companies.

Fisherman captures great white shark

A fisherman has captured a juvenile white shark measuring 1.5 meters in length and weighing around 60 kilograms off the central province of Binh Dinh Sunday.

It was stuck in the net of Phan Van Dau, 52, of Quy Nhon city.
People flocked to the beach to see the animal.
Six swimmers were attacked by sharks between July 2009 and May 2010 off Quy Nhon and fishermen have captured at least one creature weighing more than half a ton in that period.

Residents to fund pontoon bridge in central province

Four residents of Vinh Son Commune in the central province of Quang Tri have put up VND1.5 billion (US$73,000) to build a pontoon bridge across the Ben Hai River in the Vinh Linh District, facilitating access for thousands of local residents.

The pontoon, 110-m long and 2.5-m wide, was completed in April of this year, with part of the pontoon raised 3m above the river to allow boats to pass.

The communes of Vinh Lam, Vinh Thuy and Vinh Son had been cut off by the Ben Hai and Sa Lung rivers, leaving ferries as the only means of transport, said Vinh Son People's Committee chairman Nguyen Son.

"Although National Highway No 1A is just on the other side of the river, people had to travel up to 15 kilometres to get there by surface routes," he said. By connecting Vinh Linh and Gio Linh districts and shortening the distance to the provincial seat in the city of Dong Ha, a bridge promised to bring development to these rural areas.

However, the local authorities lacked the budget to build the bridge.

One of the four who decided to put up the needed funds, Tran Xuan Truong, said that he had cherished the idea for a bridge for his hometown and asked other local residents Tran Cong Chuc, Tran Duy Bon and Pham Dung to join him.

Chuc, 42, a buiding materials distributor, said that a bridge crossing the river had been a wish of many residents for years, inspiring him to take part in the project. The three others were all farmers who were willing to mortgage assets to obtain bank financing for the bridge.

"We studied a similar pontoon model in Trieu Phong District and asked for consultation from the provincial transport department to ensure the quality of the work," Chuc said.

Truong said the main purpose of all four investors was to improve transportation in the district and that profit was not their priority. Ferry operators, operating only during the day and in good weather, charged only VND5,000 for each passage. On the new bridge, motorbikes pay VND4,000 for each crossing, while bicycles pay VND2,000 and pedestrians cross for free.

Nguyen Xuan An, 26, of Le Xa hamlet in Vinh Son Commune said that the tolls were reasonable and he could save time crossing on the pontoon. However, he suggested a monthly discount for people who use the bridge daily.

Long An official fired for various misconducts

Nguyen Van Tam, a market management officer in Long An Province, has been dismissed because of numerous misconducts including gambling and allegedly having an affair with Tran Thuy Lieu, who burnt her husband, journalist Hoang Hung, to death early this year.

The dismissal was made by the disciplinary council of Long An Province’s Department of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Xuan Hong, deputy director of the department said yesterday.

Tam was head of the Market Management Team No. 5 under the department.
Hong said an official decision on Tam’s dismissal would be announced early next week.

The provincial Party Committee would later decide on whether Tam would be expelled from the Party, he added.

The dismissal came after Tam was found to have gone to Cambodia many times for gambling.

Tam was also accused of forcing many restaurants to buy his Nano-branded cooling handkerchiefs.

Some restaurant’s owners said these handkerchiefs were actually produced by Lieu, who had Tam sell them to eateries in Long An’s Can Giuoc Town.

The deliverers of the handkerchiefs were Vo Thanh Son, Tam’s nephew, and Phan Van Dong, a market management officer of the town.

Some eateries’ owners said if Tam had not told them to buy the handkerchiefs, they wouldn’t have bought them since they had low quality.

Anti-government DVDs seized at HCMC airport

The customs at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport on Friday seized 23 DVDs with anti-government contents from a Vietnamese man arriving from Singapore.

The DVDs called for wars against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and thus violated the laws of Vietnam, the customs said.

Those DVDs were found in the checked baggage of Tran Song Hai, 39, who arrived in HCMC on the evening of June 10 on the VN742 flight from Singapore.

The luggage checking officials at the airport made a report on the finding and handed over Hai together with the seized DVDs to the higher airport authorities for investigation.

Student honoured for promoting blood drives

Natural Resources and Environment University student Truong Thi Nguyet, 22, became one of the youngest blood donors to be honoured in a ceremony yesterday praising humanitarian efforts.

Nguyet, from the northern province of Vinh Phuc, was recognised for donating blood ten times and enthusiastically participating in many blood drives.

She first donated blood during the Ha Noi Association of Youth Blood Donors drive held by the National Institute of Haematology in 2007.

"On that day, after finishing my university's admission procedures, I passed by a blood donation unit in the dormitory of the Academy of Finance," Nguyet said. "I was really attracted to the blood drive since it seemed like such a good deed."

After donating, she was eager to register with the association for future drives.

She remembers participating in another Ha Noi Association of Youth Blood Donors drive in June 2009.

"It rained heavily that day and very few people came to donate blood," Nguyet recalled to Viet Nam News. "However, I persuaded eight of my friends to donate blood. Although most of them were my best friends, I felt so proud and happy because I successfully mobilised them to give blood."

Nguyet said that, at first, her family and friends did not approve of her decision to regularly donate blood because they thought it would be harmful to her health.

Nguyet felt a little sad, but she became more determined to persuade her friends and relatives to think properly about blood donation, a harmless activity for a person in good health that could in turn help ensure the survival of thousands of hospital patients nationwide.

Six months later, she was joyful when her friends had to change their attitude about blood donation. They gradually lost their fear of donating blood and have participated in may blood drives since. Her father, the head of a provincial primary school, has also promised to be the first person to donate blood if a blood drive is held in his province.

Honoured as one of 100 excellent blood donors nationwide, Nguyet not only felt proud but also recognised that she would take more responsibility to pesuade others to give blood.

Businesswoman indicted for swindling $1.58 million

The Khanh Hoa Province People’s Procuracy has issued an indictment against Le Thi Thuy Oanh, the owner of Hoang Dang Private Enterprise in Nha Trang City for swindling VND32.5 billion (US$1.58 million) from her lenders.

Oanh, from Vinh Thai Commune, was arrested in March 18, 2009 after she committed many big swindles.

According to the indictment, after setting up Hoang Dang Private Enterprise in Nha Trang in 2006, Oanh began borrowing money from her acquaintances at an interest rate ranging from 4.25 percent to 9 percent per month.

Oanh then used the loans to buy 34 lots of land in Dien Khanh District, 2 restaurants, 3 hotels, 8 trucks and 2 cars.

She later mortgaged those assets to banks and individuals for further loans.

In 2008, when she couldn’t pay back the loans and consequent interests, she borrowed more and used the new loans to repay the old ones.

She used relatives’ land-use right certificates as security for her loans, lying to the lenders that she had bought the land showed in those certificates.

One year later, when Oanh couldn’t get any new loan from her acquaintances, she went bankrupt and was accused of swindling.
By the time of her arrest, Oanh had appropriated VND23.58 billion from Mai Thi Kieu Oanh and VND9 billion from Le Thi Thoa, according to the indictment.
During the investigation, the provincial police seized 11 lots of land owned by Loan in Khanh Hoa and recovered more than VND4.4 billion from her other assets.

VND1,500 billion to build Kon Tum airport

A new airport will be built in Kon Tum city in the central highland province of Kon Tum.

This was announced by the Ministry and Transport (MoT) and the Kon Tum provincial People’s Committee on June 10.

Under the MoT decision, the airport will cover an area of 162 ha in Ngoc Bay commune and will require a total investment capital of VND1,500 billion.

The announcement of the investment planning and preparations for the airport is significant for the province’s socioeconomic development and security.

Luu Thanh Binh, Director General of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, said that the airport will link Kon Tum with other provinces across the country.

It is also a step to reinforce national defence and security, Binh said.

HCM City youth volunteer to protect the environment

2,000 members of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union in HCM City attended the launch ceremony for a volunteer campaign to protect the environment.

During the month-long campaign, there will be various events including a painting contest, a photography exhibition, and a presentation about advanced waste treatment systems, all of which are aimed at raising public awareness of the need to protect the environment.

Volunteers will also take part in a variety of youth projects, grant scholarships and school supplies to pupils in disadvantaged areas, and visit families of social policy beneficiaries, as well as historical and cultural sites.

Clearance of houses on roadsides ‘too slow'

The capital is making slow progress in clearing land adjacent to planned roadsides more than one month after the Ha Noi People's Committee issued a decision ordering protection of the city's architectural profile.

The decision, which came into effect on May 6, aims at preventing the construction of extremely thin buildings along roadsides in order to protect the capital's landscape, said deputy director of the Ha Noi Department of Construction, Nguyen Khac Tho.

The regulation falls under the Law on Urban Planning which was passed in 2009. Under the law, planned areas must be at least 50 metres away from the red boundary lines of a planned road.

"More attention must be given to ground clearance to maintain consistency in Ha Noi's urban planning and gradually erase the capital's fragmented and cluttered architectural image," said Pham Sy Liem, vice president of the Viet Nam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations. Opinions about the decision were mixed among residents.

Households living closest to planned roadsides tend to be the most worried about the decision because they are the most likely to be affected.

A resident of Dong Da District who wished to stay anonymous said her family's main income came from leasing a house which was adjacent to a planned road. She was worried because her house is located in a clearance area. "My family would have a lot of difficulty earning a living if the house is cleared," she said.

Tran Minh Thuan, a resident of Cau Dien, expressed his approval of the decision.

"Clearance of an additional 50 metres on each side of the road would help the city manage land resources more effectively and protect the capital's landscape," he said.

"Our capital will be more beautiful without the development of super high buildings," he added.

Only road construction projects approved after May 6 would be subject to the decision and no concessions would be given for households or even State agencies. Everyone must follow the decision, Tho said.

The Ha Noi People's Committee also issued regulations on dealing with pieces of land that are not large enough to hold structures, including land piece that is 15 square metres or less in total area, or no more than 3 metres long or wide.

There were currently more than 200 super thin buildings throughout the city, all of which appeared after ground clearance processes, said Tho.

Hue to honour women warriors with statues

The Thua Thien Hue People's Committee is looking for a suitable location and mobilising funds to build statues of the 11 Song Huong (Perfume River) women who made the nation proud with the courage they displayed in fighting enemy troops during the American War.

The building of the statues will be completed in 2013, commemorating the 45th anniversary of the Mau Than Spring Offensive in Hue, the committee said.

In 1968, President Ho Chi Minh sent a letter praising the achievements of the 11 women. In 2009, the group was honoured with the People's Armed Forces' Heroes title.

Some of the 11 women have since passed away of old age, but their deeds have earned them a valuable place in the nation's history of fighting and repelling foreign aggressors.

University, bank sign scholarship pact

The Viet Nam National University (VNU) – HCM City and Viet Nam Export Import Bank (Eximbank) last Friday signed an agreement on providing students with scholarships for the coming academic year.

The bank will provide 20 full scholarships to cover tuition fees of US$ 18,000 each to students who will attend two-year Master of Science degree courses at the university's John von Neumann Institute in information and communication technology as well as quantitative and computational finance.

The bank will also employ the students after finishing the courses.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre