Doctors at Ha Noi-based St Paul Hospital examine a child. Many children have been taken to the hospital for respiratory ailments in recent weeks. (Photo: VNS)

On Monday alone, 1,500 children were admitted to the National Hospital of Paediatrics in Ha Noi, compared to 300 on a normal day. Most were suffering from breathing problems and viral infections, medical staff said.

Dr Le Thanh Hai, the hospital's deputy director, said many children had caught pneumonia. A number of parents had tried to treat their children themselves and unwittingly allowed the infection to worsen, he added.

Hai said 80 per cent of the children admitted to the hospital were under one year old.

"The weather has been changeable, which is why the infection rate has gone up," he said.

Due to the surge in patient numbers, children had been sleeping two and three to a bed, he added.

Meanwhile the number of patients in Bach Mai Hospital's Paediatrics Ward, has increased by half.

Nguyen Tien Dung, head of the ward, said symptoms typically included a high temperature, coughing and vomiting.

Hai said children should be admitted to hospital at the first sign of respiratory problems.

To minimise the chance of infecting others, parents should keep their children away from crowded places. He said homes should be well-ventilated and that parents should bathe their children at midday when the weather was warmer to avoid catching a cold.

Police arrest 2 for kidnapping baby for ransom

Police officers from the Ministry of Public Security yesterday arrested a man and a woman for kidnapping a three-month-old baby for ransom in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vo Thi Thanh Thuy, 29, and Nguyen Xuan Tam were seized while they were receiving 50 taels (1.875 kg) of gold worth US$94,000 from the mother of the child Q.M.H.

The mother, who asked not to be identified, lives on Hoang Dieu Street, Ward 6, District 4.

Thuy, a native of Bac Lieu Province, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and told the police that she had worked as a help for the baby’s family for a month after being introduced by an employment center.

On September 10, when the mother returned home from work, she panicked at not finding her baby or Thuy at home.

Soon she received a text message from an unknown phone number asking for a ransom of 50 taels of gold.

On getting a complaint from the woman, the district police and the ministry’s southern office began to investigate.

Officers received a tip-off from local residents about where the baby was being kept.

A police team later found Q.M.H. in a private kindergarten on Pham Van Chieu Street, Go Vap District. The kindergarten manager said a woman brought the baby there and picked it up every afternoon.

H’s mother told the police that an unknown man had phoned her and instructed her to bring the gold to a place he had described.

The police went there and took in the kidnappers.

Semiprecious stones smuggling rampant

Central Highland provinces' local authorities appear to be having difficulty controlling the illegal exploitation of semiprecious stones which has been going on for years.

The gems include amethyst, rose quartz, smoke quartz, agate and chalcedony, in small and medium mines on Chu Yang Sin mountain in Dak Lak Province and opals in Dak Nong Province's Dak Min District.

The rising prices of the stones made the miners determined, Dak Gan Commune People's Committee chairman Nguyen Van Tuan said. At present, it was worth about VND50 million (US$2,400) per tonne of quartz, he said.

Controlling the situation was very complicated.

"We have failed to catch illegal diggers red-handed because they always seem to know when we are going to conduct inspections and they disappear," he said.

Tuan said the miners, who came from other areas, had enticed local residents to sell their cultivation land where it was believed opals existed.

Then they brought in machines to illegally mine the opals, he said.

Reports by the Vietnam News Agency said many local residents, including students, had cut down trees and destroyed their mountain fields in an attempt to get the semiprecious stones as the prices increased.

The agency reported that two men from one commune had died after being buried alive in a local mine collapse in March.

Organisations and individuals wanting to mine for gemstones must, by law, have a licence from the Government and none had been issued in Dak Nong Province, the agency reported.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen telephone calls from a Viet Nam News reporter to the provinces' departments of Natural Resources and Environment went unanswered.

Charges to be filed in cop-vs-cop case

The Binh Thanh District police in Ho Chi Minh City have recommended criminal charges against former officer Tran Dai Phuc for attacking a traffic cop in July, a source told Tuoi Tre Tuesday.

The scuffle was shot by a passer-by and posted on YouTube, shocking the nation.

Phuc, who has been sacked for his misdemeanor, will be charged with “attacking an on-duty officer.”

On July 28 Master Sergeant Van Thanh Luan of the district traffic police caught Phuc in civilian clothes driving a motorbike but not wearing a helmet at the junction of Xo Viet Nghe Tinh and D5.

According to a police report, Luan tapped him on the shoulder with his baton and asked: “Why are you not wearing a helmet?”

Phuc was indignant and asked “Why did you hit me?” He then asked Luan why he did not perform the normal routine of standing in front of the motorbike and gesticulating.

He then began to hit Luan.

Luan’s conduct towards Phuc was in violation of the process of dealing with traffic offenders though he did not retaliate to the assault, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Tran Thanh Tra, deputy head of the Road and Railway Police Traffic Bureau, said.

Luan has been punished by having all his rewards cut off this year.

Traffic police fight with citizen sparks debate

A 30-second clip on Youtube capturing a fight between a traffic policeman and a driver in Ho Chi Minh City has sparked a debate about who was in the wrong.

In the clip, a man wearing a striped shirt, white trousers, and a blue helmet for some reason let out a string of oaths against the policeman and then pushed and beat him on the chest.

The police swore back, demanded him to speak properly and pushed him down. The fight attracted many people, none of whom intervened.

A plate on the policeman’s sleeve shows that he comes from the Rach Chiec Traffic Police.

Some netizens said the policeman was wrong and his action amounted to assault while others criticized the driver’s behavior.

Tuoi Tre will further report about the case.

Former journalist appeals against court sentence

Phan Ha Binh, former deputy managing editor of Tien Phong newspaper who was given a 7-year sentence for extortion, has filed an appeal with the Ho Chi Minh City court for a review of his case.

In his appeal, Binh said the sentence was too heavy for him and ask for a commutation, citing some mitigating circumstances such as his poor family (of which he is the main provider) and his repentance for the crime.

The court said it will give his case to the court of appeals to try him in accordance with the court’s procedures.

On August 25, the HCMC court sentenced Phan Ha Binh to 7 years in prison on criminal charges of extortion after he used his position to blackmail and demand VND220 million from the Saigon-Tan Ky Cement Joint Stock Company and US$1,000 from Luong Tai Construction & Investment Corporation.

Ha Tinh suspends 6 traffic policemen

The Police Department of Cam Xuyen District, central Ha Tinh Province Monday suspended six traffic police officers pending an investigation into their alleged extortion of truck drivers who violated traffic rules.

The suspended officers are Captain Nguyen Van Tien, head of the team, captains Nguyen Hai Bang and Nguyen Tien Thuong, Senior Lieutenant Tran Hoai Nam, and lieutenants Le Nam and Nguyen Van Nam, the district police reported.

The suspension was made after Tuoi Tre published two articles last week exposing corrupted acts among traffic policemen in several central provinces, including Ha Tinh.

Tuoi Tre found that some traffic policemen demanded fees ranging from hundreds of thousands of dong to VND12 million (US$576) from truck drivers who violated traffic rules such as overloading, speeding, and driving in wrong lanes.

Any police officers who are found guilty will be strictly punished, said Colonel Bui Dinh Quang, deputy head of the Ha Tinh Police Department.

The official said the department had asked Tuoi Tre for more information about corruption among local traffic policemen for investigation.

He said the department had also set up an inspection team to regularly check the operation of traffic policemen on duty on the streets.

The department has also ordered district police to stop examining trucks without a reason.

Yesterday, 5 policemen of the Hoa Phuoc traffic police station in Da Nang City, including the head and deputy head of the station, were also suspended for their extortion acts on July 31.

On the same day, 10 police officers of two patrol teams were suspended in Quang Binh Province and two others were similarly disciplined in Thue Thien-Hue Province.

Earlier on September 5, the Thanh Hoa Police Department also suspended 2 lieutenant colonels and a lieutenant for the same deeds.

To date, 26 traffic policemen have been suspended for extortion.

In an interview with Tuoi Tre recently, Major General Le Ngoc Nam, deputy head of the Ministry of Public Security’s General Department of Force Building, hailed the newspaper's articles and said, "We do not cover up for any corrupt traffic policemen, whoever they are."

Canada supports women's rights projects

The Canadian embassy has announced a grant of US$183,000 this year for seven projects to promote women's rights and support other disadvantaged groups in Viet Nam.

The grant will be channelled through the embassy's Canada Fund for Local Initiative (2011-12).

Four of the seven projects focus on respecting and promoting women's rights, including domestic violence prevention, legal support for lesbians, anti-human trafficking of women and children, gender equality and participatory governance.

There is a project to provide comprehensive care for poor and ethnic minority HIV-infected women; a project on child survival through improved quality and access to health services at grassroots level; a project on improving access to agriculture extension services.

Up to 82,500 people, including 420 local cadres, 4,300 ethnic minority children and nearly 6,700 disadvantaged women in provinces of Dien Bien, Lao Cai, Dak Lak, Phu Tho and Ha Noi will benefit from the projects.

Canadian ambassador Deborah Chatsis said the innovative projects were expected to make a real difference in the lives of the disadvantaged groups in Viet Nam.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre