Party Committee censures two high-ranking officials

The Central Party Inspection Committee yesterday, March 14, warned two top officials about their wrongdoings.

The officials were the Deputy Minister of Health and member of the Ministry's Party delegation, Cao Minh Quang, and the deputy secretary of Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee and chairman of the provincial people's committee, Lu Ngoc Cu.

According to the committee, Quang abused his rights by giving wrong information about ministry issues to the media, violating the ministry's working regulations, abusing his position to borrow money from his officer and wrongly declaring he was a Doctor of Health.

The committee found that Cu had violated the regulations of Government, central agencies and the provincial party committee.

He had approved some infrastructure projects that violated rules and made decisions about the establishment and operation of some funds beyond his legal authority.

The committee said the two officials also violated criteria and regulations in a way that could affect the Party's leadership role.

It added that the Party delegation to the provincial People's Committee was loose in allowing the provincial People's Committee's involvement in the faulty investment projects.

The committee said agencies would review the mistakes to confirm the final decision.

Canoe carrying 4 times capacity sinks, 6 die

A canoe that was carrying 12 people (4 times its capacity) sank on the Krong No River in Dak Nong Province on Tuesday, killing six.

The deadly accident occurred Tuesday evening when the overloaded canoe capsized by strong waves triggered by a sizable volume of water released from the Tua Sarh hydropower plant’s reservoir.

The canoe’s capacity could allow only 3 people at a time.

Six of these people managed to escape while the remainders, including the pilot, were swept away by violent currents.

Both the authorities of the province’s Krong No District and of Dak Lak Province’s Lak District mobilized their rescuers to look for the victims.

At 10 am this morning the rescuers found the bodies of two victims: 26-year-old Tran Nguyen Doan, of Dak Lak Province, and another who has not been identified.

The two were among a group of 11 engineers and staff of HCMC-based Monsanto Joint Stock Company, who were taken by the canoe piloted by Doan The Truyen, 58, from Lak district to Krong No.

The staff had been in Lak to examine the cultivation of a variety of corn they had provided to farmers.

According to authorities, Truyen was not a professional captain and his canoe was not equipped with lifebuoys.

The rescuers’ search for the four remaining victims is underway.

Gang cheats gold shops using their own gold

Police in Dong Nai province’s Long Khanh town have prosecuted a 32-year-old man for swindling jewelry shops by reselling gold items that he had bought from them after replacing most of the real gold with fake gold.

Nguyen Manh Long, of Binh Duong Province’s Thuan An Town, was arrested in February at Kim Huynh jewelry shop in the town’s Bao Vinh Commune, where he was cheating the shop’s owner using the aforementioned trick, police said.

Officers rushed to the shop after Tran Thi Huynh, the shop’s owner, reported that she was being cheated by two men, one of whom had bought a necklace containing 0.5 tael (0.6 ounces) of gold for VND22 million (US$1,060) from her in January. Huynh issued an invoice to the customer after the deal.

Long confessed to police that after buying the necklace in mid- January, he cut out a small part of the necklace which was inscribed with the shop’s own code and then had that part connected with a fake item to form a new necklace identical to the original one.

A couple days later, he took the fake item and the invoice to the shop, telling Huynh that he wanted to put pawn it for VND20 million. Huynh agreed after finding her shop’s code on the necklace and reviewing the invoice.

However, after testing the necklace later she discovered that she had been cheated.

On February 14 Long, along with his two accomplices, Dao Xuan Dong and another who was identified merely as Dung, came to the shop again and told Huynh that he wanted to sell the pawned item to her. Huynh secretly called police immediately.

When the police came, Dong and Dung managed to escape from the scene.

Another shop that fell victim to the gang was Kim Mai 1 in Thuan Giao Ward, Binh Duong Province.

On February 6 the men bought a necklace weighing 1 tael and three days later, after adding fake gold into the real one, they pawned it at the same shop, getting VND40 million ($1,920) from the shop’s owner.

They said most of the gold traders completely trusted the gang when they re-bought the gold that they had already sold.

Using the same trick, Long’s gang had been successful in cheating many jewelry shops in Dong Nai and Binh Duong.

The police are continuing their investigation and are searching for Long’s two accomplices.

People's Teacher donates awards' money to AO victims

People's Teacher Professor Bui Van Ba, 76, has donated VND200 million (US$9,600) for Agent Orange/dioxin victims.

The money is a bonus that he received from the Ho Chi Minh Awards 2010 honouring his science and technology achievement.

Nguyen Van Rinh, chairman of the Viet Nam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin said the money would be used to build centres to care for Agent Orange victims.

HCMC police arrests husband killer

The police agency of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 6 has arrested Du Kim Lien to investigate if she had used of poison to kill her husband.

The husband, 50-year-old police colonel Tran Xuan Chuyen working in Phu Lam police office under HCMC Traffic Police Department, was found unconscious in his house with symptoms of being poisoned.

District 6 police have joined hands with specialists from HCMC criminal investigation department to conduct an autopsy to identify that Chuyen had been poisoned to death.

Professional measures have then been deployed to trace the killer. 

The 44-year-old woman has confessed to the police that she was the killer.

Southern hub endeavours to protect consumer rights

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Industry and Trade and the Vietnam Competition Authority held a workshop on the rights of consumers on March 14.

The workshop focused on legal issues and policies relating to the law on protecting Vietnamese consumers.

Participants highlighted the essential role of the entire society and social organizations in protecting consumer rights.

They pointed out both physical and social difficulties faced by civic organizations involved in protecting consumer rights.

On the occasion, four businesses operating in the city signed agreements with the municipal association for protecting consumers to ensure that they implement consumer protection policies.

Danish aid supports poor youths in getting jobs

Danish Ambassador to Vietnam John Nielsen delivered US$10,000 in aid to the humanitarian vocational training centre KOTO in Hanoi on March 14.

He expressed hope that the sum, sourced from the Danish Royal Fund, will help poor young people build confidence and get steady jobs in the future.

KOTO founder Jimmy Pham said, with the support, the centre will continue its free vocational training programme and equip poor young people with the basic skills for hospitality services.

KOTO is a non-profit vocational training centre specializing in the hospitality sector, it has facilities in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

In recent time, the centre has educated over 300 young people. So far, most graduates have found steady jobs and many have successfully started up their own businesses.

Da Lat to hire foreign experts for city planning

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has agreed in principle for Da Lat City authorities to hire foreign experts as consultants in adjusting the city’s overall development planning from now until 2030.

Permission was granted after considering the proposal by the Lam Dong Province People’s Committee and the opinions of the Construction Ministry.

Accordingly, hired foreign consultants will work with their Vietnamese counterparts in modifying the overall planning by 2030, including a vision for 2050.

The provincial authorities and the ministry must coordinate with each other in giving directions for making adjustments to the city’s planning in accordance to applicable laws and regulations, Hai said.

Earlier, on November 16, 2011, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the city’s overall development planning, under which Da Lat will become a key political, administrative, economic and cultural center of Lam Dong Province.

The city is also expected to become a national and international resort, a national-level center for scientific research, training and technology transfer, and a center for studies of agricultural production and biological diversity protection.

According to a forecast, Da Lat will have a population of 620,000-650,000 and an urbanization rate of 55-60 percent in 2020. In 2030, the population will rise to 700,000-750,000 and the urbanization will increase to 65 percent.

The annual number of visitors to Da Lat is expected to be 5-6 million in 2020 and the figure will increase to 9-10 million in 2030.

Da Lat, a popular tourist destination in Vietnam, is located 1,500 m (4,900 ft) above sea level on the Langbiang Plateau in the southern parts of the Central Highlands.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre