Resettled residents to get more support

The Government has lengthened the support period from two to three years for resettlement residents of the northern Son La hydroelectricity plant project, the largest of its type in Viet Nam.

The Government recently decided that each household will receive an allowance equal to 20kg of rice per person per month for three years.

The change also applies to families who were not forced to move but have had their farmland expropriated for the project.

The decision will come into effect on October 6.

So far nearly 14,000 out of 18,000 households, making up 70 per cent of households in the resettlement areas, have received new farmland.

The authorities of Son La, Lai Chau and Dien Bien provinces are completing procedures to assign farmland to the remaining households, said Mua A Son, chairman of the Lai Chau People's Committee.

"We are also making a list of residents' expectations of changing jobs and setting up plans to give them vocational training," he said.

The construction of the US$3.2 billion Son La Hydropower project was formally started on December 2, 2005 and is expected to be completed by 2015.

The process has required the largest resettlement in Viet Nam's history. Most of these residents have been moved between 50 to 100 kilometres away from their old homes and settled down to a new life.

Jealous Ho Chi Minh City man kills lover

A man in Ho Chi Minh City strangled his paramour after she asked to end the relationship and burnt her body to cover up his crime before turning himself in the same day.
Pham Hue Trang, a 31-year-old woman, was married with two children, but was allegedly having an affair with Le Van Sy, 38.
Ten days before her death, Trang moved to a room near Sy’s house on Tan Hoa Dong Street in District 6 to persuade him to end their affair.
But suspicious that Trang had found another man, Sy became jealous. Last Friday he went to Trang’s place to try and win back her affection. But the two began to fight, and Sy throttled Trang to death with a towel.
Realizing she was dead, Sy covered her body with clothes, placed a portable gas stove on it, and set it on fire. He then locked the door and fled.
According to the police, neighbors spotted a fire in the house at 2am last Friday and broke in to find Trang dead and burnt from head to chest.
Sy went to the local police office that evening and admitted to his crime.

Quang Ngai dam threatens 49 houses

A dam that is under construction in Quang Ngai Province threatens to overflow following massive inflows and inundate 49 houses.
The Nuoc Trong reservoir in Tay Tra District is soon expected to rise to 108 meters, local authorities warned, while its capacity is 115.5 m.

Many residents living near the facility have moved to higher places and built temporary houses, pending the allotment of a permanent resettlement area.
Ho Thi Ut, one such resident living in Nuoc Biec Hamlet, told Tuoi Tre: “We waited for three months but do not know when resettlement areas will be available. We therefore had to build temporary houses without electricity or water.
When the reservoir – and a 16 MW hydropower plant – was planned, land and houses to resettle 465 households were supposed to be available by last April, but only 194 families have so far been relocated.
Cao Van Liep, director of the project management unit, blamed this on a lack of funds.
While VND120 billion (US$5.77 million) was needed for compensation and building houses, only VND9 billion had been allotted, he said.

Each affected household was to be paid VND6 million in compensation, but many families said the money was only enough for a makeshift house.
Liep said 49 families lived close to the dam since they had not even been paid this compensation and they lacked the money to build a temporary shelter.
The PMU did not have funds to help them, he added.
Nuoc Trong reservoir, under construction since 2005 and scheduled to be completed next year, will also irrigate 53,000 hectares of farm lands and supply water to the Dung Quat Economic Zone, Tinh Phong Industrial Park, and Quang Ngai city.

Flash flood kills two in Lao Cai

A flash flood triggered by heavy rains in Van Ban District in northern Lao Cai Province last Friday killing two girls, local authorities reported.

Ma Thi Hang, 19, and Hoang Thi Nguyen, nine, were swept away while they were walking near Dan Thang stream.

Local rescue forces mobilised 200 workers and local residents to search for the girls. The body of Ma Thi Hang was discovered 300 metres from where she disappeared on Saturday.

Rescue workers are continuing to search for Nguyen.

Over the past three days, there have been prolonged downpours in the region, with rainfall reaching 200 mm. About 2 ha of paddy fields and 5 ha of other crops have been destroyed, the local authority said.

Stone-throwing kills man in Phu Yen

Police in the central Phu Yen Province are hunting for several men who reportedly threw stones at people on motorbikes last Friday, killing a 32-year-old man.
From the victims’ reports to the police, it appears that at 10 pm on August 12 several men traveling on two motorbikes in the district’s Xuan Quang 3 Commune were suddenly attacked with stones by strangers also on motorbikes.
Half an hour later, a similar incident took place in Xuan Phuoc Commune, five kilometers away.
Five people were seriously injured and taken to hospital.
One of them, Nguyen Thanh Chung, 32, of Xuan Quang 3, died the next day, while Trinh Van Giang and Nguyen Van Dinh of the same commune remain in hospital with brain injuries.
Following the victims’ complaint, the police have begun an investigation and are trying to track down the culprits, Senior Lieutenant Le Van Dinh, head of the Dong Xuan District police, said.

Illegal drugs seized in Thanh Hoa Province

Police in central Thanh Hoa Province arrested two people found to be in possession of 20kg of marijuana that they were allegedly taking from central Nghe An Province to Ha Noi.

The car carrying Nguyen Van Cuong, 28, and Nguyen Thi Huong, 27, was stopped in Thanh Hoa Province. Earlier, Nghe An Police tried to apprehend the two suspected drug traffickers but they managed to escape.

Drunk motorbike rider kills police officer

A 21-year-old man was arrested yesterday, Aug 14, for crashing his motorbike into a police patrol motorbike while under the influence and causing the death of an officer in Thua Thien - Hue Province.
The accident in Phu Loc District August 6 occurred because Hoang Rin had lost control over his vehicle, police said.
Rin, a local resident, has been charged with “violating road traffic regulations causing serious consequences” and will be held for three months for investigation, the province Department of Social Crime Investigation Police said.
At 10 pm that fateful day Rin was riding at high speed when he hit the motorbike with Sub-lieutenant Vo Huu Tai of the district police and his superior, Senior-Lieutenant Pham Van Phuc, on it.
All four people were seriously injured and taken to hospital for emergency treatment. Phuc, who suffered a severe brain trauma, died five days later.

Suspected rapist found hanging dead

A suspected rapist, 26-year-old Le Van Tran, a resident of Dong Hoa District in Phu Yen Province, has been found hanging dead while in custody on Friday.

The provincial police buried the body of Tran, who was found dead at 11 pm, a few hours after he was arrested for allegedly taking part in a gang rape earlier the same day.

Tran’s family refused to take back his body, saying he hadn’t committed suicide.

According to Colonel Pham Van Hoa, Director of the provincial police department, Tran hanged himself with a waistband he had removed from the pants of his prisoner uniform.

Hoa said the police had examined the scene and conducted an autopsy on Tran before informing his family of his death.

As the family refused to receive the body, the police buried the body at 1:30 pm Saturday and autopsy results would be sent to the Ministry of Public Security’s Criminal Science Institute for examination, Hoa said.

On Friday evening, the police arrested Tran and seven others, from 15 to 21 years of age, for gang raping two girls at a beach in Hoa Hiep Trung Commune.

They were drinking and having a party at the beach when they saw H.T.U, 14, and H.T.G, 17, bathing in the sea.

The men then hid the girls’ clothes and promised to return them if the girls agreed to drink with them.

At 8 pm, when the girls got drunk, the young men took them to a nearby place and took turn raping them for a few hours before fleeing from the scene.

HCMC to support poor immigrant workers

Ho Chi Minh City will give an allowance to poor people who will be sent overseas for work under labor export contracts from now until the year end, the municipal People’s Committee has said.

This allowance will help cover 30 percent to 50 percent of the total expenses of these contracts, which are around VND7 million and include foreign language and vocational training.

Under this pilot plan, poor people taking part in labor export programs will be classified into two groups based on their incomes.

Those with an income of less than VND10 million (US$480) per year will receive a 50 percent allowance and those with a higher income, 30 percent.

In the first 6 months of this year, 34 poor people were sent overseas for work, mainly to Japan and South Korea.

Cable stretched across street kills motorist

43-year-old Nguyen Khac Tri was killed by a stretching cable when he was riding motorcycle on a street in O Mon District in the southern city of Can Tho on Friday.

The accident took place at 1:30 pm when he fell off the bike after it drove into a cable stretched across the road. He later died at hospital from severe injuries.

The cable also caused slight injuries to two young men on a motorcycle one hour earlier, police said.

Right after the fatal accident, local residents attached plastic bags and silk cloths to the cable to serve as a warning signal to street-goers.

Eyewitnesses said the cable trap had caused numerous traffic accidents but this is the first fatal one.

Local authorities have yet to give any comments.

Vietnam to have new international airport in 2020

Vietnam will have another international airport - this one in Dong Nai Province in the South - in 2020 when it will serve as one of the largest transit airports in Southeast Asia.
According to the airport project announced last Friday, the Long Thanh International Airport will be seated on an area of 5,000 hectares in Long Thanh town, 40 kilometers northeast of Ho Chi Minh City and 70 kilometers northwest of the coastal city of Vung Tau.
HCMC currently has Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the largest airport in Vietnam.
The new Long Thanh airport is graded “4F”, meaning it will be capable of serving 100 million passengers and 5 million tons of goods a year, according to classification by the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The airport project, which was approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last month, will be divided into three phases, with the first phase ending in 2020 and costing about US$6.74 billion.

The construction of the airport is planned to start in 2015 and be completed in 2020.

The airport will have two simultaneous landing and take-off runways by 2020, three simultaneous runways by 2030, and four runways after 2030.

The facility will be capable of serving 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tons of cargo a year by 2020, 50 million passengers and 1.5 million tons of cargo by 2030, and 100 million passengers and 5 million tons of cargo after 2030.
“The new airport will contribute to the economic, social and cultural development of the southern region in particular and the whole country in general,” Transport Minister Dinh La Thang said.
According to the HCMC People’s Committee, this new airport is expected to replace the role of the Tan Son Nhat Airport as a large transition airport in Southeast Asia; the latter will of course still continue normal operation.

Denmark helps Dak Lak develop agriculture

The Danish government has provided over US$4 million for the Central Highland province of Dak Lak to implement an agricultural and rural development programme in the 2008-2012 period.

At a working session with the provincial leaders on August 12, Deputy Ambassador of Denmark to Vietnam Lis Rosenholm praised Dak Lak province for its effective use of the Danish aid.

To date, the province has allocated over VND45 billion towards implementing the programme’s objectives, including increasing agricultural economic growth, developing agricultural and rural infrastructure, improving living conditions for residents, strengthening the protection and use of natural resources, maintaining a sustainable environment and raising management capacity.

Between now and 2012, Dak Lak pledges to use the remaining capital effectively, to ensure that agriculture will account for 46 percent of the province’s economy, and 76 percent of rural residents will gain access to safe water.

Official expelled from Party for fake diplomas

The Party Committee secretary and acting director of a branch of the Agriculture and Rural Development Bank of Vietnam in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province has been ousted from the Communist Party of Vietnam for using fake diplomas.
The expulsion was announced Friday by the provincial Party Committee to Nguyen Ngoc Khai, 52, who was discovered using three counterfeit high-school certificates, a fake advanced political theory certificate, and a false English level-C certificate.
A source told Tuoi Tre that the Party Committee has also proposed to the bank’s board of management to dismiss Khai.
Khai, from northern Hai Duong Province, admitted he asked an acquaintance in Ho Chi Minh City to forge the advanced political theory certificate for him so he could be appointed as vice director of the branch in 2003, Thanh Nien reports.
Local investigators also found that Khai obtained three counterfeit high school graduation certificates from Dong Nai and Hai Duong Provinces and bought a Level-C English certificate for VND1.5 million (US$72) at a foreign language training center in HCMC.

Filipino fisherman rescued off Truong Sa Islands

The central Da Nang City’s Department of Foreign Affairs is working with the Philippine Embassy in Hanoi to repatriate a Filipino fisherman who was rescued at sea last month.
43-year-old Bochito Lagdamin was saved by a Vietnamese fishing boat, DNa 90258, when he was drifting off the Truong Sa (Spratly) Islands at 3 pm July 10, said Colonel Duong De Dung, commander of the Border Guard in Da Nang City.
The man, from Negros Island of the Philippines, was provided first aid and taken care of by the crew until the boat landed at Da Nang Port last Friday.
Lagdamin, who is married with two children, has been accommodated at the Border Guard Station 248 pending a hand-over, said Pham Phu Thanh, the captain of the boat.
Lagdamin’s health is in good condition, Thanh added.

Container dropped from rolling truck, no casualty

A 40-foot container was fallen from a truck running at a sharp bend at a T-junction in Di An District of the southern province Binh Duong last Friday. Luckily, no one was hurt from the accident.

It has caused a traffic jam lasting for an hour at noon time at the intersection between Doc Lap avenue and 743 Road. The container has been slightly deformed due to strong collision with road surface.

Driver of the truck even attempted to assault Tuoi Tre cameramen working at the scene.

Three similar cases had taken place at the sharp bend on Cat Lai Bypass at the Ho Chi Minh City’s Cat Lai intersection when containers were fallen down to street from driving trucks.

The latest case at Cat Lai took place on August 11 when a 40-foot container fell down and spilled glue on road surface. Two other cases were on July 26 and in September last year.

Male beggar given death sentence for murder

Ho Chi Minh City Court last Friday awarded a death sentence to Tran Van Thanh, 38, for organizing to kill a taxi motorbike rider for jealousy, cut the body into pieces before hiding away with his girlfriend.

Two culprits in the murder case, his girlfriend Le Thi Phuong and her stepson Tran Minh Na, were respectively given penalties of 4 years and 9 months in jail for concealing the criminal for 18 months.

All the three criminals had resided in the central city of Hue before moving to Ho Chi Minh City in 2008 and hiring a house to live in district 12, where Thanh earned his living as a beggar by disguising himself as a disabled and Phuong, 41, sold lottery tickets.

Feeling jealous for close ties between his girlfriend and the taxi motorbike rider Nguyen Manh Hung, Thanh bought a knife, rope and bags to plot his plan of killing Hung.

On May 24, 2009, Thanh invited Hung to his house for drinking. After a while, Thanh turned up loud music to avoid notice from neighbors before striking a baton on the head of the victim several times when the victim just stepped out of rest room.

The victim fell down to the floor for getting in the fatal faint and Thanh stabbed the body several times to ensure a death.

Then, with the help of Phuong and Na, Thanh cut the body into pieces and put them in three bags in the locked house and fleeing to the central province Phu Yen.

The case was only discovered 10 days after the incident by house owner. Thanh and the two culprits were nabbed in October last year.

State Vice President donates gifts to AO victims in Ha Nam

State Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan presented 85 gifts worth VND200 million to Agent Orange (AO) victims and poor students in northern Ha Nam province on August 12.

In her speech at the ceremony, Mrs. Doan expressed her sympathy with AO victims and local poor students while urging them to overcome every difficulty in their lives.

The State Vice President called upon social organisations and philanthropists to provide more support and assistance for AO victims as well as the younger generation.

She also asked Ha Nam to pay greater attention to families of social policy beneficiaries, thus helping them to enjoy a better life.

On the occasion, many agencies and businesses donated hundreds of gifts to social policy beneficiaries and education centres in Ha Nam.

Sacked vice chief judge flees from debts

After being dismissed, a former vice chief judge of the People’s Court of the southern province of Ben Tre has allegedly fled from his residence to evade creditors.
Nguyen Van Thanh, who was sacked on August 1 due to failing to fulfill his duties, has been accused by many local residents of failing repaying debts to them, Trinh Thi Thanh Binh, chief judge of the court, said Thursday.
Binh also said she and some other court officials had came to Thanh’s house in Mo Cay Nam District but could not find him.
According to local residents and his creditors, Thanh had sold his house and went away, Binh said.
In their complaints to the court, Thanh’s victims said they lent him money since they trust him, a high-ranking court official.
Some of Thanh’s creditors even said they had used their land use certificates to secure for bank loans which were then lent to Thanh.
The court would instruct the victims on how to take legal actions against the former court leader, Binh said.
She also said Thanh will be expelled from the Communist Party of Vietnam if he fails to show up at the court to clarify accusations against him.

Center ordered to stop using ‘detect-all’ scanner

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health last Thursday ordered a medical center to stop using a scanner which it claims to be able to detect many diseases because of certain violations.

The department’s director Pham Viet Thanh said a scientific panel had been summoned to look into the E.S. Teck Complex scanner at Hong Lac Medical Center in District 5 and concluded that there is no evidence that the machine can detect the diseases.

“The department has thus suspended this scanner,” Thanh said, adding that the department had also consulted the Ministry of Health, which licensed the machine in 2009.

The E.S. Teck Complex scanner recently attracted hundreds of patients, mostly from Mekong Delta provinces, who believed their diseases could be detected simply by having electrodes placed on their thumbs and head.

Thanh said Nguyen Van Duc, who operated the scanner, had violated health regulations as he didn’t have a private medical practice certificate issued by the municipal Department of Health.

Thanh said Lac Hong also violated health regulations as the scanner was not included in its equipment inventory registered with the municipal department.

Early this month, Phan Thanh Hai, director of HCMC-based Medic Medical Center, told Tuoi Tre that his center had conducted tests to verify the diagnosing capabilities of the machine and concluded that it yielded inaccurate results.

“The machine’s diagnosing method lacked a scientific foundation,” he said.

Pham Ngoc Hoa, chairwoman of the Vietnam Image Diagnostic Association, also said there is no machine that can diagnose many diseases at the same time as the E.S Teck Complex claimed.

HCMC to scrutinize illegally-built brewery

The Ho Chi Minh City Inspectorate said last Thursday it would further investigate a brewery that had been built illegally for possible violations in land use, taxpaying and food safety.

Previously, the beer plant Vinaken of Tien Dong Co. Ltd. in Ba Diem Commune, Hoc Mon District was found to have been built on 13,104 ha within the residential project of a real estate agency, Hoang Hai Company, without a license.

The inspectors said the brewery was a joint investment between Tien Dong Company and Ngo Quang Truong, former director of Hoang Hai Company.

Truong has been arrested for hiring a gang to attempt to kill Hoang Hai Company’s deputy director Dang Xuan Sy, who opposed Truong’s faking documents in the brewery project, Phap Luat Thanh Pho Newspaper has reported.

Early this month, Vinaken was also involved in a dispute over the treating of a large amount of expired beer.

Last June, Vinaken, under the approval by the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, signed a contract with HCMC-based Tan Chau Binh Vina Company to treat 54,000 cartons of expired beer.

But the Environmental Crime Prevention and Fighting Police Department (C49) last month found that Vinaken was not licensed to treat the beer and as its wastewater treatment system was set up only to treat its own wastewater.

The environment authorities immediately halted the project.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre