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VND2.6 trillion to upgrade facilities for customs sector
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved VND2.6 trillion (US$126 million) for the customs sector to improve its fleets from 2011-20.
The move aims to better facilitate the prevention and control of cross-border smuggling, and make the patrol, inspection, and pursuit of violators more efficient.
These goals would help ensure the country's economic security as well as its sovereignty.
Accordingly, customs will have new fleets of patrolling boats: speed-boats with modern technical features enabling more missions and co-operation with other authorities, including police.
Domestically-made boats are preferable. Moreover, existing equipment will be maintained and upgraded.
The Prime Minister also asked relevant agencies to be active and creative in managing and using the equipment to raise the efficiency of the investment.
The fund is from the State's budget, liquidation of old equipment and other legal sources.
4 prison warders face charges for killing inmate
The Dak Lak Province Police Department has recommended charges against four prison officers who allegedly beat a prisoner to death last year.
Sub-lieutenant Nguyen Van Tho, Sergeant Major Hoang Dinh Nam, and Privates, First Class, Le Huu Thiet and Tran Van Phuc will be charged with “inflicting corporal punishment” on Truong Thanh Tuan, an inmate of Phu Trung Prison.
On September 23 last year the four officers went to Tuan’s cell to question him about the reported use of a cell phone.
Tuan allegedly denied their charge, refused to follow them to their office, and used offensive language. The enraged officers assaulted him with rubber batons and he died on the spot.
Agribank adds US$731m to develop agriculture sector
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Under the move, farmers are able to borrow money from their branches to collect and process foods and aquatic products, as well as breed animals and poultry.
The bank planed to lend nearly VND5 trillion ($244 million) including over VND4,6 trillion ($224 million) of short-term capital to enterprises to collect and process coffee for export in 2011-12.
On Monday, it also cut loan interest rates by 1.5-3 percentage points, to 17-19 per cent a year, for all loans relating to agricultural development under instructions from the Government and State Bank of Viet Nam.
Quy Nhon fisherman catches 6 great whites
In just two weeks a fisherman in the central Quy Nhon city has caught six sharks thought to be juvenile great white sharks.
Swimmers were attacked in the waters off Quy Nhon beach several times between 2009 and 2010, and in at least one case juvenile sharks were thought to be the culprits.
Nguyen Van Luyen, 48, captured two sharks last Monday near Hon Dat Island within two nautical miles of shore.
Last week he had caught four in the same area.
Local scientists have identified them as great whites, the same as a 40 kg specimen some fishermen had caught on July 11.
A large number of sharks have appeared off Quy Nhon beach since last year.
On June 12 this year Phan Van Giau, a fisherman, caught a shark weighing nearly 50 kilogram within 100 meters of shore.
In July scientists from the Nha Trang-based Institute of Oceanography captured two sharks as part of a study on the attacks.
Between July 2009 and May 2010 six people were attacked and injured.
In June 2010 - Huynh Nhu Hoang, 17, tried to swim to shore after finding a meter-long shark, but it bit his left foot when he was a few meters from the beach.
Thanh Nien quoted Dr Nguyen Xuan Dung of Military Hospital No.13, where the victim was hospitalized, as saying the bite was caused by a juvenile shark.
Ex-police officer jailed for accepting bribe
A former lieutenant-colonel with southern Dong Nai Province Police was sentenced to five years' jail yesterday for taking a bribe of VND10 million ($485).
Police said Tran Ngoc Anh was in charge of investigating a murder in Tan Phu District in 2009 that involved six people.
Anh was alleged to have helped the wife of one jailed suspect to visit him many times without permission from provincial police.
11 people die in central floods
The severe floods in the central region have so far claimed 11 lives and caused great losses to the infrastructure and crops, the Central Steering Board for Flood and Storms Control reported.
Yesterday morning, Nguyen Thi Thuy, 40, and her son Phan Viet Thoi,16, were stricken dead by lightning while working on a rice field in Phu Da Town, Phu Vang District, Thua Thien-Hue Province, local authorities said.
17-year-old Pham Thi Duy Uyen, a student at the High School for Students Gifted in Sports in Binh Thuan Province, was swept away by floodwaters while on the way to school Monday morning and rescuers found her body that evening, the provincial Command for Search and Rescue reported.
In Nghe An Province, on Sunday, a mother and daughter were swept away while crossing a stream. Their bodies were found Tuesday.
The floods have also caused severe damage to infrastructure, houses, and crops in many provinces.
In Nghe An, two mountain rockslides occurred in Tuong Duong District Tuesday, posing a threat to the Ban Ve Hydropower Plant.
The province has seen 800 houses collapsed and tens of thousands of hectares of paddy fields submerged.
In Lam Dong Province, 10 bridges have been knocked down, over 500 houses have been damaged, and thousands hectares of crops have been submerged. The total damage is estimated at VND10 billion (US$480,000).
Floods halt traffic on main roads in Nghe An
Traffic in many parts of central Nghe An Province have been blocked due to heavy rain over the last three days.
Main roads, including 533 and 598B, were covered by up to 1 metre of floodwaters.
Elderly to pay less to visit historical sites
Citizens aged 60 or more will only have to pay about half as much for fares to visit historical and cultural sites and museums.
From October 24, they will only have to show an identification card to classify, states the Finance Ministry's Circular 127.
Ha Noi public offices to accept e-signatures
Forty-seven offices of Ha Noi People's Committee and its departments, as well as the People's Committees of district and town levels, will start applying a digital signature in e-document exchanges as of today.
Accordingly, the municipal committee will use the digital signature in documents, including legal papers, decisions, meeting invitation, circulars, announcements.
Other offices will apply the signatures for meeting invitations and decisions; they expected to expand the application.
Landslide threatens Ba Mountain project
A landslide warning has been issued near the construction site of a tourism project close to the historical relic of Ba Mountain in the central province of Binh Dinh.
Head of the province's historical relics management board Dac Ngoc Tho said that the project was aimed at developing the area around the old military base for tourists, but progress had been hampered while some phases were waiting for approval.
Heavy rains were likely to wash rocks and sand from the incomplete phases onto the road from Cat Tien to Cat Khanh Communes, Tho said.
The project has an investment of VND10 billion (US$485,000).
Agency wants House to re-consider hydro projects
The Vietnam Rivers Network yesterday, Sep 14, formally asked the National Assembly and the Government to think twice about ratifying two hydro power projects in the southern region on environmental grounds.
The agency said three crucial issues must be resolved before the Dong Nai 6 and Dong Nai 6A projects on the Dong Nai River, can be approved.
First, the investor – Duc Long Gia Lai Group Joint Stock Company – should make a re-assessment on the social and environment impacts the two projects can have on the areas where they are expected to be built.
These projects will cover parts of four downstream provinces of Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc, Lam Dong, and Dong Nai.
Second, an environmental management program should be set up to find solutions to minimizing the projects’ possible impacts on the environment and the life of people in the affected areas.
Such solutions should be concrete, feasible and widely publicized, the agency said.
Last, it is necessary to establish a national consulting council to assess the feasibility of the two projects, and such a council must include experienced experts.
When the three issues have yet to be done, the granting of licenses to the hydro projects should be postponed, the agency requested.
Last month, at a scientific conference in Dong Nai province on August 7, Dr. Le Anh Tuan, from the Climate Change Research Institute of Can Tho University, said “it is not advisable to build these two projects, as they may have great impacts on the entire region’s ecosystem, especially the Cat Tien National Park.”
After Nguyen Van Si, the representative of the investor, briefed about these two projects to the conference, Dr. Vu Ngoc Long, deputy head of the Tropical Biological Institute, said, “I have obtained the database of the two projects and found they have been prepared carelessly”.
The projects’ environmental impact assessment reports do not mention or insufficiently mention many environmental issues, including impacts on the ecosystem, the movement of fish, the wild life, the river currents, and the water saturation level, according to some other experts.
Laotian smuggles explosives to Hanoi from Paris
A Laotian national who arrived at Hanoi airport from Paris with explosives and a gun has been allowed to travel home after the Laotian embassy put up bail for the passenger.
Security officials at Noi Bai International Airport Tuesday found the unnamed Laotian arriving by Vietnam Airlines flight VN534 with 0.5 kg of TNT besides a shotgun with bullets after the passenger somehow managed to smuggle them out of France.
They detained the Laotian for inquiry when the Laotian embassy offered its guarantee for the passenger.
They allowed the Laotian to fly home at noon yesterday.
Pham Viet Thanh, the chairman and deputy general director of Vietnam Airlines, called on the Ministry of Transport and other agencies to go by the book in handling the incident.
He also urged the ministry to inform French authorities about the incident to prevent similar occurrences in future.
Vietnamese and Laotian authorities are set to probe the incident.
The name of the passenger has been withheld.
Procuracy head suspended on party death
The Long An Province People’s Procuracy yesterday, Sep 14, suspended the head of a district procuracy pending an investigation into his presence at a party thrown by a local businessman last month in which a young woman died.
Nguyen Kim Doan has been replaced as chief of the Can Giuoc prosecutor’s office by Vo Hoang Nguyen, deputy head of the Ben Luc District Procuracy.
The district party committee said Doan and his deputy Nguyen Huong Giang had violated the moral code for party members by attending a party on a ferry on the Vam Co River August 20 with five women, including Dang Thi Kim Phuong, who died after falling into the river.
The police said Phuong’s death was an accident and no foul play was suspected.
Some of the women worked for karaoke parlors, they said.
Earlier this month the committee asked the prosecutor’s office to consider disciplinary action against the duo for their acts.
However, three days later it called for a halt to the proceedings after receiving new information about Giang’s relationship with some of the women, and now verifying the information.
Doan and Giang had reported to the committee that they had not known the five girls before the party.
But some locals told Tuoi Tre that Giang had been acquainted with some of them.
Another local told Tuoi Tre that a few days before the party he had seen Giang drinking in a bar with Phuong and another of the women.
The director of a company in Can Giuoc, who asked to remain unidentified, swore that he had seen Giang and two of the five women drinking at a local café at least once.
Both the committee and police are continuing with their own investigations.
Vietnam considering int’l search for cinema department’s accountant
The Vietnam Ministry of Public Security is working with Interpol to issue an international search warrant for a former accountant at the Central Cinema Department who is now wanted nationwide following the embezzlement of a hefty sum of money.
Pham Thanh Hai, 34, is charged with forging documents and misappropriating VND42 billion (US$2 billion) from the department.
He was just a staff member of the department’s finance and accounting office, but authorized to withdraw money from banks when the chief accountant was absent.
Hai was found having faked payment orders and signatures to take out the money from the department’s bank accounts between 2009 and May 2011.
He is suspected to have fled overseas.
Earlier, the head of the Central Cinema Department and his deputy were forced to step down following strong protests from movie industry influences about the misappropriation.
Industry influential people have hinted at corruption and a cover-up by the two since the embezzlement had gone on for three years but the duo claimed to know nothing about it.
Maid captured for stealing over VND1bil
Police in the central province of Phu Yen arrested a 51-year-old woman Tuesday for stealing over VND1 billion (US$48,500), local newswire Vn Express reported.
Their investigation has shown Nguyen Thi My Dung, a maid at Hong Ngoc Company which is based in Phu Yen's provincial capital Tuy Hoa and trades in aquatic products, stole VND1.09 billion from the firm on September 2, Vietnam’s national holiday, when none of its employees went to work.
A day earlier, Tuong Vy, the company’s accountant, withdrew VND1.1 billion from a local bank, used VND10 million of which to pay for its purchase orders, and locked the remaining amount in her cabinet before leaving the workplace.
Dung had noticed Vy often puts the cabinet's key on her desk, so she went to the firm’s office on the holiday and thieved the money.
She extracted VND100 million to settle her personal debt and hid the rest.
Vy was shocked not to find the money in her cabinet when she got back to work, and reported the theft to the police.
Dung repeatedly protested her innocence when questioned by the police, but then confessed the stealing after she failed to explain the origin of the VND100-million sum she had used to pay for her debt.
Local police recovered the remaining at Dung’s place.
Dung’s family then submitted VND100 million to local police to make up for the lost amount.
The woman is remanded in 4-month custody, pending further investigation.
Who’s wrong in cop rough handling case?
Two main characters in the 30-second YouTube clip capturing a scuffle between a traffic policeman and a motorcyclist on September 4 in Ho Chi Minh City have been identified; the man said he thought the police officer attacked him and thus verbally abused him, resulting in the controversial fight.
The policeman in the clip has been identified as second lieutenant Trinh Hong Giang of traffic police team Rach Chiec under Ho Chi Minh City’s Road & Railway Traffic Police Bureau.
According to Giang’s report, while he and his colleague lieutenant colonel Doan Van Nhan were patrolling on National Highway 1A in Binh Thang Commune, Di An District in the southern province of Binh Duong at 1:45pm on September 4, a drunk man came close and heavily swore at him for no reason.
To handle the situation, Giang subdued the aggressive man to and intended to report the case to local police.
But the man’s wife later came to the scene and apologized to Giang. He then let him go without making a report.
Meanwhile, the aggressive man - Nguyen Quang Thanh from Ho Chi Minh City’s District 9 - said when he was driving his wife and child on the street, someone hit him on the hand from behind with a stick.
Angry, he parked his bike, saw officer Giang and mistakenly thought Giang was the man who hit him. He thus started the verbal abuse.
However, Thanh’s wife later confirmed Giang was not the one who hit her husband from behind.
According to Senior Lieutenant Colonel Tran Thanh Tra, deputy head of the Road and Railway Police Traffic Bureau, the department has asked the two traffic policemen to report on the case.
Two women swallow toothbrushes in Dong Nai
V.N.D., a female prisoner in Dong Nai province last Saturday tried to kill herself in a new way: swallowing a toothbrush.
D. was hospitalized having difficulty breathing as the toothbrush was stuck in her gullet.
The toothbrush D. swallowed has its head broken, making it hard for an endoscopy. However, doctors at Dong Nai General Hospital could manage to take it out and saved her.
Five days later in another independent case, N.T.M, a 22-year-old resident in Bien Hoa City, also in Dong Nai Province, was similarly saved after she swallowed a 20 centimeter toothbrush complete with the bristles.
“It is quite difficult to swallow toothbrush through the fauces. I have never seen patients like that before,” said doctor Dinh Cao Minh who was in charge of the two strange cases.
HCM City airport car tolls to rise in October
Tolls for cars to domestic and international terminals at HCM City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport will be increased next month.
The toll for cars with less than five seats will be doubled to VND10,000 (US$0.5), while for cars with 7-15 seats it will be VND15,000 ($0.7) and cars with 16-30 seats and more, VND 20,000 ($1).
About 9,000 cars visit the terminals each day.
VNN/ VNS/Tuoi Tre
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