Northern areas to have a cold Tet

The north is likely to experience cold weather during Tet (Lunar New Year), announced the National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre.

A cold spell is set to hit northern cities and provinces on Friday, just three days before the Lunar New Year. Forecasters predict it will last for several days.

Temperatures are expected to drop to below 10 degrees Celsius in the highlands while humidity will reach around 80 per cent.

Hydrofoil bursts into flame

Photo: VOV

Local firefighters arrived promptly at the accident scene and took immediate action to save the hydrofoil. No loss of human life has been reported.

The hydrofoil, operated by the Dong Song Xanh Co. Ltd (Greenlines), began its journey from Ho Chi Minh City at 7am on January 15 and arrived in Vung Tau city at 8.30am the same day. The accident occurred while it was filling up with over 400 liters of oil before its return trip to HCM City.

The cause of the accident is under investigation.

Man kills wife then attempts suicide

On Sunday a 33-year-old man stabbed his wife to death and then jumped from the second floor of a café in a suicide attempt in Can Tho City. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

At 11:15 Nguyen Thi Men was working at a café on 6 Tran Phu Street, Cai Khe Ward, Ninh Kieu District, when her husband, Nguyen Cong Quoc, of Soc Trang Province, arrived and then began a violent quarrel with her.

Le Duc Anh, an attendant at the café, said that at that time, all the other workers at the café, except Men, were sleeping, but the screams for help from the woman woke him up. He then ran from the third floor to the room on the floor below and found Quoc sitting on Men’s abdomen, with a sharp knife in his hand.

Anh advised him to stop his violent act, but Quoc refused and forced him out.

When Anh began calling for help from others, Quoc rapidly stabbed Men multiple times, killing her, and then rushed to the balcony and jumped off.

Locals called the police who came and found that Men had died. They took Quoc to the Can Tho General Hospital for emergency treatment and examined the scene.

Quoc was Men’s second husband, and they have an 8-year-old son. She had her own 16-year-old daughter.

Quoc left two letters before committing the killing and suicide attempt. One of the letters is for his mother and the other is unfinished.

Yesterday evening, Jan 15, doctors at the hospital said Quoc was still in fatal condition after hours of treatment.

The police are continuing their investigation.

After three days of treatment, Phan Duc Hoa, a 32-year-old taxi driver of Vinasun, who was severely burned when his cab suddenly exploded into flames on January 11, died at Hospital 175 in HCMC on Thursday, Jan 14.

Doctors said 80% of his body was burnt, leading to respiratory failure, liver failure, kidney failure, and cardiovascular collapse. Hoa’s body has been taken to central Nghe An Province, his native land, for burial.

Ta Long Hy, director of Vinasun, said the company had paid part of Hoa’s hospital fees and gave his family a sum of money as support.

On January 11, when Hoa was sleeping inside the cab that parked in front of Nam Phat Dat Gas Station in District 12, the vehicle suddenly caught fire.

Local residents who discovered the fire slammed on the door to wake Hoa up and tried to put out the fire.

As the fire spread, the witnesses broke the door, pulled him out and took him to the hospital.

The rear and side mirrors of the car were broken and the ceiling collapsed, while the outer part was not affected.

According to a manager at the gas station, Hoa often stopped in front of the station to rest at night.

An initial investigation by the police showed that Hoa had mistakenly turned on the heater instead of the cooler before he went to sleep.

Red River sees small flood upstream

The water level in the upstream parts of the Hong (Red) River passing through Lao Cai Province recorded a small surge, submerging parts of residents' farms and construction sites on the two sides of the river.

Luu Minh Hai, deputy director of the Lao Cai Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said this was the first time flooding along the river had been recorded in the winter. The water levels in the province's rivers were at extremely low levels during this time last year.

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting also said yesterday that cold weather would ease in the northern area during the coming days but light rains would continue.

3 men arrested for extorting bus passengers

After several days of investigation, the police in Binh Duong Province on Saturday arrested 3 members of a gang that threatened bus passengers to exhort money on National Highway 1A.

The men are 30-year-old Thai Quy and 33-year-old Nguyen Viet Minh from Ha Tinh Province and Nguyen Van Tuyen, 33, from Nghe An Province.

The police are hunting another member of the gang, said Captain Nguyen Van Diep, deputy head of the anti-social crime investigation police of Binh Duong’s Di An Town.

The arrest was made after many victims reported that they had to give money to several men who had threatened to assault them on the buses, the official said.

The men confessed to the police that they often got on the buses that ran between the Song Than and Linh Xuan overhead bridges to mug money from passengers.

The latest extortion by the gang occurred on the night of January 11, when Minh and Quy got on a bus at the Lam Hong bus station and threatened some passengers to give them money.

After the men left, the bus’s driver reported to the police.

The Di An town police have requested all bus drivers to call the hot line 0918059054 to report any safety problem that may occur to passengers, Diep said.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre