Three arrested for counterfeiting diplomas

Southern Can Tho City police yesterday arrested three men, including a retired teacher, for counterfeiting diplomas and certificates on a large scale.

The arrested are Nguyen Quang Long, of the city’s Ninh Kieu District, Huynh Van Dung, of Giong Rieng district, southern Kien Giang province; and Le Thanh Hai, a retired teacher in Chau Thanh A district, southern Hau Giang province.

According to the police’s initial investigation, Hai placed orders of fake diplomas with Nguyen Quang Lan, of Ninh Kieu District, who was an expert in counterfeiting various diplomas and certificates of all educational levels.

After suffering limb paralysis, Lan handed down his skills to his son, Long, who continued doing business with Hai.

Long provided false diplomas and certificates at prices ranging between VND1.2 and 2.5 million (US$57-120), depending on the requirements.

From 2008 to 2010, Long made and delivered to Hai 31 senior high school diplomas, 19 temporary graduation certificates, five school reports, five certificates of university entrance examination results, 14 graduation exam ID cards, 1 junior high school diploma, and 1 grade 12 graduation certificate.

The police are expanding their investigation to track down others involved in the case.

Money for Pass, teacher ends up in prison

A college lecturer in Ho Chi Minh’s District 12 was sentenced to four-year imprisonment Friday following charges of suggesting and accepting bribes from his students.

The final verdict was given by courts of appeal after an earlier ruling that carried a sentence of three-year imprisonment was deemed too lenient by prosecutors.

Le Duc Cong, 30, has been teaching electrical engineering at the Ho Chi Minh Electrical Engineering College since 2006.

In July 2009, prior to a course final exam, of which he was one of the four test makers and graders, Cong suggested to the class president he would pass any student who gave him VND 2 million (US$ 96).

Seven of them agreed and after giving him the money were told to leave a special mark on their answer sheets so he could recognize them.

When the exam results were announced, only four of these bribing students got a passing grade. The remaining three, who failed, were given their money back by Cong.

The case came to light in August when the college discovered suspicious marks on students’ exam papers.

He was removed from his position before the case brought to the police.

Motorcyclists raise over $40,000 for disadvantaged

Fifteen people, including 14 foreigners, kick-started their classic Soviet motorbikes in Ha Dong District on Wednesday and began their journey down the Ho Chi Minh Trail after raising more than US$40,000 for disadvantaged Vietnamese children.

Funds from the rally were donated to the Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, an Australian charity aiming to make a lasting change for kids in crisis.

Riders from Australia, the US, England, Sweden, and the Philippines and Viet Nam will all ride fully restored Soviet-era Ural motorcycles to Hoi An via the historical trail before finishing their trip in HCM City next Saturday.

"It's a good cause, so we signed up for it. Last year I took a motorbike ride from Ha Noi down to HCM City. I like Viet Nam and I like motorbiking," said Allan Lewis, a dentist from Reading, England.

Chris Cunningham, a postman from Brisbane, Australia, said he hoped to learn about the country's history, particularly the wars, see the countryside, experience the culture and taste the food during his first visit to Viet Nam.

"The ride should be quite an adventure and a bit of a challenge. I'm looking forward to it," said Mil Clayton, also from Brisbane.

The 20,000km-long trail was a logistical system running from the north to the south of Viet Nam through Laos and Cambodia during the American War from 1959 to 1975.

Traffic potholes arouse public concern

Vietnam is in urgent need of both huge investment and effective tools for the enforcement of traffic law in order to reduce the alarming number of traffic accidents, an international workshop was told in Hanoi on Friday.

Ly Huy Tuan, Head of the Strategic and Development Institute under the Ministry of Transport, told more than 250 representatives from all 63 provinces and cities and experts from relevant ministries and agencies that the national traffic safety strategy on roads calls for over VND41 trillion (roughly $1.97 billion) for 77 projects for this decade.

The 2011-15 period alone is in need of over VND34 trillion to be invested in 45 projects, focusing on infrastructure, he said.

Minister of Transport Ho Nghia Dung pointed out that the strategy will provide researchers and managers with facts on the traffic system and recommendations to improve traffic safety.

All this is aimed at meeting the 2020 target to reduce traffic accidents by 40 percent, said the transport leader.

A representative from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a co-sponsor of the workshop, said Vietnam is facing numerous difficulties in ensuring traffic safety, from the shortage of investment to thin human resources and poor experience and performance.

The JICA representative called on national managerial agencies to work out effective strategies attractive to foreign investments as well as improve their competence and coordination of action.

The workshop also heard other co-sponsors from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report on the global program of action for land traffic safety from 2011 to 2020, which will kick off in New Zealand on May 11.

Vietnam plans to decrease the traffic accident tally from 13 deaths for every 100,000 citizens in 2009 to at most six by 2030.

Police arrest foreign currency smugglers

Police officers in Ha Noi have discovered what they believe to be the second biggest case of illegal foreign currency trading in the capital city since a crackdown was launched earlier this year.

They seized US$100,000 and EUR8,000 from a gold shop in the city's Hoan Kiem District on Thursday.

Following initial investigations, the money was alleged to be owned by the gold shop's owner, who is from the northern province of Ninh Binh.

Taxi passenger caught with 10kg of marijuana

Police caught a 27-year-old man carrying 10kg of marijuana in Thanh Hoa Province's Tinh Gia District on Thursday.

The man, who was travelling as a passenger in a Mai Linh taxi when he was caught, admitted to transporting the marijuana from Nghe An to Ha Noi.

Investigations into the case are ongoing.

Company director arrested for theft

Nguyen Ngoc Anh, director of Duc Thang Company in northern Bac Ninh Province, was prosecuted and detained for alleged property appropriation, according to the provincial police.

His scheme was uncovered when he used a car with no legal registration as a form of mortgage on a loan from a local man. The car has been confiscated by the police.

Businessman arrested for swindling $9.5 million

Southern Bac Ninh province police have arrested a local company director who swindled many organizations and individuals off over VND200 billion (US$9.5 million).

The arrested is Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 37, a resident of the province’s Tu Son town, who is director of Duc Thang Company.

According to the police’s investigation, Ngoc Anh last year handed to his creditor, Tran Van Hao, a Camry car as a mortgage for his loans totaling VND2.7 billion ($129,000).

This car was actually owned by Nguyen Dinh Mui, who had bought the car from Anh for VND1 billion ($47,800) but Anh later borrowed the car from Mui for travel purposes.

The local police later seized the car from Hao while he got no repayment of loans from Anh.

Anh also mobilized capital from many individuals and organizations with total mobilized capital amounting to nearly VND200 billion and the appropriated all the money.

He told their victims that he needed a large capital for his farm produce trading project and promised that he would repay the mobilized amounts and the interest on them. However, he has not paid any money to them.

Duc Thang Company has operated since 2006 in the fields of trading agricultural product and producing cattle feed.

The police are further investigating the case.

Hit by crane, worker dies in 20-storey fall

A worker fell 20 stories to his death at 9:00 a.m. on Friday when he was hit by a crane at a construction site in Xa La new urban center in Hanoi’s Hoang Mai District.

The victim was identified as Nguyen Van Cuong, 44, hailing from Hanoi’s Thanh Oai District.

Eyewitnesses said Cuong was hit by a crane when he was working on the 20-storey floor. He lost balance and fell to the ground.

By 1:00 p.m. the same day, his body was still left lying dead at the site and it was just covered with a canvas.

The project investor didn’t arrive at the site after the incident.

According to Vietnamplus correspondent, the 34-storey building is not safely guarded. The construction site was suspended last August and resumed operation again after the Tet Holiday.

Vietnamplus didn’t elaborate on the cause of the suspension.

Local authorities are investigating.

Men confesses to posting girl’s assault clip online

Hanoi police yesterday tracked down two young men who posted on YouTube a clip of an assault and humiliation by four girls on a masseuse over a love triangle last month.

They are Hoang Van Kha, 22, of Hanoi’s Quoc Oai District, and Nguyen Van Truong, his friend.

Kha, a trader of mobile phones, declared to the police that he was given the clip by Thao, one of his acquaintances.

Thao was one of the four girls who beat and humiliated the masseuse.

After watching the clip, Kha named it as “A fight among teens” and posted it on YouTube using Truong’s account. Truong later changed the clip’s title into “Quoc Oai schoolgirls,” which he thought would be more attractive to YouTube viewers.

Kha told the police that he wanted to post the clip on YouTube with a view to calling on the public to criticize violent behaviors among young people.

However, Kha recognized that the content of the clip violates Vietnam’s habits and customs.

Earlier, on April 13, the four girls, including Nguyen Thi Ngoc Khanh, 23, Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung, 19, Nguyen Thi Khanh Ly, 14, at and Nguyen Thi Thao, 14, were detained by Hanoi police for “humiliating others”.

All the four reside in Quoc Oai District. Ly is an 8th grader at a local high school; Thao is a former high school student; and Khanh is a hairdresser.

All the four pleaded guilty to cruelly beating Ha Thi Huyen Trang, a 19 year old masseuse, of northern Phu Tho Province.

One day last month, Khanh caught Trang being with her de facto husband, Cuong, 25, at a hotel room. Trang told Khanh that she wanted to live with Cuong.

Next morning, Khanh, Thao, Ly and Nhung came to the hotel room, where they beat Trang, stripped off her shirt, cut her hair and discharged her from the room.

When Trang left the hotel, the four girls continued to beat her violently and stripped her shirt again. The attackers forced Trang to kneel and apologize to Khanh.

Nhung used Khanh’s mobile phone to record a 7-minute video clip of the assault.

VN's cosmonaut shares experience

The first Asian cosmonaut in space, General Pham Tuan, shared his experience with language students at the Russian Science and Culture Centre in Ha Noi yesterday.

The event was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Russian astronaut Yury Gagarin's flight into space, man's first, in 1961. It is also to celebrate April 12, the inaugural International Day of Space Flight, as designated by the United Nations.

Tuan said he was lucky enough to be selected, along with Russian cosmonaut Viktor Vassilyevich Gorbatko, to ride in the Soyuz 37 space shuttle in 1980. He graduated from the Gagarin Military Academy in Russia in 1979.

"That trip had a very important political meaning at that time. Viet Nam had just unified North and South and the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had helped us a lot in gaining our reunification," Tuan said.

His trip into space was a milestone for the development of Vietnamese space science and technology, he said.

Speaking at the event, organised by the Russian Embassy in Viet Nam, Minister Bezdetko Gennady said Russia was the leading country in the field of space science and technology as well as the rocket manufacturing industry.

Tuan's journey into space with Russian colleagues was evidence of the great Viet Nam-Russia relationship and the Russians hoped they would collaborate more in the field, he said.

Former welfare company director arrested

The Ho Chi Minh City Police yesterday took in Mai Van Dung, former director of District 5 Public Welfare Services Company, for misappropriation of public funds at a related agency he was overseeing.

He is likely to be charged with “violating economic management regulations causing serious consequences.”

Also arrested were Ha Van Tuan, former chief accountant of the company, and Phan Viet Tien, former head of construction team No. 3, for ‘misappropriating assets.”

Preliminary investigation found that the three men’s wrongdoings caused a loss of more than VND27 billion (US$1.3 million) to the government.

Tien allegedly used money meant for construction works for Dung’s company to buy two cars for his wife and then resold them for more than VND700 million ($33,500).

The police said they are set to prosecute all three.

3 arrested in Can Tho for bribing justice official

The Can Tho police yesterday arrested three people for allegedly bribing a justice official -- who is already in custody for bribery -- for helping register marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign men.

Nguyen Hoang Minh, 43, a registrar in An Lac Ward in the city’s Ninh Kieu District, Tran Thi Thanh Huong, 49, a Korean language teacher in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, and A Huu Tho, 32, a company worker.

The arrests followed investigations into a bribery case involving Phan Thanh Dung, deputy head of the city Department of Justice’s Justice Administration Division.

Last November he had been caught red-handed in a café while taking a bribe from some people who were seeking his assistance to register marriages with foreigners.

After arresting him, the police discovered that Minh, Huong, and Tho had paid him VND1.7 billion (US$81,500) for abetting illegal marriage registrations.

Vietnam woman run over by train in Malaysia

A Vietnamese woman was killed, being run over by a Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) Ekspress Langkawi train at Segambut at 23h on April 13 had actually intruded into the restricted area and crossed the tracks, reported Bernama.

KTMB Corporate Communications manager Mohd Fazil Ismail said initial investigations revealed that the woman who worked in a factory nearby had used the path as a shortcut to her factory and housing area.

"The incident was due to the woman having intruded the area illegally to take a short cut to work," he told Bernama when contacted here.

He said KTMB''s Auxiliary police who rushed to the scene had gathered information and submitted their findings to the police to continue investigations.

Mohd Fazil said the accident happened at about 11pm when the KTM Inter-City Ekpress Langkawi was on its way to Hatyai.

Meanwhile, Sentul police chief ACP Zakaria Pagan told Bernama that the identity of the woman has yet to be known.

Businessman threatened with fire bomb

Yesterday morning, two unknown men threw a small fire bomb into the house of Nguyen Dinh Trung, chairman and general director of Ho Chi Minh City-based An Thinh Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company.

Trung’s house is located in an alley on Ba Van Street, Ward 14, Tan Binh District.

The fire bomb exploded but was soon put out by two security guards, who failed to catch the terrorists.

The guards were burnt in the legs during the incident.

As recorded by the security camera, the two men who wore masks came on a motorbike.

The man who sat behind got off the bike and threw the fire bomb into the house through the fence.

They fled away from the scene as soon as the guards rushed out.

Trung said he had received many bomb threat messages in his cell phone for the past two months.

Unidentified people had also thrown paint into his house three times.

To protect himself and his family of 6, Trung had to send the two security guards who were working for his company to keep a close watch of his house.

He also installed a security camera system in the front of the house.

Truong Sa soldiers rescue 30 Quang Ngai fishermen

30 fishermen were saved as their fishing boat was drifting off Truong Sa (Spratly Island) at 11:30 a.m. on April 13, local source said.

The fishing boat bearing number plate QNg 958525 failed to start its engine due to its broken gearbox at 7:00 p.m. April 12 when it was catching fish off Truong Sa, 30 nautical miles away from Song Tu Tay Island.

After being informed, soldiers on Truong Sa salvage tug promptly arrived at the scene to rescue the boat.

They approached the boat at 3:40 a.m. the following day.

Authorities and local people in Song Tu Tay Island are caring genuinely for the fishermen and are repairing the broken boat.

Nation to step up nuclear power security precautions

An estimated VND300 billion (US$1.5 million) from the State budget will be spent over the next ten years on a programme to ensure security in nuclear energy, according to Prime Minister Decision 450.

Two-thirds of the funding will be spent to prevent, discover and fight against threats to national security at radioactive sources, radiation bases and other nuclear energy activities.

Any abuse of the peaceful use of nuclear energy by Viet Nam to infringe national security, promote terrorism or leak confidential information will be severely dealt with.

The programme will also focus on preventing cover-ups and refuting unfounded complaints or concerns relating to nuclear safety.

Over the first five-year period, the Prime Minister requires relevant agencies to prepare the necessary resources for site clearance, while ensuring their security and confidentiality during the design and technology assessment phase.

In the second period, measures must be taken to ensure nuclear power plant safety, and prepare in advance plans and resources to maintain security and safety during the plant's operation cycle.

The programme will be conducted at every city and province with a focus at border gates and at key nuclear energy project sites. The Ministry of Public Security will take the main responsibility for the implementation of the programme.

Thieves break into state agencies, hold party there

Upon resuming work after three days off, two government agencies in southern Nha Trang City found some of their valuable assets taken away.

The assets stolen from Khanh Hoa Province Children Sponsor Fund and the Department for Children Protection and Care include three Canon printers, two CPUs and a voltage stabilizer.

Examining the scene yesterday, police were very surprised when they found many used soft-drink bottles and empty cake and candy boxes and bags scattered on the floor, suggesting the thieves could have held a small party there.

Fortunately for the two agencies, which are located at the same address - 82 Tran Quy Cap, the thieves did not touch two safes storing cash.

Local police said they could have sneaked in via the door on the upper floor and then opened the main door on the ground floor to bring the stolen assets out.

Nha Trang City police are investigating the case.

Man found dead for days at home in Hanoi

A dead man was found lying on his house’s floor at Quang An commune in Hanoi’s Tay Ho district Wednesday with severe stabbings on his head and neck.

The 58-year-old man, Nguyen Bang, may have been dead for three to four days, police said.

His closet was rummaged through and there was a large knife left behind at the scene.

On Wednesday, Bang’s relative living nearby asked her housemaid to bring some fruit to him, who then came back hurriedly saying no one answered her call and the house smelled terrible.

His family members and neighbors then rushed to the house which was not locked, and found him lying on the floor with dry blood stains around.

Being unmarried, Bang has lived alone in his house for several years and was usually spotted getting drunk, a family member said.

His house now actually belonged to the government, she continued, after he was compensated a handsome sum of money.

Police suspect this might be an armed robbery and are furthering their investigation.