Fight delayed by false bomb threat

 

A Vietnam Airlines flight was delayed for over 2 hours at Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport yesterday after a foreign passenger claimed he was carrying out a bomb in his luggage.

 

The VN1316 flight from HCMC to Da Nang City was scheduled to depart at 12:45 but postponed until 15:15.

 

As he was boarding the plane, 27-year old Frenchman Mariano Francois Xavier Jean Agostini told a female Vietnamese passenger that there was a bomb in his handbag.

 

Another French passenger who overheard Agostini’s conversation immediately reported to the crew.

 

The flight was then delayed and all of the 180 passengers were evacuated to the airport terminal.

 

Airport securities searched Agostini’s handbag and the whole aircraft but didn’t find any bomb.

 

Agostini told security officers he was just joking.

 

Airport authorities took away Agostini’s passport and took him off the flight.

 

The plane took off safely 2 hours and a half later.

 

Unsettling weather conducive for diseases 

 

The recent unsettling weather conditions are proving conducive for the spread of diseases, with many hospitals admitting children as well the elderly for all kinds of ailments.

 

Dr. Truong Huu Khanh, head of the Infectious Ward at Paediatrics Hospital No1 said within the past few days, the number of child patients had increased sharply. The number of children contracting hand-foot-mouth disease was 100 whilst the hospital just had 80 sickbeds. Some of the children had to receive artificial respiration.

 

The same situation occurred in the Dengue Fever Department of Paediatrics Hospital No1. Tens of children are presently receiving treatment at the hospital.

 

A nurse said that this was not the season for infectious diseases, yet each day the hospital receives more than 50 dengue fever patients, compared to only 20-30 patients last week.

 

Also, the number of patients suffering from diarrhoea and requiring hospitalization has increased to three per sickbed.

 

At the Paediatrics Hospital No2, Dr. Le Thi Thanh Thuy of Infectious Ward said 100 children are receiving treatment for diseases related to digestion, of which 60 cases are of diarrhoea.

 

Dr. Pham Thi Ngoc Tuyet, head of the hospital Digestive Ward, said stale and unhygienic food was the main reason for the sudden spurt of cases. The hot weather had also played a part, decreasing children's resistance and putrefying food.

 

Dr. Nguyen Dac Tho, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City Preventive Medicine Centre, said that during ten days of May, the city had seen three deaths due to hand-foot-mouth disease, increasing the total number of deaths to nine since the beginning of the year. So far, 1,000 cases of the disease have been recorded.

 

By late afternoon, the National Paediatrics Hospital was already overflowing with patients. Many patients and their families sat in the hospital’s large hall, waiting for their turn to consult a doctor.

 

Dr. Le Thanh Hai, director of the National Paediatrics Hospital said that even on sunny days, the hospital received more than 2,000-3,000 children per day.

 

Meanwhile in Hanoi, many hospitals such as Bach Mai, Xanh Pon and Thanh Nhan are overflowing with a huge number of patients arriving for treatment every day.

 

Medical experts have recommended that children should be sent immediately to hospital if they show symptoms such as small red spots or blisters in the mouth or on the hands, feet, knees and hips.

 

According to the Preventive Medicine Centre, since early this year, 13,000 people with dengue fever disease have been treated. In Hanoi, the number of people with dengue fever increased by 20% compared to the same period last year.

Binh Duong police hunt businessman’s murderer

 

The southern Binh Duong Police Department said they are hunting for the man suspected of killing Phan Van Lan, 40, director of a local company in Ben Cat District on May 6.

 

At a press conference yesterday, the Binh Duong police said they had issued a search warrant for Duong Hoang Dung, 46, alias Dung “ben,” who was suspected of shooting Lan in an armed attack at Lan Thao Private Company.

 

After committing the crime, Dung fled from his residence, the police said.

 

The police said they had inspected the cartridge case collected from the victim’s body and suspected Dung might have used a revolver to shoot Lan.

 

On May 9, the alleged instigator of the murder, Pham Tuan Thanh, 32, a resident of Ben Cat District, gave himself up to the police of Tan Dinh Ward in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.

 

According to the case file, Thanh took an armed group of 15 people to Lan’s company in two cars to look for Lan on the late afternoon of May 6 to demand Lan to repay him VND500 million.

 

Lan was not at the company and the gang destroyed the company’s assets. When Lan showed up later, Dung allegedly shot him in the chest and then fled from the scene. Lan died on the way to hospital.

 

Earlier, Thanh paid Lan VND2 billion for a piece of land. When Thanh changed his mind and decided not to buy the land, Lan returned VND1.5 billion to him and intended to give back the remaining amount later. He then faced financial difficulties and couldn’t return the money.

 

Maersk Line's vessel grounded at port 

 

Foreign rescue workers are in a dilemma on finding ways to release the Grete Maersk container vessel that was grounded in the southern resort town of Vung Tau in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

 

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, a representative of the ship owner, announced on May 12 that efforts made so far to save the ship had failed.

 

On the same day, the vessel owner hired seven ships of 40,000 horsepower engine capacity to tow the ship out, but their efforts proved futile.

 

A day before, three rescuers from Netherlands arrived in Vung Tau to find a way to release the grounded vessel.

 

A representative of the ship owner said that they had not yet assessed the damage so far but some experienced people estimated that damages incurred could rise to around US$50,000 per day.

 

Until now, the black box of the vessel has not been found hence the reasons behind the incident are unclear.

 

By the afternoon on the same day, the ships owner met with representatives from Vietnam Customs and Vung Tau Port Authority to discuss ways to save the grounded ship.

 

At a meeting, the ships owner proposed to drain oil out of the ship to make it afloat. However, representatives from relevant departments said that it is necessary to ensure environmental safety and avoid any oil spill into the sea.

 

The Grete Maersk vessel was on its way from Malaysia to a local port when the captain turned the wheel abruptly to avoid collision with a fishing boat. Due to a strong wind, the 367-meter vessel ran into a coastal sand bank and has been grounded ever since.

 

Solar panel project kicks off

 

The Indochinese Energy Company (IC Energy) broke ground for the construction of a solar panel factory in the central coastal province of Quang Nam on May 14.

 

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai emphasised a dire shortage of energy as a huge challenge to the world and Vietnam not an exception, after pressing the start button.

 

“Vietnam may change its status from an energy exporter currently to an energy importer (by 2015),” Hai, with experience of a former industrial minister, warned.

 

He called for efforts to better tap all available energy resources, especially renewable energy.

 

In the national energy strategy for 2020 and the vision for 2050, renewable energy is set to make up five percent of the total energy production output by 2015 and eight percent by 2020.

 

The IC Energy-built solar panel factory has a design capacity of 120MW annually with all products to be for export.

 

The 390 million USD project is expected to provide jobs for some 1,000 local workers once completed in the next 12 months.

 

Train fare to rise 7 percent

 

The price of tickets for air-conditioned seats and beds on trains will be increased by 7 percent as from May 25, the Saigon Railway Station announced yesterday.

 

Meanwhile, the station will cut 20 percent of ticket price for passengers aged over 65 years old from May 25 to August 15, said Nguyen Van Thanh, deputy director of the station.

 

In order to serve students’ need for traveling in the upcoming university entrance exams, the station will resume operation of the Thong Nhat SE7 and SE8 trains from May 20, Thanh said.

 

Truck driver indicted for deadly accident

 

Yesterday afternoon, Da Nang city’s Hoa Vang district police decided to indict and detain a dump truck driver for seriously violating regulations on operating vehicles in road traffic.

 

Nguyen Dang Hiep, 25, from Dai Dong commune, Dai Loc district, Quang Nam province, will be detained for 3 months for investigation into traffic infringements that caused a deadly accident.

 

Earlier on May 4, Hiep was driving a dump truck carrying soil at high speed on a road near the Hai Van Tunnel in Da Nang when he lost control and crashed into a motorbike driven by Le Van Tuan, 36, who was carrying his wife and son.

 

The accident killed Tuan on the spot and severely injured his wife and son. The wife died later in hospital while the 4-year-old boy has remained in a critical condition so far.

 

Colonel Le Ngoc Hai, head of the Hoa Vang district police, said the case will be strictly tried as a warning to all truck drivers.

 

Earlier, the city’s Cam Le district police prosecuted another truck driver who would be tried soon, the official said.

 

Over the past several months, accidents caused by dump truck drivers that neglected traffic rules and traveled at high speeds have been a terrible obsession to local residents, city police said.

 

6,000 children drown in Vietnam per year

 

6,000 children die from drowning in Vietnam every year, according to a report at the World Conference on Drowning Prevention held in Da Nang central province on May 10-13.

 

Organized by The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC), an American child care non-governmental organization, the conference aims to focus on the global burden of child drowning, especially in developing countries like Vietnam.

 

According to a report, every year there are more than 300,000 child deaths by drowning in Asia, a speaker said.

 

Health and safety practitioners as well as academics from all over the world have joined to discuss long-term intervention for the epidemic.

 

In Vietnam, TASC has piloted a project, called SwimSafe to train swimming instructors, teachers and incorporate swimming lessons into primary schools’ curricula in Da Nang.

 

For two years, they have brushed up the skills of 120 instructors and taught 15,000 out of 60,000 of Da Nang’s primary school students how to swim safe.

 

The project’s training curriculum also includes survival and rescue skills as well, Ross Cox, operation manager of TASC said.

 

TASC is on their way to scale up the project to many other provinces in Vietnam.

 

6-month-old boy drinks milk tainted with mercury

 

A 6-month-old baby in Lam Dong was taken to Nhi Dong 1 Hospital after drinking milk contaminated with mercury.

 

The mother of N.N.B.T, the patient, said she had used a mercury thermometer to measure the temperature in the baby’s milk bottle.

 

But when the baby finished drinking, her mother found some drops that looked like mercury at the bottom of the bottle.

 

Upon checking the thermometer again, the mother realized that she had broken the glass, spilling all of the mercury inside into the milk.

 

The baby was quickly taken to Nhi Dong 1 Hospital in HCMC, and is in stable condition now.

 

Inspectors target toxic popcorn packaging

 

The Viet Nam Food Administration (VFA) has conducted inspections in popcorn boxes after Chinese authorities found similar boxes containing too much fluorescent, a bleaching agent alledgedly to cause cancer.

 

"The VFA collected sample popcorn paper boxes and the results should be available in the next few days," head of the administration Nguyen Cong Khan said yesterday.

 

Cheap popcorn is usually sold with nylon boxes for VND5,000 (US$0.25). At cinemas, popcorn is sold in paper boxes from $1.7-2 per box.

 

Polluting hospital fined VND100 million

 

Central Quang Nam Province's People's Committee fined Vinh Duc General Hospital VND100 million (US$4,800) for the improper storage of dangerous waste and polluting environment.

 

The 80-bed hospital, based in Vinh Dien Town, Dien Ban District was instructed to resolve its waste disposal problem.

 

Dairy firm supports new charity campaign

 

FrieslandCampina Viet Nam has donated VND510 million (US$24,519) in support of Tinh nguyen vi suc khoe cong dong (Volunteer for Community Health), launched by the Viet Nam Young Physicians Association in collaboration with the Viet Nam Youth Federation.

 

Under programme direction, around 3,000 young doctors will travel to distant and inaccessible regions, including mountainous districts, in order to provide free health checks and medicine to 55,000 residents in 63 provinces.

 

Man killed in horror train accident

 

A train accident at the Cho Chieu cross-road in Tam Hiep Township of northern Ninh Binh City, killed a 40-year-old man on Thursday.

 

According to witnesses, despite a barricade and warning sign, the man still tried crossing the tracks.

 

The train driver was unable to stop his train in time, hitting the man head-on and killing him instantly before dragging his body dozens of metres along the line.

 

This is the second fatal train accident within a few weeks to occur in the city.

 

Couple burn themselves to death at home

 

A couple in the northern province Quang Ninh burned themselves to death in their locked bedroom today morning for an alleged reason of family conflict, local police said.

 

Nguyen Van Ha, 42, and his wife Khuc Thi Kim Lien, 37, were seriously injured when their 17-year-old son discovered big fire in the bedroom and broke open the door for rescue.

 

The son Nguyen Thanh Cong rushed into the fire and carried his mother outside to rush for emergency aid at Vietnam – Sweden hospital in Uong Bi city but she couldn’t survive burnt injuries.

 

Ha died at home.

 

The elderly brother Cong has a younger brother, 10 years old.

 

Local police is investigating the case.

 

4 tragic road accidents kill 5

 

Five people were killed during four tragic road accidents happening today in the two southern localities, Binh Thuan province and Ho Chi Minh City.

 

At 15:00, a man riding a motorbike just 300m from the Dong Nai bridge got skidded and fell down on street when a heavy truck carrying container rolled over his body.

 

The body was dragged around 800m before the truck came to a complete halt on the other end of the bridge.

 

The truck driver is Tran Van Son, 41, from the central province Quang Ngai.

 

The other accident occurred at 14:00 on the national highway 1A in Ham Tan district of Binh Thuan province, killing two men Tran Van Linh, 19, and Do Minh Quan, 20.

 

The duo went on a motorbike and was directly hit head to head by a 7-seat vehicle speeding up on the wrong way to overtake another vehicle.

 

At 9:00 at Ba Lat bridge in HCMC’s Binh Chanh district, a bus rolled over a taxi motorbike driver who fell off on riding over a pothole. The victim was identified as Nguyen Van Muon, 57, living in district 6.

 

And the other accident took place today in HCMC’s Thu Duc district, killing a woman named Le Thi Nga, 27.

 

She crossed the railway when the train was just 200m away from her. The body of the victim was dragged for 40m by the train before it came to a stop.

 

Statistics show that averagely, 11,500 people are killed a year by road accident in Vietnam, meaning 13 dead / 100,000 citizens.

 

German political foundation opens office in Ha Noi

 

The Hanns Seidel Foundation, one of the six biggest political funds in Germany, yesterday received a licence to open a representative office in Ha Noi.

 

On the same day, the foundation signed an agreement with the Committee for Foreign Non-governmental Organisation Affairs to provide financial aid worth US$500,000 a year for Viet Nam.

 

The foundation began co-operating with Vietnamese ministries and universities in 1988, via its representative office in Singapore.

 

The foundation has actively supported various activities in Viet Nam, such as ASEAN and WTO participation, education reform and environmental protection.

 

Reburial service for remains of 79 martyrs from Cambodia

 

A ceremony was held at a cemetery in Duc Co district, in the Central Highland province of Gia Lai on May 14 to rebury the remains of 79 Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who laid down their lives in Cambodia in the past wars.

 

After five months of searching, the K52 team of Gia Lai uncovered the remains of 79 fallen Vietnamese combatants; one was identified as Nguyen Ngoc Doanh, who was born in 1963 in Hanoi and died in 1974 in Ratanakiri province.

 

Over the past 10 years, military forces in Gia Lai have found and collected the remains of 1,061 Vietnamese soldiers who died on the battlefields in Laos and Cambodia.

 

Drowsy driver demolishes median strip

 

An allegedly drowsy tractor-trailer driver hit and destroyed a 10-meter-long median strip early Friday at the crossroads of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and Cach Mang Thang 8 in Ho Chi Minh City, sending many residents into a panic.

 

Police immediately arrived on the scene and identified the driver as Doan Van Quan, 40, from the city’s rural Nha Be District. They also scattered sand on the road, which had become slippery from oil leaking out of the vehicle.

 

Le Thanh Hiep, who witnessed the collision, said the driver suddenly turned left, and hit the median strip before smashing into an area where two residents were sitting, both of whom were able to escape injury.

 

The driver told police he was trying to avoid a taxi when he crashed. However, witnesses said there were no taxis in the same lane when the accident occurred.

 

Witnesses said the accident was caused by the driver’s sleepiness.

 

Wreckage victims expected to return home now

 

Eight Vietnamese sailors injured by a recent gas explosion aboard a Taiwanese ship are likely to return home on May 14 after a fortnight’s medical treatment in South Africa.

 

The Lai Ching ship accident took place on April 29 while the vessel was operational in Atlantic, killing six crewmen, of them two were Vietnamese. Two other Vietnamese sailors were reported missing in addition to the eight injured, who were rescued by the Hsiang Man Ching ship also of Taiwan. The injured were brought to Cape Town, South Africa, for medical treatment.

 

Lai Ching ship representatives have worked with South African authorities on procedures for the injured Vietnamese sailors to return home after recovery.

 

The Vietnamese embassy in South Africa is joining with the Lai Ching ship owner in searching for two missing sailors and repatriating the bodies of the dead home.

 

Poor children receive free heart surgery

 

Since the beginning of this year, 20 disadvantaged children in the central province of Quang Nam have received free heart surgeries worth VND20-60 million each.

 

The Quang Nam provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs plans to provide similar surgeries to 30 other needy children with financial support from the Children Support Fund.

 

Nguyen Thuy, deputy director of the Quang Nam provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said that most patients have recovered well from the surgeries.

 

He called for more assistance from agencies, organisations and individuals to ensure children born with heart deformities can have necessary operations.

 

The Quang Nam provincial Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, in co-ordination with the Hue Central Hospital, have provided free heart surgeries to more than 200 disadvantaged children since 2008.

 

VGCL grants certificate of merit to Australian organisation

 

The Vice President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), Nguyen Hoa Binh, granted a certificate of merit to the Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA) in Hanoi on May 13.

 

Ms Binh also conferred the “For the cause of trade union development” insignia on Phillip Hazeton, director of APHEDA in recognition of his contribution to Vietnam Trade Union.

 

Established in 1984, APHEDA represents the Australian Council of Trade Union to provide support for socio economic developments in the developing countries. Vietnam is one of the first nations which have received support from the organization. Since 1985, APHEDA has implemented nearly 100 projects in Vietnam with a total funding of up to AUD10 million.

 

The APHEDA-funded projects focused on improving negotiation skills for trade union members at grassroots levels in areas related to labour contracts, hygiene and safety, gender equality, HIV/AIDS and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

 

Mr Phillip Hazeton has worked as a project officer for APHEDA since 1988. 

 

Climate change plan is vital for Viet Nam

 

Climate change has affected the socio-economic development of many countries around the world, including Viet Nam.

 

Despite its negative impact, it has given people a chance to re-think sustainable development in terms of low-carbon production out-put. It has also given the international community a chance to join hands in response to environmental protection, said Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha.

 

Speaking at a consultation workshop, set up to draft a Strategy on Climate Change from 2050-2100, held in Ha Noi yesterday, Deputy Minister Ha said that such a strategy was necessary in order for the country to develop drastic measures in coping with the global issue of climate change.

 

Under the draft, Viet Nam aims to ready itself for active response to natural disasters in terms of weather surveillance, with the implementation of a modern early warning system.

 

The country aims to complete its network of surveillance stations by 2015.

 

All hydro-meteorological forecasting stations will be upgraded to keep pace with those in developed countries while, by 2020, 90 per cent of stations will be expected to operate automatically.

 

Le Cong Thanh, director of the Department of Hydro-Meteorology and Climate Change, responsible for drawing up the strategy, said that the Vietnamese Government had previously approved an action plan in response to climate change in 2008, but that it only focused on measures to adapt and mitigate the impact. Provinces and cities nation-wide were called upon to design their own detailed action plans to further local socio-economic development.

 

The initial strategy additionally covered the reduction of green house gas emissions, he said.

 

"Tasks outlined in the draft would not only be related to the impact of climate change, but also to food and water resource security as well as the efficient use of energy," he said.

 

The draft proposes raising the country's forest coverage to 47 per cent by 2020, seeing as forests could help deal with flooding and soil degradation. Authorities responsible for forest projects could enjoy financial support from the Government as well as international organisations.

 

Thanh said that relevant ministries were currently drafting criteria for climate change response projects.

 

He additionally emphasised that scenarios for climate change were not fixed due to changing situations, urging authorities to be flexible in adapting policies and projects.

 

During the last 50 years, the country's average temperature has increased by about 0.5 Degrees Celsius while the sea level rose by about 20 cm. Extreme weather conditions including storms, floods and droughts were occurring more and more frequently, according to the Ministry's Hydro-meteorology and Environment Institute.

 

$20 million British University Vietnam placed in Ecopark

 

Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) which was signed on May 12 at the project’s site, British University Vietnam (BUV) shall lease a 5.5 ha portion of land in Ecopark for the purpose of building the campus for the university.

 

The land will consist of functional areas such as learning and office spaces, as well as sport facilities such as a football pitch, tennis courts and swimming pool.

 

It is positioned to be the first international university campus in the Hanoi area with British-standard facilities and curricula, offering a modern and innovative environment for studying, researching and teaching. International architects and construction-management services will cooperate on the design and construction of the university campus.

 

The project is scheduled to be constructed over a period of 18 months and will begin operations at Ecopark within approximately two years.

 

With the cost estimated at $20 million, BUV will accommodate around 10,000 students eventually.

 

Also according to MOU, Viet Hung Urban Development & Investment Jsc., (Vihajico) – the investor of Ecopark committed to complete the infrastructure installations such as the water supply and electricity up to the university’s property.

 

Moreover, Vihajico committed to complete all the construction for the phase one of Ecopark Township by mid-2013. This will include housing and commercial centres, completion of the main construction work of the inter-provincial road between Hanoi and Hung Yen, completion of the 4.2km Hanoi – Hung Yen Road that links the Thanh Tri Bridge to Ecopark by end of 2011, and step-by-step development of the infrastructure for the subsequent construction phases on the south side of the Bac Hung Hai River from 2011.

 

Hanoi car crushed by big tree

 

A big tree suddenly collapsed this morning, crushing a mini car on Ly Thuong Kiet street, Hanoi.

 

The giant tree of 30cm in diameter crashed the car on the position of the driver’s seat, breaking its windshield and the whole front part.

 

Nguyen Giao Hoa, the driver, said he has just passed the Ngo Quyen – Ly Thuong Kiet crossroad when he heard a big “bang” and saw the tree crushed on his car.

 

Fortunately, Hoa was just slightly injured, while the other 4 in the car have all survived.

 

Source: Tuoi Tre/VNA/SGGP/VOV/SGT