Japan helps modernise obstetrics hospital

A US$5 million-project based on improving equipment at the National Obstetrics Hospital and funded by the Japanese Government was inaugurated in Ha Noi yesterday, Aug 15.

The project aims to strengthen the hospital's capabilities in taking care of mothers and children.

More than 100 types of modern equipment have been put into operation at the neonatal care, delivery, operation, emergency and imaging diagnosis departments.

Japan also donated more than $300,000 to hospitals and schools in Ben Tre, Dong Nai and Dak Lak.

Bac Ninh brings love duet songs to schools

Jointly coordinated by the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Department of Education and Training, this activity is part of an agreement between Vietnam and UNESCO after folk love duet music was recognized as the world’s intangible cultural heritage in 2009.

So far, the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has hosted short-term training courses for 600 music teachers and students.

Every year, students will learn singing styles and performance customs. Additionally, their schools will also host music festivals featuring this kind of music.

Insurance officials arrested for embezzlement

Police have arrested a vice director and an accountant-cashier of the Nha Be District Social Insurance, Ho Chi Minh City, for embezzlement.
Ho Chi Minh City police have arrested a disgraced former head of the Social Insurance of Nha Be District and her accountant for allegedly forging hundreds of workers’ documents to claim unemployment allowance and pocketing the money.
Nguyen Thi Hoa, the director of the agency until she was sacked several months ago, Do Phuong Anh, her accountant and cashier of the agency, and Bui Quoc Vinh, who receiving applications for social insurance payment, will be charged with embezzling around VND5.6 billion (US$270,000) in this manner.
Hoa allegedly colluded with her staff in using 361 fake files, which were made in 2009 – 2010, for social insurance payment for workers who terminated their works to appropriate the money.
In March the police had arrested Vinh, 34, for both counterfeiting companies’ seals and documents and embezzlement.
He allegedly used forged documents to claim social insurance using nearly 100 social insurance books he bought from workers who had quit their jobs at companies based in the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in District 7.
The documents were provided by Nguyen Anh Tuan, 39, who was also arrested in March for counterfeiting organizations’ seals and documents.
Tuan prepared and signed fake applications for social insurance payment in the name of workers who had sold their social insurance books to Vinh.
Hoa signed the payment vouchers made by Anh for the fake social insurance files that had been prepared by Vinh and Tuan, investigators said.
The police are continuing their investigation.

Passengers aged over 60 enjoy discounts

Vietnamese passengers aged 60 and over have been enjoying a 15 per cent discount since yesterday, Aug 15, according to Viet Nam Airlines.

The discount policy has been applied to economic classed domestic flights operated by Viet Nam Airlines and the Viet Nam Air Services Co.

Passengers need only to show their identity cards proving their age in order to be eligible.

Boys drown after swimming in pit

Four boys aged 11 to 14 died on Sunday after swimming in an unfenced pit filled with rain water at a construction site in Phu Do Village in Hanoi’s Me Tri Commune.

The police have identified the boys to be Nghiem Quang Huy, Nghiem Van Hung, and the two brothers Ngo Van Hung and Ngo Van Hung.

The boys were all residents of Me Tri Commune.

On the afternoon when the tragedy happened, the boys went swimming in the pit at the construction site on the Phu Do – Thang Long Highway, said Nghiem Van Chuong, who is the cousin of Huy and Hung.

Chuong said as the boys didn’t return in the evening, the villagers went searching for them and found their bodies inside the pit around which there is no warning sign.

Automobile parking fees to increase

The Ha Noi's traffic safety steering committee proposed to increase the fee for automobile and motorcycle parking.

The present fees of using pavement to park vehicles were VND40,000-45,000 (US$1.90-2.19) per square metre per month.

Over the past two months, the committee checked vehicles parking places in 10 districts and ticketed 81 violations, a total fine of VND1.45 billion ($70,730). Twenty-eight places of those fined did not have trade registers, 38 places illegally encroached pavements and roads, and 67 places collected fees exceeded the regulated levels.

The committee sent a report on the places which did not pay taxes to the municipal Tax Department for inspection.

Man nabbed in Hanoi with guns, drugs

Hanoi police discovered three pistols, bullets, and drugs in a rented car after they stopped a man for violating traffic rules on Hoa Bang Street, Dan Tri newswire reported.

On August 12 they pulled up 27-year-old Tran Ngoc Son of Hai Duong Province for driving in the wrong lane, and asked him for documents.

On suspicion, they forced him to open the door and found 49 ecstasy pills and the guns in his briefcase.

Son confessed to buying the drugs from a stranger at Thanh Cong garbage dump for his own use and selling.

The police are investigating.

Boy stabbed while jostling for festival offerings

A teenager was stabbed in the belly in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 while trying to grab currency bills and other offerings a resident was tossing outside his house during the Hungry Ghost Festival last Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said a man knifed 17-year-old Huynh Huyen Huy amid jostling in front of the house on Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street.

Huy then tried to flee but the man and some accomplices chased after him and beat him senseless.

The victim was rushed to Cho Ray General Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition.

The Ghost Festival is a traditional festival celebrated by the Chinese community in many countries including Vietnam.

During the festival, ghosts and spirits, including those of deceased ancestors, are believed to return from a lower realm, or the Realm of Hungry Ghosts. Living descendants organize the festival to pay homage to them.

Man faces murder rap for burning wife, children

A Da Nang man who set his wife and three children on fire last month following a quarrel, killing the youngest child and leaving the others injured, has been arrested for murder.

Pham Phu Len, 34, who himself suffered burn injuries, was arrested yesterday after he recovered in hospital, police said.
Pham Thi Diem Hang, 6, died on the spot after he set fire to the mattress on which she and the three others had been sleeping on the night of July 23.

Nguyen Thi Yen, 31, Len’s wife, and two other daughters, Pham Diem Quynh, 10, and Pham Diem Ngan, 8, suffered burn injuries.
Nguyen Quang Hiep, a neighbor, and some others put out the fire after rushing to the house upon seeing smoke, smelling something burning, and hearing screams just before 9 pm, and took the victims to the Da Nang General Hospital.

The police said Len had set fire to the victims with petrol.
The couple had been married for 12 years but quarreled often due to Len’s alcohol problem, locals said.

However, Len, who works aboard a fishing boat, had not appeared unusual recently, they said.

Over 150 aloe wood seekers asked out of forest

During the last week, the Forest Protection Division of central Phu Yen Province's Dong Xuan District expelled over 150 people from Trai Ton and Hon Co Forest in Phu Mo Commune as they were allegedly seeking aloe wood, a forbidden goods.

Vice head of the division Le Xuan Lam said that forest guards also seized 3 cubic metres of timber illegally chopped down and removed 4 camps of the seekers.

It was reported that in the last few months, thousands of people from central provinces of Phu Yen, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Gia Lai rushed to forests in Dong Xuan District to cut down or uproot old aloe trees, as a kilo of the wood could be sold at hundreds of millions of Vietnamese dong.

According to traditional medicine experts, aloe wood is created from old do trees (Aquilaria crassma Pierre ex Lecomte). The trees grows in forests in Viet Nam's central and central highland regions. Aloe wood is a rare material to process luxury perfumes, scented soaps, and incense.

Aloe wood is also used to treat many diseases and to make jewellery. Asian people believe that if they wear aloe wood-made jewellery, they can avoid colds.

Child rights promoted in Vietnam

Members of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights (VAPCR) are gathering in Hanoi for a three-day seminar on the test of a training manual on supervising and reporting on the implementation of child rights.

Addressing the event, VAPCR President Tran Thi Thanh Thanh said that the training manual was part of the cooperation programme between the VAPCR and UNICEF to raise the capacity of the association and social organizations in the implementation of their role and responsibility to effectively prevent violations of child rights.
The manual clarifies the content, methods and skills of working with children and for children. It aims to provide volunteers and workers of child protection and education with basic knowledge on and skills in supervising, collecting and processing information to write reports on child rights.

Implementation of child rights reinforced in Vietnam

Members of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights (VAPCR) are gathering in Hanoi for a three day seminar on the test of a training manual on supervising and reporting on the implementation of child rights.

Addressing the event, VAPCR President Tran Thi Thanh Thanh said that the training manual was part of the cooperation program between the VAPCR and UNICEF to raise the capacity of the association and social organizations in the implementation of their role and responsibility to effectively prevent violations of child rights.

The manual clarifies the content, methods and skills to work with children and for children. It aims to provide volunteers and workers operating in child protection and education with basic knowledge and skills on supervising, collecting and processing information to write reports on child rights.

Hanoi crackdowns on traffic violators

The Hanoi police are mobilizing a special force including traffic police, criminal police in civilian clothes, and mobile police to crack down on traffic violators after many traffic officers were recently attacked by aggressive citizens, many of whom are policemen themselves.

On Sunday night, the police chased and arrested many traffic violators including two young men who hid drugs in their bike on Dao Duy Anh, Pham Ngoc Thach, and Xa Dan streets.

Some violators who fought back when they got caught were also arrested on Sunday, VnExpress newswire reported.

On July 28, a mobile policeman in civilian clothes assaulted a traffic officer after he was stopped for riding without a helmet.

And just two days earlier, a judiciary official in Hau Giang province insulted and caused minor injuries to a traffic policeman on duty in Can Tho City after being caught over speeding.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre