50 die of hand-foot-mouth disease in south

50 out of the 15,000 patients infected with hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in southern Vietnam have died this year, tripling the death toll of the same period last year, the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City reported.
The localities with the largest numbers of patients are HCMC, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Long An and Tien Giang provinces.
Dr. Nguyen Dac Tho, deputy head of the HCMC Preventive Health Center, said in HCMC alone, 5,000 children have contracted with HFMD so far this year. Of these, 20 have died.
Tho said the number of patients diagnosed with HFMD has been in the rise for the past few years, amounting to 400-600 new cases per week this year.
Tho blamed the outbreak on a new etiological agent, Enterovirus 71 (EV71) of the sub-genotype C4 which causes severe complications as well as relapse in many children who have been cured.
Tho said the number of children currently treated for HFMD at Pediatrics Hospital 1 is 170 per day on the average. Meanwhile, Pediatrics Hospital 2 receives 60 new cases every day and two died last week.
Dang The He, director of the Preventive Health Center in District 8, said HFMD in this district has slowed down to 5 cases on July 15, which is far lower than the 10-15 cases per day previously.
16 state-owned preschools district-wide have also been closed for the past few days for students’ safety, he said.
So far this year, this district has seen 430 HFMD patients and three of them have died.

Outstanding students receive scholarships

Scholarships were handed to 53 underprivileged outstanding high school students in the northern province of Nam Dinh by the Asian Fund and the Viet Nam Study Promotion Society yesterday.

The Asian Fund scholarships would last for 12 months and provide each student with VND290,000 (US$14.5) per month, said the director of the Nam Dinh Study Promotion Society, Nguyen Toan Bao.

The Asian Fund, with branches in 17 Asian cities including Ha Noi, has provided scholarships worth VND900 million ($45,000) to students in Nam Dinh Province over the past seven years.

50,000 students join 2011 Green Summer volunteer campaign                  

The 2011 Green Summer volunteer campaign from July 17 to August 14 has drawn the participation of more than 50,000 students from 322 wards in 24 districts of Ho Chi Minh City, Central Highland provinces, the Mekong River Delta and Laos.

The campaign aims to promote patriotism among students, respond to the 2011 Youth Year and Year for Children, and encourage students to take part in the country's socio-economic development.

Volunteers will plant 50,000 trees, build 100 friendship houses, grant 500 scholarships, provide free medical treatment, and present 50,000 pioneer scarves, books, study materials to poor students.

Thirty-two volunteers from HCM City have left for mountain villages in Laos to build friendship houses, distribute medicine, and transfer technology, aiming to consolidate the solidarity between Vietnam and Laos. 

Man smuggles US army uniforms into HCMC

Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport on Thursday caught a Vietnamese-American man bringing in US army uniforms and equipment without declaration.

Nguyen Alexander Hien, 53, arrived at the airport on the PR591 flight from the Philippines on July 14, Nguoi Lao Dong reported.

The airport’s customs detained all the items, including 17 camouflage battle shirts, 39 camouflage battle trousers, 2 army shoes, 3 army belts, 1 binoculars, 3 soldier’s water bottles and 1 army torch.

All such items are banned from entry into Vietnam, the customs said.

Hien has a temporary residence in Ward 5, Ca Mau City, Ca Mau Province in southern Vietnam.

Street knights lauded by Binh Duong police

The police department in Thu Dau Mot, capital town of southern Binh Duong province, has praised the volunteer vigilantes club members in Hiep An Ward, commonly known as ‘knights', for their outstanding achievements in deterring crime.

Although the club has been established for only four months, the members in collaboration with provincial police have cracked down many cases involving theft and prostitution.

Students suspected of stealing beaten

Two students in Da Nang City were hospitalized on Saturday after they were beaten by some parking attendants who suspected them of having stolen a motorbike.
Phan Phung Tu and Nguyen Hoang Quan went to Da Nang Polytechnic University yesterday morning to register for the entrance exam that would be held in the afternoon.
After registering, the two students took their vehicles out of the university’s parking lot.
When Tu was starting his bike he was suddenly stopped by some parking attendants who believed he had stolen a motorbike. The parking attendants then punched him in the face.
Quan tried to stop the attackers but was also beaten. The parking attendants only stopped when they found his eyes bleeding.
Local residents called the police of Hoa Khanh Bac Ward, Lien Chieu District and took the two students to the hospital.
The police are still investigating.

Television reaches Co To Island at last

For the first time, residents of Co To Island residents in the northern province of Quang Ninh will be able to watch Viet Nam television and Quang Ninh Television programmes next month, thanks to a VND3 billion (US$145,600) project by the provincial People's Committee.

Co To families will receive from 80-100 per cent of the cost of buying a VTC digital receiver.

Capital approves $4.8m abattoir plan

The Ha Noi People's Committee has just approved a plan to build a slaughterhouse in Binh Minh Commune, Thanh Oai District.

The building, on 4.4ha, will be able to process 45 animals and more than 200 chickens and ducks a day.

The People's Committee of Thanh Oai district will back the project with VND100 billion ($4.8 million).

Last November, Thinh Liet slaughterhouse, the biggest in Ha Noi, was forced to close because of environment pollution and food safety violations.

Fake seals easy to buy in Ho Chi Minh City

On the morning of July 8, a man on a dark-blue scooter stopped outside a rental room on National Highway 13 in Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc District.

A man invited him to come in and handed him some cash and two seals. The guest went over the seals carefully.
“Since I am doing business with you for the first time, I must take a deposit,” My, the visitor, told Nam.

“After this time, I will not need a deposit but will deliver the goods upon receiving the money.”

My, a member of a gang of forgers, had agreed to make two fake seals for Nam – one a round stamp bearing the name of Vien Minh Trading & Services Co Ltd and the other a square seal with the name Nguyen Viet Hoang, a sales manager at this company.

After scrutinizing Nam’s seals, My said it was not difficult to make the round seal used by businesses. His gang could even make stamps with the national emblem on them, he claimed.

Their charges were VND20 million (US$952) for a company seal, VND15 million for a university seal, and more than VND25 million if the national emblem was required.

“In Saigon, only gutsy guys like us dare make banned items like this,” My boasted.

My held out a fake seal, stamped a sheet of paper, and said a deserving one like it should have sharp lines and no ink blurs. Making a copper seal took nearly a month since it was a very difficult process, he said, while plastic and aluminum seals took just half the time.

My took a phone from his pocket and called someone. He asked Nam for an advance of VND5 million and said a person would deliver the items a week later.

When the customer hesitated, My said he could deposit just VND1 million if he did not trust him.

He made a receipt on a piece of paper, writing “Received Mr. Nam’s deposit of VND1 million for the service,” and signing as My Van My.

My listed some conditions: Both sides had to stop contacting each other by phone from that moment and Nam could only send messages to his new email address; when the seals were ready, someone would call Nam to ask him to take delivery.

“If discovered by police, send a message to my old email address and I will terminate all contacts with you,” My said.

Fake seals of all kinds

Hiep, who runs a forgery gang in HCM City’s District 7, offers to make round seals of all kinds. He charges VND20 million for a company stamp, VND15-17 million in case of universities, and VND5 million for just a name.

When someone wanted a round seal of TK Co Ltd and one with the name of B.D.K., the company’s director, Hiep demanded a deposit of VND3 million.

“We do this job and know the consequences -- sooner or later we will be arrested by the police,” he said.

But he also issued a threat: “Whoever harms us, we don’t let them be at peace.”

Asia Fund grants scholarships to poor students

The Asia Fund from the US and the Intellectual Centre under the Vietnam Study Encouragement Association, presented scholarships to 53 poor high school students in the northern province of Nam Dinh on July 17.

Each student will get a scholarship of VND290,000 per month for 12 months.

The Asia Fund now has 17 representative offices in Asian countries, including Vietnam (Hanoi), focusing on peace, development and renewal in poor areas. It has provided Nam Dinh VND900 million in its seven years of operation in the province.

Poor students will also receive schoolbags, clothes, English-Vietnamese dictionaries, birthday gifts and presents for the Tet holiday.

Forty students were given scholarships in 2005 and the number has risen to 58 in 2011. 

Former teacher jailed for locking baby in lift

The Tan Phu District People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City has sentenced Tran Thi Xuan Nu, 30, to 4 years in jail for locking a 4-year-old boy in the lift at Hoa Lan Preschool last year.
She was charged with “deliberate assault.”
Nu, dismissed from her job after the incident, pleaded guilty to the assault she committed on September 17, 2010 when she was assigned to take care of 23 boys, all 4-5 years in age, including Le Quang Vinh, who was less than 4 years old at that time.
When Vinh failed to feed himself, Nu got furious and decided to punish the boy by taking him into the lift and leaving him there before pressing the button for the lift to go down to the ground floor.

Nu then walked down the staircase to meet the boy. When the doors opened she found Vinh lying on the floor with blood on his body.

She took him to hospital for emergency treatment and the doctors later concluded that Vinh suffered serious wounds with a permanent injury rate of 38 percent.

Nu later gave Vinh's family VND140 million (US$6,800) as compensation.

After the incident, the boy has been fearful of the dark and refused to go to school again until now, the boy's parents said.

Da Nang, Quang Ngai to build interstate highway

Da Nang City and Quang Ngai Province in central Vietnam will start construction on an interstate highway by this year’s end.
Saturday morning, July 16, the Ministry of Transport assigned the project, which will cost a total VND28 trillion (US$1.36 billion), to the two local governments.
The highway, which will be 140 km long and occupy an area of 963 hectares, is expected to be up and running in 2016.
When it is completed, the highway will have four lanes and a speed limit of 120 km per hour.
To make way for the project, 839 households will have to be relocated to 21 resettlement areas that will soon be built.

Vietnamese fishing vessel, crew detained in Brunei

A Vietnamese fishing and all crew on board have been detained by the Navy of Brunei and they to Brunei ’s port of Muara , according to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry.

“The Vietnamese Embassy in Brunei said: the Bruneian side informed that the Navy of Brunei detained the fishing vessel PY 90368 (Phu Yen province) with captain Vo Van Tu and eight crew members while they are fishing in the Bruneian sea at 12:00 on July 13, 2011, and brought the ship and crew to the port of Muara (Brunei),” said the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department on July 16.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Brunei has sent staff to Muara port to work with local concerned agencies, met and encouraged the fishermen as soon as receiving the information, the source said, adding that the crew members’ health are in good condition.

The Foreign Ministry said it has order its relevant units to closely work with Brunei ’s concerned agencies to implement measures on citizens’ protection and promptly solve the incident, according to the source.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre