Two men die after eating poisonous insects

On Sunday, two men in the central province of Thanh Hoa died of multiple organ failure after eating what was mistakenly believed to be fried stinkbugs but turned out to be Cartharis Mylabris, a type of poisonous insects.

The deceased were a 59-year-old man named Thanh and a 70-year-old man.

Both suffered from stomachache, diarrhea, and nausea half an hour after eating the insects.

They were treated at Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi.

According to local traditional medicine physicians, those who eat this insect can suffer from extreme pain in the stomach and gut and are likely to die within 24 hours.

Additional buses put on to meet additional demand over the holiday

Bus companies in Ha Noi and HCM City are ready to roll out more vehicles to meet additional demand for the Independence Day holiday from September 1 to September 4.

Truong Thanh Hai, deputy director of Mien Dong Bus Station, said he expected about 100,000 bus passengers over the holiday, up 31 per cent on a typical day.

Ha Noi Bus Station Management Company plans to put on additional 200 buses, said director Nguyen Hoang Trung.

"The most popular routes from Ha Noi are typically no more than 300km," he said.

Trung said his firm would be working closely with public transport companies to monitor daily operations over the holiday. Additional buses would be put on if necessary, he added.

However, he said overloaded buses would not be allowed to operate.

He also said that drivers of buses who tried to overcharge passengers would be punished.
Trung said he would work closely with police and traffic inspectors to ensure safety standards were met.

However, Tran Trung Kien, a software developer for Viettel, was sceptical. He said he would probably travel by motorbike to his home town in Nam Dinh Province, 100km from Ha Noi, rather than risk being overcharged on a crowded bus.

"I am not sure the situation will be better this time, despite all the supposed steps being taking to ensure passengers are comfortable. Experience has taught me that travelling by bus on holidays is a nightmare. Buses are always overcrowded, and usually I end up having to stand for two hours on my way home," he said.

He added that he thought drivers would ignore the risk of being fined for taking on board too many passengers. He also said they would overcharge passengers because of the extra money they could make.

Kien also said pick pocketing would be rampant at bus stations. He said he once had his mobile phone stolen while waiting for a bus at Giap Bat Bus Station.

Vietnamese gambler tortured, dies in Cambodia

A Vietnamese gambler earlier this month allegedly jumped down a building and died after being tortured when he could not pay the debts lost to gambling in Cambodia, Nguoi Lao Dong reported.

Vietnamese police have launched an investigation into the case.

Do Thanh Cong, a 34-year-old man aka fat Teo from Long An Province allegedly died at Casino Las Vegas in Bavet – a border gate belonging to Svay Rieng province in Cambodia.

The case came to light after a witness showed up and claimed to have lost money gambling in Cambodia and was detained there.

This witness named H. told local police that he managed to escape several days after Cong died.

H. said he gambled in Cambodia and lost but could not pay the debts.

Therefore, H. was detained with six other Vietnamese gamblers (four men including Cong and two women) in one room. Each had a packet of instant noodles for food every day and beaten many times. Cong was beaten the most as he was the biggest of them.

Cong was tortured several times a day until he vomited blood, H. recalled.

On the afternoon of August 9, after being harshly tortured, Cong and another gambler named Tung from Vinh Long Province fought back, broke a glass window with a chair and jumped out of the room.

Cong fell down to the ground and while Tung survived with his arms and legs broken, H. said.

H. said Cong’s body was taken away but he could not guess where.

H. later managed to flee when he was being transferred to another detention location.

According to Thanh Nien, Long An border agency had contacted Svay Rieng province authorities which then denied any such death had occurred.

They said there was one Vietnamese gambler who jumped off an apartment at Casino Sato (not Las Vegas as claimed by the Vietnamese gambler) on August 7, but he was not dead.

They said the gambler named T. from Vinh Long Province had his arms and legs broken, Thanh Nien reported.

Viet Nam is Asia's fastest growing bond market

Viet Nam's bond market has experienced a significant year-on-year rise in growth during early 2011 compared with 2009 and 2010.

This compares to several regional countries that have shown a significant decline. Experts say this shows Viet Nam's strong resilience in a volatile global financial environment.

The Asian Development Bank's Asia Capital Markets Monitor for August stated that with only US$16 billion worth of total bonds outstanding, Viet Nam's local currency bond market grew 42.8 per cent year-on-year in Quarter One this year after expanding 34.2 per cent in 2010, making it the fastest-growing bond market in Asia since 2009.

Malaysia and India were the second- and third-fastest growing markets.

Viet Nam was also listed among corporate bond markets with the most consistent year-on-year growth in 2009, 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, together with mainland China, India, Indonesia and the Republic of Korea.

Viet Nam, the smallest corporate bond market of $1 billion in the region, grew by an impressive 28.8 per cent year-on-year in Q1 this year compared to the same period last year, the Manila-based bank stated.

On the other hand, Viet Nam, India and Malaysia were three outliers for budget deficits of 5.6-8.1 per cent of GDP in 2010, which resulted in a decline in Government bond issuance.

The Government bond yield curve in emerging Asian markets from the end of 2009 through 30 June, 2011, has seen an overall flattening trend. In Viet Nam, however, the curve steepened between the end of 2009 and the end of 2010, with yields falling on bonds with maturities of five years or less and rising from the belly through the end of the curve.

Between the end of December 2010 and the end of June 2011, government bond yields in Viet Nam rose for all maturities. Due to accelerating inflation, the government bond benchmark yield for the one-year tenor rose to 12.57 per cent by the end of June, higher by 224 basic points (bps) than at the end of December 2010. Yields for two-year maturities rose by 163 bps and for three-year maturities by 146 bps. Meanwhile, the increase in yields at the belly to the longer end of the curve was less, ranging between 52 bps and 97 bps.

However, Viet Nam's bond market was the region's smallest as a percentage of GDP at the end of Q1 2011, equalling to 15.8 per cent. The Republic of Korea was the single largest bond market, measuring 111.4 per cent of the country's GDP at the end of Q1 2011.

The Asia Capital Markets Monitor reviews emerging Asia's stock, bond and currency market and assess their outlook, risks and policy implications.

The report this month advised that the region should build up strong fundamentals and interest rate differentials to reignite capital inflows later this year.

Wrecked ship carrying arms found in southern waters

A wrecked ship carrying rusty arms has been discovered offshore the southern province of Tra Vinh, Vo Van Thoi, of the local border soldier force, told Tuoi Tre Online.

It measures 20 meters long and around 4 meters wide, and was found lying 16 meters deep down the sea waters southeast of the province with damaged guns, bullets, and shells on board.

Local authorities said this might be a wartime ship which carried weapons from the north to the south battle front in the Resistance War against the US (better known as the Vietnam War). It must have sunk in 1967, they conjectured.

The wreckage scene has been cordoned off, and local people given warning against fishing in the area.

In a separate development, the provincial border soldier force saved 4 fishers from a shipwreck Wednesday morning.

Lam Van Nhanh and the other three men floated on water for two hours after his fishing ship was wrecked off the coast of Duyen Hai District.
They were found 1 nautical mile from the shipwreck by the force which had been seeking for the castaways in cooperation with 4 other ships of local people.

Nhanh said his ship lost the anchor and drifted away until it hit some fishing equipment, and was wrecked.

In the same province, three local people were killed in a rare accident in the small hours of this morning.

Bui Khanh Luc, 29, crashed his motorbike into a boat anchoring at Long Binh River wharf in Tra Vinh City, the provincial capital, when he was carrying the other two at speed. 

Luc died on the spot, and so did the two who were identified as Do Thi Mong Thu, 28, and 30-year-old Tran Ngoc Tu.

The ship was slightly damaged.

Local authorities are conducting further investigation into the accident.

Trial put off as elephant trader makes tame claim

A Lam Dong province court has put off the trial of three people for illegally trading a wild elephant that was later killed in a forest in Da Lat last April after the seller claimed it was a tame animal.
Phan Thi Hoa, 52, director of the Nam Qua Tourism Area in Da Lat, allegedly sold a wild elephant named Beckham to Phan Dac Mau Dai, 33, a local veterinarian, and Nguyen Ngoc Thuan, 36, also a local, for VND150 million (US$7,200).
They were charged with “violating regulations on protection of rare and precious animals”, and “illegally trading in wild animals.”
But Hoa told the court on Tuesday that Beckham was actually a tame elephant she bought in Dak Lak Province in 2005 for VND85 million and brought to her center at Tuyen Lam Lake to serve tourists.
She had carefully inquired about its origin and bought it only after confirming it was a tame animal, and she had even obtained a certificate to the effect from Dak Lak authorities, she said.
Dai, who had treated the animal after it was attacked by poachers in 2010, claimed he wanted to possess Beckham only to take care of the animal.
The court decided to postpone the trial and referred the case back to the Da Lat procuracy for fresh investigation, especially into the origin of the elephant.
According to the indictment, Dai and Thuan bought the elephant last December but agreed to leave it at Hoa’s tourist center. They made a document falsely claiming that Hoa had gifted the elephant to them.
They bought a number of other elephants, mostly in the Central Highlands, and brought them to Da Lat for tourism purposes.
In April Beckham was found dead in a forest near Tuyen Lam Lake with its body tied to a tree and the ligaments in its rear legs sawn off.
Dai cremated the animal and had claimed before his arrest that both the tusks and tail were destroyed, the police said.
However, investigators later found the ivory weighing 26 kg hidden in his house.

The police have yet to track down the killer.

Binh Duong police arrest theft suspects

The police in southern Binh Duong Province have arrested 15 people allegedly involved in the theft of 371 car tires and 14,470 kg of raw rubber latex at Kumho Tire Co Ltd in the My Phuoc 3 Industrial Park in Ben Cat District.
The police have not found out any link between these suspects and the company’s storekeeper who died while in custody back in April.
The arrested include the company’s warehouse staffs, security guards and drivers.
The police are still hunting for two other suspects, 30-year-old Phan Thanh Loc, who was a stevedore at Kumho, and 26-year-old Tran Van Hoang, a driver.
The value of the stolen goods is estimated to be over VND1.5 billion (US$72,200).
The arrest was made following a long investigation beginning last August when Kumho reported to the police that it had lost over 6,600 tires worth US$291,000.
Before this arrest, on April 21, the Ben Cat District police questioned Nguyen Cong Nhut, 30, who was Kumho’s storekeeper. But Nhut was found hanging dead four days later at the police office.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Tuyen, Nhut’s wife, told the police that when her husband went to Kumho to work on August 21, 2010, he was informed that 50 tires had been stolen the night before.
Tuyen said the theft was recorded by a security camera but nobody could identify the thieves because of the poor quality of the recorded images.
After Nhut died, the police performed an autopsy on his body and concluded that he had hanged himself, but his wife and his family rejected the conclusion and requested a re-investigation.

Social insurance officials arrested for embezzlement

The HCM City Police on Monday arrested two officials working for the Social Insurance Agency in Nha Be District for allegedly embezzling nearly VND5.6 billion (US$270,000).

Deputy director Nguyen Thi Hoa and Do Phuong Anh, a cashier and accountant, allegedly filed fake social insurance claims with forged signatures to make claims.

The police said that between January 2009 and October 2010 they colluded with another agency official – Bui Quoc Vinh, who has already been arrested and prosecuted – to forge stamps and documents to fake 31 social insurance claims.

They also fraudulently increased the number of years of service for 330 genuine claimants and the payments purportedly made to them and pocketed the difference.

Contractor ducks responsibility in drowning case

The contractor of the Phu Do – Thang Long Highway in Hanoi has refused to take any responsibility for the drowning of four boys who swam in a rainwater-filled pit at the construction site on Monday.

Nguyen Thanh Quynh, deputy director of Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Cooperation (Vinaconext) which is in charge of the project, told the press that the drowning was simply an accident which should be blamed on the boys’ families.

Quynh said the Phu Do – Thang Long Highway began in late 2008 and would be due this year but could be delayed because of difficulties in site clearing.

The pit where the boys were drowned has an area of 400 square meters and a depth of 2m and didn’t have a warning sign at the time of the drowning.

Quynh said his company did have warning signs installed at the construction site but they might have been swept away by the heavy rain in recent days.

His company is waiting for further investigations about the accident, he added.

Meanwhile, the father of two of the drowned boys, Nghiem Van Toan, said the boys wouldn’t have dared to swim in the pit if there had been warning signs.

The contractor has only offered a compensation of VND50 million to Toan.

Vietnam to attend int’l tourism expo in China

Vietnam is attending the 2nd China Guilin International Tourism Expo 2011 (CGITE 2011) from September 16-18, said the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.   

The expo is an opportunity for Vietnamese tourism companies to expand their business and strengthen cooperation with foreign partners, especially Chinese firms to develop tours to 40 cities in 16 provinces across the country. 

Covering an area of more than 20,000 square metres, the event is expected to attract the participation of about 800 businesses from 50 countries and territories around the world.

Ho Chi Minh City to rehabilitate beggars by 2015

Ho Chi Minh City plans to train all beggars and provide them jobs by 2015.
The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs announced a draft of the plan that will be carried out in two phases at a meeting yesterday, Aug 17, with other agencies.
In the first phase through 2013, it will be carried out in Districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh, and Tan Binh.
In the next two years, it will be extended to the rest of the city.
Authorities will round up beggars and take them to social welfare centers to provide them healthcare, basic knowledge of law, and short-term vocational training.
Teams will be set up to help them find suitable jobs after training.
Every year the city will provide jobs to 800 of them and work with provinces and cities to which the beggars belong and reintegrate them into the local communities.
The department expects to send back around 1,000 of them with guarantees from their families.
The guarantors will be required to make a pledge that they will be responsible for ensuring they do not go back to begging.
Last year, the city’s Social Sponsor Center took in 7,400 beggars, later returning 2,400 of them home and providing the rest vocational training and jobs, the department said. 

Trees chopped down illegally in HCMC

Many businesses in Ho Chi Minh City have been found cutting down the trees in front of their office buildings to have broader entrances and more spacious fronts without permission.

Some companies have also relocated the trees or replaced them with other plants that provide less shade.

Early this month, Green Tree and Park Co Ltd found a camphor tree in front of the office building of Truong Hai Auto Corporation at 80 Nguyen Van Troi Street in Phu Nhuan District had been relocated while another simply disappeared.

Pham Van Ut, member of the inspection team of the company, said although Truong Hai Company had repaired the pavements where the trees were cut as if nothing had happened, he could still notice the changes.

“[Truong Hai] chopped and relocated the trees to make space for their showroom’s entrance,” Ut said, adding that the company had been fined and ordered to restore the trees.
Some of the tree removal has been approved by municipal authorities.

The owner of the building at 201-203 on Cach Mang Thang 8 Street for instance has chopped down a line of queen’s flowers trees which locals said were mostly up to 10 years of age, 5m in height and could span a 3m-wide shade.

Nguyen Van Dung, deputy director of the Urban Traffic Management Zone No. 1, said the building’s owner had received approval from the municipal Department of Transport to cut down the trees in order to connect their drainage system with the city’s system.

Earlier, the city Department Of Transport also asked the Urban Traffic Management Zone No. 1 to license the cutting of the medlar trees in front of Rex Hotel in District 1. These trees were later replaced with red latan palm trees which give less shade.

3 bank officials arrested for flouting loan rules

Ninh Thuan Province police Tuesday arrested Vo Thanh Danh, former director of the Vietnam Development Bank’s local branch, and two other officials and charged them with violating lending regulations.
Vo Thanh Xuan, 45, former head of the branch’s Credit Department, and Le Quang Vu, 38, an officer in the department, were later released on bail.
Danh, Xuan, and Vu allegedly ignored a number of regulations and granted loans worth VND200 billion (US$9.6 million) to South Central Industrial Investment Joint Stock Company based in Phan Rang-Thap Cham city.
The company claimed in its loan application that it needed the money to build a titanium plant and execute a number of agricultural export orders.
The bank officials allegedly neither held any mortgages from the company for the loans nor examined the titanium plant project, which was later found a bogus project set up by the company to lease 10 hectares of land for 48 years under preferential conditions from the provincial People's Committee.
The company recently went insolvent and failed to pay a sum of about VND93 billion, including interest amounts, to the bank.
On May 12, after discovering the violations by the bank officials and the company, the police had arrested Nguyen Hai Trung, 28, the company’s chairman, for “swindling to appropriate assets.”

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre