Japan helps overseas students return to study

The Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) will provide overseas students with air tickets to return to Japan for study purposes. The plan targets overseas students who were granted Japanese government scholarships but had to temporarily return home due to the disasters last month.
MEXT will organise a contest for self-sufficient overseas students to grant them scholarships for the first term, lasting from April to July.
The Japanese government will also implement programmes to support quake-hit victims, including foreign students. The government provided urgent aid to around 1,000 foreign students with US$1,500 to tertiary students, US$1,800 to Masters students and US$1,900 to Doctorate students.
The Japanese Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Justice will facilitate the return of overseas students by providing visas, tuition fees and health care services for them.

Kuwait funds expansion of An Giang orphanage

The Kuwaiti Government has funded construction of six rooms designed to accommodate about 100 boys at the Khai Tri Orphanage in An Giang Province.

It is the second charity project financed by the Middle Eastern country after an earlier one-year programme to combat human trafficking it carried out along with the Office of the International Organisation for Migration in HCM City and the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Former director of finance leasing company arrested 

The investigation agency under the Ministry of National Defense yesterday notified their decision to prosecute and place in custody Vu Quoc Hao, former general director of the Finance Leasing Company II (ALCII) under the Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development. 

Mr. Hao is been prosecuted for “Abusing his position and power while on duty”. The investigation agency also notified their decision to raid his house and office.

Two other officials, Ton Quang Viet, former deputy head of the company’s finance leasing department and Dang Van Hai, director of the Quang Vinh Construction and Trade Ltd Company were charged with the same offence.

The Finance Leasing Company II has violated many regulations of management and usage of State capital.

The State audit department unearthed that in 2009 the company had lost VND3 trillion (US$143 million) and might suffer a further loss of VND4.6 trillion due to unsound investments in leasing of properties.

One of the main wrongdoings leading to the company’s huge losses is that it had bought machinery and equipment without determining their price. Notably, the company bought a 250 ton hydraulic crane at VND 65 billion from the Quang Vinh Company, which had bought the crane at VND32 billion.

ALCII is an independent operating unit of the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. The company carries out finance leasing contracts, acts as guarantor in fields related to finance leasing and assists companies with capital to equip machinery etc.

The company headquarters are located in HCMC with many branches in Southern provinces and cities.

ALCII has let out properties to about 650 domestic and foreign companies with over 1,200 leasing projects valued at VND1.2 trillion.

Child badly hurt after being flung by drunk father

A Ca Mau man threw this infant son on the floor in annoyance, fracturing his skull, after his wife called him home to do some chores when he was drinking with his friends.

It happened last month-end when Hong Yen of Ta An Khuong Dong Commune went to the spot where her husband Giang was drinking and summoned him home.

The enraged Giang left the party, grabbed their 10-month-old son Quynh from his wife’s hands and threw him on the ground, breaking his head.

The baby was taken to Ca Mau Women and Children Hospital who referred him to the Ca Mau General Hospital.

There a CT scan showed he had a cracked skull and fluid accumulation under the eye and temples.

The Hospital’s Dr Tran Thanh Tuan said they cannot make any predictions about the child’s recovery, but warned merely that even if he recovers, he is likely to have some severe nervous disorders.

The police are looking for Giang, who has absconded.

Street racing roars back into Ho Chi Minh City

Illegal motorbike street racing has started again in Ho Chi Minh City after a brief lull due to police crackdowns.

“Night storm,” as the young night racers call it, has become widespread and poses grave danger to other road users.

Hoang Hoa Tham Bridge off Tran Quang Khai Street in District 1, which is 103.3 meters long and 10.5 m wide, has recently become the most popular racing spot.

Hundreds of riders gathered the night of April 10, terrifying other street users. As if racing at high speed is not thrilling enough, the racers also try to catch the attention of others, and scare them, by scraping their bikes’ metal stands on the asphalt to set off sparks.

The atmosphere gets further supercharged by the shouting and wolf whistles from hundreds of their friends on the sidewalks.

After the stunts on the bikes, they continue to blare their horns, race their engines, and dance to the loud music of two cafes nearby.

Street racing at night is not only scaring residents in urban areas but also in outlying places.

Cong Nuoc Street connecting Hoc Mon District and Tay Ninh Province has become a nightmare for people living there.

Nguyen Van Luy, a local, said: “The number of racers here sometimes reaches hundreds. Some of them even put obstacles at intersections to prevent other people from using the street.”

Bus station sibling robbers arrested

Ho Chi Minh City police yesterday arrested two brothers for leading a gang that robs passengers at the Mien Tay (Eastbound) Bus Station in Binh Thanh district.

They are Tat Minh Quoc and Tat Minh Phu who, together with their underlings, would disguise themselves as motorbike taxi (xe om) drivers to offer help to gullible passengers departing from the Station.

They would tell their victims that the bus they wanted to catch has just left and that they would be wiling to give them a lift.

They would then take them to a remote area and rob them.

Many were taken as far as district 12 or Thu Duc district and beaten.

They also frequented petrol stations and would snatch away purses when some careless motorists took them out to pay for petrol.

Hot weather sears south, cold snap in north

The northern region has been blanketed in a cold wave while the south has been sweltering with temperatures measured at 35 to 37 degrees Celsius at the beginning of this week.

In Ba Be National Park, about 240 km north of Hanoi, a storm and heavy rains yesterday toppled trees and power lines and blew two roofs off a hotel.

The losses have been estimated at VND2 billion (US$95,000).

The Central Hydrometeorology Forecast Center has said one more cold wave will hit the northeastern region.

The forecast for later this week is rain and rough seas in Ho Chi Minh City and southern provinces like Ca Mau, Kien Giang, and Long Xuyen city in An Giang due to a depression.

Fire burns two women to death in HCMC

Two elderly women were burnt to death in a fire at their house at 167 Lanh Binh Thang Street, District 11, Ho Chi Minh City.

They are Tao Hai, 64, the house owner, and his sister, Tao Xay Muoi, 61. Both of them were Vietnamese of Chinese origin.

A fire broke out at around 1 a.m. and when the local fire police came to the scene about 30 minutes later, the fire entirely covered the house, which is about 45 square meters.

After putting out the fire twenty minutes later, they found the two women burnt to death.

The fire burnt down the house and caused slight damage to adjacent houses.

Only the two women lived in the house at the time of the fire and their mother passed away a few days before, said local authorities.

The fire might have been caused by the burning of incenses by the two women, locals said.

They two women usually lit incenses in their house, which was built with inflammable materials, locals explained.

The police are investigating the cause of the fire.

Northern Lao Cai suspends building 9 hydropower plants

Northern upland province of Lao Cai has approved to suspend the construction of 39 hydropower plants with capacity of 1-2 MW to protect the environment, according to the municipal Department of Industry and Trade.

The move will not only limit bad impact to national parks in the province but also raise electricity transmission efficiency since most of the projects are located far away from main power grid, said Le Ngoc Hung, director of the department.

The provincial chairman Nguyen Van Vinh last Wednesday approved to halt the building of 8 such plants in Sa Pa District so that tourism sites and the live of natives there won’t be affected by those projects.

RoK to fund Hue city’s planning

The central province of Thua Thien Hue and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has reached an agreement on a project to adjust Hue city’s general planning with a budget of 3.5 million USD funded by the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s government.

According to Chairman of Hue People’s Committee Phan Trong Vinh, the two-year project, aims to review the city’s general plan, survey areas targeted for the city’s expansion as well as make any necessary adjustments to facilitate for economic-social development

Apart from helping to improve local officials’ capacity in the field of urban planning and development , the project will also contribute to further strengthen cooperative relations in urban planning and development between Vietnam and RoK through the exchange of experiences and knowledge .

Missing fishermen’s families receive monetary aid

Families of Le Minh Tan and other fishermen who have been missing in Hoang Sa (Paracel) Island since January have received a financial support of VND46 million (US$2,198) from various agencies.

Quang Ngai People’s Committee has asked the provincial agriculture department and fishermen’s fund to support the families of those on board the QNg 66192 TS which was reported missing on January 17.

Last year, another boat numbered QNg-66478-TS was also reported missing and later found to be captured by China.

Hoang Sa is part of the numerous islands that have been hotly contested by Vietnam and China.

Sewing factory suspended for child labor

Authorities in Binh Hung Hoa A Ward in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Tan District Saturday suspended a sewing factory where six boys of 14 and 15 years old were being employed and abused.

The boys were identified as Tran Minh Hoang, Pham Tan Hop, Phan Truong Han, Hoang Quoc Truy and Tran Van Bao, all of whom are 15 and Tran Quoc Vuong, who is 14.

Hoang, Hop, and Han are from the northern province of Phu Yen, while Truy, Bao and Vuong come from Dak Nong Province in the Central Highlands.

The ward police, who made an investigation after a report on Tuoi Tre Newspaper on Friday, took all the boys back to the ward’s office and gave them a medical check-up.

Except for Hop who suffered from calcium deficiency and asthenia due to overwork, the rest of the boys were in normal conditions.

Yesterday evening, the parents of Hoang, Hop, Han took their sons home. At present, Truy, Bao and Vuong are waiting for their families at a local social welfare center.

Hoang Ba Bui, the owner of the factory, located at 59/18, Road 8, Quarter 16, Binh Hung Hoa A Ward, told the police he had “received” Hoang, Hop and Han from a motorbike taxi driver last October.

Bui said he paid the driver VND3 million (US$145) for introducing the three boys to him.

The three boys were previously students at Nguyen Tat Thanh Junior High School in Tay Hoa District in Phu Yen.

They had been reported “missing” since last October and searched nationwide by the Phu Yen police.

Bui said he received the three other boys from the same driver just several days before the case was discovered by the police.

He paid the driver VND4.5 million ($215) for these three boys.

Han, one of the boys, told the police that at Bui’s factory, they had to work nonstop from 7 a.m. to 11 or 12 p.m every day, except for a few hours of break for meals provided by the owner.

“We weren’t allowed to go out, except for only a short while during the Lunar New Year when we were taken out by the boss’ children,” Han said.

Bui confirmed Han’s statement but said when his factory had less work, he did give the boys more time to rest.

According to a contract he signed with them, he would pay them VND12.5 million (US$597) for two years of work. However, they would receive this amount only after they had worked for Bui for 2 years.

If they quitted sooner, they would receive no money.

Binh Tan District’s Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs and Binh Hung Hoa A’s People’s Committee ordered Bui to pay each boy VND1.35 million ($64.5) per month for every month they had worked for him.

However, Nguyen Thi Thuong, Bui’s wife demanded a deduction of VND600,000 per month from each boy’s wage, saying that it was the expense of the meals she had provided them.

The three parents who had taken their boys home agreed to Thuong’s demand.

Each of these three boys thus had received a total VND4.5 million ($215).

Teen ethnic girl rescued from sex trade

Soldiers at Lao Cai border gate in the northern mountainous province have rescued a 14-year-old ethnic girl from two human traffickers.

The victim only known as Men resides in Moc Chau District, Son La Northern Province.

According to police, Men went to Hanoi by bus in early March to visit her boyfriend, who was studying here.

However, she didn’t get in touch with her boyfriend and even did not have a penny to buy a return ticket when she arrived at the bus station. An assistant driver nearby promised to find her a well-paid job.

She said the man lured her into a brothel in Hanoi’s outskirts where she was forced to have sex with lots of men including two regular customers Bui Van Thang, 20, and Trinh Xuan Truong, 22.

Three weeks later, Thang and Truong invited her to sell clothes at Lao Cai border area.

However, the two men didn’t offer her a good job as promised. Instead, they conspired to sell her to a brothel in China. They were arrested in early April when they tried to bring her across the border.

Thang admitted he had relationship with some sex slave traders in China through his sister, who is working as a sex worker in China.

Since early year, Lao Cai border’s authorities have busted 9 human trafficking cases, rescuing many victims.

10 Koreans injured, 1 dead in Vietnam accident

A Hyundai tourist bus hit a mountain in Uong Bi, Quang Ninh northern province at around 12:30 p.m. (local time) on April 15, killing 1 Vietnamese and leaving 10 South Korean tourists slightly injured.

The injured tourists were taken to nearby hospitals shortly after the accident. They have been discharged and returned to Hanoi the same day.

According to lieutenant colonel Trinh Tien Manh, deputy head of Uong Bi public security department, driver Nguyen Thanh Binh, 49, hailing from Hanoi was driving a 35-seat bus with 13 South Korean tourists and one Vietnamese tour-guide on board heading to Yen Tu cultural – historical site in Uong Bi city.

The driver suddenly lost control due to the car’s broken brake and smashed into a motorbike on the opposite direction before slamming into a mountain, killing motorist Tran Anh Tuan on the spot.

The bus then overturned, leaving 10 South Korean tourists injured.

Manh said the bus is still within the warranty period.

The driver is being detained for further investigation.

Strengthening Asia-Europe post crisis cooperation

Around 150 delegates attended an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) forum in Hanoi on April 18 to discuss strengthening cooperation to cope with post crisis challenges.  

Viet Nam Red Cross raises $3m for Japan

The Viet Nam Red Cross has raised nearly VND61.2 billion (US$3 million) through a charity campaign for Japanese earthquake-tsunami victims.

The money was contributed by 1,043 individuals and organisations across the country during the one-month campaign that ended last Friday.

It handed over $400,000 on March 23 and $600,000 on April 1 through the Japan Red Cross.

200 buffaloes die due to mysterious disease

More than 200 buffaloes were found dead due to a disease with unusual symptoms in Duong Hoa Commune, in the central province of Thua Thien – Hue's Huong Thuy Town.

The causes of deaths have not been clarified. Other buffaloes in the area, freely grazing in the forest, risk becoming infected as residents are having difficulties in burying all of the dead buffalo carcasses.

Local sea water found to be radiation free

No radiation has been discovered in water samples taken from seas off the coasts of the southern provinces of Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Khanh Hoa and Binh Thuan, according to vice director of HCM City Nuclear Centre, Nguyen Van Mai.

Former president of Nha Trang Oceanographic Institute, Nguyen Tac An, said the likelihood of marine creatures contaminated by radiation from Japan migrating to Viet Nam and posing a health risk to local people was not worth worrying about.

Illegal medicine makes nine people sick

Nine people were hospitalised with intense stomach aches after taking medicines of unknown origin bought at a local market, said Pham Anh Van, director of the northern mountainous Ha Giang Province's Yen Minh District General Hospital.

The victims were all ethnic Mong people, aged from six years to 51.

According to the results of tests carried out by the Ha Giang Department of Health, the medicine has not been licensed for sale.

Australian professor honoured

Hue University College of Medicine and Pharmacy has conferred the “Honorary Professor” title on Professor Michael Patrick Dunne from School of Public Health, Queensland University of Technology.

Musical programme raises funds for former political prisoners

A musical programme was held on April 18 by the HCM City former Political Prisoners Liaison Board to raise funds for former inmates living in difficult circumstances.

Ceremony honours Hoang Sa fallen combatants

A ceremony to commemorate the soldiers and sailors of the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Flotilla opened on April 18 (the 16th day of the third lunar month) on Ly Son island in the central province of Quang Ngai.

On the afternoon of April 17, local monks, nuns and residents gathered at An Vinh communal house, praying for the fallen soldiers and sailors in the defence of the country’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos thousands years ago.
Held in traditional rituals including the launch of imitation boats with effigies representing the Hoang Sa-Truong Sa fleets’ sailors into the sea, this annual ceremony aims to educate the patriotism and strong determination to protect Vietnam’s sovereignty among young people nationwide.
According to the Vietnamese feudal state’s history, the Hoang Sa flotilla was set up when the Nguyen Lords began their reign in the south of the country. The troops had operated on the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos over the past three centuries, since the time of the Nguyen Lords through the Tay Son and the Nguyen dynasties. The Hoang Sa flotilla was then also assigned to control Bac Hai (Truong Sa).

VNN/VOV/VNS