Action month for drug control launched in Hanoi

An action month for drug control was launched in Hanoi on June 19 by the National Committee for HIV/AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution Prevention and Control in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Hanoi municipal People’s Committee.

In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong highlighted the outstanding results of drug control over the past 10 years which has helped ensure social order and public safety.

Every year, agencies investigate 10,000 drug-related cases and deal with 15,000 drug offenders. The number of drug addicts in Vietnam undergoing rehabilitation is on the rise.

 It is essential that agencies at central and local levels coordinate and cooperate closely to raise public awareness of the importance of drug control, and intensify communication about this issue. Pupils and students should be pioneers in drug control campaigns in the community and at their schools, Mr Trong said.

Young people and representatives from relevant ministries expressed their determination to prevent social evils, combat drug-related crime and enhance rehabilitation and post-detox management and raise the quality of methadone treatment.

Int’l search out for former Vinashin’s CFO

The General Secretariat of the Interpol yesterday issued an international search warrant for Ho Ngoc Tung, former Chief Financial Officer of Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin).

Also being wanted worldwide is Giang Kim Dat, former business manager of a Vinashin subsidiary, Vinashin Ocean Shipping Company.

The international search warrant was issued at the request of Vietnamese authorities.

The two men are among the 10 defendants who have been charged with “deliberately acting against the State’s economic management regulations and causing serious consequences.”

Giang and Tung went abroad before the case involved them was prosecuted on August 4, 2010 by the Ministry of Public Security.

Tung went to Australia for medical treatment and hasn’t returned to Vietnam ever since.

To date, the investigation agency has detained 8 defendants, including Phan Thanh Binh, former chairman of the Vinashin Management Board.

During Tung’s term as director of Vinashin Finance Company, he and his deputy Trinh Thi Hau approved the disbursement of a number of loans worth about VND60 billion (US$2.9 million) sourced from the state’s international bonds.

A part of this amount was later used to fund businesses unrelated to the projects for which the loans had been granted. This led to a failure in recovering those loans.

For example, the company granted a loan of VND42.8 billion to Hoang Anh-Vinashin Company to purchase steel. Nguyen Van Tuyen and Do Dinh Con, the director and vice director of this company, have also been detained.

In July 2006, Con and Tuyen set up fake documents to record a purchase of 4,500 tons steel from Cuu Long Trade Investment Joint Stock Company and used these documents to apply for the said loan from Vinashin Finance Company.

They later used the loans to import second-hand thermoelectric plants for the Song Hong (Red River) Thermoelectricity Plant project which had not been approved by the government.

Tung was also held responsible for mortgaging Bach Dang Giang Ship, scrapped Polish vessel, to get a VND106 billion ($5.16 million) loan, which was also sourced from the state’s international bonds.

He also used VND1,000 billion ($48.26 million) worth of loans from international bond capital to acquire debts, including bad ones, of Vinashin and its subsidiaries.

In addition, Tung was also held responsible for a series of other law-breaking acts that have occurred at Vinashin in the fields of finance, accountings, investment and trade, according to the Government Inspectorate.

One was the purchase of the second-handed Cartour (Hoa Sen) ship from Italy.

The government only approved VND1,400 billion to buy the ship but Pham Thanh Binh, former Vinashin chairman, spent nearly VND1,500 billion ($72.4 million) for the purchase.

Cop suspended for beating boy

Sub-Lieutenant Tran Nguyen Hong Quang, a police officer in Thuy Xuan Ward in Hue City was suspended yesterday after beating 11-year-old Ngo Dinh Phat so violently that the boy had to be hospitalized.
Quang had to submit a report about the incident to the Hue Police Department, said Senior Lieutenant-Colonel Dang Ngoc Son, head of the municipal police.
Senior-Lieutenant Nguyen Anh, deputy head of Thuy Xuan Ward’s police, was also asked to report on his subordinate’s deed.
Anh said on June 15, Phat stole VND3.1 million (US$150) from his aunt’s home to buy a mobile phone. After being caught, he returned the money to her.
Phat’s aunt later took him to the ward police office and left him there. Quang was assigned to question the boy, Anh said.
In the afternoon, the police phoned Phat’s father, asking him to come and take the boy home.

After getting home, seeing Phat moaning and crying in pain, his father took off his clothes and found that the boy had been beaten black and blue.
That night, after Phat had a fever and later convulsions, his father took him to Hue Transport Hospital for emergency treatment.
Doctors found many bruises on his body, including those on his butts, thighs, face and ears.
The next morning, Phat’s father went to the police office to complain about the beating. The police apologized to him and gave him VND1.5 million (US$72) as payment for the medical treatment.
Phat’s father then agreed to drop the case.
The municipal police’s chief Son said the police have visited the boy and apologized to him and his family.
“For whatever reasons, such a violent treatment to children is totally unacceptable,” he said. “Sub-Lieutenant Quang will be strictly punished.”

Cop warned for beating disabled man

The Ha Tinh Province police issued a warning to an officer, Lieutenant Thai Quang Vinh, for assaulting a disabled electronic repairman and transferred him.

Vinh, who was serving in Duc Thuan Ward, Hong Linh town, went to a repair shop owned by a man called Thuan to fix his tape recorder.
Two days later Vinh brought it back saying a part was out of order, and an argument broke out between them over the cause.
Vinh swore at Thuan and beat him on the head with the machine.
He then took off his shirt and picked up some bricks to continue the assault, but he was restrained by Thuan’s neighbors who later reported to the police.
Town police representatives later called on Thien to apologize.
Vinh has been transferred to a new department, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy head of the town police, said.
A few days ago, following a similar incident, a police official in Hue was suspended for thrashing an 11-year-old boy, Ngo Dinh Phat, who had to be hospitalized.
On June 15 Phat was taken by his aunt to the Thuy Xuan Ward police for allegedly stealing VND3.1 million (US$150) from her.
When his father was called by the police that afternoon to come and take him home, he discovered his son had been beaten black and blue. In hospital that night, Phat had a fever and delirium.
After receiving Phat’s complaint about the beating, the police apologized to him and paid his father VND1.5 million for the treatment.

Phat’s father agreed to drop the case.

 

Displaced HCM City residents relocated to new apartments

More than 500 households whose houses were cleared for a new urban development project in District 2's Thu Thiem Peninsula were finally relocated to newly built apartments in the district's An Phu Ward on Saturday.

About 1,850 apartments on an area of more than 17ha will be handed over to people affected by the project from now until the end of the year, according to property developer Nam Rach Chiec, which was asked by the HCM City People's Committee to build the relocation apartments. The first 500 apartments are in two 18-storied buildings within Block N with an area of 50 to 60 sq.m. The complex will also have conveniences such as children's day-care centres and community spaces.

This is the first relocation project in which the city authorities have co-operated with foreign invested companies based in the city.

The property developer invested its own capital in the project and was given other plot of land elsewhere to develop its own project in lieu of payment The city had presented the ‘aparments for land' model to the central Government earlier and was the first locality in the country to carry it out on a pilot basis, said Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the municipal People's Committte, at the hand-over ceremony.

"The relocation project reflects great efforts made by the city's authorities to relocate displaced people," he said. The Thu Thiem Peninsula, which is just across the Sai Gon River from the city's downtown area, is slated to become the new financial centre of the city.

Man arrested in Hanoi for assaulting journalist

The Hanoi police yesterday arrested a man for assaulting a reporter who filmed his acts of intimidation against another reporter who was videotaping illegal encroachment of the railroad safety corridor.

Tran Xuan Thanh, 36, of Phu Dien District has been charged with “acts against law enforcement officers” for punching Le Duy Khanh of An Ninh Thu Do on the face and trying to strangle him.

On June 14 Pham Hong Phong, a reporter from VTC 14 television channel, accompanied a railway inspection team to an area in the capital’s Tu Liem District.

While Phong was filming the illegal occupation of an area beside the tracks, he was threatened by Thanh, who prevented him from videotaping and snatched his camera.

Khanh, who also accompanied the team, videotaped these acts.

Thanh then turned on Khanh, swore at him, hit him and grabbed him by the neck.

The inspectors stopped him and later reported to the police.

Thanh has two previous convictions for buying stolen goods and acting against law enforcement officers, the police said.

Generating 1.52 million jobs in 2011

Vietnam expects to generate jobs for an estimated 1.52 million labourers in 2011, fulfilling 95 percent of the yearly target of 1.6 million.

The information was released by Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Ngoc Phi at a discussion on the sector’s plans in the last six months of the year in Hanoi on June 17.

According to localities’ reports, around 720,000 labourers nationwide were placed in the first six months of the year, of whom, 676,000 found jobs domestically while the remaining were sent overseas.

Reports by job placement centres showed that over 146,500 people registered as unemployed by May 20, a year-on-year increase of 131 percent. Of whom, 119,100 applied for unemployment benefits, up 179 percent compared to the same period last year. 

The number of people who join in unemployment insurance in the year’s first months climbed to 7.4 million, exceeding the figure of 6.5 million forecast for 2011.

Vietnamese and Korean youths join tree planting progamme

As many as 180 young Vietnamese and Koreans participated in a tree planting programme in HCM City on June 18.

The programme was launched by the Youth Union of the Union of Friendship Organisations, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Veterinary Department and the School of Agricultural Techniques.

720 casuarinas shade trees were planted along both sides of a 3,600 m-long section of route D3 in Nhu Nhat commune in Binh Chanh district.

The programme is a practical activity, aiming to raise a sense of responsibility in the younger generations for voluntary movements that benefit the community, and to create a green, clean and beautiful environment for the city.

It was also a chance for Vietnamese and Korean youths to promote exchanges and mutual understanding towards tightening the friendship between the two countries.

Around 80,000 Korean people live and work in HCM City and, through the Korean Peoples’ Association, they have taken part in various social activities including environmental protection and providing free meals for workers and the poor.

Korean Consul General in HCM City, Kang Chung Ku, shared his delight at getting involved in the programme, “I am very happy to join the programme and I hope that more such programmes will be launched in different areas in the future. I have only been in office for three months, so I am new to such activities but I feel I am closer to the Vietnamese people after joining the programme.”

Local says he has found King Ham Nghi’s treasure

A local claims he has located a vast treasure belonging to King Ham Nghi and demands 20% of the treasure in case he finds it.

59-year-old Nguyen Hong Cong, who since 1982 has been digging through mountains in the central province of Quang Binh, told Tuoi Tre the location is in Minh Hoa district’s Hoa Son commune.

He said the treasure hunting has cost him nearly 30 years and VND2 billion (US$96,360). He said he has asked local authorities to let him have 20 percent of the treasure value, instead of ten percent according to current regulations.

But on Sunday, three leaders of Hoa Son and Minh Hoa said they have not received any such requests.

The Quang Binh provincial People’s Committee also confirmed no knowledge of the matter.

In March last year, cong announced he would stop hunting for the treasure but early this year, the hunting resumed.

King Ham Nghi who ascended the throne in 1884 at the age of 13 years old is said to hide a vast treasure in Minh Hoa to finance a big fight against the French colonialists.

But the patriotic king was arrested in 1889 and sent to live in France. He died in 1913 under exile. Since then, information related to the treasure is said to have been lost.

In 1930–1932, some Frenchmen visited the area to allegedly hunt for the treasure. In the 1960s, a story circulated that a local found some gold bars. A little while later, another story was rumored that valuable gold and jewelries were unearthed after a flood uprooted a big tree.

Although such rumors have never been confirmed, many people have spent countless hours trying their luck, all in vain until probably by now.

In another treasure-related news, in February this year, 96-year-old Tran Van Tiep claimed to have found the entrant to the Yamashita treasure hidden under the Tau Mountain in Binh Thuan province after 18 years of hunting.

He said the treasure is worth an estimated US$100 billion.

Tiep said at the end of World War II, after Japan surrendered to the Allies, Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita ordered his soldiers to bury about 4,000 tons of gold and other jewelries under the mountain next to Ca Na Bay, the boundary between Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan.

 

Hoa Hao Buddhists celebrate founding anniversary

Celebrations of the Hoa Hao Buddhist sect’s 72nd founding anniversary have been held across Vietnam’s 15 provinces and cities with support of local authorities.

The sect’s Central Executive Committee said the celebrations took place on the 16^th,17^th and 18^th of the fifth lunar month, complying with religious rituals and the State laws and embracing the spirit of solemnity, solidarity and thrift.

Seventy-two years ago, Hoa Hao Buddhism was founded by prophet Huynh Phu So, a native of Hoa Hao village, Tan Chau district, Chau Doc province (now Phu My town, Phu Tan district, An Giang province).

The religion, which advocates the practice of Buddhism at home, is thriving in 15 provinces and cities from the central coastal province of Phu Yen southwards with more than 2 million followers and 358 executive committees and places of worship.

With more than 800,000 followers, An Giang province is regarded as the Holy Land of the sect.

Best conditions have always been provided for faith practices and religious activities by Hoa Hao dignitaries and followers, who have also enthusiastically participated in social and charitable activities at their localities as guided by their seniors.

Man arrested in Hanoi for assaulting journalist

Boy dies after falling at airport

4-year-old Nguyen Gia Hao, from An Phu Ward, Ninh Kieu District, Can Tho City, died yesterday after falling from the first floor of Can Tho International Airport’s terminal to the ground.

Airport securities said while waiting for a flight, the boy’s family left him unguarded at the terminal.

The boy’s head swelled and he fell into a coma after the accident.

He was taken to Can Tho Central General Hospital for emergency treatment.

The result of a computed tomography (CT) scan showed Hao had a skull fracture and a cerebral edema.

Because of his difficult breathing, doctors had to insert an endotracheal tube to improve his respiration.

Hao died a couple of hours later at the hospital.

Convicts get more years for selling drugs

The People’s Court of the central province of Nghe An Saturday gave a total 62 years in prison to seven defendants including four prisoners and an official for selling heroin in Prison No. 3.
The four convicts who have been serving their sentences in this prison are Ngo Hong Duong, 50, Truong Dinh Thong, 33, Vo Minh Phuoc, 34, and Nguyen Quang Cuong, 33.

Cuong was yesterday sentenced to another 11 years while Thong, Duong and Phuoc received 10, 7 and 6 years respectively.

The couple who sold the heroine to these convicts are Hoang Nghia Dong and his wife, Nguyen Thi Nguyet Ha, from Hung Nguyen District.

Dong received 19 years in prison while Ha was given 4 years.

The official who facilitated their trade is Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Mien, a former superintendent of Prison No. 3.

Mien was given 5 years.

According to the indictment, from March to May 2010, with Mien’s aid, Dong and his wife sold 20.125 grams of heroin to the four prisoners for VND19.5 million (US$940).

Mien had thrice transferred the money from the four convicts to the couple to facilitate the trade.

Boy forced to self-humiliate for game addiction

A 13-year-old boy Friday put on a board saying “I’m a pilferer” on Au Co street in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Binh district, attracting much attention from people around.

The boy was punished by Kha, his uncle, for stealing money to play online game.

Kha said the boy's farther met an early death, his mother therefore has to bring up three little children by herself.

Meanwhile one of her children has been addicted to playing game.

“I brought him to my home in Ho Chi Minh City so that I could educate him, but I failed as he’s always on the watch to steal money everywhere to buy vitural weapons on online game,” he added.

He was caught planning to steal a bicycle on Thursday.

“In spite of being in anguish, I still decided to force him to do that with the hope he could give up playing game,” Khanh said.

Three indicted for destroying police’s assets

The Phan Thiet City police in Binh Thuan Province yesterday arrested three local young men for damaging a police station, burning a policeman’s motorbike and inciting others to violence at the headquarters of Ham Tien Ward police.
The arrested are Truong Van Dien, 19, Thai Van Sang, 17, and Pham Minh Sang, 21, who all are charged with causing public disorder and destroying state assets, said Colonel Nguyen Van Lam, head of the Phan Thiet City Police in Binh Thuan province.
All of them are residents of quarter 4 of the ward, he said.
Not long after the arrest, Thai Van Lam, 18, one of those wanted by the police, turned himself in to the ward police. He is also a local resident.
Lam was alleged to have burnt the motorbike.
Earlier on June 12, Second Lieutenant Nguyen Hong Nguyen and two other policemen found Vu Hoang Long riding his motorbike dangerously, posing a threat to the safety of others on the road.

After Nguyen signaled him to stop, Long sped up and rode straight towards Nguyen. When the bike stopped in front of Nguyen, the official’s baton accidentally touched Long’s helmets. Long then turned the bike and fled away.

About 20 minutes later, Long and another young man returned and picked a quarrel with the official, who later asked his two colleagues to escort Long to their office.
Long’s relatives and a group of drunken men arrived at the police station and threw stones into the premises. They told others that the policeman had assaulted Long and provoked them to join their attack on the office.
Despite the arrival of Phan Thiet City policemen to the scene, the extremists threw stones at the policemen, pulled down the gate of the office, destroyed some assets inside, and set fire to a motorbike.
The burnt motorbike was later confirmed to be of Second Lieutenant Nguyen Hong Nguyen.

EVN to stop unsafe electricity violations

Electricity of Viet Nam (EVN) had conducted comprehensive inspections of the national power grid to curb violations of high-voltage electricity safety regulations in the city during the rainy season, according to an EVN official.

Nguyen Dang Thien, deputy head of EVN's safety section, said that there had been a large number of violations since the beginning of this year that had seriously impacted power supply to the city.

Specifically, the company had instructed its power units to replace overloaded 110KV cables with new, higher voltage cables.

They were also required to increase the capacity of power transformers, upgrade overloaded stations in Thuong Dinh, Tia, Van Dinh, Gia Lam and Nghia Do, and install new infrastructure in Van Quan and Thuong Tin.

The company also asked its units to transfer elevated cables to underground conduits, check and maintain circuit breakers and fell trees that encroached on the city's electricity network, he said.

Thien said power lines that passed through residential areas would be checked to ensure public safety.

Figures from EVN showed that there were more than 2,080 violations during the first five months of this year. The Long Bien Electricity Company was the worst perpetrator, with 358 violations.

EVN had previously instructed violators to remove or upgrade systems where necessary, but many had failed to do so.

HCM City plans major housing boost

HCM City plans to develop 39 million sq. metres of housing and increase the average housing space per person to 17sq.m during the 2011-15 period.

In addition, the city aims to eliminate temporary housing and increase the rate of concrete houses to more than 75 per cent by 2015.

It will also complete the task of relocating 13,000 households living on canals, rebuild 30 old apartment buildings with total new housing area of 350,000sq.m for 6,500 households, and build about 10,000 houses for low-income people.

By 2015, the city aims to meet the housing demand for city residents, improve housing quality and develop a housing fund for low-income earners, including State civil servants, State employees, workers and students.

These targets were set by the city People's Committee at a seminar held last Friday to review the implementation of the city's housing policies and housing development programme in the 2006-10 period, and set tasks for the 2011-15 period.

In the 2006-10, the city built 33.34 million sq.m of housing, exceeding the city's target by 4 per cent.

The average housing space per person also increased from 10.3sq.m in 2006 to 14.3sq.m in 2010.

As of the end of last year, the city had 1.35 million sq.m of boarding houses for workers, providing accommodation for 433,000 workers.

The city has completed construction of 8,236 houses with a total housing space of 1.23 million sq.m.

Of VND257 trillion (US$12.2 billion) invested in housing over the past five years, the city's budget accounted for only 1.69 per cent for individuals compared with households at 37.8 per cent; and companies with 60.5 per cent, according to the city Department of Construction.

Vu Van Hoa, head of the HCM City Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones Authority, said the city's industrial parks (IPs) and export processing zones (EPZs) would have nine housing projects to accomodate 24,000 tenants by the end of this year.

Several companies in IPs and EPZs were investing $2-3 million each to build boarding houses for workers, Hoa said.

In addition, the supply of boarding houses for workers funded by individuals and households had increased in recent years.

Despite the unequal quality of these boarding houses, they had met the demand of workers in IPs and EPZs, he said.

Participants at the seminar suggested that the city should have more preferential policies to support investment in boarding houses for workers, including providing soft loans with a longer term of up to 10-12 years, compared to the current term of seven years.

Nguyen Tan Ben, director of the Department of Construction, said since 2009 the price of houses had fallen slightly and was now stable, but still relatively high compared to the income of city residents.

Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the city People's Committee, said over the past five years the city had been placed on the list of 10 cities worldwide with the highest real estate prices.

Quan said the price of real estate in the city had risen far too much.

He asked relevant departments and agencies to redress the city real estate market imbalences and not allow prices of real estate to rise significantly.

For the next five years, the city's housing programme would continue to be considered a key, strategic programme, he said.

VNN/VOV/VNA/VNS/Tuoi Tre