Quang Ngai speeds up resettlement plan

VND50 billion (US$2.38 million) will be offered advanced from central Quang Ngai Province's budget to speed up the resettlement of residents forced out of their homes by the Nuoc Trong Water Reservoir project.

The project needs VND180 billion ($8.57 million) this year for land clearance, compensation and resettlement.

To date, about 33 per cent of more than 430 households have been relocated.

Work on the reservoir in the mountainous Son Ha District began in 2007. Slow progress in resettlement has badly affected the life of local people.

Vietnamese victims at Antarctic ship fire to get insurance

Twenty-three Vietnamese crewmen, who are victims of the blazing fishing vessel Jeong Woo 2 of the Republic of Korea will get compensation.

According to the Department of Overseas Labour under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the ship’s owner committed to paying compensations to those victims.

The Vietnamese labour companies are working with insurance companies in the interests of Vietnamese sailors.

Those companies gave VND20 million to each family of the three missing sailors. Each family of these missing sailors will receive at most US$16,000 from Bao Minh Insurance Company.

Vessel Jeong Woo caught fire 2,000 miles from New Zealand on January 11.

30 electric buses to ply Ha Noi's streets

Up to 30 electric buses will begin running around Ha Noi's West Lake tomorrow taking tourists to 20 cultural and historical sites.

The buses will start services at 8:30am and end at 8pm every day.

TLC West Lake Joint Stock Company has undertaken the project under the supervision of the district People's Committee.

Da Nang students flout regulations on underage driving

This photo displays a high school student driving another on a scooter in front of Phan Chau Trinh High School in Da Nang's Hai Chau District, the engine size of which far exceeds the 50 cc cap imposed by local authorities.  (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The Da Nang People’s Council has ordered that heavy fines be imposed on those high school students who ride over-50 cc motorbikes to school, and that the vehicles be seized for 60 days.

However, many high school students in the city have ignored this legislation.

A large number of students at high schools located in central business districts such as Tran Phu High School or Phan Chau Trinh High School were seen Wednesday riding motorbikes with engine sizes exceeding the limit.

Numerous students could be found driving as well parking their bikes on the sidewalk, which local residents use to make improvised parking lots, near Ngo Quyen High School situated in Son Tra District.

Parking lots around other schools were also crowded with students’ motorbikes, whose engine capacity well surpasses the 50 cc cap.

A parking lot owner said many students opted to use these facilities after high schools denied them parking for their motorbikes.

Da Nang has clamped down on underage driving among high school students since early January when it issued the regulations allowing police to sequester vehicles 50 days longer than stipulated by the law.

Traffic rules will be tightened around the country as Vietnam chooses 2012 as the year of safe driving.

Rural labourers to receive training

As many as 600,000 rural labourers are targeted to receive vocational training courses this year following an order from Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan.

This is part of a vocational training programme for rural workers approved by the Government for the 2010-20 period.

It aims to create a trained workforce in rural areas to meet the requirements of modern agricultural production.

As planned, more than 11 million rural labourers are expected to join the vocational training courses nationwide by 2020.

Currently up to 82 per cent of rural labourers have not received any type of training.

"The programme is tied closely to identifying an economic structure and new growth model that pave the way for development," Nhan said.

According to Nhan, effective vocational training models that have been piloted effectively are being encouraged, as well as new models such as cultivating straw mushrooms and dragon fruit, high-yield rice, exported handicrafts and agricultural mechanics.

It is estimated that around 800,000 rural labourers nationwide have completed vocational training courses since the programme started in 2010.

About 70 per cent of the rural labourers have earned jobs after finishing their courses.

Many epidemics may break out in Spring

There have been some fatalities caused by the A/H5N1 virus and meningococcus along with an increase in patients with heart and lung problems in the first days of 2012.

This was attributed to the long cold spell in northern provinces and cities, which has provided good conditions for the outbreak of many epidemics.

At least one person died of meningococcal disease.

The Health Ministry on January 31 warned people of the danger of this disease and asked localities to set up anti-epidemic teams.

Meanwhile, there has been a surge in hospitalized patients. Each day, the National Geriatric Hospital diagnoses and treats more than 100 persons, most of them suffering from pneumonia, cardiovascular disease, and brain vessel incidents due to the chilly weather.

2 seized for selling fake meteorite for $4.7mil

Police in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Chanh District have just detained two men who cheated a woman by inducing her to buy a bogus meteorite for VND100 billion (US$4.7 million).

The police in Tan Kien Commune, who were patrolling on the morning of January 31, found and arrested suspicious Dang Ngoc Thanh, 44, and Tran Van Sinh, 47 who were waiting to selling the rock to Nguyen Thi Ly, 47, from District 7.

According to investigators, Ly met Thanh in the Mekong Delta province Can Tho, and expressed a wish to buy the valuable rock from him last June. Thanh and Sinh collected a small rock, painted it black, and put it into a box, intending to cheat her.

On the morning of January 31, Thanh made an appointment with Ly to go to Diem My guesthouse in Binh Tan District to see the rock. At the guesthouse, Ly agreed to buy it for VND100 billion.

Thank asked Ly to pay him a VND100 million deposit in advance but Ly told him that she did not bring the money and asked him to go to a house numbered C12/18 in Tan Kien commune, Binh Chanh District to get the payment.

Doubting the quality of the rock, at 10:00am the same day, Ly went to the rendezvous with Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, 52, who had traded in meteorites. when the two men saw them, however, they ran away without saying a word.

Afterwards, the arrestees told police that they had previously sold a fake meteorite to an acquaintance of Nguyen Thi Kim Anh for VND100 billion; hence, when they saw her, they got frightened and fled.

This, however, is not the first case in Ho Chi Minh City.

Last December, police in District 12 detained a man who cheated a woman by selling her a false meteorite for VND2 billion (US$95,000).

The victim told the police that one day in September, Truc and a few associates came unexpectedly to her rented house in Hiep Thanh 2 Ward and said they had bought a meteorite for VND4 billion and were seeking someone to whom they could sell the valuable rock.

A friend of Truc’s later contacted Lan and told her that he wanted to sell a meteorite for VND2 billion (US$95,000).

After being convinced, she paid them VND2 billion and took the stone home.

She later had the stone verified by experts in precious stones and was told that what she had bought was just a piece of normal rock.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre