One tonne of smuggled MSG confiscated

Market Watch officers in the northern province of Thai Binh yesterday, Dec 21, confiscated a bus carrying 40 smuggled packs of monosodium glutamate (MSG) with a total weight of one tonne.

The MSG is believed to have come from China. Officers are working with other agencies to identify and fine the owner of the goods.

Over the last month, 10 cases of smuggling were reported by officers in the area. A majority of the cases involved MSG, cigarettes and toys.

The goods were believed to be headed for sale at markets across Viet Nam.

With just a month to go before the Lunar New Year, local authorities have intensified inspections in a bid to clamp down on the smuggled goods trade.

Police seize illegally traded US dollars, dong in HCMC

Law enforcement authorities have seized US$500,000 and more than VND10 billion after they caught a business executive illegally and without the knowledge of his own company selling the foreign currency to another business in HCM City.

The Ministry of Public Security's Criminal Investigation Police Department (C46B) on November 28 found Vu Quoc Dat, deputy director of Minh Phuc Transport, Trade and Services Ltd, Co, based in Phu Nhuan District, trying to sell the dollars to two employees of a jewellery shop at a branch of Eximbank in Phu Nhuan District.

They seized all the money from Dat and Huynh Thanh Nhat Hieu and Phan Anh Hue from Kim Mai Jewellery in District 1.

Dat initially told the police that his company had told him to sell the $500,000 to Kim Mai company at the rate of VND21,260.

But the director of Minh Phuc denied this, telling the police he had instructed Dat to sell the dollars to Eximbank and not Kim Mai Company, and demanded his company's money back.

Dat later retracted his story and admitted that he had tried to sell to Kim Mai instead of Eximbank to collect the difference between the bank and black-market rates.

Kim Mai denied that Hue and Hieu had tried to buy the dollars on its behalf, and said the dong they had paid Dat was not its either.

C46B, quoting the State Bank of Viet Nam, said the jeweller was not licensed to do forex transactions.

The agency had summoned the three on Tuesday for questioning, but Dat and Hieu failed to turn up.

C46B said since the illegal transaction was completed, it would confiscate the money.

It also ordered the two parties to pay a total fine of VND150 million ($7,140).

A C46B officer advised the public to transact foreign currencies only with banks and authorised moneychangers, warning they could otherwise be fined and have their money confiscated.

Short circuit causes fire to 4 houses

As the house was stocking flammable goods like plastic products, the fire quickly became stronger and spread to nearby houses.  (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Nearly 240 labourers will be prohibited from taking a Korean language exam to become guest workers in South Korea for violating exam regulations, according to Phan Van Minh, director of the Overseas Labour Centre.

Violations were made using mobile phones in the examination room and most violators were from Nghe An, Quang Binh and Thai Binh provinces. No one was found to have hired stand-in to sit the exam, as earlier reports indicated.

The exam, which tested the workers' Korean language ability - a prerequisite for working in South Korea - received nearly 63,000 candidates nation-wide on December 17 and 18.

Accountants arrested for embezzling $6mil

The Ministry of Public Security police have arrested 3 people for appropriating nearly US$6 million within 5 years from China Airlines’ office in HCMC.

Pho Vy Nhat, 38, from HCMC’s Binh Thanh District and Diep Kinh Chi and Lu Cam Hy, both aged 27 and from District 5, were arrested yesterday for “abusing trust to appropriating assets.”

Nhat, who owns several large painting galleries in HCMC, was a former accountant at China Airlines’ representative office in Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, HCMC, while Chi and Hy were accountant and cashier, respectively, of the same office.

The police also seized from them 4 deluxe cars worth about VND10 billion, a dozens of saving books, a large amount of money in dong and US dollars, several certificates of house ownership and land-use rights, and many other assets.

The police had earlier launched an investigation into their offenses after their employer reported that it had suffered a deficit in sales but failed to find the cause.

Their embezzlement began in 2006 when the 3 colluded with each other in carrying out a simple trick to appropriate money of the firm, the police said.

Every day after work, after collecting ticket revenues from passengers and China Airlines agents, Hy kept part of the money and recorded it in the books as the debts from certain agents.

In the meantime, Nhat and Chi prepared false financial reports and all necessary documents to conceal Hy’s act.

They then used the sales collected in the following day to make up for the amount they had pocketed the day before. On average they pocketed about VND60 million per day, Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper reported.

After Nhat quit his job recently, the other two continued their act until they were arrested.

They used their illegal gains to buy villas, lands and cars and deposited a large amount of money in dong and US dollars at banks and opened businesses.

Nhat bought 2 Lexus for VND5.6 billion and opened 2 painting galleries in District 1.

Chi owes a Porsche Cayenne worth 4 billion, while Hy has a deluxe car and owns many land plots in District 2.

The police are still investigating.

Generator gas fumes kill three-year-old boy

A 3-year-old boy in southern Kien Giang Province died on Tuesday from inhaling gas from an electric generator his parents used during a power cut.

His parents and his 11-year-old sister were hospitalised after being discovered unconscious.

The police were investigating the case.

Rural clean water project gets the go-ahead

The Prime Minister has approved a project to assist the National Target Program for Clean Water and Environmental Hygiene in rural areas in the 2011-2015 period.

The project, which is co-sponsored by the UK, Australian and Danish governments, is focused on transferring technologies related to desalination, proper waste treatment in craft villages, a model of hygienic toilets to be used in the coastal region, and micro-organism technology to treat breeding and agricultural waste.

The PM asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to coordinate with relevant agencies to implement the project.

Many suffer diseases due to cold weather

The recent chilly weather in the north has resulted in many children and elderly people suffering acute pneumonia and other complications; many died when hospitalized.

There has been a 25 percent increase in the number of children being brought to the National Children’s Hospital, especially to the Ear-Nose-Throat department.

The cold weather and high humidity also raised the number of infants hospitalized for treatment at the National Maternity Hospital.

Apart from respiratory diseases, the elderly have also caught other diseases of the bone and nervous systems as well as gout.

Most of the patients brought to the E hospital in Hanoi for treatment have these diseases.

The Gerontology Hospital is currently receiving 120-140 new cases a day for diagnosis and treatment, 40-50 cases more than last year.

The hospital’s emergency department receives an average of 10-15 patients a day in critical condition with pneumonia, hypertension, cardiovascular malfunction, and blood vessel congestion.

Dr Ngo Trong Toan, Head of the Emergency Department, said on average 2 or 3 patients a day die as soon as they are admitted to the hospital.

Man charged $100 for harassing air hostess

Quach Thang (45), a passenger on a Vietnam Airlines flight from Hai Phong To Ho Chi Minh City early December, was charged VND2 million (US$100) for harassing an air hostess, according to a representative from the Southern Airport Authority on Wednesday.

Previously on December 1, Thang was drunk and harassed an air hostess who was serving him food and drinks.

The air hostess reacted and warned the man but he did not stop.

After that, the head of flight attendant arrived and made a report of Thang with a passenger acted as a witness.

According to the Southern Airport Authority, Thang caused disorder on the plane and violated decree 60/2010 by the Government.

HCMC police seize thugs for robbing foreigners

With a new year approaching, police in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1 have boosted the fight against robberies and recently arrested five street robbers who snatched assets from passers-by including from three foreigners.

On December 18 afternoon, a task force of the district police found two men with suspicious signs travelling on a motorbike. The force followed them through several streets and when they reached Hai Ba Trung Street, Ben Nghe Ward, they got close to two foreign women walking on the street.

One of the men immediately got off the vehicle, rushed to one of the women, and snatched a handbag from her arm before getting on the bike and ran away.

The force instantly ran after the robbers who had sped up to escape and only stopped their bike after one of the offices fired two shots into the air as a warning.

The robbers, Nguyen Phuoc Ly, 30, and Vo Thanh Tong, 34, handed in the handbag to the police, who found it contained two passports, a camera and VND1.5 million (US$71) in cash, Dan Tri newswire reported.

The police later spotted two other people who showed abnormal signs while traveling on a motorbike.

When reaching the Pham Ngu Lao – Do Quang Dau crossroads, they snatched a necklace from a woman who parked her bike on the roadside to talk on phone. They then ran away and the police managed to seize them later after a long chase and after two shots were fired into the air.

Two days before, the police also arrested a 21-year-old man, Nguyen Chi Hung, who attempted to rob an iPhone from a South Korean woman, Kim Seonal, in downtown city.

Hung was caught by locals who handed him over to police.

So far this year, the number of robberies with victims as foreigners has risen to 56, an increase of 21 cases from last year, Dan Tri quoted HCMC Police Department as reported.

Robbers mainly targeted those who were strolling or crossing a road, and most of the cases took place in the city’s downtown.

Bystander dies after tree branch falls on head

A 61-year-old man died yesterday morning, Dec 21, after a branch from a 20-year-old delonix regia tree fell on his head on a sidewalk in Vinh City, in the central province of Nghe An, as he was watching the rescue operation of a tow truck.

Eyewitnesses said the unusual accident occurred after a tow truck owned by the Hai Duong Trang company arrived at a sidewalk in front of 312 Nguyen Trai Street to pull a truck out of a manhole it was stuck in.

When the towing task was completed, a local resident asked the truck driver to prune the delonix regia tree. However, while working, the truck accidentally hit the tree-trunk so violently that it uprooted. As a result, a 5 meter long tree branch snapped and fell on the head of Vu Huy Duc, a curios bystander who had come to the scene to watch the rescue operation.

According to local residents, the driver fled the scene after the accident.

The owner of Thanh Nhan, who had hired the tow truck to rescue the trapped vehicle, also closed his business and left.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre