Fire tears through Tan Loc market

A three-hour fire tore through Tan Loc market in the southernmost province of Ca Mau's Binh Thoi District on Sunday. No deaths or injuries were reported, but more than 30 clothes and jewellery stalls were destroyed, with estimated damage of VND6 billion (US$300,000).

According to Nguyen Van Tan, Chairman of Tan Loc Commune People's Committee, the fire started at night, threatening hundreds of surrounding households.

He said local people had not used the firefighting equipment available, and the fire had been able to spread before it was brought under control by the provincial firefighting force.

Local authorities have donated VND77 million ($3,850) to the victims. The reason of the fire is under investigation.

Earlier this month, two fires occurred in markets in the central provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Binh, causing billions of dong worth of damage. Officials have warned that many traditional markets did not meet fire prevention and control requirements, and were consequently at high risk of fires.

Ex-military delegations receive hero title

President Truong Tan Sang has presented the title of Hero of the People’s Armed Forces to the military delegations of the Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam.

At the presentation ceremony in Hanoi on April 20, the delegates reviewed glorious memories in their diplomatic struggle for the deployment of the Paris Accord, which, they said, created a decisive moment in Vietnam’s total victory.

From the time they were founded on January 28, 1973 until completing their mission on April 30, 1975, the mentioned military delegations resolutely uncovered the US troop’s plots and condemned their activities to destroy the Paris Accord, contributing to forcing the US troops to withdraw from southern Vietnam.

President Sang said despite the two delegations’ short operational time, the founding of the two delegations was a strategically significant event and a clear-sighted policy of Vietnam’s revolution, marking a historical victory in the resistance against the US invaders in the diplomatic field and a valuable lesson for the Vietnamese Party in the art of guiding the war and the diplomatic struggle.

The President suggested the continual upholding of the two delegations’ valuable experiences in the diplomatic struggle in implementing the Paris Accord in the current complex situation.

New border representative office in Lao Cai opened

The command of the border guard force in northern Lao Cai Province has created an office in charge of issues arising along the shared border with China.

The establishment of the representative office ushered in a new chapter in the management of the shared border in Lao Cai Province and the entire Viet Nam-China land border.

The land borderline passes through Viet Nam's northern provinces of Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Lao Cai, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Lang Son and Quang Ninh.

Viet Nam and China have for the first time agreed on a border representative mechanism to handle the maintenance and protection of the border and to solve issues in a timely fashion.

The unified border representative mechanism is expected to contribute to enhancing external relations between the two countries' border guard forces, as well as exchanges between border people, all while maintaining political stability and facilitating socio-economic development in Lao Cai Province.

The agreement on Viet Nam-China land border management regulations signed on November 18, 2009, became effective on July 14, 2010.

Vietnam nabs Cambodian carrying 5.2 kg of drugs

Police at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City have detained a Cambodian woman for bringing 5.2 kg of drugs from Benin, a West African country, to Vietnam, where she would have taken a road trip to Cambodia.

35-year-old Hom Kosal was caught hiding an amount of white powder in her suitcase when she arrived at the airport last Saturday on flight QR608 from Qatar, where she transited after departing from Benin.

The powder was immediately sent to the Criminal Technical Institute for testing and the results showed that it was methamphetamine, a kind of synthetic drug, police said.

Kosal told police that she was hired by a man to bring the drugs from Benin with transit in Vietnam, for US$2,000.

Kosal had gone from Cambodia to Thailand by road and then flew from Thailand to Benin. On April 21, after receiving the drugs, the woman flew from Benin to Vietnam, with a layover in Qatar, a Middle Eastern country.

Kosal intended to bring the drugs from Vietnam to Cambodia by road.

The police are continuing with their investigation.

In related news, on April 17, the airport police also arrested Nguyen Thi Lanh, 43, a resident in HCMC's Hoc Mon District, for carrying 2.6 kg of synthetic drug from Kenya to Vietnam. 

On April 9 Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court issued a capital sentence to a 30-year-old local woman, Le Thi Thu Thao, for drug trafficking. She was the leader of an 11-member ring that trafficked drugs from Cambodia to Vietnam.

Thao’s two accomplices, Tran Ngoc Thinh, 35, Thao’s de facto husband; and Pham Thi Hien, 49, were sentenced to life in prison.

The eight other accomplices received sentences from four years in prison to life.

The ring began operating in 2010 when Hien bought drugs, ecstasy, synthetic drugs and heroin in Cambodia and sent them to Vietnam for Thao to sell.

Late last month, customs officers at Tan Son Nhat Airport seized 5.9 kg of drugs hidden in a suitcase by a Vietnamese person who was about to fly to Australia.

The drug carrier, identified as H.T., has been detained for investigation.

The drugs were found while T. was carrying out procedures to board flight VN773 from HCMC to Sydney on the night of March 31.

Remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers repatriated from Laos

A ceremony was held in the central province of Nghe An on April 22 to rebury 84 sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who had sacrificed their lives on the former battlefields in Laos.

The remains were found and excavated by a special working group of Vietnam’s Nghe An province and Laos’ Xieng Khouang and Vientiane provinces during a joint search campaign in the two Lao provinces in the 2011-2012 dry season.

Earlier, local Lao people and Vietnamese nationals in Xieng Khouang province held a requiem to commemorate the fallen Vietnamese soldiers and experts.

Over the past 28 years, the Military Command of the Nghe An province has searched, repatriated and reburied more than 12,000 sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts at Vietnam-Laos War Martyr Cemetery in Anh Son district and a war martyr cemetery in Do Luong district. Of the total, nearly 800 remains have been identified.  

Woman sues notary office for US$54,700

The People’s Court of District 3, HCMC is handling a lawsuit in which Le Thi Hoa, a resident of District 10, has claimed damages worth VND1.14 billion (US$54,700) from a notary office that had certified false papers related to her purchase of a house.

The damages include a loan worth VND1 billion, and the rest is the interest on it, Hoa said in her complaint.

According to the case file, Le Thi Hoa agreed to lend VND1 billion to a man who called himself Tran Van Luc and a woman he said was his wife, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, on their mortgage of the house at 16 Do Tan Phong, Phu Nhuan District.

Under the agreement between Hoa and the couple the lending term was three months, and if the borrowers could not repay their loan within the time limit, then they would have to sell the house to Hoa.

On January 6, 2011, Hoa and the couple brought their house mortgage contract to the Trung Tam Notary Office in District 3, where notary public Tran Cong Khai certified it after examination.

After the lending term passed and the couple failed to repay the loan and did not sell the house to her, Hoa filed a complaint to the Phu Nhuan District People’s Court against the couple and reported the case to police.

Investigations by police later showed that the two people who had gone to the notary with Hoa were actually named Kiet and To Thi Hong, and had falsely claimed to be Tran Van Luc and Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, the real owners of the house.

Luc and Thuy told the investigators that they had lost the certificate of house ownership for the house and had obtained a new certificate.

This means the certificate used by the false couple was no longer valid, police concluded .
Hoa later by chance met the woman who had falsely claimed to be Thuy and called police to detain her.

The detainee told police that her real name is To Thi Hong, 41, of Phu Nhuan District, and that she had been hired for VND5 million ($240) by a man who only called himself Kiet to act as his wife to sign the document to mortgage the said house to Hoa to get the loan.

Hong said she and Kiet later used fake ID cards in the name of Tran Van Luc and Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy when they dealt with the notary office for certification of the contract.

Luc and Thuy told police that the man named Kiet might be a relative of theirs.

Police are continuing with their investigation and looking for the man.

6 drown, burned to death in central provinces

Three middle school students drowned Sunday afternoon when bathing in a river in the central province of Phu Yen, while three siblings had been torched to death in a house fire earlier today in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

Five students at Vo Thi Sau Middle and High School were taking a bath in the Binh Ba River in Tuy An District when three of whom were suddenly drowned by strong currents.

Local residents rushed to the river to save the three following shouts for help by the other two, but they failed to make it.

The three victims have been identified as Tran Huy Hoang, a 7th-grader, Nguyen Cong Hau, Hoang’s peer, and Tran Van Hung, an 8th-grader, all hailing from the same commune.

The residents said the five’s bathing site is very dangerous as it is truly deep with swift currents flowing underwater.

There have been many drownings recorded around the area, they added.

In the other tragic accident, the three family members, 23-year-old Le Thi Kim Chi, 21-year-old Le Huu Nhan, and 20-year-old Le Thi Ai Nguyen were killed in the fire when they were sleeping on the second floor of their 30-year-old wooden house in Pleiku City – Gia Lai's provincial capital.

The fire occurred around 1:00 am and quickly destroyed the house, despite local people’s efforts to contain it.

The three failed to get out of the flames while their mother, who was sleeping downstairs then, luckily managed to escape.

It is surprising that local firefighters only arrived at the scene 30 minutes later when the house had become a sheer charcoal frame.

Short circuit is suspected to trigger the fire, local authorities say, adding they will work out the cause very soon.

Hue, Japan’s Fukuroi boost culture, training ties

Japan’s Fukuroi city will continue strengthening cooperation with schools which study Japanese in Hue City.

Katsumi Nagata, Chairman of Fukuroi city council, made this statement when he led a delegation to visit the central province from April 18-20.

At the reception, the two sides discussed necessary issues to open the new and long-term period of cooperation between the two cities, especially in fields of culture and training.

They promised to have specific cooperative agreements in place by 2013 to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties.

On this occasion, the delegation also visited the memorial site dedicated to Phan Boi Chau – the initiator of Vietnam’s Dong Du (Visit the East) movement, which enabled hundreds of Vietnamese students to go to study in Japan in hope that they could help reform the country at their return.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre