Driver arrested after running into restaurant

Police of central Quang Nam Province are holding a driver whose car crashed into a restaurant, killing seven people and injuring two, in Nui Thanh District on Saturday.

Police said early indications were that Tran Xuan Dong, 35, had lost control of his seven-seater car after he went to sleep at the wheel at 6am in Village 5, Nui Thanh Town.

The Nui Thanh People's Committee gave each dead person's family VND6 million (US$280) and each injured person's family VND2.5 million ($120).

A restaurant for poor people in Hanoi

A group of young people in Hanoi has opened a restaurant in front of the National Hospital of Pediatrics to offer lunch to child patients and relatives every Saturday.

The lunch service is at a chep price of VND5,000 per dish and was initiated by Trung, a young man from Quang Ninh, with the assistance of his relatives and friends.

Trung says many people want to buy cheap food but the restaurant only serves patients from the N.H.P.

Trang, a belly dancer who works at the restaurant, says that although staff members have different jobs but all of them are willing to help poor people.

HCM City aims to improve land management

HCM City authorities will step up inspections of agencies working in housing and land management in the coming months in an effort to stem rising corruption.

People's Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan told a meeting of the city's Corruption Prevention Steering Committee that corruption was rife in several divisions of the municipal administration as well as administrations at the ward, commune and district levels.

He said a recent investigation had found 68 cases of paper procedures unsolved because related petitions were transferred from one agency to another with no one taking the responsibility of dealing with them.

However, reports submitted at the meeting also said that the widespread corruption at all levels were not of great magnitude. Most of the cases had to do with officials taking "tips" for smoother procedures.

As of July, 135 inspections had been conducted and 26 agencies found engaged in wrongdoing with the total amount involved estimated at VND4 billion (US$191,000).

Seven cases were brought to court.

A significant part of "emerging" corruption mostly concerned construction permits and land use transfers at ward, commune and district levels.

In one case, residents accused a commune administration of recording that a family owned 21,000sq.m of land though the actual area was 5,000sq.m.

In the remaining six months of the year, inspections will focus on agencies engaged in land management including the departments of natural resources and environment, construction, planning and architecture.

In major cases, the culprits will be brought to court by the year-end, the meeting heard.

Cabby accused of fleecing foreigner 60 times

A cabby in Ho Chi Minh City has been accused of forcing an Australian tourist to pay him VND6 million (US$300) for a 7km ride that should have cost $5, a reliable source told Tuoi Tre.

That means the driver overcharged him almost 60 times the current fare.

Pham Van Quang, who informed Tuoi Tre about the scam, said when his friend Jorenson, 49, arrived at Bach Dang Wharf on Ton Duc Thang Street, opposite Tran Hung Dao

Statue, by hydrofoil from Vung Tau coastal city on July 18, a cabby of a taxi firm with a logo similar to that of Saigon Tourist, one of the city’s large cab firms, appeared to invite him.

Jorenson asked the cabby to take him to Tan Son Nhat Airport.

However, upon his arrival at the airport, the driver forced him to pay VND6 million ($300) for just a 7 kilometer ride.

As he was in a hurry up to check in, he paid the cabby all the money he has: VND2 million and AUS$100. But, the driver still demanded more.

Jorenson had no choice but called Quang for help. But when Quang came, the driver ran away.

Ngo Thanh Hieu, the managing director of Saigon Tourist taxi firm, confirmed with Tuoi Tre that they send five taxi cabs to the Bach Dang Wharf everyday to serve passengers.

Hieu added that 5 taxi drivers working at Bach Dang Wharf July 18 all claimed they did not drive a foreign customer to Tan Son Nhat Aiport that day.

After being told some distinguishing features of the cab driver, Hieu asked a taxi driver to the People’s Committee of Ben Nghe Ward, District 1 on July 19 for Quang to recognize but Quang did not come.

“It is quite possible that the driver used unlicensed cab to rip off the foreign tourist,” Hieu said.

Taxi scams have gone rampant in Ho Chi Minh City recently, causing headache to local authorities.

In June, a cabby posing as a Mai Linh (a famous taxi brand) employee ripped off two Spanish tourists, asking them to pay prices 20 times higher than normal.

In April, a taxi driver of Ho Chi Minh City-based Saigon Hoang Long Taxi Company, Nguyen Hoang Hai, has been suspended for overcharging a Japanese woman and then stealing all her luggage.

Last November, two Singaporeans, delegates to the 80th Interpol General Assembly in Hanoi, had fallen victim to a local scam taxi driver who overcharged them by 40 times the normal fee and even took away their cell phone.

Ha Noi funds relocation of slaughterhouses

The Ha Noi People's Committee will support livestock slaughtering expenses to slaughterhouses that are located in parts of the capital city specially set aside for these businesses.

According to the new regulation, the committee will support 50 per cent of expenses for the slaughter of cattle or poultry in the first year, 40 per cent in the second year and 30 per cent in the third year.

Encouraging slaughterhouses to relocate to areas set aside for these businesses is expected to help wind down the city's small-scale slaughterhouses and ensure better control over outbreaks of diseases such as bird flu.

Eye bank opened to bring light to the blind

In a new effort to bring light to the blind, the Ho Chi Minh City Sponsoring Association for Poor Patients on Friday inaugurated an eye bank that is under the association’s management.

The bank, located at 1147 Tran Hung Dao Street, Ward 5, District 5, was set up as a further step of the association’s program titled “Bringing light to poor people”, which has been implemented since 1994.

At the inaugural ceremony for the bank, Tran Thanh Long, president of the association and director of the eye bank, said, “The eye bank is a non-profit charitable

organization, which was founded to call for cornea donations among the public to help bring light to the blind.”

The bank will receive, assess, and preserve the donated corneas, and will supply them to health units for transplants for the blind.

About 1,000 people, including many monks and priests, have so far registered to donate their corneas after death, the association said.

The country has more than 300,000 blind people who need to have cornea transplants, but most of them have to live in the dark due to a shortage of cornea supply, according to the association.

The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber. The time limit for removing corneas from a donor is 6-8 hours after the person’s death.

Herbal clinic closed for substandard care

Hai Phong City inspectors have suspended a private herbal medicine clinic which hires foreign staff.

The clinic at 345 Tran Nguyen Han Street, in Le Chan District, was found selling medicines with unclear origin, past their use-by dates and without having instructions and contents in Vietnamese language.

The clinic was in the name of a Vietnamese traditional medicine practitioner and was licenced by the Hai Phong Department of Health.

HCM City job market sluggish in first half

Labour demand in HCM City plunged in the first half from a year earlier, according to the Centre for Labour Market Information and Human Resource Forecasting.

The centre estimated the city's demand for workers to have fallen by around 25 per cent in the first quarter and 21 per cent in the second.

But "irrationally," companies did not fill even the lower number of vacancies that have arisen, Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the centre, said.

The Job Promotion Centre set up nine job floors which offered 30,000 jobs but participating firms ended up filling just 6,000 openings.

The centre said skilled employees, whom companies always look to hire and retain, are in demand now, especially in the accounting and banking, marketing, business administration, and electrical and electronics sectors.

More than 45,000 workers will be needed in August and September, with university and college graduates accounting nearly 23 per cent of them. Around 35,000 part-time workers will also be required.

Nearly 100,000 laid-off workers have claimed unemployment benefits this year, but very few have benefited from job fairs or free vocational training.

Each day the city receives an average of 400-500 new applications for unemployment benefits, the number increasing due to the closure of many firms and cuts in production.

Tuan said free vocational training programmes and loans would be more effective in enabling poor workers to earn a livelihood.

Coal plant to be relocated from world heritage area

Steps are being taken to shift a polluting coal plant in the centre of Ha Long City to a new site seven kilometres away.
The municipal People's Committee labelled the move as "urgent" because it was one of the enterprises that conflicted with the city's tourism image.

They pointed out that the plant was in a world natural heritage area, Ha Long Bay. However, it is not the only industry being viewed with concern.

The committee was told that the bay was surrounded by factories producing cement, thermal power, coal mining and crushed limestone and rock.

It announced on Thursday that the Hon Gai Coal Preparation Company's Nam Cau Trang Plant in Ha Long City would be relocated to Suoi Hai mining area in Ha Khanh Ward.

The move aims to reduce environmental pollution and other impacts of coal mining and production on the city's tourism development.

The new location is closer to mining areas and coal consumers including Quang Ninh Thermal Power Plant and Lang Khanh Port, which is used to transport coal.

At the meeting, the Viet Nam National Coal and Mineral Industries Group said it would invest in advanced technology to minimise the impacts of coal mining, transport and production on the surrounding environment.

The new plant, which can produce four million tonnes of coal a year, occupy an area of nearly 39ha, including 7.4ha for a green belt.

HCM City residents to receive SMS warnings

The HCM City People's Committee has requested local telecommunications companies to set up a switchboard that will relay earthquakes and tsunami warnings to the city's mobile phone subscribers.

The HCM City Television Station and the Radio Voice of HCM City's People station are also asked to stop regular programmes to broadcast the warnings as soon as they receive the information from the municipal Storm and Flood Control Committee.

The City's rundown buildings will also be inspected by the Department of Construction. The requests are part of a plan to better prepare for earthquakes and tsunamis that may threaten the city.

Call to fine passengers without life jackets

Fines should be applied on boat passengers who refuse to put on life jackets or life-saving equipment, said deputy head of the Waterway Traffic Police Division of the Ha Noi Transport Department Nguyen Van Cuong.

Cuong made the suggestion at a meeting to implement the Transport Ministry's circular 15, which stipulates regulations on use of life jackets and other life-saving equipment on river boats.

The meeting, held in Ha Noi on Wednesday, also heard that the regulation should be expanded to tourist boats.

Funds raised for Agent Orange victims

The Association for Victims of Agent Orange of central Da Nang City has raised VND3.5 billion (US$166,000) from domestic and foreign donors in the first six months this year.

The donations have helped fund heath care, accommodation, wheelchairs and gifts for AO children in the city.

The city has over 5,000 AO victims, of which 1,400 are children.

Donors form giant drop of blood

More than 4,000 blood donors yesterday, July 22, helped form a huge drop of blood with the national flag at the centre.

The event, which took place at My Dinh National Stadium, is expected to create a new world record.

Organisers expect to collect at least 2,500 blood units (350ml each) from more than 4,500 registered donors in attendance. More than 1,100 blood units had already been collected by mid-day.

The event was a part of a blood donation festival, called the Red Connection, organised by the Viet Nam Youth Union and the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion to celebrate War Invalids and Martyrs' Day on Friday, July 27.

"Voluntarily blood donation is a practical way of showing gratitude to the contributions made by war invalids and martyrs to the nation's revolution, especially as there is a blood shortage at present," said institute director Nguyen Anh Tri.

"The festival aims to educate the young about safe lifestyles and guide them how to love and to share," he added.

Le Thi Hong, a student from Ha Noi Industrial Arts College, said she was honoured to be one of the first people to donate blood at the stadium.

The event also attracted composer Huy Thuc, who received blood for his injuries during the war; Miss Viet Nam 2010, Ngoc Han, and Miss Bikini, Nguyen Thi Loan–plus many famous singers and bands.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre