HCM City to co-operate in all fields with Cambodia

HCM City plans further cooperation with Cambodia in all areas, including trade, healthcare, agriculture, and education and training, according to Le Hoang Quan, chairman of the city's People's Committee.

Speaking at a meeting in the city yesterday on the 45th anniversary (June 24) of the establishment of Viet Nam – Cambodia diplomatic ties, Quan said cooperative relations with Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, began in 1999. To date, HCM City has developed 34 projects in Cambodia, with a total investment of nearly US$198 million.

The project to build the Cho Ray – Phnom Penh Hospital, with a capacity of 500 beds at a cost of $42.37 million, is expected to be operational in June next year. Cho Ray is a major hospital in HCM City.

In addition, HCM City regularly organises trade fairs in tourism, trade and services in Phnom Penh as well as Cambodia's Battambang Province and other localities.

Last year, bilateral trade between HCM City and Cambodia reached more than $210 million.

Two-way import and export values between Viet Nam and Cambodia was nearly $2.8 billion in 2011.

Viet Nam has developed nearly 100 projects in Cambodia, with a total investment of more than $2.2 billion.

Taxi driver saves young man in attempted suicide

A Mai Linh taxi driver has been honored after he bravely jumped into the Cai River in Nha Trang City to save a young man who had jumped off a bridge in a suicide attempt.

At about 9 pm Thursday night, when Tran Viet Dao, a taxi driver of the Mai Linh Taxi Group, was driving his cab cross the Tran Phu Bridge he saw a crowd of people looking down to the river below, where a young man was struggling with the currents.

Finding that nobody took action to save the victim, Dao stopped his cab, got out and jumped into the river from the bridge, at a height of about 30 meters.

He managed to take the victim ashore and, with the aid of others, gave him first aid before taking him to the Khanh Hoa Province General Hospital.

The young man was later identified to be Nguyen Quoc B., 28, a resident in Nha Trang.

Witnesses said B had a quarrel with a young girl on the bridge before he jumped down to the river.

“At that time, I thought nothing other than saving the victim, as human life is priceless. I will do the same if I face a similar case in the future,” Dao said.

Vu Xuan Tu, chairman of the trade union of the Highlands & South of Central Mai Linh Group Joint Stock Company, on Friday presented Dao with a certificate of merit together with a bonus of VND1 million (US$48) to honor his good deed.

Life term upheld for woman who set husband on fire

An appeals court in HCM City has upheld the previous sentence of life in prison handed down by the Long An Province People's Court after finding a woman guilty of causing the death of her husband by setting him on fire.

Tran Thuy Lieu received the sentence from the Supreme Court in HCM City yesterday for causing the death of her husband, Le Hoang Hung, a journalist working for Nguoi Lao dong (Labourer) newspaper in Long An Province.

In March, the province's court sentenced the woman to life in prison, but Hung's mother wanted the case heard again because she suspected that another person had assisted Lieu in setting her son on fire.

Lieu said at the court in HCM City on Friday that she had been having an affair with the section head of the province's Department of Market Management. She and the man often went to Cambodia to gamble, which had left her family with major debt.

During the trial, she admitted to setting her husband on fire because of family conflicts, but she said she did not want him to die. She also asked the court for a lighter sentence so she could take care of her and Hung's two daughters.

Three workers die in factory wall collapse

Three workers died and four others were injured when a wall of a sewing factory in Ha Nam Province suddenly collapsed onto them on Friday.

At 4:10 pm Friday, a group of workers of Leojin Sewing Company in Dong Van Industrial Park were working when the accident happened.

Rescue efforts were deployed and seven workers were found in the debris. One of them, 19-year-old Tran Van Quy, of Ha Nam’s Kim Bang District, was found dead while six others were severely injured.

The injured were taken to Ha Nam General Hospital and several hours later, two more workers – Nguyen Thi Hanh, 31, a local woman, and Tran Thi Thoa, 39, of Hanoi – died.

The remaining are being treated at a local hospital and in Hanoi.

Several large, heavy rolls of cloth that had been piled behind the wall could have caused the wall to fall, witnesses said.

The company has given VND20 million (US$960) to each family of the dead victims and VND5 million to each injured worker. The Provincial People’s Committee chairman, Mai Tien Dung, has visited the injured workers at the hospital.

Slips threaten 1,200 homes near river

Landslides are threatening about 1,200 households near the Tien River, according to Dong Thap Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention.

Districts particularly at risk are Hong Ngu, Thanh Binh and Chau Thanh.

Since last year, the province saw about 100 major landslides near the Tien and Hau rivers. An estimated 43ha of land was lost.
The landslides were blamed on unseasonably heavy rain, said Nguyen Van Duong, deputy chairman of the provincial People's Committee.

The province has relocated nearly 550 households from landslide-prone areas, but a great number of families are still at risk, but space is limited, Duong said.

Hoang Van Cam, from Thanh Binh District, said he and his neighbours were unable to sleep because of the threat of landslides.
"I heard that local authorities will resettle us, but I'm not sure when. We look forward to relocating to somewhere safe," he said.

Since last year, a number of houses near Cam's have been affected by subsidence. No casualties were reported, but local residents said losses amounted to as much as VND30 million (US$1,430), Cam said.

The provincial People's Committee has asked the ministries of agriculture and rural development, planning and investment and finance to provide VND334 billion ($15.9 million) in financial aid to relocate residents to safe areas.

Meanwhile, provincial authorities have asked districts to ensure residents are safe and to speed up construction of dyke systems near rivers.

4 handed over after raid on illegal marriage plot

Just as a young Vietnamese woman realized she might be sold into marriage, police raided the hotel where she was trapped to arrest four men plotting the transaction.

Ho Chi Minh City police said Thursday they had transferred the four suspects, two Chinese and two Vietnamese, to law enforcement in Tan Phu District.

Thong A Loc, 59, admitted to brokering the deal and to hiring Su Chuc Man, 43, as an interpreter for the Chinese suitors, Cen Yi Bin, 41, and Huang Hui Huang, 27.

Loc, who left prison in late 2011 after a three-year term for a similar crime, reportedly drove two girls to Nhu Hoang Hotel in Tan Phu District on Tuesday.

But a dispute erupted when one of the girls said she thought Loc was helping her find high-paying work overseas. Police rushed in mid-quarrel, as Loc was refusing to let the girl leave.

Earlier, the Chinese men had “placed an order” for wives between age 18 and 23.

Loc, who said other foreigners had paid him thousands of dollars per marriage arrangement, then phoned contacts in Hau Giang and Bac Lieu provinces to send two girls to Ho Chi Minh City, where he picked them up at the Western Bus Station.

City police said Loc already had a criminal record in Tay Ninh Province for sending Vietnamese girls abroad for prostitution.

Here, the broker rented a house in Tan Phu District to carry out illegal marriage transactions.

Fire kills three family members

A fire broke out at a house in Can Duoc District's Long Dinh Commune, in the southern Long An Province, on Friday, killing a husband and wife and their son.

A neighbour said that when he saw the fire, he ran to the house to help those inside but that the front door was locked. The stepdaughter of the wife managed to flee through the house's backdoor.

Store fined for selling fake condoms

A store based in Ho Chi Minh City has been fined VND22.5 million (US$1076) for selling their customers counterfeit condoms.
The Buom Buom (Butterfly) shop located on District 6’s Ba Hom Street has been caught offering more than 1,400 packets of fake Durex condoms for sale.

The condoms are of inferior quality than those manufactured by Durex, according to the city’s Market Control Bureau, who imposed the administrative penalty.

Each packet was offered for sale at VND12,000 ($0.57), half the price of a ‘real’ one, they said.

Further investigations into the origin of the condoms are underway.

Soldier's remains repatriated to US

The remains of a US soldier believed to have died during the American War were repatriated from central Da Nang International Airport on Friday, June 22.

It was the 123rd post-war repatriation of US remains from Viet Nam.

Vietnamese Consul-General to the US Le Thanh An, as well as US Army Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Keane, representing the US Government, received custody of the remains at the airport.

To date, the remains of 982 US personnel serving during the American War have been identified since 1973. Of those, 689 were discovered in Viet Nam.

The remains of 1,664 Americans from the war period are still unaccounted for, 1,282 of whom are thought to have died in Viet Nam.

Coast guards save 12 fishermen at sea

Marine police have taken ashore 12 fishermen on a fishing boat that had broken down and drifted off the coast of Quang Nam Province for 4 days.

On Friday a rescue boat of the Marine Police Zone 2 towed the fishing boat, QNa-91594, with a crew of 12 people to Ky Ha Port in Nui Thanh District, said Colonel Tran Trung Kien, political commissar of the police agency.

The fishing boat’s engine stopped working on June 15 when it was operating in a sea area that was violently rough due to impacts of a low pressure, said Tran Ben, the boat’s captain.

The vessel then drifted and fierce sea waves cracked it in some places, flooding it with seawater. The crew managed to drain the water out of the vessel while Ben tried to contact local search and rescue forces.

On June 17, after receiving the request for help, the police marine agency sent the CSB 9002 vessel with 22 marine police officers on board to the area to search for the drifting boat.

Some of the fishermen had passed out when the police found their boat drifting 320 nautical miles east-by-northeast of the Quang Nam coast two days later.

The fishermen had suffered from fatigue, hunger and thirst for 4 days, Ben said, explaining that the boat was about to run out of food and drinking water.

“If the police had failed to find out our boat in time, it would have sunk and we would have died,” Ben said.

This is the sixth time that the Marine Police Zone 2 has successfully rescued a boat in distress at sea, said Colonel Kien.

The agency has saved hundreds of fishermen so far.

VNN/VNS/Tuoi Tre