Food poisoning hits factory workers

Over 100 garment workers based in southern Can Tho City suffered food poisoning on Wednesday.

The workers of Phong Dat Co Ltd felt ill after eating a lunch of fried meat and fish, braised pork and loopah soup at Inn No.16 in Hau Giang province's Nga Sau Town.

Eighty-seven of the workers were taken to Chau Thanh District hospital where they spent several hours. They were released on the evening of the same day.

Flood claims lives of three children

Three children were killed in HCM City's District No. 8 when a flood-tide swept them away.

On the same day, a three-meter section of HCM City's Ong Dung ditch embankments in District No. 12 collapsed flooding 100 houses, according to the city police rescue workers.

The flood-water level measured 1 metre in some parts of the country yesterday.

Two arrested for firecrackers

Police have prosecuted Vu Van Truong, 49, of Bac Giang Province's Tan Yen District and his son, Vu The Trinh, 22, for transporting 139 kilogrammes of Chinese firecrackers in Loc Binh District's Tu Mich Commune.

VN Airlines puts on extra 600 flights

To meet the huge demand during Tet, VietnamAirlines (VNA) is putting on an extra 583 flights, or 100,000 more seats, on 10 routes, said Pham Ngoc Minh, director of VNA.

There will be 307 extra flights for a total of 63,000 extra seats, between HCM city and Ha Noi. The HCM City to Da Nang route will see 129 extra flights, or 26.820 more seats.

VNA will also implement a 24-hour plan with night flights to meet passengers' needs in the New Year period.

Trawlers get new tracking devices 

Central Quang Ngai Province authorities plan to spend VND7 billion (US$357,000) equipping local fishing vessels with sophisticated telecommunications and tracking devices to improve the management of search and rescue operations.

The project involves the provincial Sub-Department of Fisheries Resources Exploitation and Protection fitting 300 fishing vessels with tracking devices, compasses, transmitters, walkie-talkies and antennas.

The mainland control centre will also be fitted with the new technology.

The new onboard systems would automatically inform the control centre of the location of fishing vessels and help fishing vessels get weather information, said the sub-department's deputy director Phung Dinh Toan.

The vessels would also be able to send emergency information including exact location, enhancing search and rescue efforts, Toan said.

"The devices will help the control centre to quickly define the distance between a fishing vessel in distress and surrounding areas and this is critical when it comes to helping rescue teams to work out the time needed to get to a vessel," he said.

All relevant information would be automatically transmitted between fishing vessels and the control centre so that the fishermen would not be required to carry out complicated operations, he stressed.

There were more than 5,500 fishing vessels in Quang Ngai at present but most of them used telecommunications devices which allowed only for contact between fishing vessels. This made it difficult for the relevant agencies to define their location in case of emergency, Toan said.

"In case of storms or low pressure, the fishermen will be required to leave their devices on at all times to ensure round the clock contact with relevant agencies," he said.

Toan added that fishermen would receive training in using the devices.

Front leader visits Christians

Huynh Dam, president of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front, yesterday paid a visit to the Catholic Archbishop of the Ha Noi Archdiocese and President of the Viet Nam Episcopal Council Peter Nguyen Van Nhon.

Dam wished the Archbishop and Ha Noi Catholics a merry Christmas.

On the same day, a Party and Government delegation led by politburo member and Secretary of the HCM Party Committee Le Thanh Hai visited Christians in the city.

Hai spoke highly of the Christian community's contribution to the city's socio-economic development and national solidarity.

Flood of ‘genuine' fakes cream high profits from festive season

With demand for food, fashion products, construction materials, cosmetics and other consumer goods surging during the year-end festive season, purveyors of fake products are coming out of the woodwork to flood the market.

Most are copycats of famous brands but cost a third.

"My shop was selling NN fish sauce for a long time at a wholesale price of VND16,000 (US$0.8) for a 750ml bottle, but recently someone came and offered nearly exactly the same thing for just VND11,000," Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper quoted Nguyen Nga, a grocery shop owner in Binh Tan District, as saying.

The police and market watch authorities have arrested many people in connection with fake goods of all kinds, including spices, cosmetics and paintings.

Fakes, knock-offs and products from unknown sources are not sold just by grocers' and other shops around the city but also in big markets like Ben Thanh, An Dong and Binh Tay without fear of intervention by authorities.

Food products are packed in large boxes that are unpacked when customers ask for them. The boxes have no names, addresses or expiry dates and are possibly imported from China.

At the Tam Binh wholesale agricultural market, authorities have seized 27 tonnes of carrots and 15 tonnes of apples smuggled from China.

This year, relevant authorities warned, many boxes of so-called imported cakes were likely to have unknown products inside.

Legitimate companies and consumers are the victims in this insidious campaign.

"We spend billions of dong to advertise our products and gain market share," said Chau Thinh Lan, general director of Vianco Food Processing company.

"But fake products are threatening our business. This year's demand for our products has fallen 30 per cent."

But businesses could not fight this evil alone, he said. According to officials at the Market Watch Agency's HCM City office, each year 3,000 to 5,000 instances of copyright violations are discovered.

Fakes were being increasingly sold even in upmarket shopping malls, it warned.

PV