Prudential staff charged for fleeing with $14mil

The police in Quang Ninh Province have indicted Bui Thi Thu Hang, 27, the former head of a local agent of insurance firm Prudential, for allegedly appropriating over VND300 billion (nearly US$14.4 million) from clients through insurance policies.

After several months of hiding, Hang and her husband, Nguyen Van Hung, 30, were arrested at the Monaco Hotel in Nha Trang City Thursday.

Hung was seized for alleged involvements in Hang’s illegal dealings, police said.

Many victims said Hang since April 2010 has lured them to sign 3-month insurance policies with Prudential to enjoy an interest rate of as much as 50 percent on the value of the policies when they fall due.

Specifically, some victims said, Hang promised them that just three months after a policy worth VND1 billion was signed, the firm would pay them VND500 million as interests.

By offering such a lucrative interest rate, Hang has signed many policies and paid interests to some people.

One of Hang’s victims is Tran Thi Chien, from the province’s Ha Long City. After getting VND100 million as interest on a 200 million policy, Chien mobilized money from her relatives and even got loan banks to invest in such insurance policies.

Meanwhile, after receiving over VND300 billion from her victims, Hang fled with her husband.

On Friday the Quang Ninh police escorted Hang from Nha Trang to the province for investigation.

Higher minimum wage to be proposed

The Ministry of Home Affairs will propose an increase in the minimum wage for public servants and members of the armed forces to help ensure they can meet basic living needs.

The ministry will also propose changes to the Government payroll system and to policies involving allowances or other additional payments made to employees.

The move follows a ministry survey showing that over 98 per cent of staff in the ministries of Education and Training, Science and Technology, and Health, as well as local governments in 15 cities and provinces, said the current minimum wage was too low.

The survey was conducted as part of a UNDP-funded project to assess the implementation of wage policy reform for public servants since 2003 and reform plans for 2012-20.

The minimum wage has been increased from VND210,000 (US$10.50) per month in 2003 to VND830,000 ($41.50) currently, with periodic increases based on inflation and State budget resources.

Participants in a workshop held Friday in the northern city of Hai Phong agreed that high inflation and other economic difficulties since the global financial crisis in 2008 have increased pressures on low-paid workers trying to meet basic living conditions.

Participants at the workshop proposed that the minimum wage for public servants be increased to the same level or higher than that for workers in the private sector to encourage public servants to perform their duties more effectively.

Floods continue devastating provinces

Ongoing floods Friday continued to spread devastating damages to the dykes and traffic infrastructure in the central and Mekong Delta provinces.

In Dong Thap Province, the flood broke a dyke and damaged 200 hectares of paddy on its way through Hong Ngu Town.

Local authorities said the damage was estimated at VND6 billion (US$287,000) and they had disbursed VND5 billion to reinforce the dykes.

Earlier the authorities had to evacuate 21 households in An Thuan Hamlet of Chau Thanh District as 10 hectares of land there have been blown away by the floods.

Seven schools in Hong Ngu District have to be temporarily shut down.

Meanwhile in An Giang Province, around 1,800 students in An Phu and Tan Chau District who have to travel to schools on boats since the roads have been flooded are at high risks as local authorities can afford to provide life-jackets to only half of them.

Local authorities also said four residents of An Phu District have died in the floods.

In Thua Thien-Hue, rising rivers caused landsides in many areas and submerged more than 900 hectares of rice that were ready for harvest.

Continually heavy downpours also damaged and blocked the National Route No 49 to the A Luoi mountainous district.

Local authorities said more than 1,700 fishing boats have been evacuated to safety.

18 fishermen return from Philippine captivity

Eighteen among the 122 Vietnamese fishermen who had been detained in the Philippines for alleged encroachment on Philippine waters arrived in Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat airport Friday afternoon.

According to the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines, they are the crewmembers of two of the seven boats that were seized along with the 122 fishermen by Philippine authorities on May 30 off Palawan province.

The remaining fishermen will be expatriated to Vietnam on September 25 and 26, the embassy said, adding that they are now staying in an army barrack belonging to the Philippines' Western Military Command.

The embassy said it was working with Philippine authorities to have the seven boats released as soon as possible.

Earlier on May 30, 2011, seven fishing vessels from Binh Thuan province with 122 fishermen on board were seized by the Philippine Navy about two nautical miles (3.6 km) off the Tamburok coast of Balabac, belonging to Palawan province.

The fishermen were sailing into the Philippines waters to fish under a signed contract between Long Hai Long Company of Vietnam and the Philippines’ Premiere International Interfishing Company.

However, when they entered the Philippines’ territorial waters, they were arrested and their ships confiscated. Long Hai Long and its Filipino partner had failed to follow the laws of the Philippines.

On August 26, the court of the Philippine province of Palawan dropped the charges on 85 of the 122 detainees and released them from the provincial prison.

On September 1, the remaining 37 fishermen were also set free after the court withdrew charges against them.

Several days later, the Philippine Immigration Department has imposed a fine of 50,000 PHP (US$1,150) on each of the 122 Vietnamese fishermen.

Producers urged to improve food hygiene

“Green Environment and food safety” was the theme of a seminar in Hanoi on September 24. The event aimed to urge producers to pay more attention to the environment factor in their production process. 

According to the Ministry of Health, some 6,000 to 7,000 food poisoning cases were reported in 2010. However, the number has yet to reflect the real situation as Vietnam has not system to detect poisoning cases. 

Over recent years, the number of food poisoning cases has dropped but poisoning level has become more serious. The reason behind this is that food has been produced in unhygienic conditions. 

Participants at the seminar agreed that raising producers’ awareness of the environmental factor is very important and that this needs more efforts from both authorities and consumers.

Security cameras proposed for downtown HCMC

Several agencies in Ho Chi Minh City have proposed to the municipal People’s Committee to build a security monitoring center using cameras in District 1 to strengthen control over security and order in the downtown area.

The committee welcomed the idea and asked District 1’s authorities and the municipal Police Department to develop a detailed plan that includes an estimate of costs for further consideration.

The committee said this center, with its camera system, must also contribute to protecting the environment and improve traffic safety in the downtown area.

The committee has also asked the District 1 police to tighten control over the area where many jewelry shops are situated to prevent robbery.

According to a report from District 1’s People’s Committee, crimes in the first 8 months of this year have slightly dropped compared to the same period of last year, but robbery and thefts still accounted for 83 percent of all criminal cases.

Italian project helps improve ethnic groups’ life

An Italian-funded project to improve self-reliance in nutrition and healthcare for ethnic minority groups in Vietnam has helped change the life of beneficiaries in Bat Xat district in northern mountainous Lao Cai province.

The three-year project, implemented by Unity and Cooperation for Development of People (UCODEP), started in Muong Vi and Den Thang communes in 2009 at a cost of more than 1.36 million Euros, to which 683,000 Euros were contributed by the Italian Foreign Ministry and more than 69,000 Euros came from Oxfam Italy.

The project, focused on providing safe water, education on women and children healthcare, savings fund and credits, is designed to improve the livelihood for ethnic groups, especially women and children, reduce the fatality rate in common diseases and prevent and control diseases.

Under the project, a group of medical workers was set up to disseminate information on clean water and sanitation works and 145 cattle breeding facilities and more than 100 sanitation works were built.

Cyprus boat hits barge; two dead, one missing

A 27-year-old man has gone missing while his wife and his 13-month-old daughter died when their barge that carried stones collided with container boat Medbaykal from Cyprus early morning yesterday on Long Tau River in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.

Nguyen Tan Viet, the barge’s captain from Long An Province, is missing while his wife Huynh Thi Xuan Hao, 24, and his daughter Nguyen Thao Nguyen were killed in the accident that caused the barge to sink rapidly, the Maritime Search and Rescue Co-Ordination Center III reported.

Two others on the barge, Nguyen Tan Toan, 24, and Nguyen Van Cuoi, 45, jumped into the river and were later saved by a fishing boat that was operating nearby.

After being informed of the accident, the center sent a search and rescue team to the scene to search for the victims.

At 3 pm, divers entered the cabin of the barge and found the bodies of Thuy and her baby.
The rescuers tried to search for Viet for many hours later but failed to find him.

The woman and the baby were sleeping when the collision occurred, the two rescued people told the press.

The 12,000-ton container boat’s captain is Platek Rober, 43, from Poland.

The local authorities are investigating the cause of the accident.

24 crew on Vietnam’s pirated ship return home

All 24 Vietnamese members of the crew on the Mongolia-flagged cargo ship Hoang Son Sun owned by Vietnam safely returned home today after eight months under detainment by Somalian pirates.

They landed at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi at 15:00pm Friday. They all look emaciated in crumpled clothes and carry almost no luggage. They said they were beaten and ill treated during the period.

On January 17, 2011, the ship with the 24 crew members was pirated off the coast of Oman when they were on the way from Iran to Xiamen Port in China.

At the moment, the ship with a loading capacity of 23,000 tons was carrying cargo valued at US$2 million, according to Hoang Son Company based in Vietnam’s central province Thanh Hoa – owner of the ship.

No information on the payment of ransom has been revealed, but Hoang Son Company vice director Hoang Son had announced his estimates early this year that ransom would be at least $5 million.

The ship and its cargo and crew members are all under conventional marine insurance which is not valid for cases of piracy and wars, according to the company.

During a month since the Christmas in 2010, Somalian pirates have attacked six ships off Oman coast and were keeping 30 other ships with over 700 crew members for ransom.

Tanker hits 4 bikes at red light, kills one for brake loss

One man was killed on Friday, two others injured and at least five vehicles damaged after being hit from behind at a red light traffic post by a heavy tank truck falling in sudden loss of brakes.

The accident happened at 8:30am on the National Highway 1A in Chau Thanh District of Tien Giang Province.

Witnesses at the scene reported that the tanker was running at high speed and crashed on 4 motorbikes stopping at red light before hitting a seven-seat Toyota Innova.

The tanker rolled over legs of two men going the bikes.

Driver of the Toyota Innova said the tanker only came to a halt after it bulldozed the Innova to lie horizontally on the road and act as a barrier for the troubled truck.

A source from Tien GIang provincial police department said one of the two injured men died at hospital at noon today. He was identified as Pham Van Cua, 62, residing in My Duc Dong Commune in Cai Be District of Tien Giang.

Hanoi, Vientiane promote education cooperation

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training, led by its Director Nguyen Huu Do met with the Acting Director of the Vientiane Department of Education and Sports in Laos on September 23.

The two sides expressed their satisfaction with the positive results of cooperation in education between the two capitals in recent years.

 They also made plans to exchange high-ranking delegations and share experiences in educational management, teaching methods and information, as well as to send cadres and teachers on training courses.

On the occasion, the Vietnam-Laos Friendship High School in Vientiane and the Kim Lien High School in Hanoi signed a cooperation agreement in the presence of the Vietnamese ambassador to Laos, Ta Minh Chau.

The same day, the delegation visited the Nguyen Du kindergarten, primary and secondary schools owned by the Vietnamese community in Vientiane.

Suspected footprints of tiger found in Nam Tra My

Many footprints suspected of an adult tiger have been found by the bank of Bua River in the mountainous districts Nam Tra My and Son Tay of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces in the central region.

Each print that has five nails is measured at 70cm wide.

Land registry official Nguyen Quang Trung of Tra Van Commune said local residents have many times discovered similar footmarks in the area. He noted it is normal if tiger appears at the area as it borders to vast primeval forests.

A teacher of Tra Van Primary School confirmed that he has seen a three-legged tiger in the area in 2008. It is probably the tiger escaped a trap and lost a leg.

Ho Van Thap from the third village in Tra Van Commune added he had witnessed a tiger sneaking into his village at night catching pig, cow and buffalos.

Many similar footprints had been found by the banks of Leng River in Tra Leng Commune of Nam Tra My.

Local authorities are investigating the marks.

Man nabbed for stabbing mom, pregnant daughter

Police in Thanh Hoa central province Friday arrested a man for stabbing an old woman to death and seriously injuring a pregnant woman at a drink shop at Lam Son Square on Thursday.

60-year-old Ngo Thi Chung died while her daughter-in-law - 21-year-old Thuy - who is 7 months into pregnancy is in critical condition and being treated at Thanh Hoa General Hospital.

At the police station, Mai Van Viet, 37, confessed to police that he committed the crime.

Viet said on Thursday night he came to Chung’s house to buy beverage but Thuy turned him down because Viet had just gone back from a psychiatric hospital and owed Chung a sum of money.

Angry, Viet rushed into a nearby house whose owner trades in pig meat, and took a large knife to stab the two women.

After the murder, he threw the weapon away at the Lam Son Square and fled on a motorcycle.

Initial investigations found that Viet used to undergo many treatments in Thanh Hoa psychiatric hospital to cure his schizophrenia.

Association suggests sale of smaller houses

The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association has proposed to the city authorities and the Ministry of Construction to allow investors to build 30 square meter houses to sell to meet the market demand.

In a proposal recently sent to these two authorities, the association said such small houses should be built to sell to medium and low income earners for around VND500 million (US$24,000).

There has been a great demand for such houses, but under the Housing Law, residences for sale must be of at least 45 square meters, said Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the association.

A 30 square meter area is now only accepted for a house built for dwelling, not for sale, Chau said.

Meanwhile, there is an oversupply of expensive large apartments, while there aren’t enough small flats to offer people with low incomes, Dat Lanh Company’s Deputy Director Nguyen Van Duc said.

Duc said currently, about 60,000 of new apartments of 70-80 square meters in HCMC were still unsalable. Many real estate companies have had to cut prices by 10-30% to get back their invested capital but the situation hasn’t improved much, Duc said.

Dat Lanh has proposed two levels of area for houses for sale: 20 square meters per house for one dweller, and 30-70 square meters per house for two dwellers.

Chau said if this proposal is approved, investors can divide those big houses that can’t be sold into 30 square meters or smaller to make them affordable to medium and low-income earners.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre