Self-nominated student runs for National Assembly

Among the list of candidates in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue for the upcoming National Assembly (NA) polls, student Nguyen Tien Nghi is the only one who runs for the election without nomination from the Communist Party or from other state organs.

10 other candidates in Thua Thien-Hue were recommended by their respective government-affiliated organs.

Nghi, 25, residing in Yen Lac District of northern Vinh Phuc Province, is a senior, majoring in Philosophy at the Hue University’s College of Sciences in the province’s Hue City.

In total, 11 candidates have been shortlisted at the provincial Fatherland Front Committee’s second consultative conference for the election.

These candidates will be introduced to local voters for comments, the Committee said.

The election of the 13th NA for the 2011-2016 term is scheduled to take place on May 25, 2011.

Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia youths boost cooperation 

Young people from regional countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia joined in a friendship meeting in Hanoi on March 23.

The event, held by the Hanoi ’s Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, aims to create a forum for youths from the three countries to meet and exchange experiences in educating the young generation to treasure solidarity, promote traditional friendship as well as maintain peace and boost cooperation in the future.

Communist Youth Union and the Vietnam Youth Year 2011, is a chance for Vietnamese youths to promote the country’s image as well as introduce their Lao and Cambodian counterparts achievements that Vietnamese young people have contributed to the country’s construction and defence.

In the framework of the event, participants will take part in a talk themed “Vietnam- Laos- Cambodia youths promote traditional solidarity and friendship for mutual peace, cooperation and development” to update each other on mobilising youth and promote youth’s roles in cooperation for socio-economic development of the three countries.

During the event, which will last till March 30, Lao and Cambodian youths will meet with Vietnamese students and visit the country’s historical sites and landscapes.

Int’l University joins forces with Illinois institution

Vietnam’s International University has clinched a memorandum of understanding with America’s University of Illinois.

Vietnamese students who study in the fields of science and technology at the International University, under the Vietnam National University in the city, for the first two years will go to Illinois to complete their final two years of their degree.

International University director Ho Thanh Phong said at the signing in HCMC on Wednesday that the cooperation between the two universities was part of a strategy to strengthen and expand its programs with famous universities worldwide and greatly improve the school’s quality of education.

Founded in 1867, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was ranked 33rd in the world by The Times magazine’s Higher Education World University Rankings in 2010, while the U.S. News and World Report on America’s Best Colleges 2011, ranked the school 15th in the world’s leading public universities.

The International University, which opened in 2003, is the first public university in Vietnam to teach in English. The school has 11 bachelor degree courses and nine joint programs with universities from the U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.

“We are hoping the school can become one of the top universities in the ASEAN region,” Phong added.

Vietnam Air to change flight codes

Vietnam Airlines on Thursday said it would apply new codes to its domestic flights from the summer schedule starting March 27.

A four-digit code starting with VN will replace the three-digit code currently applicable to the services operated to all domestic destinations. Vietnam Airlines will switch to a four-digit code for its international flights in the winter schedule from October 30.

Vietnam Airlines will inform the change to the all the passengers who have already booked seats on the carrier’s flights or those passengers of foreign airlines who have purchased tickets for the domestic sectors conducted by Vietnam Airlines.

Vietnam Airlines will deploy staff at departure airports in the country to help the passengers who have not known about the flight code change. Passengers are also advised to contact the carrier’s offices to get updates about their flight status.

Vietnam Airlines now uses 70 aircraft of different types for more than 300 daily flights on 79 routes to 20 domestic destinations and 26 international airports. The carrier envisages in its development plan to fly on 120 routes to 23 domestic locations and 45 international airports by 2020.

HCM City businesses fined for minimum wage breaches

The HCMC Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has fined a number of companies for not applying higher minimum wage rates set by the Government.

Huynh Van Dung, chief inspector of the department, said foreign-invested enterprises were the main offenders. The companies concerned were found to raise basic wages for new laborers but refused to give rises to current employees.

Dung said many enterprises only increased wages for laborers who were below the minimum level, and not all laborers in their companies.

The labor inspectors have an impossible task at times. If businesses do not register wage scales to the department, they will be fined but inspectors have no basis to impose fines or minimum wage rule violations if they don’t have the necessary information.

Dung also added that enterprises might continually abuse the system given the low fine rates. The highest fine is only VND30 million for each case.

In the first three months of this year the city has seen 32 labor disputes, mainly due to salary problems, said Truong Lam Danh, deputy head of the HCMC Labor Union. The latest dispute occurred on Monday, when employers failed to increase minimum basic wages for laborers.

Nguyen Thi Dan, head of the salary and wage unit of the labor department, said the two agencies are seeking ways to call for enterprises to raise labor wages given the high inflation rate. The department is also going to increase inspections to fine violating enterprises and prevent labor strikes.

Vietnam to tighten control on Japanese food imports

The Ministry of Health has said Vietnam would only import food that has been certified as radiation free from Japan.

All food products imported from Japan after March 11 must have radioactive safety certificates issued by authorized Japanese agencies, the ministry’s food safety and hygience department said in a conference yesterday.

At present, there are four agencies in Vietnam capable of inspecting food contaminated with radioactive substances: the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Control under the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Nuclear Research Institute in the Central Highlands city of Da Lat, the Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology in Hanoi, and the Centre for Nuclear Technology in Ho Chi Minh City.

The department said Japan had promised to help ensure all food products imported to Vietnam were safe. At the moment, the department was also reviewing a full list of imported food products from Japan.

Japan’s food exports to Vietnam include meat, milk and vegetables. 

Petrol attendant sacked for cheating customers

Following Tuoi Tre’s report on petrol stations cheating their customers, petrol and oil company Petrolimex Saigon fired Nguyen Quang Thuan, an attendant who cheated customers at Petrol Station No. 18 in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City.

In the dismissal decision issued yesterday, the company said this employee had to be given the top penalty for “his violation of sale regulations causing serious harm to the company’s reputation and image.”

In another decision released the same day, the company also removed the head of the station from his post as he failed to manage his employees.

Thuan’s offense was detected by Tuoi Tre reporters about ten days ago.

On the evening of March 16, Petrolimex Saigon’s Petrol Station No. 18, at 444 Tran Hung Dao Street, District 5, was packed with customers, many of whom could not see the pump gauge.

An employee whose ID card read Nguyen Quang Thuan was filling up the motorbike of a customer who wanted VND30,000 (US$1.44) worth of gas.

When the indicator on the monitor moved to VND24,120 ($1.15), Thuan stopped filling and quickly zeroed the gauge but took VND30,000 from the customer.

Your correspondents then asked to buy the same amount of gas. Again, Thanh stopped at VND24,120.

Thuan later continued the same fraud on many other customers at the station.

Gangster gets 4 yrs in prison for wrongly seizing property

Supreme court in Bien Hoa city in Dong Nai southern province sentenced gangland boss Nguyen Van Long to four years in prison for wrongfully seizing property Thursday.

According to the indictment, Thanh, also known as “Long Thanh”, worked as a manager of Bar 69 on Bien Hoa’s Tran Hung Dao Street.

On February 15, Vo Ba Tuan along with his friends went to the club and battled with another group of young men there.

After that, Thanh asked Tuan to pay him a compensation of VND150 million (US$7,500) for spoiling the bar’s furnishings and threatened to ‘kill’ him if he didn’t meet his demand.

Tuan told him he couldn’t afford to earn such large sum of money.

After their negotiation, Thanh forced Tuan to pay him VND56.5 million.

His accomplice Pham Thanh Huy also got two years and 6 months in prison for the same charge.

300-kilo bomb found in Kon Tum well

Tran Van The along with his family members living in Kon Tum central highlands city’s Ngo May ward discovered a bomb with a length of 10m, a width of 0.3m and a weight of 300kg when they dug up a well this afternoon.

After finding out the massive bomb, they stopped digging up.

Immediately after that, the province police arrived in the scene and claimed this is the first bomb which has been found at such depth of 12 meters from the ground surface so far in the city.

Local authorities have blocked the site and are expected to burn down it on March 25.

Local Chau Xuan Hoang asked relevant authorities to implement emergency measures to handle this incident because the huge bomb has triggered panic among people living nearby.

Throwing rocks to fight for passengers

Bus driver Cao Kiem Hiep, 42, hailing from Cam Lam district in Khanh Hoa central province has been detained for throwing rocks at a bus from a rival company in his fight for customers.

Hiep was nabbed for destroying the vehicle owned by Phuong Trang transportation company on Nha Trang – Cam Ranh route. Its front glass was broken.

Hiep told police that since Phuong Trang provides passengers with good service and affordable tickets, other unlicensed passenger buses like his cannot compete with the company.

Angrily, he threw stones to its bus to vent his anger.

According to Phuong Trang, since February, the company’s buses on this route have suffered from rock attacks seven times.

Although no casuality or injury was reported, the company has lost tens of millions of dong.

The act also poses dangers to its drivers and passengers, the company said.

Ministry approves master plan for university township

The Ministry of Construction has just approved a 1/2,000 scale master plan for developing the Vietnam National University — Hanoi Township in Hoa Lac area, west of the capital.

Covering 1,000 hectares, it will be the largest university township in the north and be able to enroll 60,000 students by 2020, and 100,000 students by 2050.

The township will have such facilities as a main building, a center library, a cultural house, campuses of member universities, dormitories that can accommodate 60,000 students, research institutes, and others.

It will also have hotels, sport grounds, parks, waterscape, greenery, and other public buildings.

The first phase of the project, which broke ground in late 2003, was supposed to be completed in 2007.

Site clearance work has not been finished up to now, though.

Teacher unaware of promotion as headmistress?

V.H., a teacher at a private preschool in southern Long An Province’s Can Duoc District did not know about her appointment as the school’s headmistress until this month, when it began to recruit one.

In early March, after Phuong Trang Private Preschool announced its recruitment of a headmistress, the Interior Department of the Can Duoc District informed the school that H is the incumbent principal as she has been appointed to the post for a long time now.

The Department also said it did not know why the decision had not been announced to Ms. H.

In response to the Department’s confirmation, Le Thi Phuong, the school’s owner, said the school has had no headmaster since its establishment. She only hired Tran Thi Thanh Binh, an expert of the District Education and Training Department, as her assistant in operating and managing the school.

Phuong said she had informed to the Department she did not need a headmaster since she had Binh as her assistant. She also said the Department later did not request the school to recruit a principal.

However, she has recently announced a recruitment of a principal as Binh did not continue acting as her assistant.

Phuong said she was not aware of H’s appointment.

She said after H applied for a teacher’s job at the school several years ago, she transferred H’s application to Binh and has since received no feedback from Binh.

Truong Van Hiep, deputy head of the Can Duoc District Education and Training Department, said the department’s Inspectorate is investigating the case.

In 2008, the school was inspected and the inspection team recorded in the inspection file that the principal was taking a training course in Ho Chi Minh City, he said.