Severely disabled to get 25% train discount

Severely disabled people will be offered a 25 per cent discount on train tickets from June 1, according to deputy director of Sai Gon Railway Station Nguyen Van Thanh.

Disabled people must show their identification card and certificate of disability to get a discounted ticket.

The discount is based on the fare of the seat that is chosen.

Another great white shark captured off Quy Nhon

A fisherman caught an 80kg shark when he was netting crabs, 200 meters from Quy Nhon beach in the central Binh Dinh province yesterday morning, May 26.

The fish, thought to be a juvenile great white shark, was stuck in the net of 36-year-old Nguyen Thanh Hai.

Hai said two strong men assisted him to bring the shark ashore.

“We often call it great white shark because they are violent,” said Nguyen Van Nhan, 55, a local experienced fishermen.

Swimmers were attacked in the waters off Quy Nhon beach more than 10 times between 2009 and 2010 in which at least two cases juvenile sharks were thought to be the culprits.

Last April, authorities in Quy Nhon city and Nha Trang-based Institute of Oceanography jointly installed nets to prevent sharks from coming onshore and attacking humans.

A large number of sharks have appeared off Quy Nhon beach since last year.

In the first two weeks of September, 2011, Nguyen Van Luyen, a local fishmermen caught 6 sharks near Hon Dat Island within two nautical miles of shore.

In July, 2011, scientists from the Nha Trang-based Institute of Oceanography captured two sharks as part of a study on the attacks.

On June 12, 2011, Phan Van Giau, a fisherman, caught a shark weighing nearly 50 kilogram within 100 meters of shore. Just one day after, another fisherman captured a juvenile white shark measuring 1.5 meters in length and weighing around 60 kilograms at the same area.

Police seize stale bull hooves

More than 500kgs of stale buffalo and bull hooves were seized in central Ha Tinh Province yesterday, according to head of the police patrol No 61 Dang Doan Tu.

Police said they could smell the stale meat when officers stopped the car for a check. They soon discovered the hooves stored in eight sponge boxes.

The car's driver said he was transporting the meat from Thanh Hoa Province for sale in HCM City, but he did not have any quarantine receipts or documents proving the origin of the meat.

On Friday, a police patrol also seized more than 200kg of animal fats that had turned stale.

Previously, 13 tonnes of meat of unknown origin was seized in Thu Duc District, HCM City, including 10 tonnes of chicken legs and 3 tonnes of pork.

The meat was being transported from Ha Noi to HCM City. The high number of cases of stale meat seized by authorities recently has aroused concerns over food hygiene and safety.

Under Decree 45/2005/ND/CP, people who sell stale meat can be fined between VND10-15 million (US$480-715).

According to statistics from the Viet Nam Food Administration, there were more than 970 food-poisoning cases reported during the last two months.

Police seize 4 armed Cambodian robbers

Four Cambodian robbers who ‘worked’ in the Vietnam-Cambodia border area in southern An Giang Province have been arrested by police forces of the two countries.

The arrested belong to a specially dangerous gang of 11 armed robbers who usually appeared in the Tri Ton and Tinh Bien districts, said Senior Lieutenant Colonel Bui Be Nam, head of the province’s Anti-Crime Investigation Police Department.

Of the gang members, 5 are Cambodians and the rest are Khmer people with Vietnamese nationality, the official said.

On April 3 night, after illegally crossing the border from Cambodia to Vietnam, the gang raided a house on Thoi Son Commune, Tinh Bien District and robbed 8.8 taels of gold (US$16,600), VND50 million ($2,400) and 7 mobile phones.

They robbers assaulted Chau Thai, the house’s owner. Thai had some rib bones broken. He also suffered injuries in the head.

The robbers came in three motorbikes and were armed with 1 AK submachine gun and 2 hand guns, Thai had told police, who later managed to seize two of the gang’s members, Chau Chu and Lam Thanh Phuoc, in Tinh Bien.

A police team was sent to Cambodia to coordinate with their Cambodian counterparts in cracking down the gang.

As a result, two other robbers, Hong Soc Chia and Chau Doc, have recently been arrested.

The police of the two countries are hunting for the remaining gang members.

On Friday, May 25, the An Giang Province People's Committee conferred certificates of merit on the provincial anti-crime police and the Tinh Bien District police for their good performances in busting the gang.

The authorities also presented a bonus of VND50 million ($2,400) to each police unit.

Vietnam-Laos youth exchange program in Ha Tinh

A youth program was held in the central province of Ha Tinh on May 27 to boost the traditional Vietnam-Laos friendship.

The event marked the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam-Laos diplomatic ties and the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Year in 2012, involving many diplomats and officials from both countries, and Lao students.

The exchange program, including a music and dance performance, was jointly held by the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee and the International Development and Corporation Company.

Vietnamese students win top prize in USA

Four Vietnamese students from Portland State University in the US's Oregon State, all beneficiaries of the Intel Study Abroad Programme, won the top prize in the Cornell Cup USA competition for their design of a prescription drug identification device.

Their invention is capable of identifying a wide variety of prescription medications and providing timely information about drugs from online or built-in databases.

The contest began October 2011 and the 20 finalists were named in November and given until May to come up with their invention.

HCM City market authority finds smuggled goods

The HCM City Market Watch Department said it has seized hundreds of thousands of smuggled goods this year.

They include 3,571 packs of cigarettes, 225 mobile phones, 3,383 cosmetic products, 39,593 toys, and 2,995 pieces of apparel, many of them fake Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and other branded products.

The fakes are sold mostly at Binh Tay and An Dong markets.

The department has also discovered and reported 70 instances of price-related violations. They include 55 cases where the prices were not listed and 15 others where it was not done according to regulations.

The offenders were fined a total of VND200 million (US$9,600).

Oxygen masks drop on Hanoi-HCMC flight

An Airbus plane of Vietnam Airlines took an emergency landing on Da Nang Airport on May 24 night due to a malfunctioning of the oxygen mask system.

The plane took off in Hanoi at 7:30 pm on May 24 for a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, but 30 minutes later, the pilot decided to take an emergency landing on the Da Nang airport, since the plane’s oxygen mask system was suddenly activated due to something wrong.

While the plane was flying, the chief pilot was informed by an alarm system that the pressure inside the aircraft changed and a short moment later, the system automatically turned on, a Vietnam Airlines spokesperson said.

Tran Trong Tan, a passenger on the plane, recounted that when dinner was about to be served to passengers, the chief pilot requested all flight attendants halt their duty.

A moment later, all oxygen masks were dropped down and the air inside the aircraft became so hot and hard to breathe that the attendants had to provide child passengers with handheld oxygen cylinders, Tan said.

The stewardesses requested that all passengers wear life jackets and wait for further instructions, adding that the plane might fly towards the sea.

Finally, the plane landed safely on the Da Nang airport, and all passengers continued their journey on another aircraft and arrived in HCMC at 1 am on May 25.

After the incident, the plane flew back to Hanoi, where safety checks were carried out.

The plane worked normally again later.

Two blazes cause $167,000 in damages

Two fires were reported to have broken out in southern Binh Phuoc Province's Bu Dang District and Lam Dong Province's Don Duong District yesterday, May 27.

No deaths or injuries were reported.

However, the fires caused damages worth VND2 billion (US95,000) and VND1.5 billion ($72,000), respectively.

Investigations into the causes of fires are continuing.

Free medicine for HIV/AIDS sufferers

HIV/AIDS sufferers in the capital and neighbouring provinces can receive free medical treatment at the Infectious Disease Department of Hanoi's Dong Da Hospital.

The free treatment is being provided under a joint collaboration project on HIV prevention and care carried out by the US and Vietnam since 2002. The programme includes provision of anti-retro viral (ARV) medicine and other medicines for HIV-infected people free of charge.

The department has provided treatment to 881 sufferers, among them 770 are receiving ARV medicine.

Receiving their first case of HIV/AIDS in 1997, the department has become one of the country's leading health care centres for treating the disease, which is causing growing concerns in Vietnam. The department has allocated 20 beds for HIV/AIDS carriers who are suffering from infections.

The Infectious Disease Department's director, Dr Pham Ba Hien, said cases that do not respond to treatment will undergo further tests to identify the cause of resistance.

National and international experts often exchange knowledge with the department's staff to help them improve work on diagnosing different cases.

A hotline for HIV/AIDS carriers and their families is available at 04 3511 8752.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre