SOCIETY IN BRIEF 29/7

Vietnam attends Asian meeting on aquaculture

Vietnam has taken part in the Asia Regional Ministerial Meeting on Aquaculture Food Security, Nutrition and Economic Development, which opened in Colombo, Sri Lanka on July 28.

The meeting was jointly held by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) the Network of Aquaculture Centre in Asia-Pacific (NACA) and the host country’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Development (MFARD).

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Vu Van Tam delivered a key-note speech on the country’s strong commitment to the Colombo Declaration and the Asian aquaculture development strategy.

He held talks with MFARD Minister Raijitha Senaratne on measures to boost bilateral cooperation in the seafood sector for the 2010-2013 period.

The two countries agreed to focus on breeding blackish-water shrimps, lobsters, seaweed and sea cucumber.

Overturned truck looted in Quang Binh

Hundreds of people early Thursday morning rushed to the National Highway 1A in Dai Trach commune in Quang Binh central province to collect fruits and vegetables that had fallen off an overturned truck.

The incident reportedly blocked the road for hours.

The accident scene. (Photo: Edu-VN)

In a similar incident on the afternoon of June 6, many residents living near An Duong Vuong roundabout in Ho Chi Minh City flocked to the street to collect money after a motorist was robbed and a lot of banknotes fell out of his torn bag.

On the afternoon of March 31, around 5 or 6 women didn’t help the victim whose five-storey building located on No. 47 Huynh Thuc Khang in Hanoi’s Dong Da district collapsed but even fought one another to get metal scraps. 

2 children die, 18 sick after eating wild fruit

Two children died and 18 others are in hospital after eating wild fruits in a forest in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak a few days ago.
Three to five hours after eating the fruits Tuesday afternoon, all 20 developed symptoms of food poisoning, and were taken to the M’Drak District General Hospital for treatment.
Giang A Sang, 6, died on the way to the hospital while Giang Seo San, 12, died soon after being admitted. They reportedly ate the largest quantities said of the fruits.
The remaining children, who had convulsive fits, cyanosis, nausea, and heart arrhythmia, were still in the hospital as of last night, doctors said.
“We have yet to know what toxic substance in the fruit that caused the poisoning,” Dr Nguyen Quang Thua said.
The wild fruits, which resembled apples, were discovered by a group of children -- from Cu Kroa Commune -- in a forest, local residents said.

They ate them and, since the fruits tasted delicious, brought a lot to the commune to share with other children.
Ma Leo Lao, head of the commune’s Hamlet 7, said people had seen the fruit in the forest for a long time but nobody ate it.
The province’s Department of Food Safety and Hygiene said it has taken samples of the fruit and sent them to the Ho Chi Minh City Public Health Institute for testing.

Unofficial buses fleece unsuspecting customers

Unofficial buses have recently appeared on the interprovincial HCM City-Vung Tau route, scrambling for customers and charging exorbitant fares.

According to a report in Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper, unofficial buses have been operating along the Ha Noi Highway, National Highway No.1A (Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces), and National Highway No. 51 (in Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces).

"There have been many unofficial, unregistered buses on the interprovincial HCM City-Vung Tau route trying to swindle customers," said Tam, a resident who lives in Bien Hoa City.

"It's hard for customers to distinguish between these and the real ones because they have the same appearance," he added.

Though they have the same colour and code as real public buses, the seats are similar to those on tourist buses. In addition, there are no handrails on the ceiling.

The buses do not follow official routes, but just travel around haphazardly to pick up customers.

Passengers who get on these buses often have to transfer to other buses to reach their destinations.

First-time customers typically pay expensive fares but frequent patrons bargain to get a fare that is slightly higher than that of interprovincial public buses, the report said.

Quang Ngai takes proactive measures to prevent foot-and-mouth recurrence

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday signed a decision to provide 100,000 doses of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and 15,000 litres of disinfectant to the central province of Quang Ngai.

The decision comes in bid to prevent another outbreak of the disease.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will be responsible for distributing the vaccine.

According to the ministry, the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease started last September, with 133,000 cattle infected.

There are currently no reports of the disease in any of Viet Nam's provinces.

This year's vaccination programme started in May with a target of vaccinating 80 per cent of the nation's cattle.

Bank official arrested for loan scam

Ho Chi Minh City’s police on Wednesday arrested Le Tan Do, former director of the Binh Chanh District Transaction Office of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), for helping a businessman to obtain a loan illegally.
Do was charged with abuse of position and power, said the city’s Social Crime Investigation Police Department.
Also arrested was Nguyen Van Hong, 54, the owner of Hong Ha Plastics Private Enterprise in Binh Duong Province.
Hong was charged with “abusing trust to appropriate assets.”
According to the case file, Hong’s enterprise mortgaged numerous properties to BIDV to borrow VND38 billion (US$1.85 million) in 2005.
When the loan was due in late 2007, Hong failed to repay it and Do suggested him applying for another loan and then using the new loan to settle the old one.
Hong prepared a contract to sell a lot of land, which had been mortgaged to BIDV, to Hai Hong Ha Trading Services and Tourism Company, which is also owned by Hong.
That company then used the contract as a mortgage to the bank for a loan of VND50 billion, which was approved by Do.
Hong told the police he used VND41 billion from the new loan to repay the old debt to BIDV. He also gave VND7.8 billion to Do.
In 2009, Do and Hong managed to withdraw from BIDV the land use right certificate for the said land and then used the document as a security for a loan of VND100 billion from another bank, which later discovered their scam and reported to the police.

Five kids drown in Thua Thien Hue

Five school kids died on Thursday after falling into a 1.5m deep pond in the central province of Thua Thien Hue.

Earlier, at 6pm Thursday, Le Thi Hang came home from farming work when she could not see her three children but found their slippers on the bank of a pond nearby in Thuy Phu commune, Huong Thuy town.

She shouted for help. Neighbors dived down and found many dead bodies holding tight to one another.

By 7pm, five bodies had been retrieved including Hang’s three children – Nguyen Thi Cam Van, 11 years old, Nguyen Thi Phuong Nga, 9 years old and 6-year-old Nguyen Van Thang.
The other two victims are Nguyen Thi Diem My, 10 and her sister Nguyen Thi Kim Hang, 8, children of a neighboring couple.

The five did not know how to swim.

Besides the slippers, a basket containing feeds for ducks was also left on the pond’s bank.

Since Hang’s eldest child - Van - was in charge of feeding ducks, it is conjectured that she slipped into the pond while feeding ducks. The others could have jumped down to save her.

Hang’s family is very poor. Her dilapidated house is just 20 square meters.

“We only have three children. All of them are good pupils”, cried Nguyen Minh, father of the three perished kids.

A neighbor told Tuoi Tre that the family is so poor their kids rarely took pictures.

So far, no photos of the perished kids have been found for their funeral.

Training given to disabled people

Nearly 100 people with disabilities in the districts of Dong Anh and Thanh Oai have learned how to start a business at a centre to help the disabled integrate into society, opened by the Ha Noi Disabled People's Association last year.

Trinh Xuan Dung, a disabled person from Dong Anh District, said "I have earned VND2.5 million (US$110) each month since I opened a flight booking office three months ago."

I had thought about starting a business before but I did not know where to begin or how, Dung said.

I also lacked confidence which would have made it difficult to communicate with potential customers, he said.

Vice chairwoman of the association Duong Thi Van said "Apart from helping people with disabilities to integrate with the community, finding them employment was also an issue for both the association and authorised agencies."

Some enterprises even rejected our proposal to discuss jobs for people with disabilities, said Nguyen Ngoc Trinh, deputy director of the Ha Noi Job Centre for Youth.

Statistics from the Ha Noi Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department showed that only 13 per cent of people with a disability had jobs in a city with around 86,000 disabled people.

Many of them were poor and had little chance of affording education, Van said.

The association has submitted a proposal to the Ha Noi People's Committee to set up an Integration Service Centre for Disabled People that provides information, consultancy and employment advice for the disabled, Van said.

By co-operating with enterprises in the city, the centre was expected to find jobs for the disabled as a way to help them improve their living conditions, she said. "However, difficulties are ahead of us," she said.

Chinese police rescues Vietnamese babies from trafficking ring

Eight Vietnamese babies were rescued when China’s Guang Xi and Guang Dong police busted a child-trafficking ring at 2 pm on July 15, the Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolitan Daily reported.

The police also arrested 39 suspects in the raid.

Earlier on February 20, the police received a tip-off about children being frequently shipped from Vietnam to China for sale at the Beilun River in Dongxing City, Guangxi Province.
The police then launched an investigation and later identified and arrested the traffickers, who confessed they often carried Vietnamese children to the Fangcheng port in Guangxi, and then contacted with some other traffickers who would then bring the children to Guangdong before selling them to people from all over China.
Of the rescued babies, the oldest is 7 months old and the youngest is 10 days old.
The traffickers had fed the babies with sleeping pills to avoid being detected during the trafficking.
All of the children have been taken to a Chinese hospital for ADN tests and identification.
The police of China and Vietnam will boost cooperation to crack down other rings that traffic women and/or children between Vietnam and China, the newspaper said.
Chinese authorities have so far this month rescued 89 trafficked minors as young as 10 days and arrested 369 suspects after uncovering two child trafficking gangs, authorities said on Wednesday.
Most child trafficking cases involve buyers who are childless couples wanting children or people who want them as slave labor on farms, the Associated Press reports.

Half-naked, cop-beating justice official detained

Police have issued an order to detain for three days the deputy head of a judicial section in Hau Giang province for allegedly tearing the uniform of a traffic policeman on duty in Can Tho City after he was caught overspeeding.

According to police, Huynh Thanh Thang, 49, deputy head of the judicial section of Chau Thanh District, admitted to violating traffic law at the incident on Tuesday afternoon but not to insulting traffic policemen.

Thang is also accused of trying, but failed, to grab a gun carried by Sublieutanent Pham Vinh Minh, of Can Tho City traffic police forces.

The physical altercation caused a shoulder board, a name tag, and a button torn off Minh’s police uniform.

Thang also allegedly used indecent language.

Witnesses said he appeared to be drunk at the time.

Thang was later taken to the police station bare-chested.

Gambler brutalizes family, chops mother’s hand

The Hai Phong police have arrested a local man for brutally attacking three members of his family, including his mother, after they refused to give him money for gambling.
Dinh Ngoc Son, 33, of Lap Le Commune, Thuy Nguyen District, attacked Nguyen Thi San, 53, his wife Nguyen Thi Truc, 32, and his stepdaughter Nguyen Thi Van Anh, 8 with a knife at 11 pm Monday night, the police said.
He chopped off the left hand of his mother and repeatedly slashed the three on their heads.
His three children had been at the scene, but they managed to flee.
The next morning neighbors took the three to hospital for treatment.
Doctors said all of them suffer from cerebral trauma and need surgery.
The two adults are in critical condition.

Philippines saves Vietnamese fishermen

A fishing boat with 11 men on board sunk in the sea near the Spartly Islands on July 28.

The Quang Ngai provincial border guard command said the captain of the QNg 95010 TS, identified as Nguyen Van Pho from Chau Thuan Bien hamlet, Binh Chau commune, Binh Son district, and his men have been secured by a Philippine boat

All in stable condition, they are trying to contact their families.

Party official sacked for using fake diploma

The secretary (i.e head) of Huong Toan commune Communist Party Committee in Thua Thien Hue province has been sacked for using a fake diploma.

Truong Van Dung was also dismissed as Party Committee member on Thursday, confirmed Le Duc Dan, head of the district Inspectorate Committee.

But Dung objected, saying the punishment is too strict.

Back in 2005, Dung borrowed the high school degree from Pham Huu Thuan, 27 and erased Thuan’s name, took out Thuan’s photo and other personal details.

Dung then wrote his own name down, attached his own photo and claimed the degree was his.

To validate the degree, Dung solicited the help of Tran Khiem Hai, vice President of the commune People’s Committee [local government] who illegally notarized the fake degree’s multiple copies.

Khiem is now under investigation by the Inspectorate Committee.

In other news, inspectors earlier this month found out that the director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s branch in Bac Lieu province - Mr. Ho Thai Nguyen - does not have a high school diploma.

However, Nguyen has miraculously managed to obtain a university degree.

Nguyen claimed that he did graduate from high school but lost the diploma.

However, he failed to inform which educational institution issued his high school degree.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre