Localities asked to keep close watch on typhoon Nanmadol

The Central Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Prevention and the National Committee for Search and Rescue issued a warning on Saturday night about the Nanmadol, a strong typhoon that has lashed Philippines, saying there would probably be complicated developments.

The warning was sent in an urgent message to committees for storm and flood prevention, to search and rescue groups of coastal provinces from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai, and to the ministries of National Defence, Foreign Affairs, Transportation, and Agriculture and Rural Development.

In the message, the committee asked local agencies to inform ship owners operating offshore of the position and developments of the typhoon, so that they could avoid the dangerous region.

The agencies were also requested to keep a close watch on floods and stay in touch with ship owners.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, at 7pm yesterday the eye of the typhoon was at 21.4 degrees north latitude and 121 degrees east longitude, on the Taiwan and Philippines straits.

The maximum wind speed near the typhoon eye reached 118 km to 149 km per hour.

The centre forecast that in the next 24 to 48 hours, the typhoon would move in a northwest direction at a speed of 5 km per hour.

At 7pm tomorrow, the typhoon's eye was predicted to be 100km southeast of China's Fukien Province. The maximum wind speed is forecast to be between 75 km and 102 km per hour.

Fire hits Vietnam’s tallest building

A fire broke out in Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Vietnam, at 2:00 pm on Saturday.

According to some workers who are working at the 7th floor of the building’s garage, the fire took place due to workers’ carelessness while installing air-conditioners here.

According to initial information, the fire totally damaged three air-conditioners worth VND1 billion each.

Construction on Keangnam Tower, an investment of the Keangnam Group of the Republic of Korea, started in March 2007.

The 336m-tall building, which includes two 48-story blocks, ranks 17th in height and fifth in acreage in the world.

Three fires have broken out there since March 2010.        

103 poor students awarded scholarships                

A total of VND115 million (US$ 5,520) in scholarships was given to 103 poor students of Quang Ngai Province who passed the recent university entrance examination.

The students came from low-income families and could not afford university tuition. The scholarship programme is part of an annual programme of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, which aims to help disadvantaged university and college students.

Since 2003, the programme has awarded 6,400 scholarships to students across the country, totalling more than VND20 billion ($960,150).

Directory on vocational training for disabled

A directory on vocational training for disadvantaged youth was distributed free of charge last Thursday to vocational schools and charity centres.

The vocational directory provides information about 61 training courses, 22 training centres and 14 vocational schools across the city as well as data about organisations offering regular internships and jobs for disadvantaged youth.

The publication is part of a community development project on vocational training funded by Premier Oil Viet Nam Offshore B.V.

The directory will help disadvantaged youth aged 16-25 find training classes offered in their home districts.

Thieves steal $72,000 car from Hanoi house

Thieves stole a Mercedes car, an expensive scooter, and a computer from inside a house in Hanoi early yesterday morning, Aug 29, while the occupants were asleep, the police said.

No arrests have been made and they were continuing investigations, the police said, but based on the examination of the scene and witness testimony, at least two burglars had been involved.

Nguyen Quy Thuong of Yen Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, reported the theft to the local police at 5.45 am Sunday.

He said when he got up, he had been startled to find a window on the first floor forced open and some bars sawn off. Coming downstairs to the ground floor, he had found the door still closed but could not open it.

He called a neighbor who came and found two umbrellas stuck in the padlock.

In the enclosed front yard, he found one of his two cars, a Mercedes C250 costing around VND1.5 billion (US$72,000), missing.

An SH scooter too was gone. But the other car and two other scooters were still there. Inside the house, a computer was missing.

A local resident told the police that he saw the car coming out of the house at about 5.30 am with at least one occupant in the back.

He thought Thuong was driving the car and so did not look carefully.

Fire destroys mosquito nets and garments

A major fire broke out Saturday night in Dao Duc Village of Binh Xuyen District, destroying thousands of sackcloth bags containing garments and other materials used to make mosquito nets.

The fire originated in the storage area of a local company that specialises in making the nets. No injuries were reported.

Police nab man with 3 kgs of heroin from Laos

After a few months of investigation, police in northern Quang Tri Province have caught a businessman receiving 8 packets of heroin weighing 2.934 kilograms hidden in a wooden bed carried in by a bus from Laos.

Dau Xuan Duyen, 53, temporarily residing in Vinh city, Nghe An Province, was arrested Thursday morning on National Highway 9D in Dong Luong Ward, Dong Ha Town, where the bus with a Lao number plate stopped and delivered the bed to him.

The arrest was made following a tip-off from the public that had prompted the police to launch an investigation into a ring trafficking drug from Laos to Vietnam, said Lieutenant Colonel Ha Trong Hoan, deputy head of the Anti-Drug Police Department under the provincial Border Guard Command.

Duyen confessed to the police that he had bought the heroin from Laos hid it into the bed. Before returning to Vietnam, he hired the bus to carry the bed into Quang Tri through the Lao Bao border gate, Duyen said.

Duyen was suspected to be the leader of a ring trafficking drug and heroin from Laos to Vietnam, Hoan said, adding that the ring operated on a large scale, covering many provinces and cities across the country.

The seizure was one of the achievements of the cooperation program between Quang Tri and some Lao provinces on fighting drug trafficking, the official said.

Duyen, a native of Ha Tinh province, is director of a private company operating in the field of hospitality and tourism in Lien Chieu District, Da Nang City, according to police.

Since June 1, the provincial police have cracked down on 14 drug trafficking cases, arresting 29 people, seven of whom are Lao citizens, and seizing 8 packets of heroines, 24,851 WY synthetic drug tablets, three cars, a K59 gun, and some other items.

Communist official sacked for sexual harassment

Authorities Friday confirmed that the deputy head of a district Communist Party Committee in Tien Giang Province has been dismissed after being found sexually harassing a woman.

Last month, the district’s government received a letter of denunciation from Ms. O saying that she was harassed by Mr. Tran Van Tuong, deputy secretary of Cai Lay District Party Committee.

When she resisted his advances, he assaulted her, she said.

According to Phap Luat newspaper, Ms. O’s face and nose suffered bruises.

While the accusation was being investigated, Mr. Tuong abruptly stopped working without authorities’ approval.

According to Mr. Tuong’s boss Nguyen Van Nha, secretary of the district’s Party Committee, Tuong was once disciplined for using a fake high school diploma.

The official dismissal notice cited the reason as: “Tuong has violated ethics and led an unhealthy lifestyle”.

Boat with five fishermen missing at sea

After being struck by strong winds and rough waves yesterday afternoon, a fishing boat working off Con Dao Island with five fishermen on board was submerged and gradually sank.

At 3:15 pm, the Binh Dinh Province Border Guard Command caught the SOS signals from the boat that was operating 200 nautical miles south of the island.

The agency immediately contacted it and called on fishing boats in the nearby area to conduct rescue activities.

Despite the rescuing efforts that went on until 9:30 pm, the victims and their boat could not be found.

However, rescue activities still continued, the Border Guard Command said.

The boat’s captain is Nguyen Thanh Hung, from the province’s Hoai Nhon District, while the identification of the four other crew members remained unknown, the agency said.

District chairman found using fake diploma

The Party Committee’s Inspection Commission of Lien Chieu District, Da Nang City has reprimanded the District People’s Committee chairman for using a fake secondary education diploma.

Duong Thanh Thi, who is also deputy secretary of the district Party Committee, was found not taking any high school graduation exam, the Commission said.

A recent verification showed that the diploma he has is fake and that after completing his high school education, he did not take a graduation exam and was granted a certificate of secondary education completion only, it said.

Since Thi has achieved good performance in his service during the past several years and his offence caused no serious consequences, the Commission decided to give him a reprimand, the lightest punishment.

The Commission has reported this disciplinary action to the Da Nang City Party Committee’s Investigation Commission for approval.

A similar case, but more serious, happened in Thua Thien-Hue Province last month, when the secretary of Huong Toan Commune Party Committee, Truong Van Dung, was sacked for using a fake diploma.

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, deputy chairman of the commune People’s Committee who illegally notarized the fake degree’s multiple copies.

Fire alarm sounds on Vietnam Airlines plane

The fire alarm system on a Vietnam Airlines plane was activated by a man smoking a cigarette while it was en route from Vinh city to Ho Chi Minh City last Friday.

The VN1236 flight attendants caught Nguyen Nhat Minh, 31, smoking in the plane’s toilet after the fire alarm system sounded from the area.

The airliner made a report about Minh’s violation of flight safety regulations and handed him over to the Southern Airway Authority when the plane arrived in HCMC.

The agency gave Minh a fine of VND750,000 (US$36).

Under Decree No.60/2010/ND-CP by the Government on penalties for administrative violation in the field of aviation, the fine for smoking and some other violations on air flights ranges from VND500,000 to VND1 million.

Vietnam, as well as many other countries, bans smoking on planes to ensure flight safety and to protect passenger health, with “No Smoking” signs fixed in different places on planes.

Official refuses to head Communist Party cell

A Communist Party Committee in Phu Yen Province has issued a warning to the head of a local state agency for turning down a job offer as head of a commune Party cell.

Nguyen Huy Tam, director of Tuy An District’s Section of Economy and Infrastructure, has been promoted to the position of secretary of the An Cu commune Party Committee, but he refused to comply.

Tam and his wife came to meet some senior officials to complain about the promotion, maintaining that he loves the current job. As head of the economy and infrastructure section, Tam oversees constructions and some other economy-related issues.

His plea was unheeded but Tam continued to protest until he was given the warning for “not taking up the assignment from the Party Committee.”

The warning was issued based on a regulation of the Politburo about things Party members are banned from doing, Nguyen Tan Sanh, head of the Inspection Commission of the district Party Committee, said.

This is the third time since 2003 that Tam has received a disciplinary action from the local Party Committee. 

University headmaster jailed for embezzlement

The former Quy Nhon University headmaster and his two subordinates were tried for pocketing parking fees.

A Binh Dinh Province court yesterday sentenced Tran Tin Kiet, 61, the former head of the Quy Nhon University, to 15 months in prison for pocketing parking fees which should have been included in the books.

Kiet was charged with “deliberately acting against the State’s economic management regulations causing serious consequences,” the local People’s Court said.

For health reasons, Kiet petitioned for being tried in absentia and the Court agreed.
Being tried on the same charge were Tran Xuan Canh, 53, former head of security of the university, and Le Van Phuc, 62, Canh’s former deputy.

Canh and Phuc were sentenced to 15 months and 12 months in prison respectively.

In January 2009, the Ministry of Education and Training suspended Kiet from the post of headmaster and two months later the Binh Dinh Province party Committee removed him from the Executive Committee of the Quy Nhon University.

According to the indictment, in 2000-2006, the three men set up a parking lot for motorbikes on the university campus and collected fees from students who used this service.

They then put all of the collected money out of the university’s accounts and spent more than VND943 million of this fund on personal expenses.

Of the amount, headmaster Kiet received VND170.8 million, while Canh got VND70.34 million and Phuc, VND74.59 million, the court said.

The court ordered the three defendants to return VND943 million to the university. 

HCMC court jails fake Chinese prophets

Four Chinese men who pretended to be fortune-tellers to swindled money off a local were sentenced to between 11 and 15 months in jail last Thursday by the Ho Chi Minh City’s Supreme Court.

Previously on June 21, Liu Qin Di (38), Liu Jin Qing (29), Wu Cai Ping (43) and Zhang Xue Yong (47) were invited by Tan Miu Sheng to Vietnam for travelling purposes.

The next day, Sheng discussed with Di, Qing, Ping, Yong and planned a scheme to swindle some Vietnamese who can speak Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City.

Later, Qing and Ping went to the Thiec market in district 11 and talked to a lady called L.L at a grocery stall.

Knowing that a family member of L. is sick, Ping lied that he knew a good Chinese fortune teller and took her to meet Di.

After reading L.’s palm, Di said she was being haunted and needed to prepare some offertories to relieve bad luck otherwise two of her family members would die within 3 days.

Taken in by the fake fortune teller, L. put VND9 million (US$450) inside a nylon bag and gave it to Di so that he could carry out some rituals.

Di later handed L. a different bag, claiming there was her money inside, along with some charms and ‘holy’ solutions. He told L. to wait 7 days before opening the bag.

Di and other men then called a taxi and went away.

Suspicious, L. did not wait but opened the nylon bag right away and found her money was missing.

After L. immediately shouted out loud. Luckily, people in the neighborhood managed to stop the fleeing taxi and took all swindlers to police.

However, Sheng managed to escape to China the same afternoon.

The Ho Chi Minh City’s Supreme Court sentenced Di to 18 months in jail, Qing to 15 months, Ping to 13 months and Yong to 11 months and one day. However, since Di’s father in China is sick, the court reduced his sentence to 14 months and 2 days.

But because Di has already been imprisoned for that same amount of time, he is deemed to have finished serving the jail term and was expelled immediately.

Rice processing plants built in Mekong Delta

An Giang Plant Protection Service Company (AGPPS) has started the construction of two rice-processing plants in the Mekong Delta for export, according to its general director Huynh Van Thon.

Construction for the first plant was begun in Vong Dong Commune of Thoai Son District, An Giang Province, on Thursday this week, on an 8.2-hectare area.

The project is capitalized at VND212 billion (US$10 million) and has a designed capacity of 100,000 tons per year for the first phase.

Work on the second plant, with a designed capacity of 200,000 tons per year, was started in Tan Cong Chi Commune, Tan Hong District, Dong Thap Province, on a 13.6-hectare plot one day after the first one.

The two plants, Thon said, are expected to go into operation in late February next year.
According to Thon, the company has established a base area of 2,500 hectares in size to supply raw materials for each plant.

Paddy production and purchase contracts between the company and farmers in the region will be signed during the 2011-2012 winter-spring crop, he said.

According to Thon, AGPPS will build four more rice processing plants with similar large-scale processing facilities from now until 2020.