FAO helps Vietnam ensure food safety

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will continue assisting Vietnam with major programs on food hygiene and safety by building legal frameworks and promoting healthcare services.

Shashi Sareen, a senior FAO official, made the commitment at a seminar in Hanoi on July 30 to review a FAO-funded project on building capacity for Vietnamese food hygiene and safety inspectors.

Sareen said that her organization has launched many programs in Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to improve the quality of food. The UN organization has also helped the Vietnamese Government implement its national food hygiene and safety strategy for 2011-2020, with a vision to 2030.

She highlighted the significant results of the US$790,500 project, which was carried out from 2009 to July 2012 in relevant ministries and a number of localities in Vietnam, aiming to increase the capacity of food inspectors at both central and local levels.

Deputy Minister of Health Dr. Nguyen Thanh Long thanked FAO for its valuable support of food safety programs in Vietnam.

He called for closer cooperation among the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and Industry and Trade (MoIT) to provide the best conditions for food producers and processors, and to facilitate stricter control over food quality.

Hydro plants open sluice gates in flood

The Son La Hydro-electric Plant has continued to discharge flood water through the second sluice gate after receiving an urgent instruction from the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control yesterday, July 30.

The decision was made after a heavy downpour last Sunday dumped around 6,000 cubic metres of water per second into Son La reservoir, located in the northern mountain province of the same name.

Last Sunday morning, the plant began discharging water for the first time when the water level in the reservoir reached 198.5 metres, lowering it to 194 metres.

The reservoir's capacity is 218 metres.

The plant has informed local residents in low-lying areas and sent staff to remind locals not to farm aquaculture while the sluice is open.

The move is not expected to cause any losses for residents as more than 20,000 households were evacuated and resettled via a VND4.2 trillion (US$201.6 million) programme. Households in 17 low-lying communes were moved to higher ground.

Two other hydro-electric power plants in neighbouring Hoa Binh and Tuyen Quang provinces also discharged flood water last Sunday.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the water level rose 6.82 metres in the Hong (Red) River in Ha Noi, and 23.39 metres in the Lo River in Tuyen Quang.

The northern region is forecast to experience heavy rain over the next few days.

The Son La Hydro-electric Plant is the biggest of its kind with a planned capacity of 2,400MW and six turbines. The plant has 12 sluice gates.

Ha Tinh reservoirs seriously downgraded

Nearly 60 per cent of reservoirs in the central province of Ha Tinh are in a seriously downgraded condition, posing risks for local residents during the stormy season.

Tran Duy Chien, deputy director of the provincial Irrigation Department, said most reservoirs were built about 60 years ago, and had degraded over time.

Khe Xanh reservoir in Ky Anh District, with its capacity of 700,000 cubic metres, was also found to have leaks up to 15 centimetres long along its body, and the roof had eroded. Khe Bo reservoir, with a capacity of 1.2 million cubic metres, needed repair work due to serious erosion.

Chien said there were about 200 downgraded reservoirs in the province, of which 20 were in urgent need of repair at a total cost of more than VND800 billion (US$38.4 million) to assure the safety of households in low-lying areas.

The provincial budget would be unable to provide the funding to carry out comprehensive repair work, he said.

Nguyen Van Tinh, one of the two fishermen from central Quang Ngai province rescued from an accident at sea earlier this month, left Hong Kong on July 30 for Ho Chi Minh City on a Vietnam Airlines flight.

Earlier the same day, Vietnamese Consul General to Hong Kong and Macau Nguyen Thi Nha and Deputy Consul General in charge of community affairs Dinh Hung Vuong visited Tinh at the Queen Mary Hospital and helped him complete procedures to return home.

Nha thanked the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, the Immigration Department and the Queen Mary Hospital of Hong Kong for taking care of the Vietnamese fisherman.

Tinh, born in 1992, and his colleague Duong Mau were brought to Hong Kong for medical treatment after their ship, QNg96246-TS, met with accident in the East Sea on July 5.

The Hong Kong Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre sent a helicopter to rescue them at the Vietnamese side’s request.
On July 18, the Vietnamese Consulate General coordinated with Hong Kong’s relevant agencies to bring Mau home.

Prisoner gets pregnant, gives birth

Police in Binh Phuoc Province are investigating a case in which a female prisoner got pregnant and then gave birth to a baby.

29-year-old Huynh Thi Giang Kieu, who is serving an 18-year sentence for illegally trading in drugs, gave birth to a 2.9 kg baby girl at the Binh Phuoc Province General Hospital on July 26.

Local police, who had monitored Kieu during her birth procedure at the hospital, escorted her, along with her baby, back to the prison yesterday, one day earlier than advised by doctors who warned that such an early discharge could have a harmful impact on the health of both mother and baby.

Kieu’s husband is also serving an 18-year sentence for the same charge as his wife.

According to lawyers at the provincial Bar Association, many prisons have recently built “happy houses” on their premises for prisoners and their spouses, Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper reported.

If the prison where Kieu is being jailed has such a house and if the baby’s father is Kieu’s husband, then the woman’s getting pregnant was legal.

Meanwhile, Kieu, of Ho Chi Minh City’s Go Vap District, told others that the baby’s father is another man, Nguyen Thai Trung, 30, of Binh Duong Province, who is a truck driver, Nguoi Lao Dong reported.

Local police are investigating the case.

Police seize two tiger bodies carried in car

On examination of a speeding car, traffic police in central Quang Binh Province discovered that it was carrying two tiger bodies weighing nearly 200 kg.

Police stopped the suspicious car as it was travelling on National Highway 1A in Thanh Trach Commune, Bo Trach District at 5:30 yesterday morning.

One of the carcasses was dried and weighs 138 kg, while the other weighs 60 kg and had its skin removed.

The police also seized several tortoise shells and numerous bones of unidentified animals inside the car.

The vehicle’s driver, Ho Van Bang, 41, of Nghe An Province, and another man in the car, Nguyen Van Ngon, said they were hired to transport the items from Nghe An to Quang Tri for sale, said Major Bui Quang Thanh, deputy head of the provincial police traffic department.

The police also found seven fake car number plates hidden in the car.

According to the local forestry protection sub-department, the dead animals belong to a striped-tiger species.

The police are investigating to track down the origin of the bodies and find out what purposes the false number plates have been, or would be, used for.

A similar case occurred in Nghe An Province in late May, when police seized three frozen tiger carcasses weighing 300 kilograms after chasing down smugglers who were transporting the dead animals in a car.

23-year-old Nguyen Dinh Hai, from Ha Tinh Province, was arrested while his two accomplices fled. The police also seized weapons and several fake car license plates hidden in the car.

Methadone treatment for drug addicts targeted

Vietnam will expand methadone programmes for drug addicts, considering it one of the most effective methods to prevent and reduce HIV infection, towards the target of bringing the ratio to below 0.3 percent by 2020.

Under a project to produce methadone domestically, the country aims to provide treatment to 80,000 addicts by 2015.

Methadone has proved to be effective in drug addiction detoxification and rehabilitation programmes.

Research projects in many countries show that US$1 spent on methadone treatment for drug addicts will help save US$7 on legal and medical costs.

In Vietnam, the average daily cost of methadone treatment for an addict is VND15,435 (US$0.73), half of which is spent on medicine. The cost is expected to fall once Vietnam is able to produce methadone.

Cop disciplined for helping prisoners escape

The Quang Ngai Province Police Department has deprived a police officer of his “people's police” title for helping two prisoners escape 4 months ago.

Sergeant Vo Duc Thinh, of the criminal verdict enforcement team of Tu Nghia District Police, has been disciplined after helping Bui Van Thao nicknamed Thao 'Hitler' and Pham Hoai Bao escape from the district prison.

In March 2012, Thao, 34, of Quang Ngai, was transferred from the Kim Son detention center of the Ministry of Public Security to the district prison pending trial for theft.

After the hearing ended, Thao, while waiting to be escorted back to Kim Son, asked Thinh to help him and his inmate escape.

Thinh, who had a relationship with Thao before his arrest, agreed.

On the night March 26, Thinh had the key of the two prisoners’ cell duplicated and then handed the key clone to Thao the next day.

As a result, the two prisoners managed to escape and when getting to National Highway 1A, they robbed a motorbike and fled with the vehicle.

The district police launched a hunt and later seized Bao in Quang Ngai City’s Nghia Chanh Ward.

As for the other one, on May 21, Thao took a friend hostage, demanding a ransom of VND3 million (US$140) and a mobile phone.

The hostage’s family reported the case to police and Thao was captured the next day.

Petrol dealer fined $1,200 for fraud

Hoang Ty petrol station in south-central Binh Thuan Province's Ham Tan District has been fined VND25 million (US$1,200) for cheating customers.

The provincial People's Committee also revoked the station's business licence for a year, after it was found that customers had been misled over the quality and quantity of petrol purchased.

US$1.6 million project promotes gender equality

Policymakers will benefit from a four-year project to increase their capacity in the fields of population, reproductive health, and gender equality.

The 2012-2016 project was signed in Hanoi on July 30 by the Vietnamese National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.  

The objective is to raise awareness of National Assembly deputies and elected officials in Hai Duong, Kon Tum and Ben Tre provinces about examining law projects and monitoring the implementation of population, immigration and gender equality policies.

The project costs US$1.6 million in non-refundable aid, of which US$880,000 is sponsored by the UNFPA and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Big explosion rocks police chief’s house

A big explosion yesterday hit the private house of Colonel Tran Ngoc Khanh, the director of Police Department of Khanh Hoa central coastal province. There were no human casualties.

Debris and bricks were blasted at No. 54 Phan Chu Trinh Street in Nha Trang city due to the explosion that occurred at about 6:10am on July 30. The explosion also resulted in two holes in the wall.

The front façade of the house is currently leased to a wedding gown store and a CD shop while Khanh and his family members live inside.

Le Quang Hao, who lives 100 meters away from the blast scene, told Tuoi Tre that he heard a big explosion when he was watering the plants.

“My house shook and swayed so I thought the blast occurred underground. Afterwards, I saw smokes from the house No. 54 Phan Chu Trinh blowing into the air,” Hao recalled.

A senior police official of Van Thanh Ward, where the house is situated, declined to speak to Tuoi Tre reporters at 10:30am.
Local police have blocked the site for investigations.

Public internet access opens in Thanh Hoa

The Ministry of Information and Communications yesterday, July 30, opened the first free internet access centre in the central province of Thanh Hoa.

It is one of 52 planned public internet centres, equipped with nearly 400 computers and over 50 printers, in the province as part of a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Similar centres will open soon in about 40 other underdeveloped provinces nationwide by 2015.

The total cost of the project is $50.5 million, of which $30 million comes from the foundation's non-refundable funding, $3.6 million from Microsoft's software donation and the remainder from local budgets.

Two men held in $100 million ‘meteorite’ scam

Police in Ho Chi Minh City say they have detained two men who tried to sell a fake meteorite for US$100 million.

The suspects are Thai Van Tuan, director of Ngo Tran Precious Metal and Stones JSC in District 8, and Le Anh Nguyen, of Binh Thuan Province.

Nguyen, 39, learned through acquaintances that Nguyen Huu Ban of Binh Phuoc Province was hunting for a meteorite to resell at a profit, according to investigators. He then contacted Ban, 52, to show him a fake, 4.3 kg sample he said was worth VND660 billion ($31.6 million).

Police say Tuan, 39, later reached out to Ban, posing as a wealthy man and asking that he help him buy a meteorite. Tuan allegedly said he could afford the $100 million price tag of Nguyen’s meteorite, but requested a contract.

According to the deal, Tuan would pay Ban a VND2 billion ($96,000) deposit if tests showed the meteorite was real. But if it tested negative, Ban agreed to pay Tuan VND200 million. Tuan later told investigators the plan was to force Ban to violate the contract by cutting him off from Nguyen.

But police had been tipped off and arrested Tuan on Tuesday at a District 1 cafe where he was meeting Ban to sign the contract.
The case marks at least the third meteorite scam in the city since December. In the two other arrests, men tried to sell fake meteorites to women for billions of dong.

Bac Lieu Police warns locals of crocodile

Police in the southern province of Bac Lieu's Phuoc Long District have warned local people about a recent spate of thefts in which a reported 250 crocodiles went missing.

The loss, estimated at VND250 million ($11,000), occurred over the past two weeks in an area considered to be Viet Nam's crocodile farming centre, with more than 300,000 of the reptiles.

According to local farmers, most of the cases happened between midnight and 3am when thieves were able to break in without waking the sleeping adults and steal the baby animals. They said most of crocodiles stolen were small, between 4-7 kg, making them less dangerous to capture.

North to have sunny weather

The weather in the north of Viet Nam today will be sunnier, slightly warmer than yesterday with periods of rain, according to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecast.

The north-west will have temperatures between 27-30 degrees Celsius, while in the north-east, readings of between 32 and 34 degrees are expected.

Showers and strong wind will affect the Central Highlands and south, while Ha Noi can expect scattered rain in the evening.

Areas from Thanh Hoa Province to Thua Thien-Hue Province can expect temperatures of 25-34 degree Celsius, with showers in the evening.

And in areas from central Da Nang city to Binh Thuan Province, temperatures of 25-35 degree Celsius are likely.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre