Nearly 300 billion to build sewage treatment plant in Tay Ninh

The Tay Ninh provincial People’s Committee has allowed the Vietnam Green Environment Company to build a sewage treatment plant in Ben Rong commune, Thach Duc village, Go Dau district.

The plant will be built on an area of 18ha at a cost of nearly VND300 billion. It is expected to be put into operation in late 2012 to collect garbage from Trang Bang and Bourbon-Hoa industrial zones and Phuoc Dong Boi Loi industrial, urban and services zone.

This is the first modern sewage treatment plant taking shape in Tay Ninh.

Thief kills woman, child in Binh Duong

A woman and her two-year-old daughter were killed in Binh Duong Province yesterday, Aug 30, by a former employee who was surprised while in the process of burgling their house.
Le Thi Lan, 25, and Le Thi Phuong were killed and their killer, Nguyen Van Quan, 29, was caught by Lan’s husband and his father.
Le Dang Du, the husband, and Le Dang Chu, his father, returned home at 9 am yesterday and found the door open.
When Du called out to his wife, Quan rushed out.
Fearing the worst, the two men, along with some neighbors, caught Quan. Du then rushed into the house to find his child dead and wife seriously injured.
He rushed Lan to a nearby hospital but she died on the way.
The police came and took Quan away, and he confessed to killing the two.
He said he broke into the house and was searching for valuables when the child found him and began crying.

He hit the child and, hearing the baby’s cries, Lan came into the room. Quan grabbed an iron bar lying there and hit Lan several times on the head, causing her to pass away.
Quan then turned to the baby and strangled her to death before continuing to ransack the house.
He washed the blood off the iron bar in the toilet, took a bath, and was about to leave when Lan’s husband returned.
Quan used to work for Lan’s packaging business.

Prosecutors seek leniency for corrupt official

At an appeal trial yesterday, Aug 30, the Supreme People’s Procuracy recommended a commuted sentence of 20 years for Huynh Ngoc Si, 58, former director of the East-West Highway project in Ho Chi Minh City.
However, Si has appealed claiming he is innocent and his life sentence is groundless.

The earlier verdict was handed down last October by the HCMC People’s Court which found Si guilty of taking a bribe of US$262,000 from Japan’s Pacific Consultants International (PCI) to award PCI two bidding packages related to the highway construction.
The prosecutors admitted that Si had not asked for the bribe but eventually took it after being constantly enticed by PCI officials.
They also drew the court’s attention to the fact that after the sentencing, Si’s wife Phan Thi Lich Sa had handed in VND3 billion (US$144,000) to the court.
Si and four Japanese executives from PCI reached an agreement that PCI would pay him 10-11 percent of the value of the packages for design consultancy and supervision consultancy.

The court said it was convinced that Si did take the bribe at his office in 2003 in return for awarding PCI the packages.
Si denied it, claiming that he had only met the two PCI executives that day but did not receive any money, and was sentenced unjustly.
“The court gave me the sentence based on the testimonies of the Japanese officials who said they gave the money to me. Their testimonies were provided to the Tokyo prosecution agency and are not valid evidence,” he argued.

The hearing continues today.

Gold shop murder suspects’ parents arrested

The Bac Giang Province police yesterday, Aug 30, arrested the parents of an 18-year-old man suspected of killing three people and robbing a local jewelry shop last week, and another man thought to be harboring him.
Le Van Mien, 42, and Truong Thi Thom, 38, Le Van Luyen’s parents, were arrested for “hiding a criminal,” while Truong Van Hop, 47, the father of Truong Thanh Hong, 19, was taken in for “not reporting a crime,” the police said.
Hong was arrested Monday after the police discovered that he had taken Luyen to a local medical center for stitching up wounds on his hands on August 24, several hours after the multiple murders occurred.
Dr Hoang Thi Hung, who treated Luyen’s wounds, told the police that the wounds had been caused by a sharp object and that the patient did not seem abnormal.
By the time the police went to Luyen’s house in Thanh Lam commune, Luc Nam District, he had fled.
They found a sword and about 50 taels of gold (1 tael = 1.2 ounce) bullion, 12 gold chains, 199 gold rings, 59 necklaces, and five precious stones hidden underground behind a pigsty in the house. At the current gold price of over VND47 million (US$2,260) per tael, their value may be up to $135,000.
The police suspect the sword was the murder weapon.

Luyen dropped out of school after completing ninth grade and helped his parents in their pork business until late last year when he went to Hanoi to work as a mason, locals told the police.

But many could not believe he committed the murders and robbery since he had been a good-natured boy.
One of his former teachers said Luyen had not been a naughty student.
Early in the morning on August 24, Trinh Van Ngoc, the 37-year-old owner of Ngoc Bich Jewelry Shop, his wife Dinh Thi Chin, 35, and daughter Trinh Phuong Thao, 19, were found killed.
Another daughter, nine-year-old Trinh Ngoc Bich, had her right arm chopped off by the attackers.

Bich, now at Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi for treatment, said two young men with hair dyed red and blue were the culprits, but she had been unable to see their faces clearly.
The police are continuing their investigation.

Two injured in train crash in Hanoi

The crash scene. (Photo: Dan Tri)

The train driver Dang Xuan Hung suffered from a broken shoulder blade while his assistant suffered bone fractures in the right leg.
Both are being treated at 19-8 Hospital.

The police said the truck driver fled the scene right after the accident which left both the train and the truck seriously damaged.

Handing over 105 houses to A Luoi ethnic minority people

The Vietnam Fatherland Front in Thua Thien-Hue province in coordination with the Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) has presented 105 houses and some other gifts to ethnic minority people in Hong Thuy village, A Luoi district.

These people had been seriously affected by storms N09 in 2009.  

Nearly VND45 billion was used to build roads, a bridge over the Pa Ay stream and some irrigation projects.

Vietinbank also presented 105 gifts, each worth VND1.8 million, to poor people in the resettlement areas.

203 farmers demand $570,000 from polluting plant

More than 200 farmers in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province, have demanded compensation from a wastewater treatment plant that released untreated waste into a nearby canal, the local Farmers Association said.

They wanted Sonadezi Service Joint Stock Company, a state-owned plant in Dong Nai, to pay them a total of VND12 billion (US$576,000) for loss of crops and animals due to its untreated wastewater.

The association, which received the farmers’ complaints, has told them to make accurate calculations of their losses pending an assessment of the damage Sonadezi has caused, Huynh Ngoc Trai, its chairman, said.

When such an assessment was available, it would help the affected farmers take legal action against the company, he added.

Sonadezi, situated in Long Thanh Industrial Park, processes wastewater from 42 factories inside the park.

On August 3 an inspection team from the Anti-Environmental Crime Prevention and Control Department said it caught Sonadezi discharging untreated wastewater into the Ba Cheo canal that flows into the Dong Nai River.

The plant had released some 9,300 cubic meters of black, stinking waste into the canal, which is the main source of irrigation for 500 hectares of farmland in Tam An commune, the inspectors said.

They also found a sewage system buried under the ground to unload the wastes from the plant into the river.

A member of the Sonadezi management signed on a report made by police about the plant’s environmental violations.

The inspectors took samples of wastewater from the plant for testing, but have yet to receive the results, Colonel Phan Huu Vinh, deputy head of the department, told Tuoi Tre on Monday.

Asked about a report that the samples contained five to 10 times more harmful substances that permitted, Vinh declined to comment saying he had to wait for the test report.

Ex transport boss jailed for life claims innocence

At the appeal trial in Ho Chi Minh City this morning, Huynh Ngoc Si, 58, former director of the ODA-funded East-West Highway project in the city, said the life sentence given to him last year was groundless.

The hearing was conducted by the Supreme People’s Court in HCMC to consider Si’s appeal against the verdict handed to him by the HCMC People’s Court last October for taking bribes of US$262,000.

Four of the ten witnesses attended the trial and two lawyers Phan Trung Hoai and Tran Van Tao defended Si.

Phan Thi Lich Sa, Si’s wife, was present at the court as she has appealed against the first instance court’s verdict that two houses of the couple would be confiscated.

Similar to the first instance trial, Si claimed he was innocent.

“The court gave me the sentence only based on the testimonies of the involved Japanese officials who said they gave the money to me, while those testimonies were provided to the Tokyo prosecution agency. Such testimonies are not valid evidence,” he explained.

According to the indictment, Si and four Japanese officials of the Japan’s Pacific Consultants International (PCI) reached an agreement that PCI would pay 10-11 percent of the total value of the two bidding packages to Si in exchange for PCI being made contractor.

The court said it has enough evidence to prove Si had received US$262,000 from the two Japanese officials at his office on May 28, 2003 in return for granting PCI the two bids - design consultancy and supervision consultancy.

Si rejected the allegation, saying he only met these PCI officials that day but did not receive any money.

In addition, the court said Si signed contracts to hire PCI consultants in which he offered them salaries much higher than the planned rates, but Si said he had got approval from competent agencies before signing such contracts.

Si was also found signing documents to give PCI advance payment that exceeded the regulated amounts while he did not examine the actual workloads PCT had done for the project, the court said.

Meanwhile, Si said he approved such payment based on a proposal from the project’s chief accountant.

Si asserted that all the documents he signed or all the proposals he made in relation to the project were in accordance with the law.

Regarding the fact that PCI was appointed as contractor without having to go through a bidding process as required by law, Si explained that organizing such a bid would have prolonged the project by 8 months.

Si claimed his deputy Le Qua had proposed awarding the contract to PCI, but the court cited Qua’s testimony that Si ordered him to make the proposal.

The court is continuing its appeal hearing. 

Cham ethnic minority celebrates Royal Festival

Authorities  in the Mekong delta province of An Giang have presented gifts and sent best wishes to the Cham ethnic minority group on the occasion of their Royal Ramanda Festival.

They commended the local dignitaries and Cham people on their solidarity with other ethnic groups in the implementation of the Party and State’s regulations and policies.

An Giang is home to more than 12,500 Cham people, mainly in the districts of An Phu, Tan Chau, Chau Thanh and Chau Phu and Long Xuyen city. They have followed Islam and practice their religious activities at 12 mosques and 15 smaller ones. 

During the ten-day Royal Ramanda Festival that takes place after the Ramada month, the Cham people will hold parties, visit their relatives and attend recreational activities.

Vietnam’s population to age in 2017: UNFPA

With sharp reductions in fertility and mortality and an increase in average life expectancy, Vietnam will enter the so-called “aging phase” in 2017, according to a report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

In a recent report titled “Aging Population in Vietnam: Current status, prognosis, and possible policy responses,” UNFPA says a country with 10 percent of its population aged 60 or higher is seen as aging and Vietnam will reach the rate in six years.

In 2032, the rate will be double since the number of elderly people in Vietnam is increasing more rapidly than that of people in other age groups.

This report aims to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of related issues, and provide tentative recommendations for policy responses to issues related to aging in the years to come, UNFPA said.

Similar to rapid population growth, rapid population aging creates various pressures on economic growth, as well as on the infrastructure and social protection services, the agency said.

Specifically, the aging of population will pose great challenge to Vietnam in terms of social welfare, including pension funds, and healthcare services for the elderly people – especially those in rural areas, and inequality between generations.

In order to effectively deal with an aging population, Vietnam should build policies that can help improve the quality of life of its elderly population.

It is advisable to improve the pension system to increase income of elderly people, strengthen provisions of healthcare services to them, and set up political and social organizations to help enhance the understandings and responsibility of families and community for elderly people.

The UNFPA recognizes that aging issues have been considered a priority in Vietnam’s Socio-Economic Development Strategy over the next decade, as well as the draft of the 2011-2015 Socio-Economic Development Plan.

Furthermore, the issue has been addressed in several of the national strategies such as the Population and Reproductive Health Strategy, and other sectoral policies and strategies, the agency said. 

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre