Five die in gold mine collapse

Five people were killed on late Sunday when a gold mine in the central province of Nghe An's Tuong Duong District collapsed after heavy rains, local authorities reported.

The authorities recovered the bodies of the victims on Monday. All the dead were males aged between 20 and 37, living in Tam Dinh Commune, Tuong Duong District where the accident occurred, vice chairman of Tuong Duong District People's Committee Vi Tan Hoi said.

The dead had been illegally prospecting for gold ore in Lam River. Rainy water was reported to have poured down the gold mine, making it collapse.

The mining site had been previously closed due to safety concerns.

The local People's Committee provided VND4 million (US$192), and district organisations VND1 million ($48) for each of the victim's families.

The case is under further investigation.

Illegal mining has been a serious problem in Nghe An Province. A month earlier, 18 people were killed and six injured in a quarry collapse at Len Co Mountain in the province's Yen Thanh District. Heavy rains led to 1,000 cubic metres of rocks burying the workers.

Several other quarry collapses have occurred in the same district, but none of deaths were reported.

Traffic accidents explode during long weekend

Hospitals in many cities and provinces nationwide reported a massive surge in the number of traffic accident victims during the four-day Liberation Day and May Day holiday that ended yesterday.

HCM City-based Cho Ray Hospital's Accident and Emergency Department received 273 patients during the four days, five times higher than the average on normal days, with most cases related to traffic accident injuries.

Four of the patients were dead on arrival and 85 others sustained head injuries.

The hospital's Orthopedic Surgery Department said that it was also overloaded by hundreds of patients with head and neck injuries as well as broken legs and hands, mostly as a result of traffic accidents

The People's Hospital 115 in HCM City received 250 patients per day from April 30 and May 2 with over 80 per cent of the cases related to traffic accidents.

In Ha Noi, the Viet Duc Hospital also saw a significant increase in the number of traffic accident victims.

Between April 29 to May 2, the hospital's Emergency Department received 135 patients each day on average, compared to 80 cases on normal days. Most patients suffered head injuries, of which 40 per cent were caused by not wearing helmets, doctors said.

Hospitals in Da Nang, Quang Ninh, Hai Duong, Long An, Binh Duong and Dong Nai also reported an increase in the number of traffic accident victims during the four-day holiday.

Three killed in crash of truck, motorbike

Three people were killed in a collision between a truck and a motorbike on Highway 398 in the northern province of Bac Giang yesterday, May 3.

Yen Dung District Police said the motorbike carrying two adults and one child and the truck crashed head-on.

Police investigations are continuing.

Two charged with drug trafficking

Northern Quang Ninh Province Border Guards have charged two women with illegally trafficking about 5,000 tablets of ecstasy.

They said Han Thi Xuan, 42, and Han Thi Nam, 32, were arrested on Sunday as they were transporting the drug in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province.

It was claimed the two were hired by a Chinese national to bring drugs from China's Guang Dong Province to Mong Cai City for 4,000 yuan (US$615).

Ecstasy produces feelings of well-being. It suppresses the need to eat, drink and sleep, allowing club scene users to endure all night parties.

The case is still under further investigation.

Vietnam, France strengthen cooperation in culture, tourism and sports

A Vietnamese delegation led by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh is visiting France from May 4-7 to promote cooperation in culture, tourism and sports between Vietnam and France.

During the visit from May 4-7, Minister Hoang Tuan Anh will hold talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, French Minister of Culture Frederic Mitterrand, French Secretary of State in charge of Tourism Frédéric Lefebvre, and President of the Secours Populaire Francais (SPF) Julien Laupretre.

The delegation is scheduled to pay tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at Montreuil Park in the eastern outskirts of Paris, visit the Montreuil Museum of History and the headquarters of Vietnamese Association in France, Guimet Paris museum and attend a meeting to mark the 100^th anniversary of late President Ho Chi Minh’s visit to France (1911-2011).

Minister Hoang Tuan Anh will hold talks with overseas Vietnamese in France, Vietnamese students studying in France and Vietnam’s representative agencies in France to discuss issues related to culture, arts, tourism and sports.

Especially, the Minister will also attend the opening of a Vietnamese Cultural and Tourism Space and a Vietnamese gala in Tours city in the central region of France. 

Plan, Accenture cooperate in providing youth with vocational training

Plan International will link up with Accenture to provide vocational training for about 3,500 underprivileged young people in Vietnam and India.

The two-year project will bridge the gap between job supply and demand by matching disadvantaged young people with local opportunities through networks of employers, Plan International said on the sidelines of the ongoing 44^th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Hanoi on May 3.
Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, is providing US$1.9 million in financial support and commercial expertise for the pioneering scheme, which will also reach out to young people in remote areas through virtual training modules.
Free skills and training programmes will target industries such as information technology, customer relations and business process outsourcing where local demand for jobs is high.
The partnership will build on Plan International’s ongoing educational project, REACH in Vietnam. Over 80 percent of the 5,400 disadvantaged young people trained through the programme are now in stable employment.
Accenture will assist the international charity to develop a business model to expand REACH to other developing countries.
The new partnership was launched in India this year and will roll out internationally, with Haiti and Tanzania among the next countries being considered.

Textbooks price up by 16.9%

The price of textbooks for the next academic year will increase by 16.9 per cent because of the price rise of production materials, according to deputy director of Education Publishing House Nguyen Minh Khang.

The new price list had been approved by the Ministry of Finance, he said, attributing it to the rise in the costs of paper, printing, packaging, anti-fake stamps and loan interests.

Khang said since the beginning of this year, the price of paper had gone up by 30 per cent and the cost of shipping had doubled. He said other factors that contribute to the pricing of paper had remained stable, which was why the price had only increased by 16.9 per cent.

To support disadvantaged students, the publishing house plans to continue the programme that gives free textbooks to children whose parents were invalids or martyrs.

Khang said the publishing house required schools to maintain libraries for shared textbooks and persuaded students to donate used textbooks to these libraries.

Each textbook generally costs less than VND15,000 (US$0.75). The price of a set of 12 textbooks ranges from VND45,000 ($2.10) to VND143,000 ($7). The Education Publishing House is the sole textbook provider in Viet Nam.

Ha Tinh reburies remains of 32 soldiers killed in Laos

A reburial ceremony for 32 sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and specialists who died in Laos during the war was held in the central province of Ha Tinh yesterday.

The remains were found by a search team from Ha Tinh provincial Military Command with the support of authorities and people of Vientiane and Bolykhamsay provinces of Laos during the 2010-11 dry season.

Of the remains, seven were identified by name and province while another six were identified only by name.

Earlier in Bolykhamsay Province, local authorities and people held a requiem for these remains.

Police seek pair for $24m in scams

The Ministry of Public Security has indicted a couple who allegedly appropriated over VND500 billion (US$24.3 million) from several people and then fled to the US.

Nguyen Duc Dung, 36, owner of a huge shop of luxurious cars named Hung Dung in HCM City's Cong Hoa Street, had encouraged several people to put their cars on consignment at his automobile shop.

Police have released an announcement alerting the public that they are looking for the man, who is charged with property extortion.

According to investigators, a dozen people who said the man had taken advantage of them have sent letters of denunciation to the police.

Tran Thi Huong Hanh said she had been cheated of nearly US$900,000. The woman said she had bought cars from Dung several times, with the most expensive being a $180,000 Porsche, and the cheapest a $68,000 Audi.

He had suggested that she put the car on consignment to sell it to other people at a higher price. But when he fled leaving an empty shop, she had not received a cent from the man.

Hanh said besides the cars, he also borrowed $300,000 from her.

Tran Cong Long of Go Vap District rushed to the police station to report that he had been cheated of VND8.5 ($404,700) billion by Dung and his wife, Nguyen Thi Bao Chau.

The couple signed an agreement with Long to mortgage 11 cars and gave him registered documents so he could borrow the money.

Dung then used the 11 cars to display in his showroom.

Long has only eight registered papers and does not know where the cars are.

Dung also allegedly owes Quang Mau Hoang, of Tan Binh District, VND11 billion ($535,279). He lent Dung three plots of land worth 325 taels of gold.

Dung then mortgaged the land and borrowed VND11 billion ($523,800).

Several other people have also reported they are victims of Dung's activities.

According to investigators, Dung has taken a total of $24.3 million.

Police have confirmed that Dung, his wife and their children had fled to the US in the middle of March.

Before leaving Viet Nam, his wife purchased diamonds from a store downtown. She then asked a gold store in Tan Binh District to send one diamond worth $2 million to her after she arrived in the US.

The ministry is expanding their investigation into the case.

Series of events to kick off road safety decade

Viet Nam will hold a series of events on May 11 to mark the launch of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2010-20.

The activities will include free distribution of helmets, traffic safety programmes, and singing and drawing contests on road safety for children.

Ten Vietnamese celebrities including models, actors and designers will take part in the campaign to raise road safety awareness and save lives. Traffic accidents have been a major problem for Viet Nam for decades, claiming on average 30-35 lives per day.

Police probe mass fish kill in Cam Ranh Bay

Farmed grouper fish in Cam Ranh Bay in central Khanh Hoa Province have been dying in huge numbers over the last eight days, causing losses of VND2.5 billion (US$120,000).

Huynh Thi Thuy, vice chairwoman of Cam Nghia Ward People's Committee in Cam Ranh City, said the case was under investigation. Earlier, the nearby Cam Ranh Sugar Refinery was found to be discharging foul-smelling sewage into the bay last Sunday.

About 10 litres of sewage has been sent for testing after the authorities failed to contact managers of the local company.

VNN/VOV/VNS