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New fund to help fishermen
A fund will be established to assist fishermen who have to brave risky conditions out at sea, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Viet Nam Fisheries Society (VINAFIS).
The new fund was announced at a joint press conference held in HCM City on Wednesday.
Chairman of VINAFIS Nguyen Viet Thang said 28 million people live along coast areas in Viet Nam. This figure includes four million people who rely on fishing and about one million who live on fishing vessels. These people often put their lives at risk during adverse weather conditions.
VINAFIS has appealed to the public to donate money to the fund. The General Fisheries Administration will also co-ordinate with HCM Television to broadcast a programme on the HTV9 channel in December to promote contributions to the new fund.
Lam Dong cop in the dock for gun threat
Police in Lam Dong Province are considering disciplinary action against an officer for using a gun to threaten three people and assaulting one of them.
Dao To Hieu, deputy head of the Da Lay Commune police department in Da Teh District, allegedly threatened to shoot 21-year-old Le Van Ngoc, his mother Dinh Thi Toan, and Nguyen Thi Tham, according to Nguyen Thanh Quang, the chairman of the local people’s committee.
On September 11 Hieu met Ngoc at a wedding party in Tham’s house and threatened to arrest him for living there without registering. A quarrel broke out and Hieu slapped Ngoc in the face before leaving.
But he returned soon with a gun, causing a panic among the guests. He pointed the weapon at Ngoc and his mother and said he would shoot them.
When Tham tried to calm him down, Hieu threatened to shoot her too.
He then took Ngoc to the police station and assaulted him until he was stopped by other officers.
The district police were investigating Hieu’s actions, Quang said.
A similar incident occurred in Can Tho City on March 27, when Dang Van Tuan, deputy head of Market Management Team No. 4, brandished a toy gun at Nguyen Kim Phuong, a local woman who had a conflict with his wife.
Phuong’s neighbors called the police who seized Tuan. He was fined VND750,000 (US$36) and given a warning by the city Market Management Sub-department.
Tuan had been under the influence of alcohol, the police said.
HCM City to recruit 95,000 labourers in Q4
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However, he warned that difficulties remain in generating new jobs for workers, adding that the demand for part-time jobs will increase sharply from now until the end of the year.
HCM City has offered more than 230,000 jobs in the first nine months of the year, up 16.6 percent compared to the same period last year.
The City’s companies recruited labourers in such fields as marketing, business, services, electronics, telecommunications, mechanics, and metallurgy. Yet, the human resources have not met the demands for quantity or quality.
In the reviewed period, the total number of labourers finding jobs has reached more than 170,000.
Illegal coal mining 'causing land subsidence'
Residents in Ha Long City's Cao Xanh Ward have raised concerns over mysterious land depressions, with one resident blaming the appearance of a 1-metre-deep hole on coal mining.
The latest example of land subsidence in the ward was spotted yesterday morning, after a 1-metre-deep hole with a diameter of two metres appeared in a residential area.
Local resident Hoang Thi Phuong said illegal coal mining in the neighbourhood caused the abnormal geological phenomenon.
More than 50 local households have also recently reported that cracks have appeared in the walls of their houses.
Vice chairman of the ward's People's Committee Pham Hong Son said the 1-metre-hole was the second case of land depression reported in the ward during the past week.
The earlier case, which was more serious, occurred last Friday, when residents noticed that land subsidence had caused a huge 20-metre-deep hole in a local road that stretched for 20 metres.
No injuries or damage to housing have been reported as a result of the subsidence, said Phuong, adding that local authorities had filled the holes already to ensure safety for local residents and traffic.
Land depression was rare in the area and its causes had not been identified, Son said.
Ambulances cause mayhem in Tra Vinh
When an accident occurs on the road, people summon an ambulance. But whom do they call when an ambulance causes a fatal accident? That is exactly what happened in Tra Vinh Province Tuesday when a speeding ambulance driven by a drunken man hit a couple on a motorcycle, killing the husband and injuring the wife.
To the injured woman’s misfortune, another ambulance called to scene seemed to be equally callous.
The accident occurred at around 9 pm when the ambulance suddenly encroached on the wrong side of the road on a Tra Vinh bypass and crashed into the motorbike ridden by Trieu Minh Tuan, 52.
Tuan died on the spot and his wife Phan Thi Be Nho, 50, was severely injured.
Passers-by called another ambulance to take Nho to hospital. After placing her in the vehicle, the driver failed to close the rear door and took off so quickly that no one could warn him.
Nho’s stretcher fell out of the back on the road immediately afterwards.
It is not known how the fall affected the injured woman.
The driver of the first ambulance, Vo Hong Khanh, 32, was detained for questioning.
The town police said a test had showed that Khanh had an alcohol level of 0.76 mg per liter of blood, far higher than the country’s allowed limit of 0.25 mg.
The police are continuing their investigation.
An ambulance was involved in a similar deadly accident in Thanh Hoa Province last April, killing four people and injuring two others.
The vehicle had left Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi with the six people and a body sent from abroad to Nghe An for burial.
According to witnesses, the ambulance suddenly hit a truck hard from behind in Tinh Gia District on National Highway 1A.
The driver had lost control after either speeding or falling asleep at the wheel, the police said.
Hanoi ensures sufficient goods for upcoming New Year
The Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade (DOIT) has completed plans on goods supply during New Year, Christmas, and traditional Lunar New Year festival (Tet).
DOIT Deputy Director Nguyen Van Dong said this year’s goods amount will increase by 20-30 percent. Hanoi now has nearly 1,000 locations selling stabilized-price goods which are operating effectively and will be maintained until the upcoming Tet.
The city has also conducted 23 out of 36 Vietnamese market-days, including 20 in districts and three in export processing zones, as well as 108 mobile sales in suburbs.
Strange disease sweeps communes
A disease that has swept through four communes in the central province of Quang Ngai's Ba To District has left doctors scratching their heads.
Patients have been suffering from skin problems and liver disorders.
Symptoms include swelling and itching between the fingers and toes after 4-7 days, with skin becoming thick and chapped, and even hair loss after two weeks.
Statistics from the provincial Health Department showed that 59 people had contracted the disease since April, resulting in one fatality. Fifty others recovered after being treated in the provincial General Hospital, while eight have yet to be discharged.
The youngest patient was four years old and the oldest, 72.
However, children under the age of 15 have suffered the most.
"Result of initial tests show that there are high levels of copper in blood of the patients, and signs of damage to the liver," said Director of the National Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology, Associate Professor Dr Tran Hau Khang.
"We suspect that victims may have been contaminated with toxic chemicals," he said.
Intensive tests were being conducted to discover the cause of the disease, he added.
Hundreds have food poisoning at Korean firm
Hundreds of workers at a Korean textile company based in Ho Chi Minh City got food poisoning Wednesday afternoon after having lunch in the firm’s canteen.
Over 150 factory workers of Terratex Limited Company in District 12 felt sick, and had stomachache and headache one hour after they had lunch with fried fish and fermented vegetable at 11:30 am.
They were immediately admitted to a local hospital for emergency treatment. Most of them are women.
The fried fish looked stale but they had to eat because they had no other choice, some workers said.
Many other workers could not stand the staleness, so skipped the lunch and thus escaped the poisoning.
Hospital doctors said this was a huge number of patients, therefore the hospital had to mobilize many doctors and nurses at the same time.
Health officials have stepped in to investigate the cause of the poisoning.
In 2007, over 200 workers of the same company had food poisoning after a similar lunch, also at 11:30 am.
Nam Thuan Company, the food provider which is based in the southern province of Binh Duong, was later found not meeting the requirements for food hygiene and safety.
Ly Son fishing-port put into operation
The Ly Son Island People's Committee re-opened a fishing quay in central Quang Ngai Province on Tuesday after nearly two years of renovation.
The quay, worth VND31 billion (US$1.5 million), will provide safe anchorage for hundreds of local fishing vessels and has the capacity to withstand high winds.
The former quay was completely destroyed when a storm hit the island in 2009.
Vinasun taxi driver nabbed for robbing passenger
A 23-year-old man reported to Tuoi Tre’s hotline that a taxi driver of Vinasun company had deliberately driven away with his assets in Ho Chi Minh City last Sunday.
The victim, T.M.T., said he had arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport from Singapore at 1 pm October 2.
When he left the terminal later, a taxi driver came over to him and invited him into his cab. T. asked the driver to take him to 251 Hai Ba Trung Street in District 3, HCMC.
When the taxi reached Nguyen Van Troi Street, T asked the driver to stop so that he could buy a SIM card at a shop but the driver refused, saying taxi drivers are not allowed to stop on the street.
When they came to Tran Huy Lieu Street, the driver agreed to stop and as soon as T. got out of the cab, the driver drove away with T.’s luggage in it.
T. then reported the case to the Phu Nhuan District Police, the Vinasun taxi firm, and the airport security center.
With the confirmation from the firm and the center that the cab with number plate 51A-07446 had picked T. up at the airport, the police later arrested Tran Ngoc Thao, 28, a resident of District 4.
Thao was questioned and later pleaded guilty.
Ta Long Hy, Vinasun director, said he would dismiss Thao, considering his act as absolutely unforgivable.
Hanoi land officials seized for bribery
The Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Police Agency has laid charges against a deputy chairman of a commune in Hanoi and two other land officials for allegedly counterfeiting a land document to take a bribe of US$4,800.
Do Van Dung, 43, deputy chairman of the Ha Bang Commune People’s Committee, and Nguyen Thanh Huyen, 30, an official in charge of site clearance in Thach That District, are charged with taking bribes.
Another official, Phung Hoa Binh, 36, head of Ha Bang Commune’s Hamlet 7, is charged with abusing position and power while on duty.
Also indicted is Vu Anh Tuan, 37, head of the Export Department of state-owned Viglacera Corporation, who bribed off the three officials.
According to the case file, Tuan bought 8,778 square meters of land in the commune in 2000 although he had known the land was part of the Hoa Lac High Technology Park project.
In late 2007, Dung told Tuan that the land would be reclaimed for the implementation of the project.
Tuan then asked Dung, Huyen and Binh to make false documents related to his land to put him into the list of people eligible for compensation from the project’s investor.
The three men agreed and asked Tuan to pay them VND100 million (US$4,800). Tuan later paid Dung VND50 million in advance.
Following a tip-off from the public, police arrested all the four after they completed a fake set of documents.
161 photocopiers seized in Ha Giang
Market Watch Team No. 1 in the northern mountain province of Ha Giang sealed off a container carrying 161 photocopiers attempting to cross into China from Pho Bang Tuesday.
The owner of the photocopiers, Nguyen Duc Phu, of Ha Noi, failed to show legal documents for the goods.
Phu said the photocopiers were second-hand. Local police continue investigating the case.
Vietnam has 200,000 new stroke cases yearly
There are 200,000 new cases of stroke on average every year and around 486,000 stroke patients are still alive in Vietnam, a report has said.
At the seminar titled “Stroke – a global issue” held in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday in response to the World Stroke Day on October 29, professor Le Van Thanh, head of neurology faculty at Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine in HCMC, said strokes are the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer and the leading cause of disability in the world.
“However in reality, many patients could well recover from strokes if they timely get emergency aid and appropriate care,” he added.
Figures from the World Health Organization show there are around 5 million cases of stroke every year over the world.
Thousands taken to storm-proof homes
Nearly 30,000 households from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta's An Giang Province have been evacuated to flood-proof residential clusters.
The province recently finished the construction of 203 flood-proof residential clusters covering over 830ha.
The clusters take the form of miniature urban areas, and include markets, schools and medical centres.
As scheduled, delta provinces will finish evacuating around 200,000 households from low-lying areas along Dong Thap Muoi and Tu Giac Long Xuyen to flood-proof residential clusters.
More than 1,000 flood-proof residential clusters were built in the delta as part of a national programme from 2001-07.
Dao Thi Luyen, a resident from a flood-hit area in the delta's Long An Province, said: "Thanks to this timely intervention, my family and my 200 chickens are safe from the floods."
Localities in the delta have also continued to strengthen dykes to protect rice and other crops.
Statistics from the National Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control showed that 11 people had died during the current floods in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
Meanwhile, storm Nalgae, the sixth so far this year, weakened to a tropical depression before making landfall, but still brought with it widespread rain.
National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre Deputy Director Le Thanh Hai said: "There are no more storms forecast, at least until the end of this week."
VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre
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