Fire hits city cinema, no casualties

No one was hurt after a big fire hit the under-construction Thang Long Cinema, one of biggest cinemas in Ho Chi Minh City, on Sunday morning.

Eyewitnesses said the fire sent dozens of workers rushing outside in panic and burnt down the roof of the cinema and other furniture.

“At around 7:30am, I heard people yelling ‘fire, fire, fire’ when I was having coffee at a tea shop nearby. Then I saw dozens of people rushing into the streets,” Ho Tuan Linh, a local resident, recalled.

The workers tried to battle with the flames using fire extinguishers but they failed. Shortly after, 80 firefighters and 11 fire trucks were deployed to the scene. The fire was completely put out at 8:30am.

Initial investigations found that a gas explosion from an air conditioner might have caused the fire.

Details of the fire are under investigations. 

Two drug traffickers receive death penalty

Two women were sentenced to death by the HCM City People's Procuracy on April 5 for cross-border drug trafficking.

Le Thi Thu Thao, 30, and Pham Thi Hien, 41, from the southern provinces of Ben Tre and An Giang, headed a ring trafficking 10,000 mixed pills, nearly 7kg of solid drugs and 170gr of heroine from Cambodia into Vietnam during 2010.

Their 11 accomplices are expected to receive sentences ranging from four years in jail to life imprisonment on April 9.

Agencies urged to act on traffic safety

The first measure is to mobilise additional task forces to patrol key traffic routes and areas prone to traffic jams.

Traffic police have also been instructed to find solutions to deal with congestion.

A clamp down on traffic violations will be implemented on major national highways with a focus on speeding, driving in the wrong lane and overloaded vehicles.

A crack down on illegal racing in major cities including Ha Noi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho will also occur.

At the same time, management of transport service providers will be tightened so that vehicles meet safety standards.

More awareness-raising campaigns on traffic safety have also been slated.

HCM City-Incheon air route opens

The Republic of Korean Airway, Jeju Air has officially launched the Ho Chi Minh City-Incheon air route with a single ticket fixed at US$290.

In 2011, the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, the Ministry of Transport and the Korean Air signed an agreement, allowing Korean low-cost Jeju, Air Busan, Jin Air, Eastar Jet and T’way Airlines to conduct flights to Vietnam.

Two indicted for forcing girl to get scary tattoos

Police in Vung Tau City last Thursday asked the local prosecutor’s office to prosecute a local woman who last year forced a female employee to have centipedes tattooed on her face and bosom as a warning for the latter’s alleged affair with the former’s husband.

34-year-old Nguyen Thi Anh, aka Tram Anh, who owns the Monel café in the city, has been detained on charges of “humiliating others,” said city police.

The police also proposed a prosecution for Nguyen Thi Huong, 21, a native of Nghe An Province who is an attendant at the café, for the same offense, as an accomplice.
The victim is 21-year-old Nguyen Thi Giang (not Nguyen Thuy Ngoc as reported by the media previously), a resident of Nghe An Province’s Nghi Loc District.

According to the investigation results, Tram Anh shaved Giang’s head and forced her to have a centipede tattooed on her face, and two others on her chest, after Tram Anh suspected that Giang had had an affair with her 35-year-old husband, Pham The Phong.

Giang had worked for Tram Anh at her cell phone shop in Thang Nhat Ward since April 2008. Giang initially worked as a shop assistant, but Tram Anh later opened a café and asked her to work there.

On November 26, 2011, Tram Anh beat Giang, alleging that Giang had had an affair with her husband. The next day, Tram Anh continued beating the girl, before insulting her and then shaving her head.

The following day, Tram Anh forced Giang to choose one of two punishments: having three centipedes tattooed on her face and bosom, or having acid splashed onto her face. Giang had no other choice but to choose the tattoos.

Later that day, Tram Anh ordered Huong to take Giang to a local tattoo shop in Ward 2 to get the tattoos. The shop’s owner suggested tattoos of small centipedes for Giang but Huong refused, and then chose the largest centipede samples for the victim.

After the tattooing was completed, Huong took photos of the tattoos for reporting to Tram Anh.

Giang returned to Nghe An on November 28 and recounted her story to her mother, Tran Thi Hoa, who later reported the events to police in both Nghe An and Vung Tau.

The results of an injury verification later showed that Giang suffers a body injury rate of 30 percent.

Seventeen wild turtles set free from reserve

Seven Lao turtles and 10 trionychid turtles were released into Bac Huong Hoa Nature Reserve in the central province of Quang Tri on Thursday.

The wild animals had been illegally sold to local restaurants for food.

It was the third case of wild animal trafficking uncovered by provincial environment police and forest watch teams since the start of the year.

Health ministry refutes HN fake rice claim

No fake rice was in the capital as reported in the local media, the Health Ministry's Food Administration announced on Thursday after checking five allegedly fake rice samples.

Over the last few days, some locals claimed that the rice they bought had the smell of plastic when boiled.

Test results showed that the quality of the rice samples met Vietnamese standards. However, the department asked relevant authorities to strengthen food safety inspections at rice shops and among producers to crack down on sub-standard rice.

Five-meter fish caught in Quang Tri, sold for meat

Tran Viet Hung in Gio Linh district, the central province of Quang Tri on Saturday morning gave the giant 5-meter fish he caught the day before to a trader, who killed it and sold its meat.

Previously, Hung caught the fish when he was sailing around the southeastern island of Con Co.

He sought help from more than 20 fishermen but the fish was too heavy that they needed to get a truck to tow it ashore.

The giant fish is 5m long, measures 1.5m in diameter and weighs 2 tons.

According to experienced fishermen, this kind of fish lives in the open seas and they have never caught such huge fish in their life.

Hung was offered VND30 million (US$1500) for the fish but he was afraid it could be a holy fish so he just gave it for free to the trader, who killed it and sold its meat to buyers in Hue province.

Girl, 8, carries massive tumor on leg

For years, little girl Nguyen Thi Loan living in Tan Ha district in the central highlands province of Lam Dong has been suffering agonizing pains due to a massive tumor on her left leg.

Nguyen Cong Duc, 35, Loan’s farther, said Loan was born with an abnormal leg 8 years ago.

About 20 days after Nguyen Thi Tam, Loan’s mother, gave birth to her, the family brought Loan to Pediatrics Hospital No. 1 based in Ho Chi Minh City where she was diagnosed with innate hemangioma, an abnormal buildup of blood vessels, but doctors claimed it was inoperable.

Since Loan was 3, the tumor has grown larger and larger. The girl has also sufferred some bleeding from small growths on the leg.

The mother said whenever the weather changes, her daughter cannot sleep and needs some type of painkillers to relieve her chronic pain caused by the tumor.

Dr. Le Quy Son, head of the surgical department of Lam Dong General Hospital, said Loan also develops another tumor on her anus that needs to be removed.

However, he added the hospital is not able to diagnose or treat her condition with its available medical facilities.

Loan would be transferred to hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City for diagnosis and treatment, according to a statement released by the Lam Dong hospital.

US provides help for kids with heart disease

The Vietnamese charitable organization “Understanding the Heart” has launched a fundraising program in New York to support poor children who are undergoing heart treatment.

The event on April 4 caught the attention of the overseas Vietnamese community, Vietnamese officials and students, as well as local residents.

Ambassador Le Hoai Trung, Head of the Vietnamese permanent delegation to the UN, said that in Vietnam , more than 10,000 babies are born with heart disease every year and only 30 percent of them receive proper medical treatment.

He called on charities and sympathetic US citizens to help Vietnamese children with heart disease by supporting the organisation “Understanding the Heart”.

At the fundraiser, the organisation gave a presentation on its five ongoing projects which include one to provide heart surgery for children in need; a programme to build charitable houses; a project to support poor children; the awarding of scholarships and raising the publics awareness on the issue.

Thanks to help from the Vietnamese Embassy in the US , similar events were held in Houston and Washington D.C. on April 2, reported the organisation.

Many American citizens and organisations, as well as the overseas Vietnamese community expressed their sympathy and said they will support Vietnamese children with heart disease.

Esmeralda V. Brown, Director of the Southern Research and Development Centre, said that her organisation is preparing to visit Vietnam to work with local medical centres and provide assistance to Vietnamese children with heart disease.

First established in July 2010, “Understanding the Heart” is a charity that asks for financial assistance from individuals, non-governmental organisations, the business community and domestic and foreign partners to help needy children in Vietnam.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre