Radiation levels in Vietnam drop

TUOITRE

The radiation levels of the radioactive clouds from Japan’s quake-hit Fukushima I nuclear power plant that have covered Vietnam for several days have dropped, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.
Dr. Trinh Van Giap, Director of the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology said in a meeting this morning that if there was no new nuclear problem in Japan, radiation levels in the air in Vietnam would continue to drop as radioactive particles would be diluted in air and rainwater. 

As of 15 p.m. yesterday, radioactive isotopes Be-7, K-40, Th-232 and U-238 were recorded at very low levels in Da Lat City by the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute’s radiation observation stations. 

The institute said the levels of these radioactive materials would continue to drop sharply in days to come. 

Meanwhile, the stations no longer found Cs-134 and Cs-137 in the air in Da Lat. 
On April 16, the concentration of I-131 in the air in Hanoi also went down significantly, according to the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute. 

Radioactive isotope I-131 in rainwater samples taken in various locations on April 15 was also recorded at very low levels that could not be harmful to human health, the Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety reported.

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Street racing roars back into Ho Chi Minh City

TUOITRE

Illegal motorbike street racing has started again in Ho Chi Minh City after a brief lull due to police crackdowns.

“Night storm,” as the young night racers call it, has become widespread and poses grave danger to other road users.

Hoang Hoa Tham Bridge off Tran Quang Khai Street in District 1, which is 103.3 meters long and 10.5 m wide, has recently become the most popular racing spot.

Hundreds of riders gathered the night of April 10, terrifying other street users. As if racing at high speed is not thrilling enough, the racers also try to catch the attention of others, and scare them, by scraping their bikes’ metal stands on the asphalt to set off sparks.

The atmosphere gets further supercharged by the shouting and wolf whistles from hundreds of their friends on the sidewalks. 

After the stunts on the bikes, they continue to blare their horns, race their engines, and dance to the loud music of two cafes nearby.

Street racing at night is not only scaring residents in urban areas but also in outlying places. 

Cong Nuoc Street connecting Hoc Mon District and Tay Ninh Province has become a nightmare for people living there. 

Nguyen Van Luy, a local, said: “The number of racers here sometimes reaches hundreds. Some of them even put obstacles at intersections to prevent other people from using the street.”
 
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Dreadful car wreck kills 3, hurts 20

TUOITRENEWS

A terrible road accident happened at 2:00 am today when a  truck collided with a passenger car in Ha Tinh northern province, killing three and injuring more than 20 people.

According to preliminary investigation, the truck bearing number plate 72L-0433 driven by 34-year-old Nguyen Gia Thu heading to the north crashed into a passenger car with number plate 49X-2199 driven by 31-year-old Nguyen Van Vang traveling on the opposite direction on National Highway 1A located at Ky Long Commune, Ky Anh District.

The accident has left three dead and over 20 people injured including four in very critical condition, who were later taken to Ky Anh General Hospital for emergency care.

The perished victims are Trinh Thi Van, 22, Tran Thanh Xuan, 57, and Tran Van Luong, 32, all of them hailing from Thanh Hoa northern central province’s Tho Xuan district.

The incident occurred when both drivers, who were allegedly driving at high speed, lost their control due to heavy rain, said police.

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VN's cosmonaut shares experience

VNA

The first Asian cosmonaut in space, General Pham Tuan, shared his experience with language students at the Russian Science and Culture Centre in Ha Noi yesterday.

The event was to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Russian astronaut Yury Gagarin's flight into space, man's first, in 1961. It is also to celebrate April 12, the inaugural International Day of Space Flight, as designated by the United Nations.

Tuan said he was lucky enough to be selected, along with Russian cosmonaut Viktor Vassilyevich Gorbatko, to ride in the Soyuz 37 space shuttle in 1980. He graduated from the Gagarin Military Academy in Russia in 1979.

"That trip had a very important political meaning at that time. Viet Nam had just unified North and South and the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had helped us a lot in gaining our reunification," Tuan said.

His trip into space was a milestone for the development of Vietnamese space science and technology, he said.

Speaking at the event, organised by the Russian Embassy in Viet Nam, Minister Bezdetko Gennady said Russia was the leading country in the field of space science and technology as well as the rocket manufacturing industry.

Tuan's journey into space with Russian colleagues was evidence of the great Viet Nam-Russia relationship and the Russians hoped they would collaborate more in the field, he said.

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Men confesses to posting girl’s assault clip online

LAO DONG

Hanoi police yesterday tracked down two young men who posted on YouTube a clip of an assault and humiliation by four girls on a masseuse over a love triangle last month.

They are Hoang Van Kha, 22, of Hanoi’s Quoc Oai District, and Nguyen Van Truong, his friend. 

Kha, a trader of mobile phones, declared to the police that he was given the clip by Thao, one of his acquaintances.

Thao was one of the four girls who beat and humiliated the masseuse.

After watching the clip, Kha named it as “A fight among teens” and posted it on YouTube using Truong’s account. Truong later changed the clip’s title into “Quoc Oai schoolgirls,” which he thought would be more attractive to YouTube viewers.

Kha told the police that he wanted to post the clip on YouTube with a view to calling on the public to criticize violent behaviors among young people.

However, Kha recognized that the content of the clip violates Vietnam’s habits and customs.

Earlier, on April 13, the four girls, including Nguyen Thi Ngoc Khanh, 23, Nguyen Thi Hong Nhung, 19, Nguyen Thi Khanh Ly, 14, at and Nguyen Thi Thao, 14, were detained by Hanoi police for “humiliating others”.

All the four reside in Quoc Oai District. Ly is an 8th grader at a local high school; Thao is a former high school student; and Khanh is a hairdresser.

All the four pleaded guilty to cruelly beating Ha Thi Huyen Trang, a 19 year old masseuse, of northern Phu Tho Province. 

One day last month, Khanh caught Trang being with her de facto husband, Cuong, 25, at a hotel room. Trang told Khanh that she wanted to live with Cuong.

Next morning, Khanh, Thao, Ly and Nhung came to the hotel room, where they beat Trang, stripped off her shirt, cut her hair and discharged her from the room.

When Trang left the hotel, the four girls continued to beat her violently and stripped her shirt again. The attackers forced Trang to kneel and apologize to Khanh.

Nhung used Khanh’s mobile phone to record a 7-minute video clip of the assault.

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German author of Ho Chi Minh book visits Vietnam

TUOI TRE

Hellmut Kapfenberger, a German journalist and author of “Ho Chi Minh – a chronicle,” a book published in Vietnam last year, was in Hanoi Thursday for a book signing.
The book starts with the question “Who is Ho Chi Minh?” and tries to answer it in 25 chapters. The author concludes that “Ho Chi Minh” has become a concept of ideology, epoch, culture, and morality.

The 77-year-old said at the signing: “I have known about Vietnam since 1960 through the war between America and Vietnam. It was obvious I would know about Ho Chi Minh along with this country. However, many Germans do not know Ho Chi Minh. I decide no one should forget him.”

Kapfenberger lived and worked in Vietnam as a correspondent for the News Agency of the German Democratic Republic from 1970 to 1973 and again from 1980-to 1984.

He spent two years writing “Ho Chi Minh - A chronicle” which was published by Verlag Neues Leben publishing house in Berlin in 2009. It was translated into Vietnamese and published by the The Gioi (World) Publishing House last May.
 
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Businessman threatened with fire bomb

TUOI TRE

Yesterday morning, two unknown men threw a small fire bomb into the house of Nguyen Dinh Trung, chairman and general director of Ho Chi Minh City-based An Thinh Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company.

Trung’s house is located in an alley on Ba Van Street, Ward 14, Tan Binh District.

The fire bomb exploded but was soon put out by two security guards, who failed to catch the terrorists. 

The guards were burnt in the legs during the incident.

As recorded by the security camera, the two men who wore masks came on a motorbike. 

The man who sat behind got off the bike and threw the fire bomb into the house through the fence. 

They fled away from the scene as soon as the guards rushed out. 

Trung said he had received many bomb threat messages in his cell phone for the past two months. 

Unidentified people had also thrown paint into his house three times.

To protect himself and his family of 6, Trung had to send the two security guards who were working for his company to keep a close watch of his house.

He also installed a security camera system in the front of the house.

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