Jazz It Up

A jazz performance at the Montana Jazz Club in District 1.

Jazz clubs are rare in Vietnam. The Sax N’ Art Jazz Club and the Montana Jazz Club, both in District 1, are the best known places to hear jazz in Ho Chi Minh City.

Sax N’ Art Jazz Club, owned and operated by Vietnam’s most famous saxophonist Tran Manh Tuan, was selected as the “Best Jazz Club in HCMC” in 2004 and 2005 by readers of the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper and The Guide magazine.

The five-year-old club boast a central stage which customers can sit around to enjoy music while sipping a drink. Jazz fans should not sit at the bar because it’s difficult to see the stage from there.

The Sax N’ Art Jazz Club is open every night. The Hanoi Jazz Band, musician Hoang Tuan and veteran jazz singer Tuyet Loan are three of the club’s most popular acts.

For the first part of the night, the band plays both famous and lesser known jazz tunes, including some Vietnamese originals on some nights. But after 9 p.m., the artists dive into a jam session and improvise for the rest of the night.

On “special” nights, Tran Manh Tuan performs.

On busy nights, you have to book seats by telephone or come at least 15-30 minutes before the performance.

The club offers a wide range of wines and cocktails. German, French, Mexican and Italian food is also available.

The new Montana Jazz Club, just opened last June, is a fresh face on the Vietnamese jazz scene. Located in the Kinh Bac Restaurant’s garden, the club is not easy to spot from the street. The club is cosy with Western European architecture and a quieter repertoire of jazz favorites. It’s a good place for couples to enjoy a little privacy when out on the town.

“The Montana Jazz Club band is good and very professional. They captivate any audience,” says Tuyet Loan.

Sax N’ Art Jazz Club
28 Le Loi Boulevard, District 1
Average drinks prices from VND100,000 (US$6)

Montana Jazz Club
30 Dong Khoi Street, District 1
Average drinks prices about VND80,000 ($4.80)

Drinking By The Sea

The beautiful steps that lead to Ocap 1 Cafe in Vung Tau Town.

On one of Vung Tau Town’s most beautiful streets, near Bai Truoc (Front Beach), Ocap 1 Cafe is the perfect place for visitors to relax after swimming or sightseeing.

From Ha Long Street, take a twisted road of rock steps, covered in green moss, up to the cafe.

Although Ocap 1 is not the only cafe on Ha Long Street, it attracts more customers than the others. It is because this cafe has a beautiful view of blue sea, blue sky and trees.

Customers to Ocap 1 Cafe should choose a seat that enables them to take in the panoramic view.

Ocap 1 Cafe offers a cool respite from the heat of the day, perched above the sea and below a mountain.

Ocap 1 Cafe has several different floors, with rows of tables and chairs facing the sea. Customers can sit either in the shade of trees or under parasols and watch the sea or use the free wifi.

At night, the cafe has a completely different feel, with the sound of wind whistling by and the waves crashing below.

Drinks at Ocap 1 Cafe start at around VND15,000 (US$0.90).

About 200 meters away is Ocap 2 Cafe, which belongs to the same owner.

If visitors go to Vung Tau, the administrative center of southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, to bathe in the sea, enjoy the bright sunshine and enjoy the local specialty - rice pancake – they should not miss Ocap 1 Cafe.

Hanoi Celebrates Liberation Anniversary

Performances featuring artists from all over the country began throughout Hanoi today to celebrate the 54th anniversary of the capital’s liberation on October 10, 1954.

Modern and traditional arts performances such as cheo (traditional operetta), cai luong (reformed theater) and other dramas are set for stages in both Hanoi and other northern provinces.

The opening ceremony for the event was held at Hanoi’s Friendship Culture Palace Thursday morning.

Also marking the city’s liberation day, the Art Exhibition House at 16 Ngo Quyen Street will launch an exhibition tonight, set to run until October 20, while several cinemas around the city will also begin a week of screening films about protecting and building up the country.

Earlier this week, the Hanoi International Fair 2008 kicked off at the Giang Vo Exhibition Center, accompanied by painting exhibitions relating to the capital’s history and future.

Additionally, an exhibition titled Hanoi Emotion is displaying 111 photographs detailing the growth of the capital.

The exhibition is being held at 29 Hang Bai Street, Hoan Kiem District and runs until Sunday.

Police Call For Charges Against Can Tho Fraudsters

Police of Can Tho City have recommended to the city’s prosecution office that charges be laid against two alleged fraudsters in the Colony Invest investment scam last year.

Nguyen Hong Van, 55, from Ho Chi Minh City and Nguyen Van Tinh, 35, from Tien Giang Province in the Mekong Delta, were arrested in November and December respectively and held while police completed their investigations.

The two are accused of swindling residents in Can Tho City out of VND8.6 billion (US$520,000) by falsely claiming to represent three investment companies - Colony Invest Management Inc., CallyInvest Co. and Money100 Co.

Van and Tinh allegedly promised high returns on investments on websites posing as sites for the multi-level investment companies.

Police said Van and Tinh had defrauded VND1.1 billion and VND824 million respectively from victims by offering interest rates of up to 66 percent per month.

The doomed investments were made in cash or by bank transfers to Tinh and Van’s accounts at the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam(Vietcombank), police said.

Van and Tinh allegedly confessed that they had lied to potential investors saying they were agents for the foreign financial companies.

According to the investigators, the pair had asked all of their financial backers to reinvest the money after the agreed 100-day term had finished, and offered them a brokerage fee for persuading friends and relatives to participate.

There are dozens of other alleged ring members involved in the Colony Invest investment scam, who are still being investigated by the Ministry of Public Security.

US Supports Vietnam’s Anti-Human Trafficking Work

The US Embassy has provided US$760,000 through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to extend two projects combating human trafficking in Vietnam.

Over the next three years, USAID will coordinate with the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking to implement a $500,000 project for lawyers to analyze human trafficking-related cases, provide safe shelter and services for victims, and raise public awareness of victims’ situations.

USAID will also assist the An Giang-Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking to expand a project, costing $260,000, to assist at-risk young girls at a newly-opened shelter in An Giang Province’s Long Xuyen Town.

The project will help broaden educational and economic opportunities through the provision of scholarships, vocational training, job placement and income generation.

Stranded Students Fall Foul Of The Law In Singapore

Six high school graduates deported from the city-state for selling smuggled tobacco after being left in the lurch by a Vietnamese education broker.

An education broking company appears to have vanished into thin air with millions of dong of college fees, leaving a group of high school graduates to fend for themselves in Singapore – not very successfully.

Thirteen students have been stranded in Singapore since August after paying Hanoi-based Study Abroad Consultancy and Construction Company Ltd. (SACC Co.) VND1.3 billion ($78,500) in fees, the students’ families told Thanh Nien.

The parents said SACC had promised to enroll their children in a 12-month food and beverage service course at Singapore’s Stamford School of Commercial Studies.

The firm had boasted the new high school graduates would be eligible for the course and able to work part-time to earn monthly salaries of around VND17 million ($1,021) each.

The students would also have opportunities to work overtime at Singaporean restaurants and hotels and weekends.

After graduating from the course, they could further their studies at universities or land good jobs in either Singapore or Hanoi, the firm’s advertisements said.

Lured by the attractive proposals, 13 families in the northern province of Hai Duong, which neighbors Hanoi, borrowed money at high interest rates to pay the course fees to SACC and on August 17, a SACC employee and the 13 students flew to Singapore.

But shortly after the group arrived in Singapore, the employee of SACC disappeared, the students said, and no one from the company met them at the airport.

The abandoned students rented a house around one kilometer from their school on August 18.

But a day later they discovered SACC had not yet transferred their tuition fees to the Singaporean college.

Several days later the firm sent the tuition fees for four students but no further fees have since been forwarded to the school.

Under Singaporean law, foreign students are not allowed to work in the city-state.

With little money, the affected students resorted to collecting garbage in Singapore and even selling smuggled tobacco to earn money. Three were arrested for selling the illicit tobacco and later were deported with three other students to Vietnam.

Nguyen Huu Phach, the father of one of the students, Thursday told Thanh Nien the six deported students were now working in Ho Chi Minh City while the other seven students were still in Singapore pending deportation for not paying their course fees.

The parents of the stranded students said they had tried many times to contact SACC executives Nguyen Cuong and Tran Van Ngai but the pair were “nowhere to be found,” they said.

The parents said Ngai had previously challenged them to launch legal action, which he warned would “exacerbate the plights of your children in Singapore.”

Thanh Nien visited SACC’s apparently deserted headquarters in Hanoi’s Thanh Xuan District Thursday.

Local residents told Thanh Nien the firm had given up the lease late last month.

Vietnamese police Thursday said they had launched an investigation into SACC’s activities.

Tiny Corpse Found Inside Cake

One of the images of the dead mouse allegedly found inside a Highlands Coffee cake

A customer lodged a complaint after finding a dead mouse inside a Highlands Coffee cake last weekend, the director of the holding company for the coffee shop chain confirmed Thursday.

Viet Thai Joint Stock Company Director David P. Thai Thursday said he set up a team on Monday to investigate the case.

Thai said on Sunday afternoon, a foreign couple had bought a cake from the Highlands Coffee outlet at the Manor building on Nguyen Huu Canh Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District.

Around 20 minutes later, the man returned to the shop and showed the coffee shop employees a mouse he claimed to have found inside the cake, he said.

“We have destroyed that batch and suspended production of that type of cake,” Thai said, adding the cakes were made by its factory in Tan Binh District.

Thai said he had met with the customer, who told him he wouldn’t take the case further.

An unnamed source said the customer was the general director of a popular hotel in HCMC, who had refused to comment on the case.

However, Thai said the incident might be a result of industrial sabotage from a competitor.

Photographs of a cake and a dead baby mouse inside a Highlands Coffee takeaway box have been posted on many internet blogs over the past few days.

United States Reaches Aviation Agreement With Vietnam

US Assistant Secretary of State Mark Kimmitt speaks during a joint press conference with Vietnamese...

Former enemies turned trade partners the United States and Vietnam have agreed to lift restrictions on air cargo routes between the two countries, the US embassy said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Open Skies pact for all-freight services, initialled Tuesday during a visit by a US delegation but yet to be formally signed, removes restrictions on carrying cargo to or from third countries, the statement said.

"The agreement will strengthen and expand our already strong trade and tourism links with Vietnam and provide benefits to American and Vietnamese cargo carriers and to shippers while preserving our commitments to aviation safety and security," the US embassy said.

The delegations -- led by Vietnam's Civil Aviation Administration and the US Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs -- agreed to meet again within two years to discuss further liberalization of air services.

Vietnamese Women Stun Myanmar In Opener

Vietnamese women celebrate beating Myanmar in the opener of the Southeast Asia Women’s Football Championship at HCMC’s Thanh Long Stadium Wednesday

The Vietnamese women Wednesday beat defending champions Myanmar 3-1 in the group stage of the Southeast Asia Women’s Football Championship at Ho Chi Minh City’s Thanh Long Stadium.

Riding the energy of the home crowd, the Vietnamese squad started out strongly, putting much pressure on its opponent from the onset.

Striker Ngoc Cham capitalized on a pass from Minh Nguyet to draw first blood 20 minutes into the match.

Cham doubled the lead for Vietnam in the 64th minute, redirecting a corner kick by Kim Hong into the back of Myanmar’s net.

However, the visitors showed resiliency in rallying back as Aye Nadar Hlaing scored in the 70th minute.

After the goal, the Burmese women fortified their attacks and kept up pressure on the home team. A potential disaster was averted when goalkeeper Kieu Trinh saved a penalty kick by Myanmar’s San San Maw in the 77th minute.

The victory was finally secured when Nguyen Thi Nga struck three minutes from time, closing out the 3-1 tally.

After the match, Vietnam’s coach Chen Yun Fat delivered high praise for his players’ performances.

In a later match, Laotian women defeated Indonesia 1-0.

Couple Face Court Today Over Scams

A Hanoi couple will stand trial today in Tien Giang People’s Court for a series of scams that netted them US$127,900.

Prosecutors say Nguyen Gia Phuong and his wife Nguyen Thi Kim Van carried out their scam 17 times from 2005 until their arrest on July 22, 2007 in the Mekong Delta province of Long An.

Their last sting was conducted at a jewelry shop in Tien Giang Province’s My Tho Town, where Van exchanged US$10,380 for VND166 million, prosecutors said.

Van asked the shop owner to seal the packet of dollars so she could return the following day to buy it back. Van told the shop owner she needed to exchange dollars for dong because her landlord refused to accept dollars and all the banks were shut as it was a Sunday.

But before the packet was sealed, Van asked if she could recount the dollars. Pretending to do so, she slipped $10,000 out of the packet and left the shop.

Minutes later, the shop owner discovered the theft and reported it to police.

The husband-and-wife team told police they embarked on their crime spree to try to repay a bank debt of more than VND1 billion ($58,800). They conducted their scams all over Vietnam, from the northern provinces and cities of Lao Cai, Hanoi and Hai Phong to the southern provinces of HCMC and Can Tho.

Vietnam To Build Seven Solid Waste Plants By 2020

Seven inter-provincial solid waste treatment facilities will be constructed throughout Vietnam between now and 2020, under a master plan approved by the Prime Minister on Monday (6 Oct).

The construction, which will have a total investment of nearly 9.7 trillion VND (around US$598 million), is expected to improve the efficiency in the treatment of solid waste, the Vietnam news agency (VNA) reported Wednesday (8 Oct) quoting the plan as saying.

The solid waste treatment plants will help to ensure urban areas and industrial zones develop in a stable and sustainable manner.

According to the plan, certified domestic recycling technology will be prioritised in solid waste treatment and all economic sectors will be encouraged to join in the field

Remains of Vietnam Veteran To Be Returned

The remains of a Cartersville man killed during the Vietnam War have been identified and will be returned to his hometown for burial.

The funeral for Capt. Lorenza Conner of the U.S. Air Force will be held Oct. 25 in Cartersville.

Conner, who was 24 at the time, could not eject from the aircraft before it crashed, the DOD said. The copilot ejected safely, was captured and later released by Vietnamese forces.

Between 1992 and 2003, several joint U.S./Socialist Republic of Vietnam teams investigated the crash, the DOD said. In 2007, another joint team excavated the site and recovered human remains. Scientists used dental records to identify Conner’s remains, the DOD said.

Vietnamese Wood Exports Grow Despite US Recession

Kelvin Ho, marketing executive of the International Furniture Fair Singapore Pte., Ltd., examines a wooden boat manufactured by local company Old-Modern Handicrafts JSC at the EXPO 2008 fair Wednesday.

Vietnam’s wood exports have strengthened over the past few months despite experts who said the sector would be hit hard by the US financial crisis.

Vietnamese wood furniture orders from the US, Vietnam’s biggest furniture export market, have increased by 12 percent over the last three months, said Nguyen Ton Quyen, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Vietfores).

Quyen said this was a good figure as demand for indoor furniture and other wood products in the US had declined following the real estate crunch.

In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam woodwork exports to the US generated some US$780 million in turnover, or 39 percent of the country’s total wood product export value.

Dang Quoc Hung, deputy chairman of the HCMC Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (HAWA), said global economic difficulties had caused a drop in wood goods production in some major export countries.

Hung said this was an opportunity for Vietnamese woodwork manufacturers and exporters.

“Local companies can reach niche markets or small purchase orders,” he said, adding that while small orders were not of much concern to big suppliers, they were suitable for small-and medium-sized Vietnamese firms.

The EU bloc, Vietnam’s second-largest wood products export market, also possesses potential for high-quality woodwork exports.

Last year, Vietnam earned more than $600 million from wood products exports to the EU market and expects to see $780 million in turnover from exports to the bloc this year. The UK, France, and Germany are Vietnam’s major woodwork export markets in the EU.

Vietnam is now home to 2,000 wood-processing companies, of which around 300 ship directly to foreign countries.

Last year, the country topped $2.4 billion in furniture exports, a 10-fold increase since 2000.

WOODWORK FAIR

Over 300 local and foreign companies are participating in the annual furniture and handicrafts EXPO 2008 fair which started Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City.

The fair promotes Vietnam’s woodwork industry to the world, Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency Head Do Thang Hai told the opening ceremony. “People who do not know much about the standard of Vietnam’s wood-processing sector can visit the fair,” he said.

The fair, which runs until October 12 at the HCMC International Exhibition and Convention Center in Tan Binh District, has nearly 850 booths with more than two thirds displaying indoor furniture.

Online Portal Boosts Coffee Farmers’ Knowledge

Nguyen Cong Thinh from Da Lat Town in Lam Dong Province, the administrator and founder of a free coffee website.

Thanks to a free Internet website launched by a local farmer earlier this year, coffee growers nationwide no longer have to pay to get crucial information on coffee market prices.

The website www.y5cafe.info, created by 23-year-old farmer Nguyen Cong Thinh from Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands, aims to update coffee growers on the latest coffee prices as well as provide them with a variety of useful information, from cultivation techniques to tips on harvesting and trading the product.

With up to 3,000 visits daily, mostly by Central Highlands farmers, the online information channel has served as a handy tool for coffee farmers to improve harvests and avoid being undercut by traders.

“During last year’s harvest season, I was really upset to learn farmers in Di Linh and Bao Loc districts in Lam Dong Province had to pay millions of dong to buy information from some coffee traders,” said Thinh, who also serves as the website administrator. “I couldn’t just stand and watch hardworking farmers pay such unreasonable costs.”

He initially launched a coffee blog on January 1, before setting up a website three months later.

In the early days of its founding, Thinh said he had to work alone day and night to search for proper information on the world’s coffee market before writing reports to analyze and forecast the global and local market.

“Luckily, I was later supported by economics students, individuals working in import and export sectors as well as coffee experts,” he said. “We also formed an association for y5cafe’s members, where we can exchange valuable experiences in cultivating and trading coffee.”

Thinh said updated information was necessary for modern farmers because the coffee market is a sensitive one.

“Coffee prices are supposed to experience drastic changes. Recently, some farmers from Quang Tri Province phoned me to check the updated price, which was between VND5,000-6,000 (US$0.30-0.36) per kilogram. They said they were offered less than half of that range.

It’s not easy for the farmers to have a good harvest and they should be paid adequately,” he said.

Simple layout

Thinh said he has to try his best to make the website easy to understand from layout to content.

“The site is supposed to relate to farmers’ knowledge rather than sophisticated computer technology,” he said. “I had to make everything simple, for example, putting coffee prices immediately on the front.”

From simplified price charts with market analyses to tips on planting and harvesting, the website offers comprehensive information related to the crop.

The site administrator also offers additional support to visitors via telephone, email and online chat.

With backing from friends, the website has become a familiar tool for a number of local farmers, who have in turn helped to promote it.

“I might have closed the website without strong support from other farmers,” Thinh said. “I didn’t intend to build the page for profit, I just wanted to help local farmers.”

The founder said a farmer from Dak Lak Province had printed a banner promoting the website and hung it in front of his house to introduce it to others.

Many internet shops in Central Highlands provinces have also set www.y5cafe.com as their computers’ homepage.

“Several times, farmers have phoned to thank me for launching the useful website,” he said. “Many farmers ask their children to access information from the page and relay it to them because they didn’t know how to use computers.”

Thinh said he and his friends would maintain the website to serve its initial purpose, which is to facilitate the highest profits for coffee farmers by providing them with updated information and limiting intermediary traders.

In the future, the site may be developed into an online marketplace to promote coffee products from local farmers.

“Farmers could save a few hundred Vietnamese dong per kilogram by skipping an intermediary step,” he said.

Great Place For A Party

Khai Hoan Hotel in District 10 is an ideal place for weddings and functions.

Khai Hoan Hotel in the center of Ho Chi Minh City is inviting bookings for parties and meetings for its new first floor function room.

The pleasant decor, friendly staff, modern sound system and lighting are bound to make your special event memorable.

The function hall will open on June 1 next year, but many individuals, companies and organizations have already booked for meetings and celebrations, the hotel manager Bui Thanh Son said.

With over 400 square meters, the elegant room is ideal for press conferences, meetings and wedding parties of 300 guests or more.

A variety of feasts and buffets prepared by top chefs will be on the menu.

Khai Hoan would be an excellent place for couples to celebrate their wedding.

Khai Hoan is launching a special opening offer for functions with 150 guests or more.

Khai Hoan Hotel
Address: 206 Ba Thang Hai Street,
Ward 12, District 10, HCMC
Tel: (08) 865 4950
Website: www.khaihoanhotel.com
Price: From VND1,600,000 (US$96) for a table of 10.

Motorbike Tours Take Off

A trans-ASEAN motor caravan rides through Deo Ngang (Ngang Pass) which borders the central provinces of Quang Binh and Ha Tinh.

Motorbike tours may be the next big thing for Vietnam’s tour industry.

The tours are popular amongst those who wish to experience Vietnam at their own pace. They can drive themselves or ride pillion, touring places according to a pre-set itinerary or decided on the day.

Tourists on motorbike tours can stop wherever they choose to take pictures or to learn more about the locals’ daily life, culture and history.

Vietnamese travel agents such as Saigontourist and Fiditourist have recently started offering motorbike tours for foreign visitors and foreign companies in Vietnam. The travel agents’ guides, medical and safety staff often take the role of companions.

Saigontourist Travel Service Company, at 49 Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1, is one company that has organized many motorcycle tours.

The company’s 20-day Saffron tour, which attracted tourists from Australia, America and Ireland, was a big hit, creating many fond memories for the participants.

Saigontourist followed the Saffron tour with several more tours from HCMC to the north, central and Mekong Delta regions.

The tour company even made a journey throughout Southeast Asia for Yamaha Motors Vietnam. The trip started in Indonesia and took in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam before finishing up in the Philippines.

Riders from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Vietnam were recruited to chauffer the tourists.

Christiana Gombeh, a European tourist, said Vietnam had many strengths to draw on to develop this form of journey.

The beautiful scenes along the sea would charm every visitor, said Gombeh, who enjoyed a motorcycle tour through Vietnam.

Minors Commit 20 Percent Of All Crimes: Report

One in five convicted criminals in the country is a minor, a Ministry of Security report released last Friday said.

It said 9,000 teenagers were involved in 5,746 crimes in the first six months this year.

Besides theft, and assault and battery, they were also involved in serious crimes like kidnapping for ransom, rape and murder.

The report blamed lack of education and local administrations’ poor management of cultural issues.

Pornography and violent publications are not controlled, while many children drop out of school to work where they are influenced by bad elements, it explained.

Natural Born Detectives

Nghe An Province police officer Ho Si Tuan is famous for his detective skills.

In the fight against crime, some police officers are considered heroes.

Realizing police were at his house, arson suspect Bach Sy Nhat seized a long knife and threatened the visitors.

But Nguyen Van Thao, one of the leading officers on the Phu Yen Province police force, leapt into action, ducking under the slashing knife and snapping the suspects arm to make him drop the knife.

Thao, who had been working undercover as a cattle trader, sustained a cut to his leg during the dangerous scuffle.

The suspect from the central province of Phu Yen was wanted over a 2006 house fire that left a woman dead and her three-month-old baby severely burned.

The arrest of Nhat was just one of the many cases closed by 33-year-old Thao, who fulfilled his boyhood dream of joining the police force at 19.

Thao has helped Phu Yen police win many awards from the national government and local authorities.

But Thao is not the only stand-out police officer in the province.

Tran Ngoc Quyen has stopped the careers of hundreds of armed criminals during his 30 years in the police force.

According to Quyen, training is not enough to make someone a good police officer. “One must be born for it,” he said.

Once Quyen used a bamboo pole he found on the street to defend himself against machete-wielding Nguyen Hoang Trieu, wanted for armed robbery.

Quyen managed to subdue Trieu, although he sustained a shoulder injury in the confrontation.

“You need to be stealthy and quick,” he said, when asked to describe the most important characteristics of a crime-fighter.

In many cases, Quyen had to work undercover as a xe om (motorbike driver) or a street vendor for up to a month to catch a crook.

Quyen became a police officer when he was 17 and started working with the criminals 10 years later.

Sometimes he is required to draw on his detective skills to track down a criminal.


Tran Ngoc Quyen has brought many honors to the Nghe An Province police force.

Ho Si Tuan, from the central province of Nghe An, is a police officer famous for his crime-solving skills.

In 1997 a local forest warden was beaten while on duty. He couldn’t remember his attacker’s face exactly but from his description, police came up with two suspects: Cao Van Sau and Cao Van Bay, brothers who look almost identical.

Sau pleaded guilty but he was right-handed and Tuan had deduced, after studying the injuries, that the attacker was left-handed.

At the appeals court, the left-handed Bay confessed he was the attacker.

In another case Tuan helped identify a man who raped and killed a girl and then disposed of her body to make it look as if she had drowned.

After four days of investigation Tuan identified Nguyen Van Quang, who lived in the same commune as the girl, as the prime suspect. But Quang said he had gone fishing with his wife that night.

The officer examined the body, finding two scratches on the girl’s skin near her genitals. He immediately called doctors to check Quang’s body and they discovered his penis had two studs, which had caused the scratches.

Quang later admitted being the killer.

Tuan has solved dozens of such cases, sometimes spending months at a time away from his family.

His wife, a factory worker, said she took care of the couple’s three little children on her own so that her husband could concentrate on his work.

“I only feel relief when a culprit is found,” Tuan said.

“It’s my responsibility, nothing big to talk about,” he says when someone wants to write about his deeds.

Nguyen Xuan Ha is another police officer who is always happy when his duty is fulfilled.

Right after graduating from a security university, he accepted a mission in the mountainous central highlands in 1983 to deal with rebellious groups.

It took Ha many years to win the locals’ hearts.

Central highlands residents have to live in poor conditions, Ha said. “I just want to do everything I can to help.”

Ha was granted the title “Hero of the people’s armed force” by the government this year.

“I’ve never considered myself a hero,” he said.

Bank Scam Trial To Begin Today

A businessman and state company official will today stand trial for defrauding the state bank of US$5.7 million, southern Tra Vinh Province People’s Court Head Judge Tran Van Co said Tuesday.

The trial of 39-year-old Nguyen Duc Chi in Tra Vinh Province’s Court of First Instance, scheduled to last for a week, will be presided over by Head Judge of the provincial Civil Court Trinh Minh Tu.

The Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam’s highest prosecutor’s office, last year ratified charges against the Chi, the former director of the Russian- invested tourism firm Rus-Invest-Tur (RIT), for “swindling and appropriating assets” while Nguyen Tho Tri, former director of the state-owned Tra Vinh Food Import-Export Company, was charged with “irresponsibility causing serious consequences.”

Prosecutors allege Chi stole around $5 million through two rice deals. He managed to repay the state $700,000.

Tri has been indicted for vouching for Chi’s financial status so he could borrow the money from several state-owned banks.

The indictment also said investigators had recovered $3.2 million during investigations.

US, Vietnam Hold First Political-Military Dialogue

US Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs Mark Kimmitt (L) speaks during news conference in Hanoi as Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh listens, 06 Oct 2008

The United States and Vietnam have discussed possible U.S. sales of weapons and spare parts to Vietnam, as well as American military help with disaster relief and a range of other issues. The two nations' first strategic dialogue on political, defense and security issues shows the continuing improvement in U.S.-Vietnamese relations, as Matt Steinglass report from Hanoi.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Mark Kimmitt says the talks in Hanoi touched on a wide range of security affairs.

"Primarily peacekeeping, military assistance, security assistance, potential arms transactions, [that are] lethal, [and] non-lethal, and a host of other issues of mutual concern," he said.

Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh calls the talks, which ended Monday, productive.

Minh says the dialogue helped contribute to the strengthening of ties between Vietnam and the U.S.

The Vietnamese military has asked the U.S. to supply spare parts for its American-made helicopters, leftovers from the Vietnam War. The two governments also discussed integrating Vietnamese soldiers into United Nations peacekeeping operations, and American military help with disaster relief in Vietnam.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense James Clad, who was also at the talks, says Washington simply wants to develop the same kind of military cooperation with Vietnam that it already has with other countries in the region.


"It would be incorrect to cast it is as something very bilateral. We have, for example, routine exchanges with the Malaysians, with the Indonesians, with the Filipinos, with the Thais. And I think as a large ASEAN country, Vietnam is more and more coming into that world," he said.

Experts generally see the growing U.S.-Vietnamese security relationship as an effort by both to balance rising Chinese power. China and Vietnam have a dispute over the ownership of two island groups in the South China Sea which may hold rich undersea oil deposits.

But Clad says the U.S. wants Vietnam and China to have good relations, to promote regional stability.

Martin Gainsborough, a Vietnam expert at Bristol University in Britain, says the talks carry promise for Vietnam, but also domestic political risks.

"Individual leaders that are, in a sense, fronting this dialogue - they have to be careful personally that they're not seen as leaning too heavily toward the U.S. Again, not least because of the relationship with China," he said.

The two sides hope to make the talks an annual event. The next meeting is scheduled for autumn 2009 in Washington.

French Vietnamese Actress Pham Linh Dan

Cesar Award-winning actress Pham Linh Dan is currently filming a Vietnamese feature in the ancient town of Hoi An.

A famed French actress, Vietnamese at heart, is choosy, but not about money.

Pham Linh Dan doesn’t act in many films, but she leaves a lasting impression on audiences in every role that she plays. The famous star of Indochine (Indochina), Les Mauvais Joueurs (Gamblers) and De battre mon coeur s'est arrete (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) is now acting in her first Vietnamese film, Choi voi (Without an Anchor).

“I liked the script and my character so much, and wished to have a chance to work with Bui Thac Chuyen after watching his film Song trong so hai (Living in Fear).

“I took on the role though my earnings from this film cannot compare to what is made abroad,” Dan said, adding she always places good scripts and passion above earnings.

Choi voi (Without an Anchor), directed by Bui Thac Chuyen, was originally titled Tan cung la bien (The Sea is the End) and then Di mai roi cung quay ve (Coming Back Finally).

The film revolves around intertwining, passionate yet uncanny romances between characters, including a lesbian relationship between Cam and her girlfriend, Duyen.

They are torn between their emotions and fluctuate between extremes of lust, happiness and torment.

Dan plays Cam, a writer who is a complicated psychological character and is tormented by her suppressed love for Duyen.

“The difficulty is how to portray all the intricate psychological twists,” Dan said.

The film, which started shooting late last month, is slated for release next September.

Acting compendium

Dan was born in 1974 in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City today), and moved to France with her parents a year later.
Dan in scenes of Oscar-winning Indochine (Indochina), her breakthrough debut feature. The other actress in the fist still is Catherine Deneuve.

Her big break came in 1992 when she starred in Indochine, a French-Vietnamese production which won the Academy and Golden Globe awards for the Best Foreign Language Film.

The film, directed by Regis Wargnier, tells about Eliane Devries (played by Catherine Deneuve), a seemingly repressed owner of a prosperous rubber plantation.

Her steely exterior, however, is only a mask to conceal her ardent love affairs within the upper-class society in French-ruled Vietnam.

But when Camille, her adopted Indochinese daughter, played by Dan, innocently falls in love with her secret lover, the scandalous lovers’ triangle threatens to ruin their entire family.

Dan’s role earned her a nomination for the Best Female Newcomer award at the Academy of Arts and Sciences Cesar Awards in 1993.

After starring in her second film, Jamila in 1994, Dan decided to opt out of films for a while, studying commerce at university and working as a senior marketing manager after graduation.

But with her passion for action undimmed, she took a four-year acting course at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York in 2001.

Dan marked her comeback to the silver screen in the film Les Mauvais Joueurs (Gamblers) in 2005.

The same year she was chosen to play the lead alongside French star Romain Duris in De battre mon coeur s'est arrete (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) directed by Jacques Audiard.

Her acting in the film won her the Best Newcomer award at the 31st Cesar Awards in 2006.

She returned to Vietnam last October to introduce the film Pars vite et reviens tard (Have Mercy on Us All), directed by Regis Wargnier and showcased at the “An Overview of French Movies” festival in Vietnam.

She recently starred in Le Bal des actrices (The Ball of the Actresses) and Mr. Nobody, her first English-speaking film, which are set to hit cinemas next year.

She has been on the jury at several international film festivals and film awards, including 2006 Deauville Asian Festival and the 2006 Lumiere Awards.

“My parents think acting is short-lived and unsuitable for a woman,” Dan said.

“But it’s never ceases to be my obsession, as it opens up new worlds for me and allows me to be the person I like. So I came back.”

Winning the Cesar Awards vindicated her decision to return to the silver screen, she said.

Vietnamese at heart

After Choi Voi, Dan hopes to act in more Vietnamese films. She finds Vietnamese directors talented and the local industry is budding.

“I long to be part of my home country’s movie industry,” she said.

“I’m a Vietnamese at heart. My parents taught me to follow Vietnamese traditions. We cook Vietnamese food and speak our mother tongue at home.”

“In France, I often felt a hollowness in my mind and heart but could not identify what it was,” she said, adding as soon as she stepped foot in Vietnam, she realized what she had been always seeking was the atmosphere of a real home with her compatriots.

“Foreigners may not remember who I am through my films, but they will remember I’m a Vietnamese,” she said.