VietNamNet Bridge – Beijing is encroaching into the East Sea, with new forces, new strategies and new paths.
At the same time, Beijing is strengthening its action on all fronts, from civil to military, from administrative management to diplomatic to "cover” its vague historical arguments that they always apply to make claims in the East Sea.

From fishing boats…

In the early April, the smoldering dispute in the East Sea broke out into a clash between China and the Philippines at Scarborough Shoal. Manila accused Chinese fishermen of illegally infiltrating and fishing in its waters, which is recognized by the international law. Filipino naval ships managed to catch these fishermen but China sent two marine patrol ships to the area of conflict.

China sent many more vessels to the shoal to confirm its presence in the form of overwhelming in majority. The Philippines detected nearly 100 Chinese ships around and inside the shoal, ignoring the fishing ban in this area.

The two sides decided to withdraw their ships from the shoal, reasoning bad weather. While the Philippines pulled out all of its ships in the shoal, up to 30 Chinese boats were reported to be there, according to a Filipino security official on July 19. The anonymous official said that there were signs t ... Xem thêm

A poll by Tuoi Tre newspaper and local sociologists has shown that 85 percent of test-takers agreed cheating dominated the 2012 high school graduation exam.

The results back up longheld beliefs that academic dishonesty runs rampant across the national exams, in which administrators appear eager to pass candidates to manufacture sky-high success rates.

To check the 98.97 percent success rate announced by the Ministry of Education and Training, the survey questioned 500 high school graduates from 36 provinces and cities who had sat for this year’s exam.

Among those surveyed, 84.2 percent said discussing test questions was rife, while 83.5 percent reported seeing their peers copy each other’s answers.

More than one-third (36.4 percent) said proctors watched test-takers deliberate over questions, and one-fourth (23.4 percent) confirmed the use of cheat sheets.

Nearly 1 million 12th-graders took the exams June 2 to 4.

In other examples of cheating, students brought in cellphones, while proctors ignored and sometimes provided the cheet sheets, which test-takers read in restrooms.

‘They told the truth’

The poll offers authentic and reliable information, said to Dr. Ho Thieu Hung, former director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training.

Similarly, prof ... Xem thêm

The Hanoi People’s Court yesterday sentenced a young woman to 15 months of probation for joking that there might be a bomb in her luggage while she was onboard a plane last year.
Ho Thi Thanh Tuyen, 25 and from Da Lat, was charged with "disrupting airway traffic,” the court said.

In July 2011, shortly after taking her seat on a flight home from Hanoi, Tuyen reportedly held onto her baggage despite a flight attendant Bui Tuan Anh’s request that she store it. When the plane prepared to take off, Tuyen again refused, saying, "What would you think if there were a bomb in the bag and it exploded when I put it in the hold?”

When Anh asked Tuyen to repeat herself, she said she was only joking. But the flight attendant reported the remarks to chief pilot Ajay Trayan, who then halted the flight for safety reasons.

All 171 passengers returned to the terminal to wait three hours for security checks. After those yielded no explosives, officials handed Tuyen over to investigators.

Vietnam Airlines said the delay forced it to suspend three flights, losing more than VND304 million (US$14,600).

In court, Tuyen repeated her defense that she was only joking. She told the court her fa ... Xem thêm

Learning to read and write, even in the mother tongue, is never an easy task for the blind. When it comes to studying a foreign language, the difficulties increase exponentially.

Nguyen Thi Men, a blind Vietnamese girl, will surprise many people when they learn that she is a senior at the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature (EF), University of Social Sciences and Humanities HCMC (USSH). Although life has never been easy for her, Men has always tried hard to make her university dream come true.

Sad memories

Men was left at the Thi Nghe Center for Orphans and Disabled Children by her mother at the age of eight years old. When she was 14, she was sent to the Blind Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HBA) to learn braille. Men studied well and was moved to a public secondary high school to learn with non-blind friends. Then she spent three years studying at Chu Van An high school.

During the hours off of school, Men sold lottery tickets to earn money for books and her living expenses. Every day, with a cane, a small rain coat and a bottle of water, Men took the bus from the Blind Association in District 1 to other districts to sell the tickets.

When Men began this work, she often got lost on unfamiliar roads. Once she broke ... Xem thêm

Nguyen Van Hau, from Chau Thanh district in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang, was poisoned shortly after he had won a big lottery as his partner, Nguyen Thi Ngan (50) was not happy with the small share allotted to her.

Hau, a widower, had been living with Ngan, a divorced woman, as husband and wife for more than a year.

Hau and Ngan both have children who have grown up and have their own families. In order not to disturb them, the two built and cohabited in a cottage in the backyard.

When living together, Ngan often complained that Hau only cared about his kids and was into gambling and drinking.

A month ago, Hau won a lottery of VND100 million (US$4800), but only gave Ngan a little bit of the money and let his children have the rest.

Ngan got mad, fought with him and left the house for several days.

On June 29, Ngan came back with an intention to poison him. She put an anti-insect chemical into a dish of prawns and placed it in the kitchen.

Later, Hau came back home drunk and ate alone. After ... Xem thêm