A candidate was dismissed Thursday from Vietnam’s national college admission exam for bringing a knife into his exam room to intimidate ( hăm dọa ) another candidate.

Tran Van Cuong, a 19-year-old student from the central province of Nghe An, brought a 20-centimeter-long knife with him when he went to take the chemistry part of the three-subject admission exam, the country’s method of selecting students for higher education, at the Nguyen Trai High School exam council situated in the provincial capital Vinh City.

Though local exam proctors ( Giám thị-người coi thi) discovered the weapon right away, they only asked for help from police when Cuong threatened to slash (chém- khía) the candidate sitting next to him if the latter refused to let him copy the answers.

The student was then forced to hand over the knife to police before exam administrators nullified ( nullify :hủy bỏ) all of his exam papers.

Yet Cuong kept intimidating (intimidate : đe dọa ) and insulting the proctors as he was being escorted out of the exam room.

He was handed an administrative fine by the police later on.

In the exam that began Wednesday, candidates sat for tests on math, chemistry and physics to seek admission to their university of choice.

Unlike developed countries, which admit college students based on their high school performance, Vietnam uses standardized admission tests prepared by the Ministry of Education and Training to enroll students at the undergraduate level.

Many people have expressed their concern on the announcement that local pop singer Dam Vinh Hung will release 500 real butterflies during a performance at his concert this month.

To prepare for the special performance at the live show titled "So Phan” (Destiny), to be held on July 21 and 22 in Ho Chi Minh City, the singer and the show’s director, Tran Vi My, said they have ordered the above amount of butterflies from a farm run by a disabled girl in Da Lat.

The director also added the show’s organizers will release the butterflies at a rehearsal to get a sense of the technique and safety problems. "To make the butterflies appear on the stage in accordance with our idea, we have to prepare magnetic field generators and lighting machines to lead them to fly the way we want them to,” he said.

However, the public seems unsupportive of the idea. They said the large number of the animals will have a negative effect on the audiences’ health.

Responding to such fears, the director added that his crew will pay close attention to the audiences’ safety. The organizers also have alternative plans in case the butterfly plan does not end up happening.

Doctor Le Duc Tho from HCMC’s Hoan My Hospital also gave some advice on this. According to him, the butterfly is not a toxic species, but it can cause acute reactions like dermatitis and make asthma worse.

"People can suffer skin allergies or conjunctivitis from the pollen in the air, especially in closed rooms. Still, they can recover after 5 to 7 days of outpatient treatment,” he said.

"Some people can get acute bronchial asthma when touching a butterfly or pollen. To avoid that, asthma patients should not go to crowded and closed spaces,” she added.