The surprise came to mind again last week when I heard news about a drunk driver ramming his car into a gas station in Hanoi, injuring eight people. Vietnam has an issue with drinking and driving. This isn't a new conversation, but it remains relevant because the issue has never been resolved. There have been many takes on why this has happened. It was said that fines and other punishment for drunk driving were too low to be a deterrent. Then businesses saw their business fall drastically, at least for a while, when the fines were doubled some time ago. There have been calls for driving licenses to be permanently revoked for drunk driving and that it is made a criminal offense. Under current laws, drivers with any amount of alcohol in their system can be fined up to VND40 million ($1,708) and have their licenses revoked for up to 24 months depending on alcohol levels and types of vehicles, among other factors. If drunk driving leads to a major accident, drivers can be fined … [Read more...] about Restaurants should be held accountable for drunk drivers
Man who trafficked
Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – August 18
Check out the news you should not miss today: COVID-19 Updates -- Vietnam’s Ministry of Health reported 2,192 COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the national tally to 11,373,276, with 10,040,338 recoveries and 43,103 deaths. Society -- Vietnam’s Ministry of Health issued an official correction on Wednesday to the announcement that the country had recorded the new fast-spreading Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75, saying it had only detected the BA.2.74 sub-lineage. -- Authorities in Phu Quoc Island City, off the coast of Kien Giang Province in southern Vietnam, said on Wednesday night that a 56-year-old man had passed away on his way to hospital due to exhaustion after attempting to rescue five tourists from drowning at a local beach earlier the same day. -- Police in Da Nang City, central Vietnam said on Wednesday that they were investigating a case where dozens of households were unable to open their doors with their locks tightly glued, forcing them to break the locks … [Read more...] about Breakfast @ Tuoi Tre News – August 18
Earning its stripes: tech bid to crack tiger trade
In a town in northeastern Scotland, Debbie Banks looks for clues to track down criminals as she clicks through a database of tiger skins. There are thousands of photographs, including of rugs, carcasses and taxidermy specimens. Banks, the crime campaign leader for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a London-based charity, tries to identify individual big cats from their stripes. Once a tiger is identified, an investigator can pinpoint where it comes from. "A tiger's stripes are as unique as human fingerprints," Banks told AFP . "We can use the images to cross-reference against images of captive tigers that might have been farmed." Currently this is slow painstaking work. This photograph taken on April 10, 2019 shows Vietnamese Border Patrol officials holding a confiscated tiger skin and bones while the suspect Pham Van Hiep (2nd R) looks on at a Border Guard station in northern Vietnam's Quang Ninh province. Photo: AFP But a new artificial … [Read more...] about Earning its stripes: tech bid to crack tiger trade