370,000 cases of traffic violations were reported in January, according to online newspaper Vietnamplus. Fines relating to the violations amounted to a total of VND227.2 billion while 2,300 cars, more than 47,000 motorbikes and hundreds of other vehicles were seized. The police also confiscated 32,500 driver licenses. Violations included speeding, driving on the wrong lane, illegal parking, driving under the influence of alcohol, and carrying overloaded and oversized goods. Traffic officers also discovered 290 cases that involved the transportation of illegally-imported goods, more than three tons of foodstuff without original and safety certificates and nearly 1,200 cigarette packs.
100-year-old tangerine tree owner turns down a USD7,000 bid from an interested buyer believing he can fetch a higher price. Owner Tuan said he purchased the mushroom-shaped tree from an ethnic Thai person in Quy Hop District. “I had to hire local men to take the tree from the remote village to the highway using a carrying pole. It took them two days,” he said. The tree then traveled another 100km from Quy Hop to Vinh by truck. The tangerine tree measures 25cm in diameter and stands nearly four meters high. Hundreds of readyto-eat fruits hang from the tree’s 3.5-meter-long branches. Bonsai experts say there are very few natural tangerine trees with such a large diameter
3 Hanoi cab drivers were fined VND2 million each for urinating in public. Undercover officers filmed them in the act on the sidewalk of Tran Thu Do Street in Hoang Mai District. Police in the Vietnamese capital have carried out regular inspections to deal with those who litter and urinate in public areas as part of the municipal Party Committee’s effort to polish the city’s public image this year. Repeat offenders will face a sterner fine and be forced to do community work to preserve public hygiene.
~2200 people across Vietnam were hospitalized following physical confrontations during the first three days of Tet. The number of victims who died in escalating conflicts and scuffles during that period alone was recorded at 14, compared to 13 during last year’s eightday Tet holiday. The number of people admitted to hospitals for food and alcohol poisoning was recorded at nearly 1,200, with one third being alcohol poisoning cases, while 130 people fell victim to firecrackers and explosives. Staff at hospitals have also had their hands full tending to over 5,000 road accident victims during the holiday.
29-year-old Duong Anh Vu from the central province of Binh Thuan currently holds four memory world records. He can memorize over 300,000 statistical tables of chemicals, political, historical, economics and geography facts (the content of which can be noted down on 500,000 A4-sized papers), 20,000 digits of pi, all large world maps in English (which he can redraw from memory), 10,000 historical, scientific and arts events (including time and content, of both Vietnamese and the world), information of over 1,000 classic Vietnamese and international literary works and their author, and more. These records have been recognized by the Research Foundation Assist World Records, the High Range Book of World Records and the Incredible Book of Records.
10,000 Buddhists set a Vietnamese record by laughing together at the opening ceremony of the An Lac Spring Festival at Khai Nguyen Pagoda in Hanoi last month. On stage, Vietnam Laughter Yoga chairman Le Anh Son shared funny folktales to encourage people to laugh and guided them on how to breathe and burst into cheerful laughter. Laughter yoga is part of a three-day festival organized jointly by Happy Entrepreneur Community, the Hanoi Martial Arts Association and Vietnam Laughter Yoga.
