A court in Vietnam's Mekong Delta sentenced a man to...

A court in Vietnam's Mekong Delta sentenced a man to death after he was found guilty of killing four women as sacrifices for his ritual beliefs.
A People's Court official in Dong Thap province told Reuters 45-year-old Pham Thanh Tuan was convicted of killing four young women, one a teenager, in his house between April 2000 and July 2001, believing their deaths would bring him success in business.
The court also sentenced Tran Thi The, Tuan's partner, to life imprisonment for abetting him in the crime, the official said, adding that she found him the four women because she was scared of his "magic power."
"Tuan was convinced that he could seize the supreme power over others, with focus on his competitors, by killing the women," said the official, who declined to be identified.
"He killed them, then conducted the rituals, thinking they would work."
Tuan ran a fortune-telling business and also sold traditional medicine.
The official said Tuan raped three of his victims, the last after her death, and buried them either inside or near his house, but psychiatric checks proved he was not suffering from any mental illness.
The couple was arrested in August 2001 after local people found the corpse of the last victim buried near Tuan's house.