An Australian woman faces a death sentence in Vietnam...

An Australian woman faces a death sentence in Vietnam after being arrested at Ho Chi Minh City's international airport carrying more than 800g of heroin.
Nguyen Thi Kim Hieu, 34, was stopped by customs officers at Tan Son Nhat airport on January 26 as she boarded a flight to Sydney, the state-run Thanh Nien (Youth) newspaper reported.
A search found 811.9g of heroin concealed in six packages under her clothes, the paper said. Anyone found in possession of 100g or more of heroin in Vietnam faces the death penalty.
Hieu told customs a fellow Vietnamese-Australian paid her $US15,000 ($29,000) to take the drugs to Sydney, the paper said. Police and customs officers declined to comment.
Only one Western passport-holder has been executed under Vietnam's tough drug laws. The April 2000 execution of Canadian Nguyen Thi Hiep sparked a diplomatic row between Hanoi and Ottawa, which said the Vietnamese courts had not taken account of evidence suggesting the woman had been set up.
Vietnam has already handed down 10 death sentences for drug-smuggling in 2002, compared with 55 in 2001, 85 in 2000 and 76 in 1999. Its widespread use of execution has sparked criticism from human rights groups.