"I want my son to come home or to go to jail, please...

"I want my son to come home or to go to jail, please don't hang him, please," Kim Nguyen sobbed moments after a High Court judge in Singapore ordered the execution of 23-year-old Nguyen Tuong Van. The first death sentence imposed on an Australian citizen in Singapore was expected to spark a diplomatic tug of war, evoking memories of the fallout over the 1986 executions in Malaysia of Australians Kevin Barlow and Brian Chambers. Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer appealed to Singapore authorities not to carry out the execution, but the island state has hanged Western prisoners in the past after rejecting clemency pleas.