VIETNAM: DEATH SENTENCE UPHELD IN PARTY OFFICIAL MURDER CASE

Vietnam's top court upheld the death sentences of two men for an attack that left a Communist Party official of Phu Nhuan District dead and two women seriously injured, the court said.
The condemned men argued that they had only meant to intimidate the employer of one of their wives when they were interrupted by one of the employer's friends, who was stabbed to death in the September incident.
But the Supreme People's Court on Monday confirmed the sentences against Nguyen Trong Nhan, 31, and Luong Hoai Sang, 21, ruling that the attack was premeditated.
The target of the attack, Bui Thi Ngo My, and her 25-year-old daughter were both injured.
The pair were convicted of stabbing to death Dang Thu Hong, deputy secretary of a district party committee, when he arrived at My's house for a visit.
The attack was intended as revenge against My for threatening to dismiss Nhan's wife, the defendants said.
The two men were arrested after neighbours, alerted by the noise, called police.
The condemned men could now appeal to the president for a pardon.