VIETNAM. SENTENCES TWO MEN TO DEATH FOR HEROIN DEALING

Bui Xuan Thai and Nguyen Van Chinh were sentenced to death after being convicted in a one-day trial in Vietnam’s Thai Binh province, about 100 kilometers southeast of Hanoi, said presiding judge Tran Van Loan. Two other men received life imprisonment and another was given 20 years in jail for involvement in the ring, he said. Loan said Thai and Chinh were arrested in January while transporting 1.4 kilograms of heroin in Thai Binh's Dong Hung District. The five confessed to the court that they had traded a total of 5.3 kilograms of heroin from September 2005 until their arrests, the judge said.