A court in Vietnam sentenced two human rights lawyers to up to five years in prison today, bringing to five the number of activists convicted this week in the country’s latest crackdown on dissent.

Former British rocker Gary Glitter was formally charged today with committing obscene acts with two girls aged 10 and 11 at a resort town on the coast of southern Vietnam, a prosecutor said.

Vietnam executed a woman convicted of circulating counterfeit Vietnamese currency, an official said Wednesday.

PROSECUTORS have demanded the death sentence for Vietnam’s most powerful mafia boss and seven of his underlings in a trial the government has touted as proof of its determination to stamp out corruption.