SINGAPORE HOLDS FUGITIVE VIETNAM INTELLIGENCE AGENT – LAWYERS
SINGAPORE: A fugitive Vietnamese intelligence officer wanted in his homeland for allegedly disclosing state secrets has been arrested in Singapore, his lawyers said on Tuesday. Phan Van Anh Vu, who is also a property developer, was detained on Thursday at a border checkpoint as he attempted to cross into Malaysia. Police in the central Vietnamese city of Da Nang said in recent days that Vu, 42, was being sought for “deliberately revealing state secrets” but gave no further details. His lawyer Remy Choo told Agence France- Presse he had met Vu’s family, who had confirmed “apart from being a property developer, he was also a senior officer in the Vietnamese intelligence services.” Choo said that Vu applied for asylum in a European country but did not give further details. Another of Vu’s lawyers, Foo Cheow Ming, confirmed his arrest. His lawyers have not yet been allowed to see him. Singapore authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
AUSTRALIAN INVESTIGATORS HOPE TO RECOVER SEAPLANE THIS WEEK
Accident investigators hope to raise a seaplane which crashed into an Australian river, killing six people, including a high- profile British chief executive. Richard Cousins, the boss of catering giant Compass, his sons Edward and William, fiancee Emma Bowden and her daughter Heather Bowden- Page were killed in the accident on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney on New Year’s Eve. Pilot Gareth Morgan also died. Nat Nagy, executive director of transport safety for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, said the investigation would cover the plane’s maintenance record as well as its components and any recordings of the flight. A preliminary report is expected in a month. The sightseeing aircraft, which was heading to Rose Bay in Sydney Harbor, made a sharp turn before plummeting straight into the water in the suburb of Cowan 50 kilometers ( 31 miles) north of Sydney.
EGYPT HANGS FIVE PRISONERS – OFFICIALS
CAIRO: Egyptian prison authorities executed on Tuesday five inmates who had been sentenced to death, security officials said. Four of those executed on Tuesday had been sentenced to death by a military court over a 2015 the bombing at a stadium north of Cairo that killed three military cadets. The four had been accused of having links with the Muslim Brotherhood movement of former president Mohamed Morsi whom the army toppled in 2013 following protests against his single year in office The fifth had been sentenced to death over a criminal matter, the sources said without elaborating. On December 26, prison authorities hanged 15 inmates sentenced to death by a military court over attacks on the police and military in the Sinai Peninsula. Attacks by jihadists in the restive peninsula have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi’s overthrow. Courts have since sentenced hundreds of Islamists to death, although most have appealed the rulings and won retrials.