Vietnam releases US couple accused of carrying handgun

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2007

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Vietnam has released a US couple accused of carrying a handgun and bullets after being held at the Ho Chi Minh city's airport, the State Department and US lawmakers who pushed for their release said Tuesday.

The Vietnamese-Americans, Le Van Phan and his wife Nguyen Thi Thinh, who had travelled from Los Angeles, were labeled "terrorists" by the state media on their arrest on November 23, a charge Washington said was unsubstantiated.

"The two plan to return (home) in the next few days," Steve Royster, spokesman for the State Department's consular affairs division, told AFP.

Earlier Tuesday, the Vietnamese authorities released and deported to the United States a Vietnamese-American pro-democracy activist after his arrest November 17 with a...