Cultural official arrested for assisting illegal migrants

A high-ranking official of a company owned by Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information was arrested Feb. 15, accused of assisting Vietnamese citizens to leave the country illegally. Tong Xuan Thu, 33, chief of the Central Fine Arts Company's import-export department, allegedly assisted company employees fleeing to Europe, claiming they were on missions to organize fine arts exhibitions and tradeshows. (Vietnam News Briefs, Feb. 17).