Six more activists arrested

Vietnamese novelist Nguyen Xuan Nghia and five other pro-democracy advocates have been charged with defaming government leaders, Vietnam state media reported Tuesday. The six, who have been detained since September 2008, are accused of hanging anti-government banners on Haiphong bridges and bridges of the neighboring province of Hai Duong, and then posting photos of the banners on internet.

Nghia (age 60) is also accused of writing 57 articles between 2007 and his arrest last year attacking the Vietnamese Communist Party and its leaders. and of belonging to the banned "Bloc 8406", a pro-democracy group founded in 2006 by jailed priest Fr. Nguyen Van Linh.

Sources: Associated Press July 14; Lao Dong July 15; Thanh Nien July 15; see also statement of the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sept. 26, 2008.