Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that two youths, aged 19 and 20, have been arrested for the alleged murder of a neighbour in a robbery bid to cover a World Cup gambling debt.

The suspects were detained Monday in Khanh Hoa province of south-central Vietnam, the report said. It quoted police sources as saying one of the detainees confessed he had lost in World Cup betting. He and his friend allegedly killed Nguyen Thi To Nga, a high school literature teacher, as they tried to rob her in order to cover the debt and reclaim a motorbike he had placed in a pawn shop.

The report did not give the value of the debt, and police reached by AFP could not immediately comment. Separately, the Doi Song and Phap Luat newspapers reported that police in Quang Ngai province of central Vietnam arrested a man Monday for allegedly choking his wife to death. The 35-year-old man told police he killed his wife because she complained he came home late following a World Cup match on Friday, the reports said.

Police in Vietnam's Central Highlands said last month they had arrested a man for murder over an unpaid World Cup gambling debt worth several thousand dollars. Local media have reported on several police raids of cafes where illegal World Cup gambling had allegedly occurred. Vietnamese love gambling on everything from football to buffalo races, cock-fighting and illegal lotteries. But the practice is outlawed and considered a "social evil."

Agence France Presse - July 8, 2010