June 26 (UPI) -- Vietnam has abolished the death penalty for eight criminal offenses, including bribery, embezzlement and drug smuggling, setting the stage for the courts to spare the life of a real estate tycoon sentenced to death last year in the country's largest-ever financial fraud case. The law removing the death penalty from the handful of offenses was adopted by Vietnam's National Assembly on Wednesday, state-run Vietnam News Agency reported. The vote was near unanimous with 429 of 439