A Malaysian court has sentenced a Japanese nurse to death by hanging for drug trafficking.

The High Court in central Selangor state found 37-year-old Mariko Takeuchi guilty of transporting 7.7 pounds (3.5 kilograms) of methamphetamine in a suitcase when she flew from Dubai into the Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Oct. 30, 2009.

Takeuchi is the first Japanese convicted of drug trafficking in Malaysia. A conviction carries a mandatory death penalty.

Takeuchi's lawyer Mohamad Rafik Rahem said Tuesday they will appeal the verdict.

The court rejected Takeuchi's claim that she had not known about the drugs and was carrying the suitcase as a favor for an Iranian acquaintance.

Mohamad Rafik said Takeuchi was "very sad and disappointed."

The lawyer for two Americans jailed as spies in Iran was back in court Tuesday seeking a second judge's signature on a bail deal that could free them after more than two years behind bars.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal were detained along the Iran-Iraq border in 2009 and were convicted last month of spying for the United States in a case that has deepened the mistrust between Washington and Tehran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raised hopes a week ago that the men, both 29 years old, could be released in a matter of days in what he described as a humanitarian gesture.

But months of internal political battles between Ahmadinejad and his rivals in the clerical leadership and the judiciary appear to be holding up the possible deal to lift the men's eight-year prison sentences and free them on bail of $500,000 each.

The official explanation for the latest snag was that a second judge whose signature is required on the bail papers was on vacation until Tuesday, their Iranian attorney has said.

A Thai court sentenced a nightclub owner and a lighting effects company executive Tuesday to three years' imprisonment each for a fire that killed 67 people in Bangkok on New Year's Day in 2009.

The Bangkok Criminal Court found Santika nightclub owner Wisuk Sejsawat and company executive Boonchu Laosinart guilty of causing the deaths of other persons without intent.

More than 1,000 revelers were inside the club when an indoor fireworks display set off after the countdown to New Year ignited the blaze. The fire raced through the two-story building, sending panicked guests running for the main entrance.

Victims — including three Singapore, one Japanese and one Myanmar national — died of burns, smoke inhalation and from being crushed in the stampede to get out. More than 100 people were injured.

Dozens of the injured victims and relatives of the dead were in the courtroom Tuesday to hear the verdict. Fifty plaintiffs jointly filed the case against the defendants.

"I feel better now that justice is served," said Taworn Promtong, whose 24-year-old daughter died from injuries sustained in the fire. "But my family was never the same without our eldest daughter. There's a void that could never be filled."

The verdict did not deal with allegations made soon after the fire that police had turned a blind eye to safety violations at the club prior to the fire.