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Laos

Drought drops Mekong River to nearly 2-decade low

BANGKOK – Severe drought has dropped the Mekong River to its lowest level in nearly 20 years, halting some cargo traffic and boat tours on the Asian waterway that is the lifeblood for 65 million people in six countries, a draft report said.
The decrease was caused largely by an early end to [...]

Laos ‘moving toward’ Hmong access

HANOI (AFP) – Laos was “moving toward” allowing access to ethnic Hmong whose repatriation by Thailand in December sparked international outrage, a US diplomat said Saturday.
“I think the Lao have indicated that they’re moving toward allowing access but (it) may not be as quickly as we would like,” the diplomat, who asked not to [...]

Briton returned to UK after Laos drug sentence loses battle to be freed

UK judges reduce Samantha Orobator’s life sentence to minimum of 18 months
A British woman serving a jail sentence in the UK for drug smuggling after narrowly escaping a death sentence in Laos today lost her battle to be freed but had her original life sentence reduced.
Judges rejected Samantha Orobator’s claim she was being detained unjustly [...]

Laos tells UN it’s too soon to visit Hmong

BANGKOK – Laos denied the U.N. immediate access to 4,500 ethnic Hmong who were forcibly repatriated from Thailand, saying Wednesday it would “complicate” matters but that international observers could visit later.
Thailand deported the Hmong on Monday in a massive 24-hour military operation, ignoring pleas by the U.N., the United States and others that fear they [...]

Read More » No commentDecember 30, 2009

Thailand deports Hmong to Laos despite protests

KHEK NOI, Thailand (AFP) – The Thai army on Monday rounded up thousands of ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers and began returning them to communist Laos despite international protests over fears they could face persecution.
A force of 5,000 armed with batons and shields entered the camp in Huay Nam Khao village in northern Thailand before dawn to [...]

Read More » No commentDecember 28, 2009