Lao News:

Hundreds of Lao migrant fishermen are stranded in Malaysia after the Lao Embassy in Kuala Lumpur took control of their return travel plans to arrange pricier flights, which had already been complicated by coronavirus restrictions, the fishermen told RFA. Drawn by the prospect of well-paid work at sea, around 700 Lao migrants traveled overland through […]

PHNOM PENH — Former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said on Friday that Southeast Asian countries needed to consider revoking ASEAN membership for Cambodia and Laos for allowing an external power to exert influence on them, a thinly-veiled reference to their proximity to China. Bilahari Kausikan was speaking at a webinar organized by Singapore-based ISEAS Yusof […]

Days of demonstrations in Thailand, where protesters are calling for regime change, have inspired a rare outpouring of frustration with the government by netizens in neighboring Laos, where criticism of the one-party Communist state is strictly forbidden and punishable with hefty prison terms. Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Thursday ended an emergency decree banning […]

(Reuters) – The poor, small Southeast Asian country of Laos is set to cede majority control of its electric grid to a Chinese company, as it struggles to stave off a potential debt default, people with direct knowledge of the agreement said. The deal comes at a time when critics accuse Beijing of “debt trap […]

A young Lao worker was beaten, shocked and tied up by his employers at a Chinese banana plantation in northwestern Laos in a dispute over working hours, his relatives said. Lou Xiong’s relatives say he was beaten and shocked by Lao and Chinese employers at a Chinese banana plantation in Hin Heuap District of Vientiane […]

Continuing the United States’ longstanding support of the Lao health sector, #AmbHaymond presented 88,000 specially-treated mosquito nets funded by the United States through the USAID – US Agency for International Development to Vice Minister of Health Dr. Phouthone Muangpak at a ceremony in Vientiane this morning. “The United States is proud to continue working with the Lao PDR and […]

I’m heading into my 10th year of practice and I have never been in front of an Asian-American judge. This is surprising since I live in the biggest city in N.C. So your friend has decided to make a change and I’m running for judge! You know that asking for help has never been easy […]

The United States continues to provide nutritious food to Lao children in Savannakhet province despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of families across Savannakhet province count on free school lunches for their children. In response to school closures, the U.S. Department of Agriculture McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, implemented by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), shifted its […]

Laos’ quinquennial National Party Congress is coming up in 2021, but the prospects for meaningful change look slimmer and slimmer. Get ready for the rumor mill to start spinning in Vietnam ahead of January’s National Congress, an event held every five years when the ruling Communist Party selects its new officials and leaders. Laos’ ruling […]

Coronavirus rattles first US dollar bond, adding pressure to weakened economy BANGKOK — COVID-19 has rattled Laos’ debut in selling a U.S. dollar bond in international markets, adding pressure on a country whose “Wild West of dam building” splurge has put it in a precarious repayment situation, especially in regard to China, its leading lender. […]