Lao News:

VIENTIANE, LAO PDR — On April 20, U.S. Ambassador to Lao PDR Dr. Peter M. Haymond joined Vice Minister of Health Dr. Sanong Thongsana to officially launch the Continuous Professional Development Training Facility for Health Professionals at the Center for Medical Rehabilitation (CMR). The ceremony also marked the official handover of rehabilitation equipment to the […]

China is now connected with Laos via a recently completed high-speed rail line, which reportedly cost $6 billion. Chinese-led initiative: On Friday, a virtual ceremony attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Laotian President Thongloun Sisoulith marked the opening of the rail line, which is part of China’s global infrastructure development strategy called the “Belt […]

A gold mine run by a Chinese company in southern Laos is releasing waste into a river in Sekong province, killing fish and fouling water used by villagers for drinking and bathing, Lao sources say. The Lao Kaleum Gold Mining Project began operations last year and has polluted local water sources ever since it was […]

Laos is beginning to run out of gas, sources in the country say. Filling stations began to post signs reading “No Gas” or “Temporarily Closed” around Nov. 1, and supplies have fallen since. Some motorists have decided to stay home, unwilling to risk driving their motorcycles or cars for fear of running out of fuel […]

Myanmar is one of Bangladesh’s closest neighbors with historic connectivity going back centuries. The 271 km long Bangladesh-Myanmar border is very important for Bangladesh due to its strategic position, although at present the area is militarized due to its ongoing internal conflicts. Were this to be resolved, Bangladesh could develop routes via Myanmar to access […]

Lao villagers have given up farm work in growing numbers in recent years. Due to rising costs and the loss of land to large development projects, many are now moving to the cities to find work instead as laborers, with the help of services like Sunrise Moving to shift their things feasibly, Lao sources say. […]

Laos on Monday saw its biggest jump in cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, since the pandemic began more than a year ago, as the impoverished nation expanded a lockdown and added additional capacity at treatment centers to deal with the drastic rise in infections. Rattanaxay Phetsouvanh, director general of the Communicable […]

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 […]