Laos

Laos adopts new measure to combat corruption: party expulsion

Laos adopts new measure to combat corruption: party expulsion

Officials dismiss nine government employees who embezzled funds in Bokeo province.

Lao dam collapse survivors still wait for new homes amid construction delays

Lao dam collapse survivors still wait for new homes amid construction delays

Too few carpenters and masons are employed on the project, and many are not being paid.

Planned Lao dam raises concerns in Thailand over impacts on shared border

Planned Lao dam raises concerns in Thailand over impacts on shared border

Concerns focus on depleted fish stocks, illegal cross-border trade.

Debt-trapped Lao ‘chat girls’ forced to sell sex in China-run economic zone

Debt-trapped Lao ‘chat girls’ forced to sell sex in China-run economic zone

Duped by employers promising stable jobs, the women must repay their debts with their bodies.

Laos criticizes 45 soccer players banned for match fixing in recent years

Players make very little money and are easily bribed, sports officials say.

Lao-China Railway feels ‘similar to when I rode the Shinkansen in Japan’

Lao-China Railway feels ‘similar to when I rode the Shinkansen in Japan’

A passenger rides Laos’ new high-speed train from Vientiane to the Chinese border.

A Chinese-owned banana farm is shown in Laos in a file photo.

Lao villagers refuse to cede land for Chinese-owned banana farm

2022-01-04

Villagers say if they lose their land they will have no way to feed their families.

A Lao man looks across the Mekong River at the Lao-Thai border on the outskirts of Vientiane in a file photo.

Cash-strapped Laos keen to reopen borders despite surging COVID numbers

2021-12-31

Officials hope to revive country’s economy with tourism and trade, but some provinces face health staff shortages.

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Debt-trapped Lao ‘chat girls’ forced to sell sex in China-run economic zone

Debt-trapped Lao ‘chat girls’ forced to sell sex in China-run economic zone

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Lao officials take their cut

Lao officials take their cut

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Giant China, tiny Laos link up with launch of high-speed train

Giant China, tiny Laos link up with launch of high-speed train
Giant China, tiny Laos link up with launch of high-speed train

Giant China, tiny Laos link up with launch of high-speed train

Laos is on track for new economic opportunities, but some worry about the cost.

Border closures threaten Laos’s banana industry, a major source of employment

Growers have been forced to give away or destroy hundreds of tons of their product.

One of 11 resettlement towns built for Lao villagers displaced by the Namtha 1 Dam in Luang Prabang province is shown in a file photo.

Six years later, Lao workers have yet to be paid for work on resettlement towns

Lao women wear masks while riding motorcycles in the capital Vientiane, Nov. 14, 2021.

Plans to open Laos draw mixed reactions

Boats pass the Pak Beng pier on the Mekong River in northwestern Laos' Oudomxay province, site of a proposed hydroelectric dam, in a file photo.

Thailand agrees to buy electricity from Laos, ignoring NGOs’ concerns

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Laos and its dams: Southeast Asia’s battery, built by China

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Thai police seize marijuana smuggled from Laos

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