Laos News of the Week

Some interesting news items for Laos came up over the last week:

Open.Salon.Com highlighted Robert Isenberg's The Laos Project #1 as an editor's pick this week. A writer from Pittsburgh, he's traveling to Laos this November and sharing excerpts from his manuscript in progress. Among the things he addresses is Laos' status as the most heavily bombed nation of the 20th century. It will be interesting to see where he takes the book over time.

The Guatemala News features an excerpt of Daniel Swift's "Killing Space: cultural and political histories of bombing" that touches on the history of bombing in Laos and other parts of Southeast Asia and its modern impacts on the technology and policies for bombing countries today.

The Douglasville Patch has an article on veteran Hunter Park, who died bombing Ban Ban in Laos in May, 1965.

A News-Leader article discusses a new book on the life of former Missouri Senator Samuel Eagleton.  Among his accomplishments is a 1973 amendment introduced to an appropriations bill that effectively ended the war in Southeast Asia. It stated to the Nixon administration that no longer could U.S. forces be used in Cambodia and Laos. This prevented any additional funding for the bombings in Laos and effectively ended the war, for the Americans, at least.

National Geographic has an article, Two Rivers about how efforts to harness and export power from the Mekong and Irawaddy rivers are dividing Southeast Asia, especially Laos.

According to the Malaysian National News Agency and Xinhua, China and Laos are expanding a nature reserve to protect the Asian elephant. This will cover 20,000 hectares of forest in China and 35,000 hectares in Laos, expanding it to over 100,000 hectares. This could be good news for the elephants, if efforts are effective.

China and Laos have also signed an MOU to develop organic farms. Not organ farms.

According to the Fars News Agency, Iran is expanding its relations to Laos. What could possibly go wrong?

The Koreans want in on the action, too, according to the Korea Times.

In the Washington Post, Douglas Clayton, chief executive officer of Leopard Capital discussed his feeling that Bangladesh, Laos and Myanmar are good opportunities for an investor.

Switzerland is trying to help Laos preserve the Mekong River basin with over $3 million thanks to efforts from the Mekong River Commission.

North Central Michigan College will host Thongsai Vangyi on November 1st at the Petoskey campus. He will speak about his family's escape from Laos.

Laos donated 192,000 bottles of water to the Thai to assist flood victim relief, estimated at $32,000 worth, or over 256,639,812 Kip or 982,561 Baht.

And just in time for Halloween, Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome is covered in a New York Post Article, Night Terrors: Can You Be Killed By A Nightmare?