Category Archives: Laos

‘Every parent’s nightmare’: family of Melbourne teen fighting for life after feared methanol poisoning hopes for answers

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Parents ‘want to ensure no other family’ feels same anguish as Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles remain in Thai hospitals

The family of one of two teenagers fighting for life in hospital after a suspected methanol poisoning incident in Laos hope authorities work out exactly what happened “as soon as possible”.

Melbourne friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both aged 19, had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week.

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Melbourne best friends on ‘dream getaway’ before feared methanol poisoning in Laos left them fighting for life

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Teenagers Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles in hospitals in neighbouring Thailand after incident last week

Two Australian teenagers are fighting for their lives in Thailand after a suspected methanol poisoning in neighbouring Laos, with the family of one them saying they were struggling to comprehend what had happened.

Friends Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles from Melbourne had been staying at a hostel in Vang Vieng, north of the Laos capital, Vientiane, when they fell critically ill last week, 3AW reported.

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Rights groups call on Laos to release lawyer held after fleeing China

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Sixty-eight organisations sign letter amid fears Lu Siwei could be deported at request of Chinese authorities

Sixty-eight human rights groups have signed an open letter calling on the Laos government to release Lu Siwei, a Chinese former human rights lawyer detained by Laotian police near Vientiane last week.

Lu was seized by police on Friday as he attempted to board a train from Laos to Thailand, where he planned to catch a flight to the US to join his wife and daughter. Nearly one week later, he appears to still be held in Laotian immigration detention, despite reportedly being told that he would be deported to China.

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Human rights lawyer fleeing China is arrested in Laos

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Activists and family members fear Lu Siwei will be deported back to China, where he could be sent to prison

A Chinese rights lawyer stripped of his licence for taking on sensitive cases has been arrested in Laos, and activists and family members are worried he will be deported back to China, where he could be jailed.

Lu Siwei was seized by Laotian police on Friday morning while boarding a train for Thailand. He was on his way to Bangkok to catch a flight to the US to join his wife and daughter.

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Climate breakdown made southern Asia heatwave at least 2C hotter, study finds

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Temperatures up to 45C recorded in April in parts of India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Laos

A searing heatwave in parts of southern Asia in April was made at least 30 times more likely by climate breakdown, according to a study by international scientists.

Unusually high temperatures of up to 45C (113F) were recorded last month in monitoring stations in parts of India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Laos.

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Weather tracker: Vietnam and Laos set records for highest-ever temperatures

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Records for countries broken just weeks after temperature in Thailand rose above 45C for the first time

All-time temperature records were broken in Vietnam and Laos last week. On 6 May, Hoi Xuan in Vietnam reached a scorching 44.1C, breaking the previous record for the country of 43.4C, set in 2019. On the same day, Laos recorded its highest-ever temperature, , which reached 43.5C in Luang Prabang. These records were set just a few weeks after temperatures in Thailand rose above 45C for the first time.

A breakdown of the heat in south-east Asia is expected to occur in the next few days as a tropical disturbance is likely to develop nearby. Forecast models suggest that, over the coming days, the Bay of Bengal will have the perfect conditions for cyclogenesis to occur. By later this week, several factors, including enhanced vorticity and very high sea surface temperatures, will enhance the chance that a tropical storm will edge north-eastwards into parts of Myanmar. This will bring some strong winds and significant rainfall to south-east Asia, including the areas that have recently seen their temperature records broken.

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Laos activist Anousa Luangsuphom gunned down in cafe attack

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Rights groups call for urgent and independent investigation into killing of government critic

A prominent activist and critic of the government in Laos has been shot dead in an attack at a coffee shop in the capital, Vientiane.

Anousa “Jack” Luangsuphom, 25, who runs a Facebook page where people share criticism of the government, was sitting in a cafe in Vientiane on 29 April when the attack happened.

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‘Endless record heat’ in Asia as highest April temperatures recorded

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Record figures for month recorded in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, China and South Asia

Asia is experiencing weeks of “endless record heat”, with sweltering temperatures causing school closures and surges in energy use.

Record April temperatures have been recorded at monitoring stations across Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, as well as in China and South Asia.

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Weather tracker: heatwave grips parts of Asia and heavy snow hits Scandinavia

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Record heat in Thailand and Laos is forecast to ease this week as snow sweeps Norway and Sweden

A prolonged heatwave that has been affecting many parts of Asia this month continued to batter the region last week. Much of the south-east, including Thailand and Laos, has been experiencing record heat: in Tak, north-west Thailand, the temperature soared to 45.4C (113.7F) on 15 April, while in Luang Prabang, Laos, it reached 42.7C.

Temperatures in Thailand continued to exceed 40C into the weekend, prompting the authorities to issue warnings for extreme heat and advise residents in many parts of the country, including the capital, Bangkok, to stay indoors.

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Severe heatwave engulfs Asia causing deaths and forcing schools to close

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Extreme temperatures described as ‘worst April heatwave in Asian history’ as records threatened in India, China, Thailand and Laos

A severe heatwave has swept across much of Asia, causing deaths and school closures in India and record-breaking temperatures in China.

Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian, described the unusually high temperatures as the “worst April heatwave in Asian history”.

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Albanese meeting with Chinese premier heralds potential thaw in diplomatic freeze

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Meeting with Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, is first between leaders of Australia and China since 2019

Anthony Albanese has met the Chinese premier, Li Keqiang, at a gala dinner in Cambodia, opening the first leader-to-leader dialogue between the two countries since 2019.

The Australian prime minister’s office confirmed on Sunday the two leaders had a brief exchange after arriving at the dinner in Phnom Penh. The last conversation between the leaders of the two countries occurred when Scott Morrison and Li met in 2019.

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Child’s 130,000-year-old tooth could offer clues to extinct human relative

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Researchers believe the discovery in a Laos cave proves that Denisovans lived in the warm tropics of southeast Asia

A child’s tooth at least 130,000 years old found in a Laos cave could help scientists uncover more information about an early human cousin, according to a new study.

Researchers believe the discovery proves that Denisovans – a now-extinct branch of humanity – lived in the warm tropics of southeast Asia.

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Thai government pressed over missing Lao activist Od Sayavong

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Human Rights Watch calls for information on fate of 34-year-old amid a spate of disappearances of activists

Rights groups in Thailand have urged the government to investigate the apparent enforced disappearance of Od Sayavong, a prominent pro-democracy activist from Laos who has been missing for almost two weeks.

The 34-year-old Laotian activist was last seen at his Bangkok home on 26 August, sparking fears for his safety in a region where there has been a spate of enforced disappearances of political activists.

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Thai police arrest man suspected of smuggling semen for surrogacy across Laos border

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Bangkok: Several times customs officials noticed a man carrying a strange-looking case across the border from north-eastern Thailand to Laos, a known smuggling route.When they confronted 25-year-old Nithinon Srithaniyanan and asked him to open the case they found six tubes of human semen in a nitrogen tank. Cambodia's surrogacy scandal Inside this poor village in Cambodia, Melbourne nurse Tammy Davis-Charles illegally recruited commercial surrogates before she was jailed.

Duterte to visit China amid strained Philippine ties with US

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will visit China next week, China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, as the Southeast Asian leader's relationship with its traditional ally the United States frays. President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a meeting with banana production businessmen in Davao city, in southern Philippines, October 7, 2016.

Duterte: After tough talk, damage control prevails

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The new Philippine president uses an expletive to warn key ally Barack Obama not to lecture him on human rights and, in another impromptu speech, declares a dramatic policy change in policy such as removing U.S. counterterrorism forces out of his country's volatile south. His key officials walk back the remarks and say everything is normal.

Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte to Abu Sayyaf: ‘I will eat you alive’

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte used some explicit language in a vow to revenge a bombing that left 15 people dead, threatening to eat those responsible alive. The outspoken leader, in Vientiane, Laos, to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit conference, spoke about the terrorist bombing in Davao City, where he was mayor for 22 years before becoming president.