International News

VIENTIANE, (APP/AFP) – It is a secretive
communist state with a sprawling security apparatus, but Laos has turned to a less menacing demographic to protect visiting dignitaries this week: bookish students.
The authoritarian nation, which rarely allows in foreign media, has been thrust into the international spotlight as a regional security summit brings a coterie of top diplomats to its dusty capital Vientiane.
As ministers hustle through the wide corridors of the Chinese-built
National Convention Centre, lines of students, mostly petite women in
traditional sinh wrap skirts, link arms to keep the hordes of reporters back.
That is in stark contrast to the unseemly scenes that accompanied one of the more robust delegations.
North Korean heavies had a bust-up with a journalist from the South who got too close to Pyongyang’s envoy Ri Yong-Ho on the airport tarmac as he landed on Sunday.
The journalist apparently came off worst, suffering injuries to his face, according to his Seoul-based employer news agency Yonhap.
Students from the National University of Laos — armed with little more than walkie talkies and patience — have been drafted in as volunteer security guards to keep the peace elsewhere.