Tourists from the U.S., Australia, Denmark and the U.K. have died. A tourism police officer said a "number of people" had been detained in the case but that no charges have yet been filed.

The U.S. dropped over 2 million tons of ordnance on Laos, including cluster bombs, in the 1960s and '70s. To this day, many people are killed, crippled and disfigured by them, writes Lewis M. Simons.

A U.N. official calls for new policies across East Asia to halt the soaring production of methamphetamines.