Laos

During a secret mission in Laos 42 years ago, Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger repeatedly braved hostile fire as he helped three wounded airmen onto a helicopter after their radar station was surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers. Etchberger was the last to climb into the helicopter, but he was killed by ground fire as it took off. Etchberger's heroic acts were kept secret until details about the Vietnam-era secret mission were released more than two decades later.

  Lao Yi's boiled beef and leek dumpling filling Total Time: 15 minutes Servings: Makes enough filling for 3 dozen dumplings, about 6 servings Note: Recipe adapted from Wang Ming Jun. Ground pork may be substituted for the beef in this recipe. Fatty ground meat makes for juicier dumplings. Chinese rice wine is available at Chinese and most Asian markets. 6 ounces fatty ground beef (about 20% fat) 2 1/4 teaspoons soy sauce 4 1/2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry 3/8 teaspoon sugar Small pinch salt 1/4 cup water or cold broth 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil 3/4 cup finely chopped Asian leek (also called Japanese leeks or negi;)

If you go KOTO, 59 Van Mieu St. (opposite the Temple of Literature), Dong Da District, Hanoi, Vietnam; www.koto.com.au. It serves western and Vietnamese fare. Entrees are about $5. Friends the Restaurant, No. 215 Street 13, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; www.mithsamlanh.org . It serves tapas-style international and Asian-western fusion cuisine. Tapas are $3 to $5. Romdeng Restaurant , No. 74 Street 174, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; www.mithsamlanh.org. Romdeng specializes in provincial Cambodian cuisine.

Federal prosecutors dropped charges Friday against Vang Pao, the exiled Hmong general accused two years ago of plotting with a band of aging Central Valley expatriates to overthrow the communist regime in their homeland of Laos. Vang Pao, 79, had been singled out as the alleged ringleader of the bizarre scheme to launch a coup -- reputedly with mercenaries armed with AK-47 assault rifles and Stinger missiles -- in the summer of 2007. Although prosecutors filed motions abandoning charges against the general, one of America's staunchest allies during the Vietnam War, they maintained the counts against a dozen of his alleged comrades and added new ones.

Please bear with me; this can get confusing. Los Angeles Opera has two Marta Domingo productions of Verdi's "La Traviata," an updated one and a traditional one that feels like it's been around forever. The newer "Traviata" premiered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2006, with Elizabeth Futral as the 19th century Parisian courtesan turned into a '20s flapper. But a few months later, the old one was taken out of mothballs for a flapper-averse Renee Fleming, when L.A.

A court in Laos found a pregnant British woman guilty of trafficking heroin and sentenced her Wednesday to life in prison, a court official said. The sentencing of 20-year-old Samantha Orobator came after a one-day trial in the Laotian capital, according to Chanthaly Duangvilai, vice president of the Vientiane Court. Orobator pleaded guilty, the court official said at a news briefing after the trial, adding that she had named several of her alleged accomplices in her testimony.

A 76-year-old woman stabbed to death in her Long Beach home was a well-known figure in the Cambodian and Laotian communities, her son said Monday. The body of Leam Sovanasy, who lived with relatives in the 1400 block of Peterson Avenue, was discovered by a relative about 11 a.m. Saturday, police said. She had been stabbed multiple times in her upper body. Sovanasy was ethnically Laotian but born in Cambodia, said her son, who asked not to be named.

Connie Speight has swayed on elephant back through unforgiving jungle and has adopted nine of the high-maintenance beasts. At 83, the retired American teacher is back in this Southeast Asian country to help save what remains of the once-mighty herds. Once so famous for its elephants that it was called Prathet Lane Xane, or Land of a Million Elephants, Laos is thought to have only 700 of them left in the wild. "Lots of people in Asia tell you how elephants are their proud national heritage," says Speight, director of the Elephants Umbrella Fund rescue group.

He seems more fable than flesh and blood, a general who marched with serendipity at his side. Wartime comrades say he walked away from downed aircraft, defied bullets and dodged artillery shells. Once, the story goes, a barrage of bombs landed around him and not one exploded. Even in defeat, Gen. Vang Pao of the Royal Lao Army consistently beat the odds. After the communists conquered his homeland in 1975, he fled with six wives and more than 20 children to the U.S.

He is a shy boy, wincing from the stabbing pain of jagged shrapnel in his leg, a casualty of a war that ended 25 years before he was born. His name is To and he is 7, too young to understand why a weapon brought halfway around the world lay hidden in the dirt behind his wooden house, waiting to explode. It happened on a cold morning in mid-February while To was huddling with about 10 people near a small fire his father had built.