• Notorious drug lord executed by China over 'Golden Triangle' smuggling, hijackings

    China Daily / Reuters

    Drug lord Naw Kham is taken from a Chinese jail to be executed on Friday.

    By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

    BEIJING – A notorious gang leader and drug lord from Myanmar was among four foreigners executed in China Friday, marking the first time Beijing has extradited, tried and put to death foreign nationals. 

    Naw Kham and three accomplices from Thailand and Laos were given a lethal injection in Yunnan’s provincial capital, Kunming, late Friday afternoon.

    The four were found guilty last year and sentenced Wednesday for the October 2011 hijacking of two cargo ships and the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River.

    But Beijing’s decision to live broadcast the final moments of the men as they waited in their cells followed by their walk to waiting police cars to the execution facility has drawn criticism across China’s websphere.

    The four were additionally found guilty of smuggling drugs, kidnapping and hijacking cargo ships in the “Golden Triangle,” a section of territory that overlaps parts of Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Laos that accounts for much of Asia’s opium and methamphetamines production.

    Beijing contends that, while Naw Kham masterminded the hijacking of the two Chinese cargo ships, he also colluded with Thai soldiers who may have been responsible for the slaying of the sailors. 

    Thai authorities are investigating nine of their soldiers alleged to be involved in the incident.

    The capture of Naw Kham – who was at the center of the region's bustling drug trade – was a coup for Chinese police and anti-drug ministries, which reportedly spent a year tracking the infamous smuggler.

    The search was unprecedented as it marked the first time that Chinese forces were seen actively searching for foreign national criminal suspects outside of China’s borders.

    Task force
    The importance Beijing placed on the search was underscored by a report last month by Chinese state media that revealed a task force set up to capture Naw Kham had at one point considered a controversial plan to use an unmanned drone to bomb a suspected hideout of Naw Kham’s gang in northeastern Myanmar.   

    The scheme was scrapped after the order to capture Naw Kham alive and bring him to trial was reiterated from senior leaders.

    Naw Kham’s capture and subsequent trial was given significant coverage in Chinese state media. In the run up to Friday’s execution, long reports detailing the gang’s crimes, celebrating the diligent work of China’s security forces and explaining the method of execution were repeatedly played on Chinese broadcaster CCTV.

    CCTV also ran two hours of live coverage leading up to the executions, showing the men’s final moments as they were led from their prison cells to execution facility. Despite rampant rumors and speculation that the state broadcaster was planning on showing the execution live, it ended its live coverage after the men were driven away.  

    The magnitude of Naw Kham’s capture and execution was never underplayed, with one CCTV reporter noting that officials there were comparing Naw Kham’s case to the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

    The comparison carries an undeniable message from the country’s ruling Communist Party to its people: China can and will look out for its nationals both at home and abroad.

    But many in China found the live broadcast of the men’s final moments in poor taste and an uncomfortable reminder of show executions from China’s turbulent period during the Cultural Revolution.

    “Even though they are deserved to die, these criminals have dignity too,” wrote one user on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, “The Cultural Revolution is back.”

    “China is a country without humanity,” lamented another.

    “CCTV is as cruel as these criminals,” one user bluntly noted. 

    Mo Shaoping, a prominent criminal lawyer and advisor at the Central University of Finance and Economics Law School, argued that Beijing’s decision to broadcast the prisoners’ final moments was less about striking a nationalist chord and more about showing how the country has improved its handling of the death penalty – a sensitive topic for China’s leadership.

    “China has made progress in how it deals with the death penalty,” Mo said. “showing everything live helps people see that prisoners are being treated humanely in their final moments.”

    Indeed, much of the commentary on CCTV as cameras rolled on Naw Kham in his cell discussed how he had been given a full doctor’s inspection and that officers in the room had made small chat and offered cigarettes to the kingpin to help him relax.

    They also noted that Naw had actually gained weight and looked healthier after months under Chinese supervision.

    Mo also noted that the use of lethal injection mean that potential donor organs could not be harvested from the men, addressing another common criticism of China’s previous handling of state executions.

    NBC News Le Li contributed to this report.

  • Clinton visits Laos, country US pummeled with bombs during Vietnam War

    Brendan Smialowski / Pool via AP

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, greets Phongsavath Souliyalat, who lost his forearms and sight from a blast of an unexploded bomb left over from the Vietnam War, in Vientiane, Laos, on Wednesday.

    By msnbc.com news services

    Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos in more than five decades, gauging whether a place the United States pummeled with bombs during the Vietnam War could evolve into a new foothold of American influence in Asia.

    Clinton met with the communist government's prime minister and foreign minister in the capital of Vientiane on Wednesday, part of a weeklong diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia. The goal is to bolster America's standing in some of the fastest growing markets of the world, and counter China's expanding economic, diplomatic and military dominance of the region.

    Thirty-seven years since the end of America's long war in Indochina, Laos is the latest test case of the Obama administration's efforts to "pivot" U.S. foreign policy away from the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It follows a long period of estrangement between Washington and a once hostile Cold War-era foe, and comes as U.S. relations warm with countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam.


    In her meetings, Clinton discussed environmental concerns over a proposed dam on the Mekong River, investment opportunities and joint efforts to clean up the tens of millions of unexploded bombs the United States dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.

    Greater American support programs in these fields will be included in a multimillion-dollar initiative for Southeast Asia to be announced later this week.

    "Here in Laos, the past is always with us," Clinton said.

    Tracing the 'arc' of a relationship
    After the meetings, she said they "traced the arc of our relationship from addressing the tragic legacies of the past to finding a way to being partners of the future."

    US eases way for Afghanistan to acquire defense gear

    Clinton also visited a Buddhist temple and a U.S.-funded prosthetic center for victims of American munitions.

    At the prosthetic center, she met a man named Phongsavath Souliyalat, who told her how he had lost both his hands and his eyesight from a cluster bomb on his 16th birthday.

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that Afghanistan will have special military privileges stemming from its relationship with America. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

    "I would like to see all governments ban cluster bombs and (try) to clear the bombs together and to help the survivors," Souliyalat said. "I am lucky because I got help ... but so many survivors are without help. Their life is very very hard."

    "We have to do more," Clinton told him. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to come here today, so that we can tell more people about the work that we should be doing together."

    A key 'domino' in U.S. Cold War policy
    The last U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos was John Foster Dulles in 1955. His plane landed after being forced to circle overhead while a water buffalo was cleared from the tarmac.

    At that time, the mountainous, sparsely populated nation was at the center of U.S. foreign policy. On leaving office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned his successor, John F. Kennedy, that if Laos fell to the communists, all Southeast Asia could be lost as well.

    While Vietnam ended up the focal point of America's "domino theory" foreign policy, Laos was drawn deeply into the conflict as the United States funded its anti-communist forces and bombed North Vietnamese supply lines and bases.

    Cause of killer Cambodia illness likely found

    The United States dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs on the impoverished country during its "secret war" between 1964 and 1973 — about a ton of ordnance for each Laotian man, woman and child. That exceeded the amount dropped on Germany and Japan together in World War II, making Laos the most heavily bombed nation per person in history.

    Although the U.S. does not want to assume a military role, it does want tougher sanctions. NBC's Andrea Mitchell.

    Four decades later, American weapons are still claiming lives. When the war ended, about a third of some 270 million cluster bombs dropped on Laos had failed to detonate, leaving the country awash in unexploded munitions. More than 20,000 people have been killed by ordnance in postwar Laos, according to its government, and contamination throughout the country is a major barrier to agricultural development.

    Cleanup has been excruciatingly slow. The Washington-based Legacies of War says only 1 percent of contaminated lands have been cleared and has called on Washington to provide far greater assistance. The State Department has provided $47 million since 1997, though a larger effort could make Laos "bomb-free in our lifetimes," California Rep. Mike Honda argued.

    "Let us mend the wounds of the past together so that Laos can begin a new legacy of peace," said Honda, who is Japanese-American.

    The United States is spending $9 million this year on cleanup operations for unexploded ordnance in Laos, but is likely to offer more in the coming days.

    Reorienting U.S. policy
    It is part of a larger Obama administration effort to reorient the direction of U.S. diplomacy and commercial policy as the world's most populous continent becomes the center of the global economy over the next century. It is also a reaction to China's expanding influence.

    Despite Washington's difficult history in the region, nations in Beijing's backyard are welcoming the greater engagement — and the promise of billions of dollars more in American investment. The change has been sudden, with some longtime U.S. foes now seeking a relationship that could serve at least as a counterweight to China's regional hegemony.

    A stampede that occurred during a popular festival in Cambodia has killed hundreds. Msnbc's Tamron Hall reports.

    Vietnam, threatened by Beijing's claims to the resource-rich South China Sea, has dramatically deepened diplomatic and commercial ties with the United States, with their two-country trade now exceeding $22 billion a year — from nothing two decades ago. Clinton on Tuesday made her third trip to the fast-growing country, meeting with senior communist officials to prod them into greater respect for free expression and labor rights.

    A lagging economy
    Landlocked and impoverished Laos offers fewer resources than its far larger neighbors and has lagged in Asia's economic boom. It remains one of the poorest countries in Asia, even as it hopes to kick-start its development with accession soon to the World Trade Organization.

    In recent years, China has stepped up as Laos' principal source of assistance, with loans and grants of up to $350 million over the last two decades. But like many others in its region, Laos' government is wary of Beijing's intentions. And it has kept an envious eye on neighboring Vietnam's 40 percent surge in commercial trade with the United States over the last two years, as well as the sudden rapprochement between the United States and nearby Myanmar.

    Persistent human rights issues stand in the way of closer relations with Washington. The United States remains concerned about the plight of the ethnic Hmong minority, most of whom fled the country after fighting for a U.S.-backed guerilla army during the Vietnam War. Nearly 250,000 resettled in the United States. The United States has pressed Laos to respect the rights of returnees from neighboring countries.

    Washington also has been seeking greater cooperation from Laos on the search for U.S. soldiers missing in action since the Vietnam War. More than 300 Americans remain unaccounted for in Laos.

    And it is pressing the government to hold off on a proposed $3.5 billion dam project across the Mekong River. The dam would be the first across the river's mainstream and has sparked a barrage of opposition from neighboring countries and environmental groups, which warn that tens of millions of livelihoods could be at stake.

    The project is currently on hold and Washington hopes to stall it further with the promise of funds for new environmental studies.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook