Giant China, tiny Laos link up with launch of high-speed train

A Lao Buddhist monk splashed holy water to bless a high-speed train that a Chinese diplomat called the “railway dream of the Lao people” on Thursday, the soft opening of a long-awaited $6 billion railway connecting the two Asian neighbors. After five years of blasting 75 tunnels and building 77 bridges through the mountainous jungle terrain of northern Laos, the China-Laos Railway will start