Frank Zeller
Guest Author
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/ 2 April 2007

Tourism threatens beauty of former Lao royal capital

World heritage status has turned the former Lao capital, Luang Prabang, from a ghost town into a tourism hub, but too much of a good thing could soon prove the kiss of death, say experts and residents. In recent years a trickle of backpackers has turned into a flood of tourists coming to the sleepy town of glistening Buddhist temples and palm-shaded French colonial mansions sitting pretty on a Mekong river peninsula.

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/ 21 April 2006

Bill Gates to visit Vietnam, push licensed software

Bill Gates is set to meet communist Vietnam’s leaders on Saturday to promote licensed Microsoft products in the country where an estimated 90% of software is counterfeit. Gates was expected to speak about joint efforts with government bodies and schools and visit a village post office outside Hanoi on Saturday to launch a project that uses Vietnamese-made computers with Microsoft programs.