SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head. The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War. “I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.” During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam. |
Chennai Super Kings end 5Dick Rutan, coGovernment will treat elderly 'like criminals' under controversial new bank snooping lawCity traders fired after being caught having sex with a cleaner in the office afterJackson scores twice as Chelsea routs West Ham 5Man United defender Harry Maguire out for the rest of the Premier League season through injuryMexico recovers bodies likely those of missing surfersKentucky Derby victory aboard Mystik Dan provides signature win for jockey Brian Hernandez Jr.Violence breaks out at Leeds University as proCount Binface is consoled by Sadiq Khan after losing in London mayor elections