Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Nine people were arrested in the United States and charged with plotting a coup in the southeast Asian nation of Laos, a public prosecutor in California said Monday. The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement. They include the Hmong former general Vang Pao and Harrison Jack, a retired officer of the US Army, it said. ~ snip ~