Lottery officials in the communist nation of Laos are manipulating the drawing process by removing numbers that have been purchased and displaying other numbers for public consumption, sources tell RFA’s Lao Service. For example, the number 509 — associated in Lao culture with buffalos, a symbol of good fortune — disappeared from tickets sold throughout the day of an Oct. 14 drawing. The winning number subsequently changed to the random number 09 only 10 minutes before the drawing was scheduled to take place, one source said. The government should resume control of the national lottery, he added, because private business interests have little credibility when it comes to the fairness of drawings.