WASHINGTON - The FBI has arrested five individuals on charges they conspired as foreign agents in an operation called "Fox Hunt" to try to force immigrants from China who angered that country's leadership to return there to be punished, officials announced Wednesday.

Dead dissidents dumped in a river, activists knotted up by the courts, and Big Brother-style internet laws -- critics of Thailand's junta fear this week's election is poised to sharpen the dangers faced by those who disagree.