The clown is on tour at Outlets on June 7, 2020 in Wuhan,Hubei Province,China.Wuhan has seen its urban life gradually get back to normal following encouragement from local city management to open up street-stalls. Since January, China has recorded more than 81,000 cases of COVID-19 and at least 3200 deaths, mostly in and around the city of Wuhan, in central Hubei province, where the outbreak first started. (Photo by Getty Images/Stringer)

A rainbow forms on water from a spray machine used to suppress coal dust at the Krasnogorsky open pit coal mine, operated by Mechel PJSC, in Mezhdurechensk, Russia, on Monday, July 19, 2021. Russia’s government is betting that coal consumption will continue to rise in big Asian markets like China even as it dries up elsewhere. (Photo by Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

Devotees of TikTok, Mona Swain, center, and her sister, Rachel Swain, right, both of Atlanta, monitor voting at the Capitol in Washington, as the House passed a bill that would lead to a nationwide ban of the popular video app if its China-based owner doesn't sell, Wednesday, March 13, 2024. Lawmakers contend the app's owner, ByteDance, is beholden to the Chinese government, which could demand access to the data of TikTok's consumers in the U.S. (Photo by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

An aerial drone photo shows a view of the Wujiangzhai scenic spot in Zunyi, southwest China's Guizhou Province, March 14, 2024. The Wujiangzhai scenic spot, with its natural landscape and local folk customs, offers a blend of sightseeing, leisure activities and exhibitions, making it a popular destination for tourists. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A CRH train is seen passing through Nanjing South Railway Station, which is part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Line, on March 27, 2011 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. The High-Speed railway line is 1,318 kilometres long, running between Beijing and Shanghai. The line will open on June 10, 2011. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Rescuers work at the traffic accident site on April 1, 2011 in Xi'an, Shaanxi province of China. A truck collided with a bus at a cross on Friday morning. As the truck headed for the sidewalk, it collided into a pedestrian and 6 vehicles which were stopped nearby. As a result 16 people were injuried, one currently has severe injuries. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be around 6.5 million in 2012. A third (33%) of the country's population lives below the international poverty line which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day.

A truck filled with 500 cats thought to be destined for restaurants was intercepted on Wednesday in Xuzhou, eastern China’s Jiangsu Province. Officer Sun Hai said he and a colleague pulled the vehicle over during a routine traffic check. The officer commented, “The driver said it was a full load of rabbit, but after we instructed him to uncover the load we were shocked to find a full load of living cats.