Ulia Matos takes part in a school of theatre, makeup and hair styling graduation contest in Havana, November 16, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Atmosphere at the 84th Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade held at The Roosevelt Hotel on November 29, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Zuma Wire/Rex Shutterstock)

An Aymara woman with a sheep waves to the crowd during a Christmas parade in La Paz, Bolivia December 12, 2015. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A man dressed as Santa Claus sits at a bus stop before an annual race in Belgrade, Serbia December 27, 2015. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A man rides a horse at a playground on a hill in Kabul April 19, 2015. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

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.

Space Shuttle Discovery is towed from the shuttle landing facility to the orbiter processing facility at Kennedy Space Center on April 20, 2010 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Discovery's landing attempts at KSC were scrubbed yesterday due to unacceptable weather conditions. Discovery is returning from a successful mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Matt Stroshane/Getty Images). CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – APRIL 20 2010