Participants sit on a cable chair as they take part in the 30th edition of the Belalp Witches Ski Race on January 14, 2012 in Belalp, Switzerland. The race is inspired by a legend dating back to the middle ages, of a witch who tormented villagers in the area until she was burnt to death. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/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 woman walks between Christmas trees at a Christmas market opened prior to incoming Christmas and New Year festivities in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, December 15, 2023. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Latin dancing featured on the opening day of the 98th Blackpool Dance Festival in the Empress Ballroom in the city’s Winter Gardens on May 28, 2024. (Photo by James Glossop/ The Times & Sunday Times)

Palestinians carry their belongings as they prepare to flee Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

One of the Siberian tiger twins, born on April 13, 2025, is presented to the press at the Budapest zoo and botanic garden, on June 12, 2025 during their first veterinary examination. (Photo by Attila Kisbenedek/AFP Photo)

Botswana's Ross Branch competes during the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge stage two on March 7, 2022. (Photo by Edoardo Bauer/AFP Photo)

A member of the Amabutho Zulu regiments is congratulated by a member of the Dundee Diehards at the end of the Battle of Isandlwana, in Isandlwana on January 21, 2023. (Photo by Marco Longari/AFP Photo)