When Greek police raided a Roma gypsy settlement for drugs and weapons, they stumbled upon an illegality they hadn't expected: a little girl. The 4-year-old blonde, known as Maria, bore no resemblance to her 'parents,' leading authorities to believe she was a victim of child trafficking.
According to an article in ABC News, DNA testing proved the little girl was unrelated to her gypsy caregivers. Though she was reportedly in good mental and physical health, it's a mystery how she came to live with the 39-year-old man and 40-year-old woman who treated her as their own.
The couple, with 14 children registered under its care in three different Greek regions, gave conflicting statements to police about how they came to care for the little girl. Their lawyer claimed Maria's birth mother could not support her, and gave her up willingly.
The couple has since been arrested on "suspected abduction charges and holding false papers." And images of the girl have been popping up all over international media, pleading for information as to her origins.
Maria is currently in the care of the Greek charity, A Child's Smile, while police employ Interpol's assistance to help determine her identity.
What do you think is the best course of action for Maria?
What does Google think of women? The UN has a fair idea, according to an article in TIME. In order to highlight global inequalities when it comes to gender, the organization has launched a powerful ad campaign based on data collected from the most popular items plugged into the search engine giant.
Ever start to type a query only to have your search engine predict the rest of the text for you? Well, look what happens when Mister Google tries to finish the following sentence about women:
It's a stark contrast to the intended message: Women need to... be seen as equal.
Pre-pubescent girls aren't the only ones fawning over Justin Bieber. Over the past five years, a 33-year-old man has spent a small fortune trying to look like the Canadian idol.
Sad but true. According to an article in the Daily Telegraph, LA songwriter Toby Sheldon's affair with plastic surgery started with an insecurity due to his thinning hair. Modelling his hairline on Bieber's, Sheldon underwent three transplants, totalling $21,000, to get his bangs back.
By then his obsession was entrenched, much like these living dolls. Not content to stop there, Sheldon sought Bieber's youthful look for himself.
"By using Justin’s charming baby face as my inspiration," he said. "I’ve been able to restructure my entire look to maintain a much more youthful appearance through plastic surgery."
Though Sheldon admits he's not a fan of Bieber's music per se, he does covet the celeb's "flawless" face. One procedure led to another—from lip and face fillers, to Botox and Aquamid injections in his forehead and temples, liposuction on his chin, and eye surgery to lift his eyelids. The latest op was a "three-part smile surgery," to give him his 19-year-old hero's smile. (So-called smile surgery, reportedly popular in South Korea, and is now booming in the U.S., too.)
Of course Beverly Hills surgeons were only too willing to keep working on Sheldon, who proudly was proudly carded at a liquor store. But even now, after $100,000 of surgery, he isn't content with his likeness to Bieber and is seriously considering the nose job and jaw reductions suggested by Dr. Frankenstein—I mean, his surgeon. Not like this guy, Beeb's more natural Doppelganger.
Truly pathetic or his prerogative?
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