09-16-13
In April 1999, Laura Blitzer a 41-year-old single university professor decided to adopt a child. Fifteen months later the native of Brooklyn, New York, was in Hunan Province, China, holding her 9-month-old adoptive daughter, Cydney, for the first time.In 2007, Blitzer applied to adopt another child from China. Six years later, she is still waiting. "The estimate right now for me to receive a healthy infant is 2017," she said.After decades of steady growth, the number of international adoptions has dropped nearly 50% since 2004, despite the well-publicized explosion of adoptions from China in the 1990s, and high-profile adoptions by celebrities such as Angelina Jolie from Cambodia and Madonna from Malawi.The decline isn't due to fewer orphans worldwide nor waning demand from prospective parents, experts say. It is due to rising regulations and growing sentiment in countries such as Russia and China against sending orphans abroad.Although the number of American kids adopted internationally is far fewer than overseas orphans that join U.S. families, with 315 children in 2009 that's three times as many as 2004, according to Newcastle University.
09-17-13
A puppy eight weeks old that weighed less than five pounds was left in the scorching sun, wearing a chain around his neck that weighed four times as much as he did. He is one of 371 dogs seized by federal and state authorities last month in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Texas in what authorities say was the second largest dogfighting ring in the United States. Normally, dogfighters wait until the canines are at least half a year old before they chain them and expose them to extreme heat or cold as part of a brutal program to transform the dogs into fighters, according to American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals CEO Matt Bershadker. This puppy was one of several "8- and 10-week-old puppies on heavy, heavy long chains" found during last month's raids, according to Bershadker. The dogs were placed in the temporary care of the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States. Not only are the dogs getting medical treatment for malnourishment and injuries sustained in fighting, the canines also are getting a personal behavior modification enrichment plan to maximize each dog's opportunity to be placed in a home.
09-18-13
when Taylor Swift freaks out all she says is, OH MY GOD! One time she decided to drive her SUV and ended up hitting a car, but she was then happy to know it was her ba** players car. At the end of the day Taylor ended up following her bodyguard to a near by restaurant. Till this day Taylor promises that there was no car behind her because she look and she only saw the securities SUV. When Taylor crashed she said that she imagined herself being taken away in handcuffs by the police and being in jail in her blue pok-a-dot shirt dress. Swift sometimes gets scared because she feels that one day her luck will run out and everything will end. She doesn't want that to happen because she loves her job so much and she scared that she won't be able to do anything about it.
09-19-13
Tanupriya Khurana watches intently as her sister Bhavna gets a makeover at a designer cosmetics kiosk in the middle of one of Delhi's most popular malls, Select Citywalk.Shades of velvety pink blush roll over Bhavna's olive cheeks. She holds up a mirror and inspects the results.
Behind the kiosk, a clothing and lingerie store displays trendy fashions on mannequins with blond hair, blue eyes and milky white complexions. They look nothing like Tanupriya and her sister or the hundreds of other Indians milling about this upscale shopping complex on a Sunday afternoon.
Even the advertisements and store posters that use Indian faces promote a look that is unattainable for most Indians: long, silky straight hair; a tall, thin body; and, most importantly, a fair complexion. The most popular Bollywood stars such as Aishwarya Rai -- a former Miss World -- look more white than Indian. Khurana says this tongue in cheek. She knows it's racist -- and disagrees with this collective thinking. But she's right. As far back as I can remember, a woman's complexion has been a very big deal in my native land.