23 Shocking News Stories

Stephanie Sinclair

Womb for Rent

The number of Indian women willing to carry an American child is growing fast.

Brigitte Sire

The Billionaire's Black Sheep

What's it like when your grandpa is the richest man in the world? For Nicole Buffett, it means forgoing cable TV and health insurance and making do on $40,000 a year.

Here, she dishes on her upbringing and why her grandfather Warren Buffett disowned her.

Jeff Riedel

Freegans

Everything inside Leia MonDragon's apartment - from the coffee maker to daughter Uma's rompers - was salvaged from the trash.

Mahesh Bhat

Suicide Bomber

A captured suicide bomber's vest (ripped apart for analysis) worn by a member of the anti-terrorism team.

G.M.B. Akash

Vigilantes in Pink

Fed up with abusive husbands and corrupt officials, India's poorest women are banding together, taking up arms, and fighting back. Even more shocking than the pink saris they wear: Their quest for justice is actually working.

Read more about the Gulabi Gang, or "pink gang."

four students sucking lollipops at the geisha school in moscow

Natali Arefieva

Russian Millionaire Hunters

Students, including Maria Markova (second from right) and Ella Videnina (second from left), learn oral sex skills.

Josh Estey/CARE

How Microloans Are Helping Women in Bangladesh

Women are transforming one of the poorest, most corrupt countries on the planet.

Marie Claire's roving correspondent sheds light on the subject.

Jason Florio

Survival Sex: Iraqi Refugees

Imagine: One day you're a nurse leading a quiet middle-class life; a few years later you're in a strange country doing the unthinkable: selling yourself. For some Iraqi refugees, prostitution is the only trick they feel they've got left.

Hear the story of Malek, a 34-year-old from Karbala, who found herself desperate.

Palani Mohan

Indian Call Centers

An agent calms a customer.

Herman Ricour

Malika el Aroud

Malika el Aroud, shown here in 2003, was arrested three months ago in a massive counterterrorism operation in Europe.

A. Hassan/AFP/Getty Images

The FBI's Most Wanted Woman

A Pakistani girl holds a poster in defense of alleged terrorist Aafia Siddiqui [with an alternative spelling of her name] after she was arrested in Afghanistan in July.

E. Kashi

Esperanza Field of Panties

Dave Lauridsen

Porn Pastor

Shortly after Melissa Scott took over as pastor of University Cathedral, someone mailed her congregation Easter cards outing her as a former porn star.

Sami Suni

Dating Diaries 1007

U. Sinai/Getty Images

I Married a Terrorist

When Maureen's husband told her he was traveling abroad to help a friend, she believed him. Until the police came knocking. They wanted him in connection with the 2004 Madrid bombings.

In a Marie Claire exclusive, the 24-year-old tells how she fell for the wrong man.

long necked women of thailand kayan tribe

Jack Picone

Thailand Long Neck Women

Zember in full traditional dress.

competitive eating champion sonya thomas

M. Cardy/Getty Images

America's Hungriest Woman

Sonya Thomas is petite and lithe, but her stomach can hold 18 pounds of food.

Read Marie Claire's Q & A with the binge queen.

Mehmet Salih Guler

Afghani Women Get Physical

When you think of Afghanistan, images of rock-hard abs and Stairmasters aren't the first things that leap to mind.

Take a look inside Afghanistan's first and only gym for women.

Sebastian Marjanov/WPN

Beauty and the Beast

She's been gored more than once, but Spanish bullfighter Ana Infante knows how to stand her ground.

Gender is no obstacle.

Erin Lubin/CARE

Fighting for Mothers

In some parts of the world, getting pregnant is a death sentence. But Marie Claire's contributing editor Christy Turlington Burns is out to change that.

Here, she describes her efforts to gather support in Congress.

Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

Born into the Japanese Mob

Born into Japan's most notorious crime syndicate, Shoko Tendo is struggling to break free of her violent legacy.

Marie Claire's Abigail Haworth met the marked woman in Tokyo.

Simone Donati

Italian Murder Mystery

Studying abroad should have been a grand adventure. Instead, Amanda Knox has spent a year in jail, accused by a corrupt legal system of murdering her roommate.

Read her story and what her mother had to say about the corruption.

man and woman on a date woman is pulling on man's tie

Sladjana Lukic/iStock

Dangerous Liaisons

Wealthy American businessmen in Hong Kong are getting robbed, blackmailed, even killed — by girls who spike their drinks with the date-rape drug. Even worse, the ladies are getting away with it.

We dug up the dirt on this potentially lethal crime.