The deranged leader of a South Korean cult was recently arrested for holding over 400 of her followers captive at a compound on Fiji Island and forcing them to take part in violent rituals under threat of incurring God’s punishment.

Shin Ok-ju, founder of the Grace Road Church, was detained along with three senior leaders of her cult in connection to allegations that she led hundreds of her followers to the island of Fiji by telling them that a “great famine” was imminent on the Korean peninsula. Once there, she reportedly confiscated their passports and refused to let them leave the 83-acre compound. Under the watchful eyes of handpicked guardians, worshippers were also forced to take part in brutal rituals that often left them bloodied.

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Love is a wonderful and strong bond to have with someone, especially if you’re bringing new life into the world. But what happens when the connection is so strong, you’d do anything to keep it?

Rosa Castellanos Diaz, a young woman from the village of El Coyolar, Honduras, was expecting twins with her boyfriend, Melvin Mendoza. Or at least that’s what everyone thought, including Melvin, as Rosa looked pregnant and had even showed everyone an ultrasound scan. Last Friday, as he big day approached, the mother-to-be boarded a bus to the capital of Tegucigalpa, so she could give birth to her babies at Escuela Hospital. However, later that night, she called Melvin with heartbreaking news: one of the their twins had died while she was in labor, and the other one would have to stay at the hospital in order to receive special care.

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She may not look like one, but 96-year-old Inge Gingsberg is a rock star. She is the songwriter and lead vocalist of death metal group TritoneKings and is known as “Death-Metal Grandma”.

Inge has had quite a remarkable life. She grew up in Austria, but was forced to flee to Switzerland in the early days of World War 2, to avoid persecution. She spent years in a refugee camp, and after the war, she and her husband relocated to Hollywood, where they had to start their new life from scratch. Inge was able to begin a career in the music industry, composing songs for some of the most popular singers at the time, such as Nat King Cole, Doris Day, and Dean Martin. After a while, Inge started to get tired of Hollywood life, and decided to reinvent herself. Today, she is the vocalist of a death metal band.

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When faced with hardships in their lives, many people find them too challenging and give up, especially on their life dreams. But not for Gabriel Heredia.

Gabriel is a 20-year-old Argentinian barber who was born without hands. Despite his handicap, he was able to grow up happy and independent. He also always had the support of friends and family, never feeling discriminated at all by his schoolmates. In fact, his inspiration for such a line of work was his mother, who is a hairdresser. At the tender age of 14, he started working as a barber, and learned all the techniques to perfecting both haircuts and beard trimmings. Although he first saw it as a hobby, Gabriel quickly determined that this was the profession he wanted to work in.

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When Sven Van de Wege lost his eyesight to cancer at age six, he was afraid he’d never play video games again.

Today, “Blind Warrior Sven” is a competitive gamer who trounces some of the world’s best players at his favorite game “Street Fighter.” Watching Sven use his razor sharp gaming instincts to punish his opponents is nothing short of jaw-dropping.

But what will really blow your mind, is how Sven turned his handicap into an advantage that made him a celebrated professional gamer.

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A two and a half year old girl from Changzhou, China’s Jiangsu Province, has been dubbed a “super girl” after falling from the 17th floor of an apartment building and sustaining only minor injuries.

The accidental fall took place on July 11, when the girl’s grandmother decided to leave her home alone while she went grocery shopping. The woman later said that the girl was sleeping and she didn’t have the heart to wake her up, so she just left by herself and locked the door, thinking that she would be back before her granddaughter awakened. She was wrong.

When the young girl woke up, she started looking for her grandmother, and, after checking the front door, she went to the window to see if the woman was downstairs. She climbed onto a chair, then on the computer desk and leaned out an open window. The girl lost her balance and plunged 17 floors onto a small garden outside the apartment building, just as her grandmother was making her way back upstairs.

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Driely Meanda, a 22-year-old woman from Sao Paolo, Brazil, recently learned that a photo of her face is being printed on women’s clothes sold in Asia.

Meanda, whose popular Instagram account has over 300,000 followers, is used to seeing photos of herself circulating online, but she never imagined that someone would go as far as to take one of her artistic selfies and use it as a printable design for commercial clothing. Last Sunday, after being tipped off by one of her fans, the young Instagrammer posted a photo of a mannequin in a Vietnamese women’s clothing store wearing a t-shirt with her face on it. Further research revealed that there was actually an entire line of blouses and shirts featuring her face available for purchase both online and in physical stores.

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As a very insular society, Japan has developed a culture that can be very interesting and sometimes bizarre to the outside observer. For example, in recent years, many Japanese have become infatuated with moss. Nature excursions centered around observing the thousands of species of Japanese moss have exploded in popularity to the point that the demand for a place on these trips far exceeds availability.

Selling moss-related products like moss-containing jewelry has also become a lucrative market. You can buy rings that have tiny containers holding moss instead of stones. For many young women in Japan, love of these plants has become a part of their identity. These young enthusiasts call themselves “moss girls” and organize moss-themed events such as viewing parties, where they make drinks inspired from the plants.

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The term “stalker” first came into use in the 20th century, to describe the harassment of celebrities by obsessed strangers. The problem continues to this day, with public figures such as Queen Elizabeth II and Miley Cyrus suffering from stalking campaigns from captivated individuals. These stalkers are generally mentally unstable, yet highly resourceful.

With these high profile cases, the victims can take comfort in the fact that they have dedicated security who will work tirelessly to protect them from these volatile obsessives. But what if you’re just a normal person who becomes the target of a manic stalking?

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A Chinese man who drove his expensive Land Rover SUV into a river in order to save 20 yuan ($3) on a car wash, recently learned the hard way that sometimes being too cheap can cost you a lot more than you were trying to save.

According to a report from the Fire Services Department in Dujiangyan, China’s Sichuan Province, last week, a local man had to be rescued from a nearby river after driving his Land Rover SUV into the water to wash it and getting stranded on a small islet. The man told rescuers that he simply wanted to wash his car so he wouldn’t have to go to the car wash and pay the 20 yuan fee, but he didn’t expect the flood gates of an upstream dam to be opened causing the water level to rise almost instantly.

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There’s an abundance of health tips going around on social media these days, but as this story shows, some of them can actually have fatal consequences.

Zhou Xin, a 58-year-old man from Harbin China, recently became the victim of online fake news shared on the internet. The viral news snippet claimed that his home city was about to experience the three hottest days of the year, with extreme temperatures not only rendering heart medication completely ineffective, but, in some cases, actually making their effect harmful on health. After seeing the post widely shared on social media, Zhou, who suffered from chronic heart disease, decided to stop taking his daily medication for the three day period starting on July 17.

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A Malaysian company has recently come under fire for selling simple cotton caps as miraculous healing accessories for up to 1,200 ringgit ($295) a piece.

Called “Brain Synchronization Caps” the controversial accessories are supposed to cure wearers of various health conditions, like insomnia, migraines and even cirrhosis, as well as treat mystical conditions like spells and curses. Johor-based company Sihulk is currently selling the caps for 1,200 ringgit ($295) or 1,000 ringgit ($246) for registered members. Considering that they are basically simple cotton caps with the Sihulk logo on them, many have accused the company of taking advantage of gullible people for a profit.

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Online entrepreneurs in China have found an ingenious way of profiting off of couples paranoia – renting out ‘love testers’ who do their best to try and seduce one of the partners in order to check how faithful they really are.

China is well-known for its bizarre online services, which range from renting fake girlfriends/boyfriends to trick one’s family that they are in a relationship, to hiring mistress dispellers that teach scorned wives how to get rid of problematic mistresses, and even renting professional bridesmaids to endure all sorts of humiliation during traditional Chinese wedding. And entrepreneurs are constantly on the look out for new ways of profiting off of human relationships – case in point, an increasingly popular service that allows couples to rent ‘love testers’ to check their partners’ fidelity.

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Sombra, a drug-detection dog with the Colombian National Police has been causing such problems for drug cartels that they’ve recently started putting bounties on her head, forcing authorities to move her to a safer airport and have more officers accompanying her on her rounds.

The 6-year-old German shepherd has been a thorn in drug traffickers’ side for quite a while now. Over the past few years, her strong sense of smell has helped Colombian police make over 200 arrests and seize around nine tons of illegal drugs. Sombra, which translates as ‘shadow’ has become somewhat of a hero of the fight against drug cartels, but for the criminals losing money because of her radar-like nose, she is a threat that needs to be eliminated. To that end, the Urabeños, also known as the Gulf Clan, have reportedly put a prize on Sombra’s head, with reports on the reward for killing her varying between 20 and 200 million Colombian pesos ($7,000 and $70,000).

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A Peruvian man recently got his five minutes of online fame after his curious signature went viral on social media. Instead of the typical scribble or just a simple ‘X’, this guy always signs his name with the childish drawing of a kitten.

The man’s signature went viral after a photo of his ID next to an official police document signed by him were posted online by police in the coastal town of Huarmey. He along with five other had been arrested on July 18 on charges of gun possession, and after being taken to the local police station and signed into jail, one signature drew the attention of officers on duty. Instead of a name or a simple scribble, 31-year-old Juan Carlos Varillas Bazán had drawn a childish doodle of a kitten. Only after checking his ID and seeing that it featured the same drawing as a signature did they realize that they were not being trolled and that that was really the guy’s signature. They thought it was hilarious so they posted the documents on the station’s Facebook page for everyone to see.

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