One of the world’s most famous children’s toys, Barbie, has been given a makeover  – wearing a burkha.

Wearing the traditional Islamic dress, the iconic doll is going undercover for a charity auction in connection with Sotheby’s for Save The Children.

More than 500 Barbies went on show yesterday at the Salone dei Cinquecento, in Florence, Italy.

For the rest click HERE!

The battle of the burqa has reached a fever pitch.

In its first legislative step toward a total ban on the controversial Islamic veil, France voted unanimously in favor of a formal resolution calling the garment "an affront to French values," the Telegraph reports.

Following in the footsteps of Belgium, which recently voted for a total burqa ban in public, French politicians approved the resolution yesterday, which comes ahead of a vote in July to enact a complete ban, according to the paper.

"Radical practices which violate the dignity and equality between men and women, such as the wearing of the full veil, are contrary to the values of the republic," the resolution reportedly states.

As we've previously reported, a total veil ban would levy fines and possible jail time against burqa-wearing women and the men who force their wives to wear the face-covering garment.

It has also been announced that well-off Middle Eastern tourists who wear burqas while visiting Paris' luxury boutiques will also reportedly be subject to hefty fines.

And while politicians insist that their tough stance against the burqa is a security, not a religious issue, human rights activists and Muslim advocates claim that such a ban would violate personal and religious freedoms while ostracizing Muslim women.

What's your take? Would you like to see a similar ban in the United States? Or are you opposed to the government having a say on what you can and cannot wear? Leave a comment.

Meanwhile, learn more about Belgium's burqa ban.

By Erin Donnelly

Now that's what we call a retirement fund.

Tycoon Mohammed Al Fayed is $2.3 billion richer after selling famed London department store Harrods upon his retirement, BBC News reports.

The (ridiculously rich) buyers? None other than the Qatari royal family.

(What? Couldn't the queen cough up the change?)

"In reaching the decision to retire, he [Al Fayed] wished to ensure that the legacy and traditions that he has built up in Harrods would be continued, and that the team that he has built up would be encouraged to develop the foundations that he has laid," adviser Ken Costa told the news service of the deal.

Though Costa reportedly added that Al Fayed was retiring to spend more time with his children and grandchildren (his son Dodi was killed in a car crash with girlfriend Princess Diana in 1997), he will stay on as an honorary chairman. But first, a Scrooge McDuck-style gold coin cannonball dive.

The sprawling, one-million-square-foot-plus department store opened in 1849 and is home to luxury goods, food stalls and an assortment of unique finds.

Its new owner, Qatar Holdings, the royal family's investment branch, also reportedly owns a stake in Porsche and is the third-largest shareholder of VW.

"It's a historical place," chairman Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani (aka the prime minister of Qatar) told the BBC.

"I know it's important, not only for the British people but it is important for the tourism."

Guilty as charged. Let's just hope they don't jack up the prices to help cover the $2.3 billion hole in their pocket -- the exchange rate is brutal enough, thanks!

by Erin Donnelly