January 10, 2008
Twins unwittingly got married in Britain
LONDON - Twins who were separated at birth got married without realizing they were brother and sister, a lawmaker said, urging more information be provided on birth certificates for adopted children. A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord David Alton said.
"Everyone has a right to knowledge about their lineage, genealogy and identity. And if they don't, then it will lead to cases of incest," Alton told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Friday.
Alton first revealed details of the unusual case last month during a five-hour debate about a bill that would change regulations about human embryology.
"I was recently involved in a conversation with a High Court judge who was telling me of a case he had dealt with," Alton said according to a transcript of the Dec. 10 debate. "It involved the normal birth of twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents.
"They were never told that they were twins. They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation."
Alton gave no additional details and would not reveal the name of the judge who told him about the case.
The High Court's Family Division declined to discuss or confirm Alton's account about the twins.
Alton, an independent legislator who works at Liverpool's John Moores University, said the siblings' inadvertent marriage raises the wider issue of the importance of strengthening the rights of children to know the identities of their biological parents, including kids who were born through in vitro fertilization.
Under British law, only a mother has to be named on a birth certificate. Such certificates also are not required to identify births that result from IVF or to identify the sperm donor.
In addition, British law does not require parents to ever tell children that they were the result of donated sperm.
Alton believes this should be changed.
Alton said he favors an amendment to the Human Fertility and Embryology bill — which is still being debated in the House of Lords — that would require birth certificates of children born from donated sperm to say that and to identify the genetic father.
Referring to the twins' case, he said: "If you start trying to conceal someone's identity, sooner or later the truth will come out. And if you don't know you are biologically related to someone, you may become attracted to them and tragedies like this may occur."
Posted by ronnie at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2008
Newlyweds caught in drag race
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian newlyweds kissing on the backseat of their hired car were unaware their chauffeur was street drag racing, until a police siren broke their romantic bliss and ended the race.
The chauffeur, clocked at up to 130 kph (80 mph) racing a young driver in a rental car, was fingerprinted on the side of the road and the hire car confiscated.
"It's alleged that as the traffic light turned green both the (cars) accelerated harshly from the intersection and continued to travel at speed along the highway," police said in a statement.
Both drivers were taken away by police, while newlyweds John and Laina Tauranga were escorted home in a police car.
Posted by ronnie at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
November 25, 2007
oughnut shop a sweet spot for wedding
NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - It was at the Honey Dew Donut shop that Cyndi LaRose and her honey said, "I do."
LaRose and Joseph David Smith exchanged wedding vows Wednesday at the North Kingstown shop where they had met.
Marjorie Harrison, the baker, made the food. Faraq Mohamed, the shop's owner, greeted customers with a simple question: "Coffee or the wedding?" A former probate judge conducted the ceremony. The shop's regulars served as the witnesses.
"I had the privilege of knowing Joe and Cyndi before they met," Mohamed said. "I watched as they fell in love."
LaRose, 49, a caregiver for Coventry Home Care, has been coming to the shop for years. Smith, 58, who works at Kingstown Mobile Home Park, started coming when his niece worked behind the counter.
"I saw this good-looking guy standing up there," LaRose said. "He was a country-looking guy, the type I look for, the Grizzly Adams type."
But they didn't really fall in love until they helped Mohamed with an errand a few weeks ago. Two days later, Smith asked her to marry him. They picked out rings last week.
They thought about having the ceremony on the beach, but decided it was too cold. The doughnut shop is a casual place where most of their friends hang out anyway, so it was a perfect fit.
"I don't even own a dress," LaRose said.
"You couldn't get me in a tie," Smith said.
The couple planned to spend a Thanksgiving weekend honeymoon at a Connecticut casino.
Posted by ronnie at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)
November 16, 2007
Lithuanian, 102, becomes country's oldest bridegroom
VILNIUS (AFP) - A 102-year-old Lithuanian man has become the Baltic country's oldest recorded bridegroom after tying the knot with his 76-year old fiancee, the daily Laikinoji Sostine reported Tuesday.
The newspaper said Stanislovas Grigas and his bride Brone Mikutiene had been married Saturday in a ceremony in Kaunas, Lithuania's second city.
"As far as I know, until now Lithuania has never seen a bridegroom of such a solid age," Kestutis Ignatavicius, the master of ceremonies at Kaunas City Hall, who married the couple, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"It may even be a European record," Ignatavicius added.
Lithuanian statistics show that the country's previous oldest groom was an 84-year-old who was married in 1986.
The oldest recorded bride, meanwhile, was an 80-year-old whose wedding took place in 1991.
Grigas and Mikutiene have reportedly known each other since 1972, when Grigas was still married to his first wife.
Mikutiene helped him around the house after Grigas' wife died in 1992 and his two sons passed away in 1995 and 2006. She has been living in Grigas' house since this spring, Laikinoji Sostine reported.
The newspaper also said that it was Grigas' idea to get married.
"The main decisions in the family are taken by him, and I usually agree with him," Mikutiene was quoted as saying.
Posted by ronnie at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2007
'Bride' with pot drives into N.H. pond
GILFORD, N.H. - A woman wearing a wedding dress and parked beside a pond drove into the water Wednesday after officers tried to take a bag of marijuana from her, police said.
When the state fish and game conservation officers and a nearby resident tried to rescue the woman from her sinking sport-utility vehicle, she bit the neighbor on the arm, authorities said.
The 42-year-old woman was eventually taken to shore, then to a hospital, police said. It was not immediately known whether she was hurt or what her condition was.
The conservation officers were checking on the woman, who was parked alone by Saltmarsh Pond in eastern New Hampshire. She became upset and reached for a bag of marijuana, police said. When one of the officers tried to grab the bag, the woman drove off, speeding around the parking lot and then into the water.
She will be charged with reckless conduct, simple assault, driving after suspension and transporting a controlled drug, police said.
Posted by ronnie at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2007
City bans "seductive" marriage ads
BEIJING (Reuters) - A northern Chinese city has banned the use of "seductive" words like "foxy lady," "handsome guy" and "moneybags" in marriage advertisements in a bid to stamp out fraud, domestic media reported Tuesday.
Many Chinese people still go to marriage brokers to arrange suitable life partners for their children, and often turn to adverts carried in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet.
But after a series of complaints from people who said they had been cheated -- although how was not explained -- Henan provincial capital Zhengzhou is reining in the industry, the Beijing News said.
From November 1, marriage brokers will need to have the content of their adverts approved by the city government and risk being banned for life if they snub the new rules, it added.
Promises to arrange marriages to foreigners are also banned, as are marriage adverts dressed up as solicitations to simply find friends or travel partners, the report said.
Posted by ronnie at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
October 19, 2007
Florist sued for $400,000 over wedding flowers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York couple sued a florist for $400,000 for using the wrong color flowers at their wedding -- a mistake the newlyweds said caused them "extreme disappointment, distress and embarrassment."
Elana and Toby Glatt had requested $465 centerpieces in "deep and dark colors of fuchsia, rust and green."
Instead Posy Floral Design Studio, which charged almost $30,000, used cheaper flowers and the centerpieces appeared "predominantly pastel pink, almost white," according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Court.
The result "had a significant impact on the look of the room and was entirely inconsistent with the vision the plaintiffs had bargained and paid for," said the lawsuit, which accused the florist of fraud, breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation.
The florist's owner, Stamos Arakas, said his photographs of the wedding show he provided exactly what the couple had wanted and he intends to counter sue for damages to his business reputation.
"We enjoyed doing the wedding. It was beautiful," Arakas said. "But it is going to cost me a lot of money to fight this and to get our reputation back."
Posted by ronnie at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2007
US bride sues over wilted bouquets: press
NEW YORK (AFP) - Newlyweds in New York have filed a 400,000 dollar lawsuit against the florist who supplied the flowers for their wedding, saying they were the wrong color and wilted, press reports said Tuesday.
Among things that drew the ire of the bride, Elana Glatt, who also happens to be a lawyer, were the alleged inclusion of cheaper orchids than promised in the bridal bouquet, the New York Times reported.
She also complained about five dollar street vendor-quality roses in arrangements for which the florist charged 55-65 dollars, and dusty vases with no water.
But the most "egregious" of her numerous complaints was the fact that florist Stamos Arakas had substituted pastel pink and green hydrangeas for the rust and green flowers she had chosen for the centerpieces.
"The use of predominantly pastel centerpieces had a significant impact on the look of the room and was entirely inconsistent with the vision the plaintiffs had bargained for," the Times quoted the lawsuit as saying.
Glatt said the flowers were paid for in advance by her mother-in-law and cost more than 27,000 dollars.
In her suit, which outlines numerous "distressing and embarrassing" offenses, she accuses Arakas of "unjust enrichment."
Arakas told the New York Times that Glatt had sent him several emails prior to filing the lawsuit, demanding a 4,000 dollar refund, but he ignored them because "they were so insulting."
Posted by ronnie at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2007
Glamorous politician wants law to allow 7-year itch
BERLIN (Reuters) - Bavaria's most glamorous politician -- a flame-haired motorcyclist who helped bring down state premier Edmund Stoiber -- has shocked the Catholic state in Germany by suggesting marriage should last just 7 years.
Gabriele Pauli, who poses on her web site in motorcycle leathers, is standing for the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) -- in a vote next week.
She told reporters at the launch of her campaign manifesto on Wednesday she wanted marriage to expire after seven years and accused the CSU, which promotes traditional family values, of nurturing ideals of marriage which are wide of the mark.
"The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years."
After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said.
Fifty-year-old Pauli, twice divorced, is a maverick intent on shaking up her male-dominated and mainly Catholic party which has dominated Bavarian politics since World War Two.
"This is about bringing ideas into the CSU and starting a discussion," she told German television on Thursday after she had unleashed a wave of criticism from other politicians.
Former foe Stoiber said she did not belong in the CSU and European lawmaker Ingo Freidrich dismissed her views.
"She is diametrically contradicting our Christian, ethical values," Freidrich said.
Peter Ramsauer, head of the CSU in Germany's parliament, compared Pauli's ideas to "the dirt under your fingernails".
Pauli, who attracted attention earlier this year when she posed for a magazine wearing long black latex gloves, was at the centre of a snooping scandal which eventually led to Stoiber, Bavarian premier for 14 years, saying he would stand down early.
She said his office tried to obtain details about lovers and alcohol consumption to use against her.
The CSU will elect Stoiber's successor as party head at a conference next week. He will be replaced as state premier in early October.
Viewed as a party rebel, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning next week's vote. The contest has been fought mainly between Bavarian state economy minister Erwin Huber and German Consumer Minister Horst Seehofer.
The popularity of Seehofer, a 58-year-old married father of three, has suffered from the disclosure that he had been having an affair with a younger woman who recently had his baby.
Posted by ronnie at 05:06 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2007
Alaska man gets 'mauled' into marriage
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A man mauled by a grizzly bear last month married his longtime girlfriend, a health aide who help keep him alive when he was rushed to her clinic in Shaktoolik. Shawn Evan, 32, married Lydia Jackson, 31, on Friday at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.
Evan said thoughts of Jackson and their two young sons kept him alive during an agonizing skiff ride back to the village after the attack July 31. He was freezing because he'd lost so much blood. Muscle, skin and a crude splint were holding his shattered legs together below the knees.
"There was twice that my heart felt weird, different. I felt it slow down, like it was losing its pumping power," he said.
The couple has been together 10 years. Evan spent summers hunting and picking berries to supply food for his grandmother mother and then permanently moved from California to the Inupiat village of 200.
Jackson had wanted to get married since she was pregnant with their first child, Ethan, now 7. A second son, Marcus, was born 18 months ago.
Evan's reluctance to propose disappeared at the hospital. Doctors told him he might lose a leg, but constant support from Lydia and others lifted his spirits. He knew it was time to take life seriously, starting with marriage, he said.
Evan and two hunting partners, Michael Rock, 23, and A.J. Nakarak, 17, had traveled far up the Shaktoolik River the night of July 31, preparing to hunt moose the next day.
The hunters were several miles from the village when they saw a bear swimming in the river. Rock and Nakarak wanted the bear's meat and claws, so they shot it with their rifles, Evan said.
The bear bolted out of the water and ran up a steep hill. The trio found bloody, wet tracks and followed the trail up the hill through willow patches. After walking about a mile, Evan spotted 90 feet away. He fired his .475 magnum pistol, hitting the bear. It rolled down a hill end over end before crashing against willows, Evan said.
"We figured that would be it, but his head popped out of the willows," said Evan. "He came barreling down hill after me, really fast, I only got off one shot and I couldn't tell you where I hit it."
Evan turned to run but the bear's powerful jaws crushed his right calf. He isn't sure how his left leg was injured.
His hunting partners on either side of the bear "were shooting away" with their rifles until the bear died, he said. He believes a bullet went through the bear and shattered the bones in his left leg. Bullet fragments were later found in that leg.
The pain was devastating, said Evan. "It felt like my legs were on fire."
Rock pried the dead bear's mouth off Evan's leg. Both feet were askew.
"I knew I was in deep trouble. I'm screaming, praying, asking how could this could happen, trying to vent my pain," Evan said.
His partners tied off Evan's legs below the knees to stop the bleeding. They fashioned a splint by strapping his legs to a branch and dragged him down the steep slope to the boat.
"All I could think about at this time was my sons, two boys, and my fiancee," he said. "That's what gave me the strength to keep going."
When they reached the Shaktoolik, villagers rushed him to the clinic in a truck bed.
Evan remembers Jackson being calm. She slid intravenous needles into Evan's arms to replace lost fluid. She cut off his blood-soaked jeans and rubber boots. Blood gushed to the floor.
As he moaned, she cleaned his splintered bones and set them back in place as best she could with a proper splint.
"Everyone thought I would panic but I didn't," Lydia said. "I knew if we didn't stabilize him and get him to a hospital quickly, he wouldn't be with us today."
Evan had lost several pints of blood, Lydia said. Medics from Nome brought two pints and flew him to Anchorage.
Doctors needed several surgeries over two weeks to screw and pin his bones back together. On the right side, where the bear bit him, doctors replaced bone with cement fragments, Lydia said.
Early last week, after talking with family and Lydia's parents, Evan asked her to marry him.
"I said to myself, 'It's about time,'" she said.
He should be discharged sometime this week, once he can get around on crutches. While he heals, the newlyweds plan to live in California to be near his mother. A sometimes-construction worker in Shaktoolik, Evan hopes to become a teacher, and pay for Lydia's medical school so she can become a doctor.
"No more wasting time," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2007
Czech skier ties the knot at -30 but it ain't cool enough
PRAGUE (AFP) - Czech skier Vaclav Sura, who has undertaken a Polar expedition, got married in a refrigerated warehouse in sub-zero temperatures but it was not cool enough for him, press reports said Tuesday.
Sura tied the knot at minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit).
"It would have been better at minus 50 degrees and with winds," said the 42-year-old who staged an expedition to the North Pole in May 2005.
The guests sported anoraks and snowboots and all the flowers and accessories were specially chosen to withstand the cold. The venue was festooned with photographs from Sura's expedition.
Posted by ronnie at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
July 17, 2007
Islamic school sanctions online Muslim weddings
LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - An influential and conservative Islamic theological school in India said on Thursday marriages of Muslim couples using Internet Web cameras were acceptable and legal.
The decision was taken by the "fatwa" (decree) department of Darul Uloom Deoband in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and came after two rare cases of Muslims marrying through the Internet in Lucknow, the state capital, since 2005.
One case was brought to the Deoband school for approval.
"The Internet assumes the role of a lawyer in such cases and is, therefore, competent to formally supervise the "Ijaab" (offer of marriage) and "Qabool" (acceptance) made by the bride and bridegroom," top Deoband cleric Khalid Safiullah Rehmani said.
"The concept was widely discussed and debated over the past two years since the first online nikah took place in Lucknow in 2005."
Nikah is a legal Islamic marriage contract. Muslim marriages should have a "vakil" or lawyer who deals with the marriage contract.
Rehmani said both the bride and bridegroom in an Internet marriage -- like regular Muslim marriages -- must have two witnesses under Islamic law.
In the 2005 marriage, 26-year-old Shabnam sat before a Web camera in Lucknow and told her groom Abdul Kalam sitting in Mecca "Qabool hai" (I accept) three times as stipulated in Islamic law, her brother Hazrat Ali said.
At least 40 of her relatives crowded the Internet cafe owned by a Hindu to witness the wedding, followed by a small celebration and a feast at home.
In Mecca, Kalam had friends to witness the online marriage.
"The marriage was arranged by us, and my sister and Kalam had never met before," said Ali.
The other online marriage was solemnized at the office of a local body of Muslim clerics in Lucknow.
The Deoband school, which has a powerful influence among Muslims in South Asia, is known for its hard-line views on gender issues. Earlier this month, it issued a decree saying Muslim girls should not go to co-educational schools and colleges.
In 2005, it said a woman allegedly raped by her father-in-law could not stay with her husband, sparking an outcry from women's groups.
Posted by ronnie at 07:47 AM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2007
World's tallest man gets married
BEIJING - The world's tallest man married a woman who's two-thirds his height and half his age, holding a traditional Mongolian ceremony Thursday with great fanfare at the tomb of Kublai Khan.
Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9 herdsman from Inner Mongolia, met his bride earlier this year after searching high and low, sending advertisements around the world. It turns out he didn't have to look far — 5-foot-6 saleswoman Xia Shujian hails from his hometown of Chifeng.
Bao wore a specially designed light blue gown topped with a gold vest, and rode to his bride's camp in front of the tomb in a cart pulled by two camels, AP Television News reported. A limo followed the cart.
In keeping with Mongolian tradition, the bride's attendants tried to "stop" Bao from getting into the camp. But they relented after the giant groom's sincere appeals, and he was offered tea by the bride's relatives, symbolizing that he had been accepted into her family.
He did not kowtow to his parents and in-laws because of his extraordinary height and arthritis in his knees, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Bao, 56, and Xia, 28, married in a civil ceremony in March. This time, more than 2,000 people turned out for the ceremonial nuptials, including relatives, locals and a large crowd of journalists.
Bao was confirmed last year by Guinness World Records as the world's tallest person. Xinhua said his growth was normal until age 16, when a growth spurt shot him up to his current height within seven years.
He was in the news in December after he used his long arms to save two dolphins by pulling plastic out of their stomachs.
The dolphins got sick after nibbling on plastic from the edge of their pool at an aquarium in Liaoning province. Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins' stomachs contracted in response to the instruments, Chinese media reported.
Posted by ronnie at 07:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 09, 2007
Forensics scientist checks out her man
LANSING, Mich. - A state forensics scientist who said she tested DNA in her husband's underwear to find out whether he was cheating could be disciplined if investigators determine she violated the use of state equipment.
Ann Chamberlain-Gordon of Okemos testified in a March 7 divorce hearing that she ran the test in September on the underwear of Charles Gordon Jr. Asked by his attorney what she found, she answered: "Another female. It wasn't me."
She also said during a May 25 hearing in Ingham County Family Court that she ran the test on her own time with chemicals that were set to be thrown away.
Michigan State Police, which oversees the Lansing forensics lab where Chamberlain-Gordon works, started to investigate her after her husband's attorney wrote to authorities and media outlets questioning how many times DNA tests have been improperly run.
Investigators expect to decide by next week what they found. Her duties have not been restricted during the investigation, state police spokeswoman Shanon Akans said Tuesday.
"We don't know exactly what was or wasn't done," Akans said.
State police policies on the care and use of property say "department supplies, materials or equipment shall not be used for any non-duty or non-department purpose."
A request for comment was left Tuesday with Chamberlain-Gordon.
Charles Gordon's attorney, Michael Maddaloni, said Tuesday that his client disputed his wife's testimony that he acknowledged a sexual encounter with another woman after she found the female DNA on his underwear.
Gordon played with the Canadian Football League as a defensive back from the early 1990s through 1997.
Chamberlain-Gordon received the award for Outstanding Contribution to the Michigan State Police Biological Services in 2006 for her research and method development in embryonic and fetal DNA recovery, according to Forensic Science Consultants Inc., which lists her among its workers.
Chamberlain-Gordon has worked for the state police as a forensic scientist since 1999 and supervised the biology unit in 2005, according to the company's Web site. She has given expert testimony in more than 50 cases, including at a widely publicized trial last year in the death of a boy slain by his adoptive parents.
Posted by ronnie at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2007
SKorea tycoon seeks husband for 'old, short' daughter
SEOUL (AFP) - A South Korean millionaire is seeking someone to marry his "too old and short" daughter and a matchmaking agency tasked with the search says it has received 200 applications in four days.
The Sunoo agency told AFP Monday that the unidentified man in his 60s, whose wealth amounts to some 100 billion won (107 million dollars), wants a spouse for his daughter who will also be like a son to him.
"This father is looking for a son-in-law to marry his daughter," Sunoo said in a notice on its website.
"He wants a man who can lead his family, which has no sons."
The website describes the woman as a 38-year-old, US-educated and Christian professional. "Despite the shortcomings of being a bit too old and short, she is top-notch in terms of other conditions," it said.
"The man she wants should be tidy, healthy and smart and raised in the same religion in an upright family."
It is rare in South Korea for a man to be considered part of his wife's family. Normally the woman is considered to become part of the husband's family after wedlock.
The notice has received mixed reactions.
"It is a huge sum -- 100 billion won. To become a son of such a wealthy family is not that bad," a South Korean man in his 20s, interviewed by YTN television, said jokingly.
Sunoo advises applicants not just to think about the money, according to Yonhap news agency. But an anonymous Internet comment complained that such a husband could be seen as nothing more than a "slave or servant."
Posted by ronnie at 09:18 PM | Comments (0)
June 12, 2007
Indian gumshoe finds boom in busted marriages
MUMBAI (AFP) - The successful Indian businessman had a wife, a lover who was an exotic bar dancer -- and an awful lot to lose, so he practised exceptionally safe sex.
His first precaution was to get on a plane and put nearly 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) between his wife at home in Dubai and the hotel in the western Indian city of Mumbai where his mistress waited for their regular weekend trysts.
In case anybody was watching, he left his car at one hotel and sneaked out the back exit of the car park before checking in at another hotel nearby.
It did him little good. When he answered his hotel doorbell early one Sunday morning it was not room service but his angry wife and his parents who had just arrived on a flight from Dubai to catch him out.
Rahul Rai was not there to see it. He had telephoned Dubai to tip off the wife after his team of "street smart" graduates and ex-detectives tracked him down after a 45-day surveillance operation.
With the job done they discreetly pulled out to leave the family to it.
For Rai, 30, an undemonstrative MBA graduate based in a suitably unobtrusive small first-floor office in a sprawling and dusty industrial estate in Mumbai, it was another successful outcome from an expanding caseload.
He runs one of India's many businesses benefiting from the growing wealth of the country's middle-class.
Most of the 50 people who contact him daily are put off by the 6,500 rupee (160 dollars) a day investigation fee.
Yet he still runs up to 20 simultaneous investigations a day across India, up from one or two when he took over the family concern seven years ago.
Failing marriages provide the bulk of the work for the Globe Group's investigative wing. His operatives rely largely on surveillance, secret photography and fake phone calls from credit card companies to trace and track the targets of their investigations.
A team of four will trail the suspect across the city. If the target is a woman, a female sleuth will be part of the team in case she travels in one of the city's women-only train carriages that take millions of people to work every day.
Globe employs 450 investigators, some on the payroll and some freelance, and the little reliable data available suggests they are tapping into a growth industry with divorce on the up in urban India.
In the past many Indian women could be relied upon to suffer in silence in an abusive or adulterous relationship.
They are now heading to the divorce courts in growing numbers despite the potential for six of seven years of financially ruinous proceedings.
By Western standards, India's divorce rate is tiny. The 2001 census suggests that 3.3 million people are divorced or separated -- fewer than one percent of married people in a nation of more than one billion.
But the figures hide the story of growing changes in a nation where the vast majority of marriages are arranged.
After marriage, women traditionally move in with their husband's parents, an arrangement that has long been regarded as a model for family stability, but within which domestic violence has been a constant sore.
Thousands of women are killed every year over their family's failure to provide more money in dowry payments.
A new domestic violence act was introduced last year, designed to protect women from abuse in the home.
Lawyers and campaign groups say the new law is just one of a series of social changes, including a new generation of urban women going out to work, that has fuelled the popularity of divorce.
"Women are getting a better position in the family," said Aafreen Siddiqui, from campaigning legal group Lawyer's Collective.
"They are feeling a sense of empowerment and they have a better negotiating power in relationships."
Sudhir Shah, a leading lawyer in Mumbai with 40 years experience, says about 10 percent of couples in the major cities were divorcing.
"Since they (women) are now earning, society has accepted that a woman staying alone is acceptable and they are fighting for their rights," he says.
"They don't tolerate any nonsense if their in-laws are repressing them."
One academic study that looked at 10 years of divorce court papers in Mumbai revealed that more women than men were instigating divorce. Cases lodged had risen by more than 50 percent in the decade to nearly 3,000 in 2001.
Rahul Rai normally sees the collapse of the marriage before it gets to court but is surprised that two-thirds of his wealthy clients had "love marriages," still a relative rarity in India where an estimated 95 percent of marriages are arranged.
"That's very shocking since they go into love marriages and later they find they are not fit for each other," he said. "In the olden days they also used to be unhappy with each other but due to social pressures they carried on. Now they know they can go for divorce."
It is his job to reveal the evidence of his investigations to the suspicious, fearful and occasionally disbelieving.
He has comforted those who have broken down in his office. He even set up an investigation for a man in his 70s who -- wrongly, as it turned out -- believed his similarly elderly wife was having an affair.
But there are upsides to the emotional carnage. "It is much more interesting than corporate investigations," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 09:29 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2007
Indian man chained for defying father in marriage
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Police in eastern India have rescued a Muslim man who had been shackled in chains for a month for marrying his childhood lover against the wishes of his father and village clerics, authorities said Friday.
Raghu Amin, 21, was locked in a dingy room by his father in a village in the state of West Bengal after he publicly announced his marriage to 18-year-old Sehnaaz Khatoon, who came from a poorer and lower class family, police said.
"He was chained throughout and even served food in this condition as punishment," said police officer Jay Biswas.
Police came to Raghu's rescue Thursday evening in Baduria village, 70 km (40 miles) north of the state capital Kolkata, after his wife lodged a complaint.
Raghu's father has been arrested on charges of wrongful confinement and police said they were looking for some village clerics who they suspected were also involved.
In India, most marriages are still arranged by parents of the bride and groom who often look for compatibility in religion, caste and class. Couples breaking from this tradition are sometimes ostracized by their families and even face violence.
Posted by ronnie at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2007
"Till death do us marry" - Indian weds corpse
AHMEDABAD, India (Reuters) - An Indian woman, despairing over her lover's accidental death when he fell down a well soon after their engagement, insisted on ceremonially marrying his corpse just minutes before the cremation.
"It was for just few minutes the girl was dressed as a bride and then as a widow," K.M. Kapadia, a police officer in the town of Anand in western Gujarat state, said on Saturday.
Wedding attendees sat the corpse up by a fire, the traditional centre of Hindu wedding ceremonies, and chanted some marriage prayers before cremating the body, police said.
"The girl refused to give away the body of her lover for the cremation till she tied the knot with him," Kapadia said.
The bride's parents opposed the marriage but later attended the wedding ceremony and gave their 22-year-old daughter Tulsi Devipujak clothes and utensils as gifts, according to the Hindu tradition.
Posted by ronnie at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2007
Malaysia to annul 200 'fake' Muslim marriages
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Authorities in northern Malaysia plan to annul nearly 200 marriages performed by an imam who allowed Muslim men to secretly take multiple wives, reports have said.
Officials in Kelantan state, the only state in the country that is ruled by a hardline Islamic party, said the imam belonged to a criminal syndicate that charged couples for covert wedding ceremonies.
"The imam is not authorised to solemnise marriages," the director of Kelantan's Islamic affairs department, Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times, adding that 199 couples would be summoned.
"We are tracing them through the addresses provided to the syndicate," Abdul Aziz said.
"Surprisingly, the addresses are correct but nothing about their marriages is valid. The certificates, stamps and signatures were all forged."
The syndicate, believed to be in operation for about five years, is used by Muslim men who want to take extra wives without their spouses knowing, and also by eloping couples, the newspaper said.
The state Bernama news agency said the syndicate was bringing in fake officiants from Thailand, which borders Kelantan, and is using fake government stamps from departments such as the police to bring them across the border.
Abdul Aziz said the couples included well-known Malaysian personalities, most of whom did not live in Kelantan, Bernama reported, without giving names.
Malaysian Muslim men are allowed up to four wives, but activists and women's groups say polygamy is cruel and has deviated from its original purpose during the days of the Prophet Mohammed, which was to protect widows and orphans.
Posted by ronnie at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2007
Couples betting 7/7/07 is lucky for love
SACRAMENTO - Will lucky sevens result in wedded bliss for the lucky in love?
Wedding planners say July 7th — or 7/7/07 — as the date appears in print, has become the most popular day in years to get married.
From vaunted Napa Valley wineries to vistas along Lake Tahoe, California couples have booked up thousands of churches and reception sites hoping to begin wedded bliss on the lucky date.
"It's the most popular date — ever," said Tonya Simmons, wedding specialist with Boomtown Casino Hotel on the outskirts of Reno, where lining up sevens more often means winning a slot-machine jackpot.
Richard Markel, head of the 800-member Association for Wedding Professionals International, said group members first began noticing extra interest in the novelty date last year.
A popular Sacramento wedding location, the Arden Hills Resort Club and Spa, had three openings for weddings on the day — all have been booked, said sales director Rick Francis.
"I guess more people are getting into numerology," Markel said, adding that July 7th will not be lucky for bargain hunters. The increased demand will drive up costs for everything from caterers to florists, he said.
Arlene Hixson and her fiance, Tony Goligowski, booked the date at Boomtown almost two years in advance. The first Saturday in July, Hixson figures, has another benefit for her fiance.
"I figured, that way, he can't forget it," she said.
Posted by ronnie at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2007
Cameroon mass weddings aim to promote family values
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Authorities in Cameroon have started organising mass public weddings when couples can marry for free to try to promote family values and provide what they say is a more secure environment to bring up children.
Some 52 couples, both Christian and Muslim, tied the knot in the central African country's first mass ceremony late on Thursday, overseen by council officials in the capital Yaounde in front of thousands of family, friends and on-lookers.
"Our aim is to grant the man and the woman legal status as husband and wife," said Suzanne Bomback, minister of Women's Affairs and Promotion of the Family.
"It is part of a mission to protect the rights of the family, to promote stability and peace within families."
Traditional marriage ceremonies are so expensive that many couples do not get round to certifying their union, meaning the women and children cannot benefit from a range of legal rights.
"You have to give money to every member of your fiance's household: the father, mother, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers and cousins, to earn their support," said Patrice Djine, after formalising his 11-year old marriage at the ceremony.
"Then comes the bride price which is a heavy amount, and on the day of the marriage, you have to invite the whole village, feed them and make them drink properly," he said, before his wife thanked the authorities for organising the free event.
With polygamy legal in Cameroon, some men taking part in Thursday's ceremony hoped it would not be their last.
"I accept them with joy and an open heart," said Ali Abba Adji when asked by the local mayor whether he accepted the hands of the three women who stood next to him.
"I'm going in for polygamy. I'm looking forward to taking a fourth one," he added, raising his hands in the air as the crowd applauded.
Posted by ronnie at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2006
S.D. county denies jailhouse wedding
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The sheriff is saying "I won't" to two jail inmates who want to say "I do." The unidentified couple, in their early 20s and engaged to be married, have been in the Minnehaha County Jail since their arrests on theft and drug charges. With both anticipating plea agreements and facing several years at separate state prisons, they'd like to get married soon.
While marriages are performed a few blocks away at the state penitentiary, that's not going to happen at the county jail, said Sheriff Mike Milstead
The difference with a jail is that it's a short-term facility and lifelong commitments can wait, he said.
State Rep. Rich Engels, a lawyer representing the would-be bride, said there is no law requiring that inmates be allowed to marry, so he plans to write one and introduce it in the 2007 legislative session.
"This is really the only opportunity for them to get married," said Engels. "I think it's important people have a strong support network and something to look forward to. And the jail is not making that possible."
Posted by ronnie at 09:12 PM | Comments (0)
November 05, 2006
Male models need to keep eye on the ball
MADRID (Reuters) - Male models being used as ball boys at this week's end-of-season WTA Championships need to keep their minds on the job and not be distracted by the female players, world number eight Elena Dementieva said on Monday.
"We were practising the other day and I don't think they really know what they have to do on the court because they are too busy watching the players," the 25-year-old Russian told reporters ahead of the Madrid event, which starts on Tuesday.
"We'll have to see if it will work out or not but I think it will be a distraction for them to do their job.
"I don't think that they realise what they have let themselves in for and that they will have to be very careful about what they are doing on the court.
"The players are so focussed and sometimes they get crazy with the ball boys so they don't know what they will be facing in a couple of days."
Organisers decided to use male models as an answer to criticism over the use of female models as ball girls at the men's Madrid Masters.
Kim Clijsters, who won the tournament in 2002 and 2003, said the initiative had been a talking point among the eight players taking part.
"I was talking to Maria (Sharapova) in the taxi and she said they looked nice," the world number six said. "I'm excited about it, although it is going to be strange. As long as they do a good job, that is all that matters."
Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne, who is bidding to wrap up the year-end number one spot at the Championships, joked that her husband had warned her to be on her best behaviour.
"I'm very excited but I'm married so I can look but not touch," she smiled.
Martina Hingis added it would give her a chance to get even with boyfriend Radek Stepanek, ranked 19 in the world.
"Radek played here in Madrid in the past so now it's my turn," she said.
Posted by ronnie at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2006
Ghana minister quits over payments to U.S. mistress
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana's transport minister has resigned after an inquiry into how he paid his American mistress $100,000 found him guilty of abuse of office, a government spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
The Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, which acts as an ombudsman in the West African state, had recommended on September 22 that Richard Anane should be sacked. he stepped down late on Tuesday.
This followed 18 months of investigations into how he could afford to send $100,000 to the woman in the United States.
"He tendered his resignation last night and the president has accepted it," Oboshie Sai-Cofie, deputy minister for information, told Reuters.
"He's decided to contest the commission's findings in court and the best way to proceed, he believes, is to step aside," she added.
Anane's troubles began after his relationship with U.S. health worker Alexandria O'Brien, who lives in Virginia and with whom he had a son, turned sour. The two met at an HIV conference in 2001 when Anane, a medical doctor, was health minister.
The opposition has criticised him for setting a poor example for young people as he had not used a condom, despite leading a national campaign on HIV awareness.
South Africa's former deputy president Jacob Zuma was forced to apologise earlier this year when it emerged during his trial on rape charges that he had unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman, even though he had led the country's anti-AIDS campaign while in government. He was acquitted of rape.
The Ghanaian minister's resignation comes amid another high-profile corruption and drugs investigation which has shaken the political establishment in the former British colony.
Five policemen, including one senior officer, are amongst 18 suspects charged with narcotics-related offences after a major drugs shipment disappeared from under police surveillance.
Posted by ronnie at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2006
Danish "I do" for Germans fleeing red tape
TONDER, Denmark (Reuters) - Fleeing piles of paperwork that can make getting married in Germany a bureaucratic nightmare, thousands of couples have headed north to start their happily ever after in the Danish town of Tonder.
As many as 1,300 couples exchange vows every year in the picturesque town of 12,000 just five km (3 miles) north of the German border.
"It was just too much of a hassle in Germany," said Selman Simsek, a construction worker from Cologne who was getting married in Tonder in a few days. "The stack of documents they wanted was ridiculous. It was a horror."
Successive German governments have vowed to simplify the bureaucracy that business says is strangling Europe's biggest economy, but there has been little tangible progress.
Economists warn the layers of bureaucracy are more than just a nuisance because they stunt investment and growth.
Some Germans decide to opt out of the stifling system -- at least when it comes to their wedding day. And Tonder, with its quaint cobblestone streets and redbrick buildings, is especially popular among Germans seeking to marry a foreigner.
"The demand is growing every year and I've never seen a summer as busy as this year," said Natalia Lauske, founder of West Areal, a company that specializes in helping couples avoid the frustrating German bureaucracy.
"It's not bad enough that the Germans require all sorts of documents that some people don't have. They can be terribly cold and unfriendly as well."
She described Tonder as "a European Las Vegas."
DANISH "I DO"
More than 25,000 couples have been married in Tonder since 1965, according to registry clerk Alice Lund Madsen. Most are from Germany and the numbers are accelerating, from 47 in 1965 to a record 1,366 in 2004.
"We marry people all year round. It never really slows down," said Madsen who, like most people in the town, speaks perfect German.
Irene Rogov, a German student from Eberswalde near Berlin, spent six months battling German bureaucrats before deciding to marry her boyfriend in Denmark in August.
"It was all too much. They caused me so much grief. We just wanted to get married. Is that a crime? Denmark is wonderful."
Many of the German couples who marry in Denmark are bi-national, as German authorities have even more requirements for foreigners wanting to marry German nationals.
Nunes Pereira, a baker born in Angola who spent most of his life in Germany, wanted to marry in Bremen but after a registry office clerk handed him a long list of documents needed, he realized it could take years, a lot of effort and money.
"It's just far too complicated in Germany," he said."It was unbelievable. It would take forever to get asaid. "Itll the documents together. I'd have to go to Angola to get what they wanted."
People of immigrant descent make up around 15 million of Germany's 82.5 million people and yet despite this high proportion Lauske, whose firm handles all the arrangements for an uncomplicated Danish wedding, hears tales of discrimination.
"People break down in tears when they tell me the insults they face from some German bureaucrats," she said. "Germans have told me that civil servants have said things like 'Why are you marrying a foreigner?' and 'Why don't you marry a German?'"
PAPER TRAIL
And then there are the papers.
Aside from birth certificates, passports, residency permits and police registration documents, German authorities also want parents' and grandparents' documents, a family tree, notarized proof both people are single, proof of academic degrees and six months to process the request.
Many German registries also require that copies of birth certificates be less than six months old.
In Denmark, things are much simpler. Couples need passports, birth certificates, residency permits and 500 Danish crowns (65 euros) -- and are required to spend three days in the country.
Henning Ploeger, Justice Ministry spokesman in Berlin, said rules were needed to prevent bigamy.
"Germany has more requirements than Denmark and other countries," said Ploeger. "But as a result, there are hardly any problems in Germany with dual marriages or marriages that are invalid. At least, there are almost never any bigamy problems."
This rigid attitude has been good for Tonder.
Hotels, restaurants and shops in the town's center, which dates from 1100, have seen business grow.
"On peak days up to 40 couples get married," said Bodil Gliestrup, managing director of the Tonder tourism office.
"That means jobs at the registry and it's also good for hotels and restaurants."
Maria Jensen, who offers rooms for rent in her small cottage, says most of her guests come from Germany.
"They're all so happy that it's so uncomplicated here," she said. "No one knows why Germany is so complicated."
Posted by ronnie at 06:05 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2006
Wife needs one-day marriage after drunken divorce
KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Islamic clerics in eastern India have ruled that a woman divorced by her husband in a fit of drunkenness can remarry him only after she takes another husband for one day, police said Monday.
Ershad, a rickshaw puller, uttered the word "talaq," or divorce, three times earlier this month while he was drunk, and when news leaked out in their village in eastern Orissa state, the clerics said they must separate.
"The couple had kept it under wraps and continued to stay together but the clerics ruled that since Ershad uttered the word talaq three times, it constituted a divorce," district police chief Shatrughan Parida said over the telephone.
Under the rules, the woman, who is a mother of three, must marry another man and obtain a divorce from him before she can be reunited with Ershad, the clerics in the local mosque said.
The clerics have said the man the woman marries temporarily must be 70 years of age, Parida said.
Muslims, who constitute more than 13 percent of India's mainly Hindu population, are governed by special personal laws including marriage laws. But in many remote rural areas, it is the local clerics who pass diktats on social issues before they reach the courts.
Earlier this year, another Muslim couple in neighboring West Bengal state was told by local religious leaders they must separate after the man uttered "talaq" three times in his sleep. They refused the order and continue to live together.
Posted by ronnie at 05:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2006
With this tattoo, I thee wed
LONDON (AFP) - Reading midfielder Steve Sidwell has turned his back on his wedding vows - by having them tattooed on his body.
The former Arsenal player, who helped The Royals to a first ever promotion to the Premiership last season, has had the vows to wife Krystell tattooed on his back.
Sidwell, 23, told The Sun on Saturday: "Its just the wedding vows I said to my wife.
"They're not the traditional wedding-day vows - they're ones I made up myself and said to her. Its pretty long."
Sidwell had the 100-word text tattooed on his back just days after the couple returned from honeymoon.
"There are a fair few words to it and, off the top of my head, I cant remember all of them. Shell kill me for that," he said.
Posted by ronnie at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2006
Woman dumps still-married man, keeps ring
NEW YORK - A woman who found out that the man who proposed to her was married can keep the $40,000 engagement ring he gave her, even though she was the one who broke off the relationship, a judge has ruled.
Judge Rolando T. Acosta said that because Brian Callahan was still married when he gave Dana Clyburn Parker a 3.41-carat diamond engagement ring, the agreement to marry was void.
Acosta noted that Callahan was in the process of getting a divorce in Massachusetts when he proposed. In June 2002, Callahan, of Manhattan, received a judgment of divorce nisi, meaning the divorce from his wife had been approved but would not be official and absolute for another 90 days.
That July, Callahan, 36, and Parker, of Charleston, S.C., got engaged in South Carolina and she moved to New York to live with him, the judge wrote. They had met on the Internet in September 2001.
Parker, a mortgage broker, dumped Callahan after finding evidence on his computer that he had been trolling for women on the Internet and after learning he was married, her lawyer, Kevin Conway, said Friday.
Callahan, who works in the financial services industry, sued in July 2003 to get back the ring — or alternatively $40,000 — and his personal property. While the judge allowed Parker to keep the ring, he ordered her to return Callahan's personal property.
Callahan's lawyer said his client had not decided whether to appeal.
Posted by ronnie at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
June 05, 2006
Charmed woman marries cobra in India
BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) - A woman who fell in love with a snake has reportedly married the reptile at a traditional Hindu wedding celebrated by 2,000 guests in India's Orissa state.
Bimbala Das wore a silk saree for the ceremony Wednesday at Atala village near the Orissa state capital Bhubaneswar.
Priests chanted mantras to seal the union, but the snake failed to come out of a nearby ant hill where it lives, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.
A brass replica snake stood in for the hesitant groom.
"Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way," Das, 30, told the agency.
"Whenever I put milk near the ant hill where the cobra lives, it always comes out to drink.
"I always get to see it every time I go near the ant hill. It has never harmed me," she added.
Villagers welcomed the wedding in the belief it would bring good fortune and laid on a feast for the big day.
Snakes and particularly the King Cobra are venerated in India as religious symbols worn by Lord Shiva, the god of destruction.
Das, from a lower caste, converted to the animal-loving vegetarian Vaishnav sect whose local elders gave her permission to marry the cobra, the world's largest venomous snake that can grow up to five metres.
"I am happy," said her mother Dyuti Bhoi, who has two other daughters and two sons to marry off.
"Bimbala was ill," Bhoi told local OTV channel. "We had no money to treat her. Then she started offering milk to the snake ... she was cured. That made her fall in love."
Das has moved into a hut built close to the ant hill since the wedding.
Earlier this year, a tribal girl was married off to a dog on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
Posted by ronnie at 08:54 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2006
Malaysian, 33, takes bride, 104 who hopes marriage will last
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A 33-year-old Malaysian man who married a 104-year-old woman said it was "God's will" that he tie the knot with someone old enough to be his great grandmother.
For her part, the bride said she hoped the marriage would last.
"It may seem strange to those who don't understand us but I have found peace since we got married two months ago," Muhammad Noor Che Musa was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Harian Metro.
The daily splashed pictures of a beaming Muhammad with his wife Wook Kundor whose smiling wrinkled face was framed by a Muslim headscarf.
Muhammad, who was a lodger in Wook's house, said he initally felt sorry for her as she was lonely but over time his feelings had grown stronger despite the 71-year age gap.
Muhammad said it was "God's will" that they fell in love.
He said many villagers near their home in northern Terengganu state did not understand his decision to marry Wook and some had questioned his motives.
"I know society is cynical but I didn't marry Wook for her money. She is poor," he said. "Her only asset is her deep religious knowledge. Through her, I can deepen my knowledge of the religion."
Wook was quoted as saying: "I hope this marriage will last. I ask that people view our marriage in a positive light as we have not done anything that is forbidden by God."
Posted by ronnie at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
Chinese man, 76, turned down for 'sexless' divorce
BEIJING (AFP) - A 76-year-old Chinese man who sought divorce from his wife of 50 years due to a sexless marriage had his request turned down in court.
The septuagenarian, identified only by his surname Ma, complained to the court in southwest China's Chongqing city that he had not slept with his wife for years, the China Daily reported Monday.
Instead, he said, he wished to live with his girlfriend, who is in her 40s and able to offer him a more fulfilling relationship.
The court rejected the request, arguing that the love tying the couple together, although platonic, must be strong and stable since they had remained married for half a century.
Posted by ronnie at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2006
Naked wedding photos a hit in once conservative China
BEIJING (AFP) - Forget the Mao suits of a generation ago. Actually, forget about any clothes at all. Naked wedding photos are the hot new trend among young couples in once deeply conservative China.
Even in Anhui, a largely rural province in the east, many newly-weds are having their pictures taken in the nude, to the fury of their parents' generation, the Xin'an Evening News said.
"Some photo studios are just going too far. They allow young women to have their photos taken in bikinis or with nothing on at all," said an irate woman from the Anhui capital of Hefei. "I hope the authorities will do something."
She had just found out that her daughter had taken two sets of wedding photos, one to show the family, and another considerably more intimate one for her own private consumption.
Previous reports in the state media suggested nude wedding photos were a trend that began in the south of China that was gradually spreading to the rest of the country.
"Not a few young people think that the nude pics are a welcome renewal to the stale unchanging traditions of the wedding photo," the Xin Wenhua Bao newspaper reported in November last year.
This attitude is now prevalent even in northwest China's Xi'an, a proud ancient capital and home to the -- fully dressed -- terracotta soldiers.
The Xi'an Evening News did a random check of five photo studios, and found that all of them would be willing to take nude photos of soon-to-be-married couples, should they so wish.
"Most of the people who come here to have the bold, naked photos taken are young, trendy and unconventional," said a studio owner. "There are still lots of people who don't like it."
The China Radio International news website even carried an article on the trend showing some images of naked newlyweds.
One bride wore nothing but a veil and bouquet of flowers while another couple embraced in a provocative position, although the photos were carefully taken to avoid displaying full-frontal nudity.
Posted by ronnie at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)
February 06, 2006
Indian groom quits wedding midway for lack of dowry
KOLKATA, India (AFP) - Police in eastern India are hunting a groom who quit his marriage ceremony midway when his bride's parents said they could not meet his dowry demand of a motorcycle, an official said.
Rajiv Shaw, 31, walked out of the ceremony at Chitpur on the outskirts of the West Bengal state capital of Calcutta Saturday after springing the surprise demand, police official Sheikh Abdul Rajjack said.
The bride's mother, Urmila Devi, said her daughter's marriage with Shaw, an autorickshaw driver, was fixed last November.
She had handed over 65,000 rupees (1,480 dollars) in cash besides furniture, kitchen utensils and gold ornaments as a dowry.
"Rajiv demanded a motorcycle on the day of marriage," Devi said.
"My husband is an employee in a local electric shop. We have sold out everything to get our daughter married. It's beyond our reach to give him a motorcycle," she told AFP.
Police were on the lookout for Shaw after arresting his father and the matchmaker who arranged the wedding on charges of seeking dowry, Rajjack said.
Although the demanding and giving of a dowry was officially banned in 1961, the practice continues.
Every year, about 6,000 women are killed in India -- often doused with kerosene and set on fire in staged kitchen "accidents" -- or harassed into suicide by husbands and in-laws angered by unmet dowry demands.
Posted by ronnie at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2006
Malaysian senator fined for divorcing wife by SMS
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A Malaysian Muslim senator has been fined for divorcing his wife by sending her an SMS text message and leaving a voicemail on her mobile phone.
The senator, Kamaruddin Ambok, 52, was fined 550 ringgit (147 dollars) Thursday by a Islamic or sharia court for attempting to divorce his wife Mahani Hussain by phone in October 2001, instead of declaring his intentions in court.
The maximum punishment for the offence is 1,000 ringgit or six months' jail, reports said.
"When you marry someone, you go through all the ... processes," said the sharia judge, Zainor Rashid Hassin, referring to ethnic Malay marriage rituals.
"Now, why can't you divorce someone properly as well," he was quoted as saying in the Star daily.
In Malaysian Islamic law, a man can divorce his wife with verbal pronouncements known as talaq in a sharia court, said reports.
The ruling comes amidst heated debate over controversial Islamic family legislation that rights groups have said undermine women's rights within a marriage.
The prosecuting sharia officer, Mohamad Yusof Sulaiman, had asked for a heavier sentence, saying it would better highlight the seriousness of the offence.
"Cases such as this are happening often these days," he said.
"Even NGOs have been critical of Islamic laws lately, especially on matrimonial matters which are said to favour certain parties."
Kamaruddin said he regretted his actions and asked for light punishment and a reduction in the sentence, said reports.
Posted by ronnie at 09:16 AM | Comments (0)
January 20, 2006
Marriage builds wealth more than being single?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Staying married has its benefits, especially financial, as a new U.S.-wide study shows the wealth of a married person is almost double that of somebody who is single.
Divorce among U.S. baby boomers reduced personal wealth by about 77 percent compared to that of a single person, while the financial standing among those who remained married almost doubled, according to a nationwide study released this week.
"If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. On the other hand, divorce can devastate your wealth," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio Sate University's Center for Human Resource Research.
Married people will see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people, according to the study that was published in the Journal of Sociology.
Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation deteriorate long before the decree became final, according to Zagorsky.
The study used data from surveys taken over a 15-year period involving 9,055 Americans who were between 21 and 28 years old in 1985.
Those respondents who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years.
However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth accumulation after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year.
For people who married and then divorced, there was a slow build-up of wealth during the early years of marriage and then a steady decline about four years prior to divorce.
"Many of these people may have separated before the divorce became official, which would help explain why wealth starts falling so early," Zagorsky said. "Divorce is often a long and messy process, and you can see this in the four-year decline in wealth."
The study also cast doubt on a common assumption that divorce is much harder financially on women than on men. In fact, it showed that women suffered financially only slightly more than men.
Posted by ronnie at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)