NEW YORK, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Connecticut on Friday became the third US state to legalize gay marriage, following a contested ruling by the northeastern state's supreme court.

Judges on Connecticut's highest court voted four to three that the state's constitution does not permit barring gay and lesbian couples the same rights accorded to heterosexuals.

PHNOM PENH, Oct 9, 2008 (AFP) - A Cambodian couple hoping to avoid the country's convoluted divorce process have separated by sawing their house in half, local authorities said Thursday.

KANO, Oct 7, 2008 (AFP) - Authorities in Nigeria on Tuesday dropped charges of illegal marrying 86 wives slapped on an 84-year-old Islamic cleric after his case was transferred to a criminal court, a court official said.

KANO, Nigeria, Oct 6, 2008 (AFP) - A Nigerian man with 86 wives will go before a criminal tribunal after an Islamic Sharia court transferred his case there, a court official said Monday.

RABAT, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - Authorities in Morocco have shut down around 60 Koranic schools belonging to a Muslim theologian who argues that girls as young as nine can marry, officials said Thursday.

RABAT, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - Morocco's top body of Islamic scholars condemned on Sunday a Muslim theologian for issuing a religious decree that girls as young as nine years old can marry.

Morocco's High Council of Ulemas 'denounces the utilisation of religion to legitimise the marriage of nine-year-old girls', it said in a statement.

DOUAI, France, Sept 22, 2008 (AFP) - A French court heard an appeal Monday into the case of a Muslim couple whose marriage was annulled on the grounds the bride was not a virgin, sparking a national uproar.

Public outrage at the ruling, handed down in April, forced the government to order the appeal against the wishes of both spouses.

KANO (Nigeria), 19 sept 2008 (AFP) - The wives of the most married man in Nigeria staged a protest demanding the release of their husband who is being detained for unlawful marriages and contempt of Islamic religious laws, a justice ministry official said Friday.

KANO, Nigeria, Sept 19, 2008 (AFP) - The wives of the most married man in Nigeria staged a protest demanding the release of their husband who is being detained for unlawful marriages and contempt of Islamic religious laws, a justice ministry official said Friday.

KANO, Sept 17, 2008 (AFP) - A coalition of Nigerian human rights groups has mobilized 86 lawyers to defend the country's most married man, currently detained for unlawful marriages and inciting contempt of Islamic religious laws, an activist said Wednesday.

KANO, Nigeria, Sept 16, 2008 (AFP) - An Islamic Sharia court in Nigeria has ordered the detention of the country?s most married man for contempt after he failed to follow a court order to divorce all but four of his 86 wives, a court official said Tuesday.

RABAT, September 14, 2008 (AFP) - A Moroccan Islamic theologian repeated his claims Sunday that Muslim girls could marry as early as nine years old, arguing it was sanctioned by the prophet Mohammed.

DHAKA, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - Rekha is barely old enough to be considered an adolescent but soon after she had her 11th birthday, her parents decided to marry her off.

Rekha's marriage, scheduled for this week, did not take place after a neighbour in the village where she lives, in the western Bangladeshi province of Chuadanga, got wind of the plans and tipped off the police.

ROME, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - A terminally ill Italian woman awoke from a coma so she could fulfill her last wish of marrying her partner before she died, La Repubblica reported Wednesday.

LAGOS, August 31, 2008 (AFP) - A much married Nigerian man has bowed to pressure from local Islamic leaders to divorce 82 of his 86 wives to avoid an eviction order from his home area for violating religious norms, a news agency said Sunday.

I-SHARIF, August 18, 2008 (AFP) - Fifty Afghan couples were married in northern Afghanistan on ...

About 50 Afghan couples tied the knot in the western city of Herat late Sunday, an Islamic charity ...

Young Iraqis in Baghdad are surfing the Internet to search for partners to tie the knot as violence ...

China`s maternity wards and registry offices were crammed Friday with parents and couples desperate ...

Tens of thousands of Chinese people were rushing to get married or to deliver their babies on ...

BEIJING, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - Zhang Jie and Ma Yue plan to be among the crush of love-struck Chinese getting married at the start of the Olympics despite a series of disasters that have cast doubt over the auspicious day.

MOSCOW, August 2, 2008 (AFP) - Russian marriage offices have seen a surge of applications to wed this coming Friday due to the supposedly lucky character of the date: 08.08.08, officials and local media said.

NEW YORK, July 31, 2008 (AFP) - Massachusetts on Thursday opened the door for gay couples from across the country to marry in the northeastern state.

Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill with immediate effect allowing homosexual non-residents to tie the knot there, circumventing bans in their own states.

COLOMBO, July 26, 2008 (AFP) - As if wedding nerves, guest lists and the right dress were not enough to deal with, Sri Lankan brides-to-be are finding their big day dominated by heavy security, inflation and even global politics.

DHAKA, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - A British teenager has been rescued from a forced marriage to her Bangladeshi cousin after begging diplomats to help her, local police said Thursday.

The 19-year-old woman travelled from Britain with her mother to Sylhet, in northeastern Bangladesh, where she was to marry the son of her mother's brother, local police chief Mohidur Rahman Khan told AFP.

LONDON, July 23, 2008 (AFP) - Britain is to increase the age at which foreigners can apply for a marriage visa to crack down on forced marriages, the government said Wednesday.

The age of sponsorship will be upped from the current 18 to 21, the Home Office said, outlining proposals aimed at strengthening the safeguards against the practice.

JOHANNESBURG, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - Nelson Mandela, who turns 90 this week, has a double celebration as he marks 10 years of marriage to his third wife Graca Machel -- the only woman in the world to have married two heads of state.

Veiled in secrecy, the ceremony took place on Mandela's 80th birthday despite the couple denying up until the last minute they were about to tie the knot.

LONDON, July 12, 2008 (AFP) - A bizarre ritual dating back to the 12th century in which the couple who can prove to a mock-court that they have the happiest marriage wins half a pig takes place in Britain Saturday.

MOSCOW, July 8, 2008 (AFP) - Russians on Tuesday marked a Day of Family, Love and Fidelity intended as an Orthodox alternative to Valentine's Day and as a way to boost population numbers.

BEIJING, July 6, 2008 (AFP) - Zhang Jie and Ma Yue plan to be among the crush of love-struck Chinese getting married at the start of the Olympics despite a series of disasters that have cast doubt over the auspicious day.

BEIJING, July 6, 2008 (AFP) - Zhang Jie and Ma Yue plan to be among the crush of love-struck Chinese getting married at the start of the Olympics despite a series of disasters that have cast doubt over the auspicious day.

PARIS, July 3, 2008 (AFP) - Raymond Domenech says he now regrets the timing of his marriage proposal on live television just seconds after France were knocked out of Euro 2008 by Italy.

TOKYO, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - A Japanese firm on Tuesday began accepting reservations for couples who really want to make the big leap -- by blasting into space to exchange their wedding vows.

Each happy couple will spend 240 million yen (2.3 million dollars) for the ceremony in a small space vessel, which will shoot up 100 kilometres (60 miles) into the sky.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - A Malaysian odd-job man with 18 children has finally won permission to take a fourth wife, after being knocked back repeatedly because of his low income, reports said Tuesday.

TEHRAN, June 10, 2008 (AFP) - A major Iranian state-owned company has told its single employees to get married by September or face losing their jobs, the press reported on Tuesday.

'One of the economic entities in the south of the country has asked its single employees to start creating a family,' the hardline Kayhan daily reported.

MADRID, June 9, 2008 (AFP) - Spanish police said Monday they had busted a group accused of arranging marriages of convenience in a four-million-euro racket to help Nigerians gain residency permits in the country.

BRUSSELS, June 6, 2008 (AFP) - Some 150 members of the European Parliament have sent a petition to the French justice minister denouncing a court's annulment of a marriage on the grounds that the Muslim bride was not a virgin.

ATHENS, June 3, 2008 (AFP) - A heated debate on gay rights opened in Greece on Tuesday hours after the country's first same-sex civil marriages were held on the small Aegean island of Tilos, sparking an immediate judicial reaction.