Feds Bust Sham Craigslist Marriage

(NEWSER) - Russian women are so eager for green cards that one New York-area weekly devotes an entire page to marriage ads, the New York Post reports. A Post reporter, posing as an immigrant angling for a green card, contacted a marriage broker and got the going rate: $31,500, $6,500 of which goes to the broker. "It's a big business," one official admits. "It's really prevalent among that community." More»

But he doesn't dwell on issue in Liberty University speech

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney didn't get very political in his commencement speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University today, but his brief reference to gay marriage earned his loudest ovation, reports the Washington Post . “Culture—what you believe, what you value, how you live—matters,” Romney said. “As fundamental as these principles are, they may become topics of democratic debate from time to time. So it is today with the enduring institution of marriage. Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.” More»

Nine gay couples turned away from registry office

(NEWSER) - A lesbian who refused to leave a North Carolina government office without a wedding license was taken away in handcuffs yesterday after what organizers say was the first of many protests against the state's newly passed gay marriage ban . After a march through downtown Winston-Salem, nine gay and lesbian couples—some of them with their children—presented completed forms and identification to the local Register of Deeds office but were refused a license, reports AP . More»

Frontotemporal dementia strikes early and fast

(NEWSER) - A little-known form of dementia can turn sufferers into completely different people, leaving spouses and children struggling to cope with someone who's still there in body but not in mind. Frontotemporal dementia bears some similarities to Alzheimer's—but it can hit patients who are younger and it develops faster. The New York Times tells a tragic and touching story of one couple brought to the brink of divorce before Michael French was diagnosed with the disorder; now, Ruth French has devoted her life to caring for a man who can no longer speak. More»

Seeks to remedy apparently soaring divorce rate

(NEWSER) - Nigeria's Kano state is worried: The number of divorces appears to be skyrocketing. And a divorced woman there faces a raft of problems—she may be shunned, in some cases forced to beg or prostitute herself to support her family. So the state government is taking the matter into its own hands: It's working to find husbands for 1,000 divorcees and widows, the Los Angeles Times reports. Some 2,000 men have applied for the program, which covers wedding expenses and provides a way around negotiating with future in-laws. More»