A West Los Angeles man and the Russian national who he married last year were arrested today by federal immigration officials after being charged with marriage fraud for allegedly entering into a sham marriage so the woman could obtain documents that would allow her to remain in the United States.

A Registry of Motor Vehicles clerk charged with issuing fraudulent identity cards had been ordered deported for repeatedly lying to government and immigration officials, court records show.

Dolores Rodriguez LaFlamme was arrested this month and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit identity fraud. Investigators allege that in return for payments, LaFlamme and another woman gave identity documents to people looking to conceal criminal histories, dodge arrest warrants or hide their immigration status.

Robert Berishaj and Lula Dedivanaj are engaged to be married, but there's a catch that's preventing them from marital bliss.

Berishaj is now on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, deported last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to Montenegro even though he's lived in the U.S. since he was 9. Berishaj is of Albanian descent and was born in Montenegro.

"He is my world. He means everything to me," Dedivanaj said Monday, wiping away tears. They met three months ago and she said they were set to be married Jan. 19 in St. Paul Catholic Church in Rochester, where many of Albanian heritage attend. Dedivanaj of Fenton was born in the U.S., but her ethnicity is also Albanian.

A Chinese man will have to sue if he wants to get back any of the $23,000 he paid to a Christchurch company director to arrange a sham marriage so that he could get New Zealand residency.

Chinese national, Jiachang Lu, received a sentence of 180 hours community work for his part in the scam and it is understood he has now been deported.

The woman involved in the scheme, Nicola Sheree Bell, was sentenced to 120 hours' community work.

But the man who arranged it, Stephen William Adams, 46, was today jailed for 16 months after admitting supplying false or misleading information to an immigration officer.

An indictment in Manhattan federal court said the five instructed their sham marriage clients and would-be spouses to open joint bank accounts, put utility bills in both their names and prepare for immigration interviews by answering mock questions.

Cameron Lloyd, 56, a minister, has pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud in connection with a sham marriage scheme that netted the participants more than $1 million.

Prosecutors said that Beverly Mozer-Browne owned and operated a business in Queens called Help Preparers Professional Services(HPPS) that purported to offer its customers assistance in a variety of financial and legal matters. In fact, the primary business at HPPS was fraudulently procuring permanent resident documents or "green cards," from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS), formerly known as the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in exchange for fees ranging from $8,000 to $16,000.

This [note: sham marriages] comprises about nine per cent of Kenyan marriages. The marriage is contracted for reasons other than love and family and is orchestrated for personal gain such as immigration, wealth and social status.

This type of marriage is also known as a "sham marriage".

Rosaline wanted to migrate to the USA or Germany, but her numerous visa applications were rejected. Someone advised her that the easiest way out was to get married to a citizen of any of those two countries.

Fortunately for her she met a German and married him within a year. She has been living in Germany for the last seven years.

But money is the main reason people get into such marriages.

About 10 years ago, Ken, a 32-year-old lawyer, was on the verge of bankruptcy. His law firm was doing badly and debts were piling up. It was hard to come across new and well paying clients. He was single and dating a jobless girl who entirely depended on him. Along came Faith, a not so-good-looking woman who was head over heels in love with Ken. The icing on the cake was her family background: wealthy and influential politically.

Ken ditched his long-time girlfriend for the moneyed Faith. As soon as he declared undying love for Faith, his fortunes started changing. Clients started trickling in, and with them money. Within one year, Ken was mingling with the high and mighty, a wedding ring on his finger and Faith by his side.

The full scale of London's bogus marriage scandal was revealed yesterday. One in every four couples tying the knot at register offices in the capital may have been a sham to get around immigration rules.

According to the indictment, Starnes and others recruited the U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to enter into the sham marriages and promised to pay the U.S. citizens as compensation as follows: $1,000 on the day of the marriage; $1,000 three months after the marriage; $2,000 after the marriage interview with immigration officials; and $1,000 after the foreign born national received his or her permanent resident status. As part of the alleged conspiracy, the U.S. citizens allegedly took steps to further each other's marriage frauds, including attending each others' weddings and posing for photos, knowing the photos would be used to support the legitimacy of the marriages. Starnes also offered advice on how to make marriages appear legitimate, the indictment alleges.

If convicted, each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

John Reid failed yesterday in his attempt to overturn a ruling that Home Office regulations to curb sham marriages were in breach of the human right to marry.

The Tories have pledged to raise the minimum age at which non-EU nationals can come to Britain to marry, to 21.

Shadow minister Damien Green said they should also pass an English test, to cut the number of young spouses unable to integrate into British society.

Authorities contend the marriage of Tori Crowther and Gassan Hassan Said was not a match made in heaven.
Instead, they claim that the December wedding was a scam designed to keep the Venezuelan groom in the country - and that the arrangements were made by Said's girlfriend, Eva Daisy Aguilar, a wedding planner.

When "Sweetgal," a 29-year-old British Muslim from central England, began looking for a new husband last year, at first she didn't know where to turn.

The answer, it turned out, was on the Internet.

She'd been married once--a union arranged by her parents--to a man from Pakistan. It lasted seven years and produced children but broke down due to cultural differences and she didn't want to go through a similar trauma again.

At the same time, being a respectful Muslim who wears hijab, she wasn't going to start "dating," and knew her parents would have to be involved in her new search in one way or another.

Over the past two years there has been a boom in the use of Web sites that introduce Muslim men and women, not for casual dating, but for those actively seeking traditional Muslim marriage.

A Nigerian woman reported to have "married" four women last weekend in Kano State has denied the allegations.

Aunty Maiduguri told the BBC the reports of her wedding were false, and that she was not a lesbian.

She had gone to the police and lawyers and would take the case to court in an effort to clear her name, she said.

Under Sharia law, adopted in the state seven years ago, homosexuality and same-sex marriages are outlawed and considered very serious offences.

Lesbianism is also illegal under Nigeria's national penal code.

New marriage guidelines are being drawn up by the Church of England amid fears that its clergy may be unwittingly conducting bogus weddings.

Officials have noticed a sharp rise in the number of migrants seeking church weddings since the Government imposed a crackdown on marriages of convenience at register offices.

An Israeli man living in West Virgina and his wife, who lives in Georgia, have been indicted on a federal charge that accuses them of conspiring to use a sham marriage to illegally keep the man in the United States.

A man who married an heiress more than twice his age and then sold her flat, emptied her bank accounts and left her bankrupt was jailed yesterday for three and a half years.

When one military wife got the news that her husband was coming home from Iraq, they didn't tell her he was going to bring the war back with him.

As the players began preparing to travel to the United States for spring training, they headed to the consulate with their new wives to get their work visas in order. But players told ESPN that officials became suspicious after noticing that so many minor leaguers had been married in recent days, and the same witness had been present at many of the shotgun weddings. Oriental, Paredes and numerous other minor league ballplayers were summoned back to the consulate and faced with their worst nightmare -- their visas were permanently canceled and they were banned from setting foot on American soil.

Authorities in Suriname are currently taking steps to tackle sham marriages in the country, officials have confirmed. In its weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday, the government sanctioned a bill put forward by justice minister Chandrikapersad Santokhi to curb this illegal practice.

Two illegal immigrants have been indicted on federal charges of arranging their own sham marriages, one to a former Navy man and the other to an undercover federal agent.

A former Radford High School teacher has apparently fled the country to avoid trial on charges he arranged an illegal marriage for his gay lover, according to authorities.

Bob Loren faces up to five years for allegedly arranging a sham marriage for Hang Duan, a 20-year-old man from China.

The mastermind of a bogus marriage syndicate received record-high 28-month jail sentence after appearing in the District Court today (February 8). Dai Chun-yin, 48, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of conspiracy to defraud, one count of aiding and abetting the making of a false representation to an Immigration officer and one count of perverting the course of public justice. His sentence was the biggest imposed on someone convicted in relation to bogus marriages.

A Vancouver man, convicted of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, has been sentenced in federal court to three years' probation for his role in organizing sham marriages between Vietnam residents and U.S. citizens.

A ringleader in a massive marriage fraud scheme was sentenced to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison yesterday by a judge who criticized the man for saying he had arranged more than 100 phony marriages only to help fellow Ghanaian immigrants stay in the United States.

"That's a mansion you built," U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said to Samuel Acquah, holding up a picture of Acquah's $775,000 house in Bowie. "You did this for greed. You didn't do it to help anyone. So get that notion out of your head."

Nelson, a Republican from Lewisville, would have Texas law require marriage license applicants to swear in writing that they aren't marrying to circumvent immigration laws and that they aren't getting paid to enter into such a charade. Lying on the application would be perjury, a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

A Virginia man's guilty plea Wednesday to arranging sham marriages between U.S. citizens and Ghanaian immigrants reflects the government's increased focus on marriage fraud.

Eric Amoah, 42, a pharmacy technician from Ghana, was one of 22 people charged in the Washington, D.C., area two months ago with participating in a marriage and immigration fraud scheme. His sentence is pending.

Similar busts have occurred in the past year in California, New York and Utah. An investigation is underway in Gwinnett County, Ga., where two men are charged with bigamy for marrying at least 13 African women.

"We're definitely seeing more organizations" involved in marriage fraud, says James Spero, head of the Identity and Benefits Fraud Unit at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We're stepping up our efforts."

Foreign women are increasingly willing to pay Singaporean men to engage in sham marriages, police data said on Wednesday.

Most of the cases reported over the last year involved Chinese nationals.

The Israeli Supreme Court touched off a fresh controversy over gay rights Tuesday when it ordered the government to register same-sex marriages performed abroad.

The ruling by a seven-judge panel, though limited in scope, reignited a debate over the rights of homosexuals in Israel after ultra-Orthodox religious leaders led protests that resulted in the cancellation of a gay pride parade this month in Jerusalem.

Any time you hear the term bipartisan, check "your six" and check your wallet. It means the ruling class is united and on the move. Given the history of this term, I can't imagine why it doesn't send shudders down our collective spine. They call it bipartisanship; but it's more like The Bipartisan Ship -- the primary war vessel of the ultra-elite.

There are good ways of coping with depression after your marriage breaks up – meaningless flings, bitter misanthropy and gorging on ice-cream being three of them. And then there are really, really bad ways – such as that chosen by a man in Wisconsin.

In the first comprehensive global study of sexual behaviour, British researchers found that people aren't losing their virginity at ever younger ages, married people have the most sex, and there is no firm link between promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases.

She may have been nervous at the prospect of being married to a total stranger, but Mrs Ayesha Sheikh had come to accept her parents wishes.

Yet little did she know that her arranged marriage would lead to a legal battle with the company she worked for.

Mrs Sheikh, 21, claimed that she was sacked by her accountancy firm because of her arranged marriage, reported the Daily Mail.

From the page:

-- They told the world that their relationship was like any other and that's why they should be allowed to marry. Now, friends say, they are showing once again that they are just like any other couple: Two years after getting married, Julie and Hillary Goodridge, lead plaintiffs in the state's landmark gay marriage case, are splitting. --

From the page:

-- The US House of Representatives has rejected a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, ending the congressional debate on the issue. --

Brian Rueckl's proposal came as a 40,000-square-foot message, "Stacy will you marry me?" tilled in a cornfield near the Manitowoc and Kewaunee county line.

From the page:

-- Two ex-members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints testified Thursday about a culture of secret marriages, arranged within hours, that occur only with approval of the faith's prophet and are expected to yield children. --

From the page:

-- A Teenager lured to Pakistan by her parents and forced into an arranged marriage with her cousin won an annulment yesterday. --

From the page:

-- Who should decide the fate of marriage in America? Will it be four out of seven state supreme court justices in Massachusetts — or the sovereign people of the United States? --

From the page:

-- Lately, many Namibian women have fallen victim to abuse from their foreign spouses who just turn up to exploit the system through marriages of convenience. --

From the page:

-- More than 20,000 members of B.C.'s Indo-Canadian community have signed a petition calling on the federal government to change the Immigration Act to stop marriage fraud. --

From the article:

-- An Upottery man is devastated that his Philippino wife and baby might be deported because immigration officials do not believe they are living together. --

-- They live on a circle of tidy houses in a subdivision nestled in Windsor Locks, a couple in love since they met in a Hartford bar 30 years ago.

Another gray-haired, tax-paying family of two. You might like them as neighbors.

They own their home. There are retirement accounts for the future. They go to church. There were these plans, too, for hiking, kayaking and enjoying life for years to come.

This being the land of civil unions, Rob Scanlan and Jay Baker figured things were looking up for an aging gay couple in the suburbs.

Then, a little over a month ago, Rob was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - ALS - and they were reminded that there isn't equality.

It's different for gays, even in a blue state with a civil union law. The problem is not that ALS is a death sentence. It's that Congress and the federal government recognize only marriage when it comes to taxes, Social Security and medical issues. --

-- Laws preventing the recognition of same-sex marriages should be consigned to the legal dustbin, a high court judge was told today.

Sir Mark Potter, the president of the high court family division, is hearing a plea by a British lesbian couple who legally married in Canada for UK recognition of their marriage.

"But for the fact that the marriage was between partners of the same sex, it would be recognised as valid in England and Wales," Karon Monaghan, representing one of the women, told the judge. --

-- Just as Shajila Singh escaped her sham marriage and thought she was on the mend from emotional and physical abuse, the Burnaby resident got hit with a second blow.

This time, it was a $27,000 bill racked up by her welfare-collecting ex-husband who, unbeknownst to her, was under a deportation order to India when they married.

Singh, 34, is now speaking out against the practice of using sham marriages as a passport into Canada — and the exploitation of social services by sponsored spouses once they arrive.

Under immigration laws, anyone who sponsors a spouse into Canada is financially responsible for them for 10 years. Sponsors remain financially responsible even in the event that their spouse falsely represented themselves in order to marry a Canadian and gain access to the country.

Raj Chouhan, a Burnaby New Democrat MLA, says he's been approached by dozens of people over the past three months about this issue.

Chouhan and Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Diane Thorne have organized a public meeting Wednesday to raise awareness of the financial toll on victims of fraudulent marriages. Singh will be one of eight speakers at the meeting.

Chouhan says the province needs to change its law so that if there's strong evidence that a man or woman was duped into a sham marriage, the victim should not be financially responsible for their sponsored spouse.

"It's re-victimizing the victim," said Chouhan. "This is absolutely unfair . . . We need to raise the profile and awareness of this issue." --

-- Culled from Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme, Vol. 13, May 2006.

In October 2005, Zainab Bangura testified in Trial Chamber II of the Special Court as an Expert Witness on the issue of 'forced marriage' during the war in Sierra Leone. She was commissioned by the Prosecution in February 2005 to prepare a report on forced marriage in respect of the trials against the RUF and AFRC accused persons. In the Report, forced marriage was captioned as the 'Bush Wife Phenomenon'. The Prosecution's objective during the trials was to prove that 'forced marriage' during the war in Sierra Leone constituted war crimes and crimes against humanity. If the Trial Chamber upholds this charge, it would become an international precedent to make criminal this type of wartime gender-based violence.

This article gives a critical analysis of what constitutes 'forced marriage' as encompassed in the "Bush Wife Phenomenon" in the context of the Sierra Leone war. Under which scope this phenomenon becomes a war crime and/or crime against humanity. --

-- A woman who fell in love with a snake has married the reptile at a traditional Hindu wedding celebrated by 2,000 guests in India's Orissa state, reports said on Friday.

Bimbala Das wore a silk sari for the ceremony on 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 anthill 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 anthill where the cobra lives, it always comes out to drink.

"I always get to see it every time I go near the anthill. It has never harmed me," she added.

Villagers welcomed the wedding in the belief that 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 meters. --

-- Internet affairs have replaced the office romance as a main cause of marriage break-ups. Throughout Australia, a growing number of cyber cheats are abandoning their spouses to pursue romances forged online.

Marriage counsellors say they are seeing more relationships shattered by secret cyber love trysts than ever, while lawyers report a rise in internet-related divorces.

New research shows that half of the people who find romance on the internet are already in a relationship at the time, with some making multiple connections.

David Schletzer, a Melbourne family lawyer with more than 30 years' experience, says he has seen dozens of marriage break-ups caused by internet affairs.

"All too often, it's more of a common cause than office relationships used to be. It's becoming more and more popular," he says. "I had a situation the other day where my client, allegedly while his marriage was breaking down, decided to advertise himself online as being single with no children, and somehow his wife sprung him.

"But that's only part of the problem from a matrimonial perspective. We've had situations where one party has found true love on the internet and wants to go and live overseas or interstate taking with them the children, and that's a further complication." --

-- A vote on a constitutional amendment to protect marriage in the United States as a union between one man and one woman is expected on June 6. I cannot think of a more urgent piece of legislative business right now than this, having as it does such tremendous implications for the health of our republic and the society in which we live. If anyone needs proof that a marriage amendment must become law in this country, we need only look at our always progressive friends across the sea—the Dutch—to see the future that is waiting for us, and to anticipate a hundred years hence the future that isn't. Last year the Netherlands, which has legalized same sex marriage, had their first polyamory union. A man married two women, bisexuals, both of them, making this not a polygamous but a polyamorous arrangement. It is technically true that what they signed was what is called in Holland a "cohabitation contract" and not a marriage license at all, but who's picking knits. "I love both Bianca and Mirjam" said Victor de Bruijn, the "groom", "so I am marrying them both." As far as he's concerned, he's married. How long do you think it will be before Holland is compelled to recognize their "marriage" as well? On what legal grounds, given that government's legalization of same-sex marriage, could the Dutch government deny the trio legal status and recognition if they decide to petition for it? --

-- At 32, lifelong Vancouverite Christine Nevedica Mehta claims she has endured more than any woman should: a sham marriage that included verbal and physical abuse, rape, and, now, $10,000 in child-support payments owed her by her ex-husband. It started when she agreed to an arranged marriage 12 years ago. Her ex, she said, falsely wooed her while he was on vacation in Canada, from India. He used her, she claimed, to immigrate and then sponsor his parents. It was not a real marriage, she said.

"These people enter the country, they bypass our laws, and the government can't put a stop to it," she told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview May 29. "What's happening to our rights? Our Canadian rights?"

On June 7, Mehta will be one of eight Canadians speaking out at a meeting organized by NDP MLA Raj Chouhan (Burnaby-Edmonds). It's a step toward legislation that may help prevent shams: the international term for immigration-inspired false marriage. Shajila Singh, who will speak at the meeting, claimed her sham marriage cost her $27,000 because her ex-husband went on welfare, for which she had to reimburse the province (for details see www.shajila.com/).

Under immigration laws, a Canadian who sponsors a foreign spouse must be financially responsible for him or her for 10 years. Chouhan has two solutions. First, deport any immigrant involved in a sham marriage. Second, eliminate the law that makes sham-marriage victims responsible for their spouses' finances. --

-- Tatiana Shaurova has followed the national debate over millions of illegal aliens and how they should be treated.

But what really worries her is her own situation.

Shaurova is a Russian visitor to this country, married to an American citizen and living in Orchard Park. For nearly four years, she has been trying to play the U.S. immigration game by the book.

But the 30-year-old woman says it has been impossible to get an answer from U.S. immigration authorities on her request for a green card. The green card would make her a permanent resident and put her on track to become a naturalized American citizen.

"I feel so helpless," Shaurova said. "Some people come to America as illegal aliens, just to get benefits. I'm trying to do things legally, and nothing works." --

-- Dear Cary,

I am seriously considering offering to marry a man from another country so that he can get his citizenship -- and I can get a lot of money.

Even as I'm typing these words, I know how horrible they sound. But I am not a huge advocate of marriage, am currently single (have had great love in my life), and I need capital to get a business off the ground. I know this is morally reprehensible to a lot of people, but, truthfully, it is an amazing little piece of power that I am holding that could change the lives of two people. I wouldn't marry just anyone -- he would need to be decent and his reasons for wanting to be an American citizen would need to be pure, non-criminal (I know, I know, marrying me would be a crime, but you know what I mean), and of sound mind. --

-- A growing number of Chinese immigrants are paying up to $50,000 to enter into so-called marriages of convenience to help them stay in Canada, an immigration consultant says.

"Marriages of convenience are increasing substantially ... because it takes so long to process immigration cases," Tony Luk, president of the Chinese Immigration Consultants' Association, told the Toronto Star yesterday.

"I've heard that the price has gone to $30,000 to $40,000 ... and the highest I've heard is about $50,000," he said.

Yesterday, Min Chen, a 23-year-old former visa student, pleaded guilty to kidnapping 9-year-old Cecilia Zhang from her North York home in hopes of extorting enough money from her family to pay a Canadian woman to marry him or live together in a common-law relationship. --

-- Some people hope (or fear) that same-sex marriage will pave the way for the legal recognition of polyamorous marriages. Some advocates of legal polyamory argue that restricting marriage to duos is every bit as arbitrary and unfair restricting marriage to partners of the opposite sex. --

-- A 33-year-old man in northern Malaysia has married a 104-year-old woman, saying mutual respect and friendship had turned to love, a news report said Tuesday.

It was Muhamad Noor Che Musa's first marriage and his wife's 21st, according to The Star newspaper, which cited a report in the Malay-language Harian Metro tabloid.

Muhamad, an ex-army serviceman, said he found peace and a sense of belonging after meeting Wook Kundor, whom he said he initially sympathized with because she was childless, old and alone, the report said.

"I am not after her money, as she is poor," Muhamad reportedly said. "Before meeting Wook, I never stayed in one place for long."

He said he hoped to help his new bride to master Roman script while she taught him Islamic religious knowledge.

The report did not say if any of Wook's previous 20 husbands are still alive. --

-- Here's a true big love story.

Richard L. Kunz marries Janice. Years later, they decide to practice polygamy. Richard and Janice divorce so he can legally marry Rachel. The three live as husband and wives until Rachel dies.

Then Richard takes a new plural wife, Lillie Spencer, but doesn't marry her legally.

Along comes Lynne, a British citizen who needs to marry to stay in the country. Richard secretly weds Lynne as a favor to her real polygamous husband, Andrew Williams, who is already legally married.

Richard dies in 2003, and Janice discovers his marriage to Lynne, who never lived with Richard but is now Richard's legal widow.

That's the tangled web a domestic commissioner, a 3rd District Court judge and now the Utah Court of Appeals have had to sort out. --

-- If only the government at Westminster did not rush into legislation without thinking things through and listening to more sober counsel. As a result it is now forced - rightly - to suspend controversial new rules on "sham" marriages which the High Court considers are in breach of human rights.

It is a shame - because no--one in their right mind can suppose the institution of marriage has not been cynically and extensively abused to provide a loophole through which immigration controls could be by-passed - and indeed via which humans were being trafficked.

But by not framing its law correctly, the government has, it would appear, been guilty of unlawful discrimination.

This is why parliamentary scrutiny - however unfashionable and unnecessary it may seem - works. And why the government's good intentions once again have foundered on its arrogance and inexperience.

Consider one recent case in which a gang are thought to have made millions of pounds from organising more than 120 sham marriages to enable Nigerian immigrants to stay in Britain. --

-- Eight U.S. sailors at a Florida navy station fraudulently married Polish and Romanian women in order to collect extra housing allowances, according to federal charges filed on Tuesday.

The women did not live with their Navy husbands, but used the sham marriages to apply for U.S. citizenship, U.S. Attorney Paul Perez said in a news release.

The sailors, seven of whom are still in the Navy, were all stationed at the Mayport naval station in northeast Florida.

They were charged with conspiracy, marriage fraud and making false claims to the government to collect $35,000 worth of extra housing allowances.

The tax-free allowances for off-base housing are based partly on marital status and number of dependents. --

-- A government crackdown on "sham marriages" is in disarray after three young couples determined to wed in Britain won a court victory over Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary.

Izabela Trzcinska, who is a Pole living legally in this country, was not allowed to marry Mahmoud Baiai, from Algeria, who entered the country illegally.

Supported by a couple who are Kosovan and Albanian and a Turkish couple, they took their fight to the High Court, which ruled yesterday that their human rights had been breached.

It was the first case to come to the courts under the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to marry and found a family. --

-- Home Office ministers last night suspended their drive against "sham" marriages involving migrants after a high court judge ruled it was discriminatory because those who married in Church of England ceremonies were exempt from the clampdown.

Mr Justice Silber said he was troubled by the fact that migrants who married in non-Anglican religious ceremonies needed a certificate of approval from the home secretary.

He said the Home Office rules breached the right to marry and start a family under the European convention on human rights. The ruling will affect hundreds of migrants who want to marry in Britain. --

-- The Government has suspended the operation of controversial new rules on "sham marriages" following a High Court ruling that they breached human rights laws.

The test case judgment, won by couples including an illegal entrant to the UK from Algeria, also led to the immediate launch of claims for damages from those denied "the right to marry". Hundreds of other cases are potentially affected.

The judgment is a serious blow to Government moves, set in motion by former Home Secretary David Blunkett, to end marriages of convenience which abuse immigration controls.

The judge said preventing sham marriages was a legitimate aim, but the new marriage rules, introduced in February 2005, were not "rationally connected to that aim".

Unlawful discrimination had arisen because Church of England marriages were exempt from the rules, which prevented persons subject to immigration control from marrying unless they obtained certificates of approval from the Home Office. --

-- The announcement in January by Majority Leader William Frist (R-Tenn.) that the Senate will take up a constitutional amendment to defend traditional marriage in June is only the latest sign that the fight over marriage is expanding in the United States.

Advertisement

Campaigns to win legal recognition of same-sex unions as marriages and efforts to counter them are now taking place against the background of proposals to legalize polygamy and "polyamory" – relationships that involve three or more persons and any gender mix. Legalization of same-sex marriage is seen as a necessary step to that end.

Frist scheduled Senate debate on the Marriage Protection Amendment for the week of June 5. That will be almost two years after 50 Senate Democrats refused to halt a filibuster and let the amendment come to a vote. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John Edwards (D-N.C.), awaiting nomination by the Democrats as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates, skipped the vote.

Forty-eight Republicans voted to end the filibuster. A filibuster, requiring 60 votes to halt it, is likely when the amendment comes up again this year. The Marriage Protection Amendment would define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman. It has the support of President Bush and pro-family groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. --