World Vignettes

Divorce on the webWASHINGTON: No more waiting in lawyers offices or horrendous court costs, no more bureaucracy - in the United States you c...

Divorce on the web

WASHINGTON: No more waiting in lawyers offices or horrendous court costs, no more bureaucracy 8211; in the United States you can now get on the road to divorce at the click of a computer mouse. At divorce institute Iimagers.Com/mall/divorce/, there is a complete divorce package for the matrimonially weary. Candidates call up a questionnaire, fill in details on property and other disputed matters and reasons.

Completed forms are then sent to the divorce institute where all the relevant legal documents are drawn up. All the would-be divorcees have to do is sign on the dotted line before a lawyer, pay the state fees. A divorce can cost between 75 dollars when both partners are willing and any children are no longer minors and 145 dollars when one partner does not agree and there are children who are minors. The throng of applications to the divorce institute shows that the liberal laws in many US states still present a confusing bureaucratic process to manypeople.

Authors burn easily: Rushdie

BERLIN: British author Salman Rushdie surfaced from seclusion as guest on Saturday at a Berlin event commemorating the day the Nazis burned thousands of books in their assault on intellectual freedom. Rushdie, seen under British police protection since Iranian religious leaders sentenced him to death for alleged blasphemy, called for greater solidarity among persecuted writers. quot;Protecting books is not the problem. What is important is to protect the authors,quot; Rushdie said. quot;Authors burn much more easily than books.quot; Publication of Rushdie8217;s Satanic Verses in 1988 caused an uproar among Muslims around the world, who contended that it insulted Islam. Also at the ceremony was Faraj Sarkuhi, who was among 134 writers and intellectuals who signed a letter to the Iranian government in 1994 accusing it of limiting freedom of expression.

Selling pizzas

SINGAPORE: The popular Pizza Hut chain of restaurants in Singapore is seeking Muslimreligious leaders8217; stamp of approval in a bid to increase sales, press reports said on Monday. The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore here said it had received an application last week from Pizza Hut for quot;Halalquot; certification, the Straits Times quoted. The quot;Halalquot; certification means that the meat served in a restaurant has been prepared according to Moslem law. Pizza Hut plans to replace the ham in its Hawaiian pizza with chicken. Beer will be dropped from the menu.