World Vignettes

Wearing a 1940s-style long white sleeveless satin dress with no train, a pair of earrings her only jewellery, Amanpour, 40, walked up the aisle on Saturday at the historic church here to the sound of ave maria sung by a friend.

Rubin, 38, was waiting for her inside the church, for a Roman Catholic service officiated by an Irish priest she had met in Tehran. Among the around 140 guests were John Kennedy Jr, son of assassinated US President John F Kennedy, and his wife Carolyn Bassette.

Rubin, a long-time aide to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Amanpour, British of Iranian origin andbased in London, met last year in Bosnia.

Italy8217;s lure
ROME: Lust tops the list of Italy8217;s attractions for women tourists, with gastronomic goodies coming a close second, a survey has showed.

But the traditional appeal of the swarthy deep-South Latin lover is fading as the stress of joblessness strikes at his virility, researchers said.Thirty-six per cent of the female tourists from Europe and the United States said hopes of finding passion had brought them to Italy, while 29 per cent named food as their number one draw.

But 60 per cent of the 672 women polled by food company Principe Di San Daniele said they preferred northern Italian men to the raven-haired, suntanned specimens of the poor South.