Palestinians cross the breached border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip in the divided town of Rafah, Jan. 31.

As thousands of Gazans rushed into Egypt last week after militants blew the border open Mohammed Abu Mor ran the opposite way to marry his sweetheart after a long wait.
The 26-year-old is a Gaza-born Palestinian living and studying in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria and was due to marry Hiba Ferwana, 23, from Gaza’s divided town of Rafah last July, AFP said.
But after Hamas seized control of Gaza in June, the Rafah border crossing--already open only on rare occasions for a year--was locked down and the couple forced to call off the festivities.
So when he heard that Gaza militants blew down sections of the border barrier amid a punishing Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory, he dashed to the frontier.
“That night we heard of enormous explosions at the border. The people in the street started yelling, ’They bombed the border,’“ said Mor’s father, Jaber, as the two sat with family and friends to celebrate on the eve of the marriage.
“At three o’clock in the morning I called my son and told him, ’You’ve got to come right away, the border is open’,“ Jaber said.
“At nine o’clock I was there,“ chipped in Mohammed.
Over the past several months, Mohammed tried many times to enter the Gaza Strip via Israel, but never managed to get the necessary authorization.
“We would have gotten him in by tunnel to get married if we had to,“ Jaber said, only-half joking, referring to the underground passages between Gaza and Egypt used to smuggle in goods, weapons and people.
“But I managed to come back, thank God,“ Mohammed said.
“Tomorrow we are going to celebrate. It will be a big day.
Tomorrow we will finally marry,“ he said, not taking his eyes off Hiba, resplendent in a long golden robe.
Upstairs, Hiba’s family and friends were celebrating, in keeping with tradition, her upcoming departure to live with her husband in Egypt. An old stereo played popular songs, as children handed out sweets and fruit juice.
Gaza’s steady economic decline over the past two years, since the rise to power of Hamas, has left the 15,000-dollar price tag of a wedding beyond the means of many Gazans.
Since the border breach to escape an Israeli blockade, Palestinians have hauled mattresses, foodstuffs, fuel and even motorcycles from Egypt into Gaza, emptying store shelves in the border towns of Rafah and El-Arish.
For Mohammed, the hardest part could come after the wedding celebrations--getting back to Alexandria with his bride.
Egyptian security forces have set up controls to prevent Gazans from traveling further inside the country.
“I have a residence permit, so I’ll have no problem to pass through the checkpoints and get back to Alexandria,“ Mohammed said.
“For her, I don’t know.“
A shadow passed across his face. “The Palestinians and the Egyptians should find an agreement, we want to be able to pass freely,“ he said. “We want to be able to breathe.“

Germans have grown lazy over the last two generations and that has contributed to a worrying increase in obesity rates, according to a government study.
“People are more idle than 40 years ago--they are desk-bound and lazy,“ said Marianne Eisinger-Watzl of the Federal Research Institute for Food and Nutrition study, Reuters reported.
“Food is more energy-dense and snacking is on the up.“
Two thirds of German men and 51 percent of women carry excess fat compared to 39 percent of men and 47 percent of women in the last national study done 20 years ago.
One in five Germans are clinically obese, the study found.
More than 20,000 Germans aged between 18 and 80 years old were asked about their eating habits for the purpose of the survey, which was conducted by the Ministry for Consumer Protection.
Consumer Protection Minister Horst Seehofer pointedly chewed on a carrot at the news conference.
“We need to educate people better,“ Seehofer said after devouring the contents of a lunch box filled with healthy food.
Germany is one of the most obese nations in Europe, according to the International Association for the Study of Obesity.
Education and income factors directly affect obesity, according to the study which showed 35 percent of women with a state school education are obese compared to only 9.7 percent from private schools.

Chinese policemen comfort babies rescued from a group of human traffickers in Zhengzhou, Henan province, Jan. 2.

The first international conference on human trafficking, one of the fastest growing crimes, will be held in Vienna next month to raise awareness about what has become a billion-dollar industry, organizers said.
“Human trafficking exists everywhere in the world, in all societies. There are no exceptions,“ said Doris Buddenberg, head of UN.GIFT (the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking), an initiative by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, reported AFP.
“It’s almost certainly one of the fastest growing crimes in our globalized world,“ Buddenberg told a news conference here.
“It is above all big business. The UN estimates that the global market value is in billions of dollars. And that is one of the most cautious estimates.“
The aim of the three-day conference from February 13 to 15, with an anticipated 1,000 participants from some 100 countries, is to raise public awareness of the issue, foster better coordination in the international fight against human trafficking and come with new measures for combating it, Buddenberg said.
Other international organizations will be represented at the meeting, such as the UN children’s agency UNICEF, the UN human rights body OHCHR, the International Labor Organization and the International Organization for Migration.
Other expected participants include law enforcement officers, judicial and social work experts, as well as non-governmental organizations and private sector companies.

Perhaps they should have seen it coming, but Afghanistan’s traditional fortune tellers are under fire from religious elders who have branded their ancient practice as backward and un-Islamic.
Dozens of fortune tellers were recently ejected from the surrounds of the beautiful Hazrat Ali shrine in the northern city of Mazar Sharif after religious elders responsible for the mosque’s upkeep got tired of their presence, Reuters reported.
“Islam does not permit the practice of fleecing simple people,“ said Qari Mohammad Qasim, the head of the shrine, adding that action was taken after numerous public complaints.
Part soothsayer, part mathematician and part letter writer, Afghanistan’s “fallben“ are an irregular fixture outside mosques and shrines across the country.
Their fortunes have fluctuated for nearly 1,400 years but the practice dates back to when Alexander the Great conquered the country with his army and its multitude of accompanying gods, most of whom required constant consulting, a role for the soothsayers.
Banned and persecuted under the rule of the Taliban, fortune tellers have made a comeback since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.
For many like Shah Agha, their talent has been a family business for generations. Others, like Sayed Rabbani, learnt their skills in India where astrologers and fortune tellers are respected members of the community and can command huge fees.
But Muslim scholars consider fortune telling to be blasphemy.
“Fortune telling is not permitted in Islamic law. It has been mentioned clearly (in the Qu’ran) that this is against Islamic values,“ said Mohammad Ihsan Seaqal, imam of a Kabul mosque.
“Fortune tellers are misusing the sacred religion for their personal advantage,“ he said.

The European Commission moved to overhaul Europe’s 30-year-old food label laws, aiming to give consumers easy access to nutritional and health information on the products they buy.
According to AFP, the plan is to move information on the energy, fat, carbohydrate, sugar and salt content to the front of food packaging, as well as the information such as the recommended daily allowance of a product and any allergy warnings.
The commission argues that the move is needed to keep pace with innovative and more complex styles of labeling--the previous laws date from 1978--and take into account new consumer habits like shopping over the Internet.
“Today’s proposal aims to ensure that food labels carry the essential information in a clear and legible way, so that EU citizens are empowered to make balanced dietary choices,“ EU Health Commissioner Marko Kyprianou said.
“Confusing, overloaded or misleading labels can be more of a hindrance than a help to the consumer,“ he said.
The commission maintains that the plans will address the most common complaint of shoppers, which is that they cannot read or find the information they are looking for on a packet.
They will require companies to use standard legible print of at least three millimeters in size and explain the details in a clear and accurate way, without other writing on the package interfering.
Once the plan is endorsed by the EU’s 27 member nations, companies will have a three- to five-year transition period to introduce the changes.
Europe’s CIAA food and drink industry lobby expressed serious concerns about the proposals.

A snowy day in Tehran

Britain’s first outdoor playground for the elderly opened with dozens of older people flocking to exercise in the winter air on brightly colored outdoor equipment.
Residents of state housing in the northern English city of Manchester lobbied the local housing management firm to build the area after hearing of a similar scheme in Germany.
They say it is ideal for the area’s ageing population.
“You might say I’m being daft but it gives you a real buzz and afterwards you feel fantastic,“ Peggy Yuill, 74, told Reuters by telephone from the bustling post-launch lunch.
“We can’t believe how it has taken off.“
Yuill, a member of the local residents association who pushed for the play area, said she had last been on a playground when her son--now 41 with three children--was growing up.
The equipment, set up next to an existing children’s playground, includes a static cycling machine, another that mimics the workout given by skiing and others that can be used by wheelchair users. More than 60 tried it.
“You can take the grandchildren to the under fives play area and if there is someone to watch them you can have a go on the adult playground,“ she said.
“It is for the elderly but anyone can use it. The most important thing is that you cannot hurt yourself and it won’t go any faster than what your body wants it to do.“

India plans to begin a motorcycle first-aid fleet that will be able to zip through the capital’s clogged streets to reach traffic accident victims quicker, a report said.
The proposal follows a surge in crashes as well as delays in medics reaching them because of Delhi’s growing number of vehicles, the Press Trust of India quoted health officials as saying.
The capital, which has nearly three million vehicles and 14 million people, recorded around 1,900 fatal accidents last year, with experts warning the figure could soar in the absence of a modern emergency-response service.
“This two-wheeler service is planned keeping in mind the high density of traffic in New Delhi, which is compounded by a spurt in the number of vehicles,“ city Health Secretary N. Balachandran told PTI.
Delhi in early 2000 launched a 35-vehicle rapid emergency service, but the four-wheeled ambulances often get stuck in traffic jams, experts say.
Officials said the motorcycles will have a driver with a paramedic riding pillion and will be deployed as a round-the-clock service after its launch later this year.
“Sometimes it becomes difficult for an ambulance to reach an accident spot due to traffic snarls, and most of the deaths involving road accidents are due to lack of timely medical aid,“ Balachandran said.
The Delhi government has also vowed to phase out 4,500 private “Blueline“ buses, blamed for the largest number of accidents.
The city’s state-run accident medical services hailed the project, the first of its kind in India where more than 96,000 people died in road accidents in 2005, according to the federal road transport ministry.
And a study by the National Transportation Planning and Research Center recently said the country had the highest number of road accidents in the world.