After the family of a 14-year-old groom canceled his wedding to a 12-year-old bride a fight broke out between the two families of Gypsies in Romania. That event caused about 200 people to fight each other with fists, knives swords and guns in the Romanian village of Sinesti, where 12 people were injured - but no one was killed. Although the bridal couple was too young to marry even under Romania's relaxed age law for gypsies, the gypsies, or Roma, believe that children should marry when they reach puberty. In Romania it is legal for gypsy children to marry at age 16 with parental permission, while the normal legal age for marriage there is 18.

xtramarital affairs and mid-life crisis were the most common cause of marriage breakdown, according to the results of the survey of 100 leading divorce lawyers in England and Wales conducted by chartered accountants Grant Thornton. The survey revealed that 29 percent of divorces last year were due to extramarital affairs (from 32 percent previously) and 14 percent were because of mid-life crisis. In majority or 93 percent of mid-life crises, the man was the one who was undergoing the crisis.

Saudi Arabia has arrested over 50 men for "flirting" with girls at a Mecca mall. Prosecutors are currently investigating charges that include wearing indecent clothing and playing loud music in order to attract female attention.

A traditional symbol of Valentine's Day, red roses, has been banned by Saudi Arabia's muttawah until Feb. 14. Also included in the prohibition is the sale of other red items such as gift wrappers. Shop owners were advised by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice to take off from their shelves the red flowers and similar reminders of Valentine's Day, which is considered un-Islamic and allegedly leads to relations outside of marriage.

A recently conducted survey revealed that British citizens are becoming more liberal when it comes to sexual activity, with most finding nothing wrong with having premarital sex. With 3,000 respondents, the annually taken British Social Attitudes survey revealed that 70 percent of its randomly-chosen respondents think that there is nothing particularly wrong with engaging in sexual encounters with partners before marriage. The number indicated a significant difference from the 48 percent recorded back in 1984.