World in brief: Moon marries 20,000 couples

Asan, South Korea – Brides in white gowns and Japanese kimonos joined grooms in black suits and red ties today for the Unification Church’s biggest mass wedding in a decade – a spectacle church officials say involves 40,000 people around the world.

The “blessing ceremony” is the church’s largest since 1999, and may well be the last on such a grand scale officiated by the 89-year-old Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the Unification Church.

Nearly a half-century after arranging the marriages of 24 couples in his first mass wedding, Moon offered blessings today for more than 20,000 people gathered at Sun Moon University. Twenty-thousand others were expected to watch via Internet broadcast at simultaneous ceremonies taking place from Sweden to Brazil.

Pakistan aid squabble settled

Washington – President Obama plans to sign a bill providing Pakistan $7.5 billion in economic aid today, after Congress issues a statement designed to placate Pakistanis’ objections that conditions attached to the legislation violate their sovereignty, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.

The joint statement House-Senate statement will emphasize mutual respect between the two countries, officials said, and “clarify” provisions in the bill requiring administration reports to Congress on Pakistan’s expenditures, its progress in combating Islamist insurgents and the extent of civilian control over the Pakistani military.