Couple divorce 4 days after wedding

An Israeli couple has sought divorce just after four days of tying the nuptial knot, making it the world's fastest divorce.

The couple arrived at the Rabbinical court yesterday asking for divorce less than a week after their wedding with the husband arguing that his wife refused to live in his parents house and the wife claiming that he had promised to rent an apartment and live on their own.

The newly weds apparently also had some financial disputes as the wife claimed that she should get a larger share of the wedding gifts and that the husband's family gave cheap gifts.

The rabbis, who failed to convince the couple to reconsider their decision, granted the wife her wish and gave both the divorce papers.

Latest data available from the Rabbinical courts have shown that five per cent of the marriages last only a year in Israel. Last year, 10,000 couples filed for divorce in Israel, an increase of 4 per cent compared to the previous year, with Tel Aviv leading the tally with 723 cases, the report said.

Jerusalem, with a large segment of religious population, surprisingly also showed 10.4 per cent increase in divorces.

One of the findings reveal that about 17 per cent of the total number of divorces in 2006 were filed less than three years after the knot was tied, the portal said.

However, if the marriage survives six years of matrimonial bliss the risk of divorce decreases although 17.5 per cent of the applicants looking for divorce were those who had spent 20-30 years together, it said.