Honeymoon Was a Labor of Love

The honeymoon is over, and the newlyweds could hardly be happier. “There were many moons and not much honey,” said the bride, Mariantonietta Peru. The day after the wedding, she and husband Michael Asher began 271 days of trekking across the Sahara Desert, traveling by foot and camel from the Chinguetti Oasis in Mauritania to the River Nile in Egypt through Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan. They almost died of thirst, were arrested for not having a travel permit and were hounded by baying hyenas around their camp at dusk. With a guide and three camels, they once traveled for 12 days without seeing another person and moved in constant fear of attacks from bandits. The intense, 104-degree desert heat sparked futile arguments. Peru said she dreamed of lemonade and fresh salad and had “hallucinations of a fresh tomato,” as they ate powdered milk, dried gazelle meat, sardines and rice. The Italian general’s daughter and the former member of Britain’s elite Special Air Service ended their journey in May and are writing a book for an American publisher, who helped finance the trip. Next they want to enter a 2,037-mile camel race set for next year in Australia. “I think we stand a good chance of winning,” Asher said.

--John Doe left West Palm Beach, Fla., after police gave in and handed over his suitcase without the required signature that would have revealed his real name. Doe had been detained in January when he matched the description of a suspect reported to be carrying drugs in a suitcase. Police said he could go after they found only clothes and toothpaste in his bag, but he balked when asked to sign a jail release form and went to jail, arguing that police had no right to compel an innocent man to give his name. Doe still refused to sign, and a judge ordered him freed after 11 days. Then police refused to give back his suitcase without a property release signature. But they finally gave in after he picketed the station for a third time, and he left town on a bus. When Doe opened the bag, he said, he found the lining had been torn and the toothpaste had been squeezed out. Police suggested that he file a claim with the city, but he probably won’t. He would have to sign it.

--Moran Kadosh, a 4-year-old Israeli girl who underwent a liver transplant in Britain after passengers on a jumbo jet raised $64,000 for the operation, is going home this weekend with a new lease on life, her mother said. “She looks so well now, just like a normal little girl,” Tovah Kadosh said. Fellow travelers had passed the hat for Moran on the flight to London.