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First, how susceptible is your jewelry to scratches and chemical products? Hardness is based on a gem-trade standard called the Mohs scale. The higher the Mohs scale number, the harder the stone is. The highest Mohs scale rating is 10 (diamonds). Anything with a Mohs scale rating of less than 7 is easily scratched (such as coral, lapis lazuli, opal, pearl, and turquoise). Gold, silver, and platinum are only Mohs 2-1/2 to 4.

Because a diamond can scratch gold or pearls it is always important to freshwater pearl store all jewelry pieces separately. Gold jewelry will last you a lifetime if it is taken care of. Gold can be scratched and dented if you are not careful. Because of where they are worn, gold rings and bracelets will get the most damage, much more so than earrings or necklaces. Chemicals also can cause damage to gold. One of the worst is chlorine. Constant exposure to chlorinated cleaning products will make the gold weak and prone to breaking. Don't wear your gold in the swimming pool or Jacuzzi. Take your jewelry off around the house when cleaning but if you prefer to wear rings and bracelets wear rubber gloves for protection. Even makeup, perfume, hairspray, and perspiration can cause gold jewelry to lose its luster. Clean your jewelry regularly using a good jewelry cleaner. A quick clean can be done with a baby tooth brush and mild soap and a small amount of ammonia. (Never clean in the sink as the jewelry might fall down the freshwater pearl jewelry drain, always clean in a bowl away from a drain pipe) Grease can be removed from karat gold jewelry by dipping into plain rubbing alcohol. Always rinse thoroughly and dry after cleaning. Keep it wrapped separately in a soft cloth, jewelry box divider or plastic baggie. Keep your eye on prongs that could break and cause the loss of a stone. An occasional visit to a professional jeweler is the best idea.

Platinum is one of the rarest and most durable precious metals. It does not tarnish or get discolored from chlorine. Even though it is very tough you still need to take good care of your platinum jewelry. Store it separately because platinum can be scratched. Platinum can be cleaned in the same manner as other fine jewelry.

You will probably be surprised that sunlight can cause many colored gemstones to fade, change color or become pale. Common stones that are damaged in sunlight (there may be more):
Amethyst, Ametrine, Apatite, Aquamarine, Aventurine, Beryl, Celestite, Chrysoprase, Citrine, Fluorite, Kunzite, Rose Quartz, and Smokey Quartz. Pearls are organic stones and quickly react to cultured pearl any form of chemicals like perfumes, hand lotions, hair spray, etc. Chemicals directly attack the nacre, ruining the luster, which causes patches on your pearl. Put your pearl jewelry on last after you have applied your perfumes, lotions, etc. They should not be worn along with any other jewelry items
such as chains or even watches. Clean pearls only with lukewarm water. Never brush them in any way. You can then wipe it with a regular cotton cloth. The silk is delicate and gets stretched after a period of time. Always store bead necklaces (such as lapis, pearls, etc) flat as that will keep the silk from stretching. It could break when the strand is worn on a regular basis. You should have them checked, to see if they need to be re-strung, every 3 years if you wear them regularly.
Opals are water-based stones. Sudden temperature changes cause them to crack in multiples (known as Crazing). They
should thus be cleaned only in room temperature water (68°F - 75°F) and then wiped with a soft cotton cloth.
Emeralds, naturally coming out of the ground have several surface breaking inclusions in them. Almost all of them are
treated through oiling to hide these inclusions. They cannot be immersed in cultured pearl jewelry ultrasonic cleaners or steam machines for
this reason. The oiling will either discolor or come out during the cleaning process. Thus they can only be cleaned with
room temperature water (68°F - 75°F) and a cotton cloth.

Platinum is one of the rarest and most durable precious metals. It does not tarnish or get discolored from chlorine.
Even though it is very tough you still need to take good care of your platinum jewelry. Store it separately because
platinum can be scratched. Platinum can be cleaned in the same manner as other fine jewelry.

Your silver jewelry tarnishes when exposed to air. This occurs more quickly in damp and foggy weather and even sunshine, but is inevitable in any climate. Tarnish first appears as a golden hue on your sterling silver then turns to black. Always store in treated paper or cloth, or plastic zip lock bags made of Mylar (turkey cooking bags) or polyethylene. Some plastic contains sulfur compounds which can cause tarnish faster. Never use polyvinyl plastic bags. Tiny zip-lock bags work great for each individual piece. Don't store sterling silver jewelry on pearl jewelry Chian wood surfaces as wood usually contains acids that can mar the finish. Also avoid storing silver with other metals like pennies and rubber. Don't wear rubber gloves when washing or polishing silver because rubber promotes tarnish. Dry and polish silver with a soft cloth, not paper towels. You can use a baby tooth brush or a horsehair silver brush but stays away from paper, polyester and course fabrics that contain wood fibers as this can scratch your silver. Ordinary toothpaste is a good, quick cleaner but is mainly recommended for gold, not silver. If you don't want to rub the silver (or you're uncomfortable working with acid), make a dip using baking soda, aluminum foil and hot water. Place a 2' length of aluminum foil into a plastic bucket, and pour 1/2 gallon of hot water over it. Then pour a cup of fresh baking soda into the water (if the soda is fresh, it will begin foaming). Submerge a piece of silver in the water, and allow it to sit for 30 minutes. Then pull out the silver, rinse it, and allow it to dry.

For a more of a heavy duty cleaner get a pickle jar and combine one inch of cleaning detergent (like Top Job or Mr. Clean), one inch of dish washing liquid and one inch of ammonia. Fill the rest of the container with water. Shake well, heat in microwave and pour into an old pot and simmer on stove. Put your silver or gold into the solution and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Remove from solution and rinse with water. Dry well.

If you keep a copy of the O.P.H. (that's Lisa Birnbach's 1980 classic, The Official Preppy Handbook) on your bedside table, you knew just what that title meant. Preppy style is always timeless and in freshwater pearl necklace style, because it is basically unchanging. The classic good taste and clean lines of preppy style make it a natural for a any wedding.

Certain colors have a strong association with preppy style, especially the pink and green combo. Tiffany blue and sunshine yellow also work, and for a more sophisticated look,try pink, green, or blue paired with chocolate brown accents. You can carry these colors throughout everything: invitations (Engraved or letterpress, please. Bonus points for monograms.), flowers, table décor, bridesmaids' dresses, and even signature cocktails. (For more on preppy drinking, you must check out a fabulous book called Tipsy in Madras.)

There are variations on the preppy theme that you can use for akoya pearl necklace your reception. There is the aforementioned pink and green, of course, but you could also choose to decorate with sun-washed Madras plaid, or a breezy oceanside Nantucket look. Your décor should not be overly fussy or ornate. Instead of towering floral centerpieces surrounded by votives, think blue hydrangea in a galvanized bucket with grosgrain ribbons ties around it. For an informal reception, gerbera daisies in shades of pink would strike just the right note. Roses in white or the palest pink would be beautiful for a more formal preppy wedding.

Of course at any wedding, it is the bride's dress that sets the tone. For a preppy wedding, the bridal gown should be simple with clean lines (like an A-line strapless dress). Appropriate fabrics would include silk shantung, silk organza, or silk mikado. For a summer wedding, a custom gown in white-on-white seersucker or a pique would be amazing. The bridesmaids' dresses would also be great in organza or shantung for pearl earrings a more formal wedding, or for an informal look, you can't beat a Lilly Pulitzer dress. The bride may wish to pull the color of her attendants' dresses into her own gown, often as a sash at the waist.

Accessories should be classic and timeless, so pearl jewelry is perfect. The bride will likely choose to wear a classic strand of pearls (a wonderful wedding gift from her fiancee or father), and pearl bridesmaid jewelry will also be the right look for her attendants. If your wedding is more formal, the bridesmaids will likely wear pearl strands like the bride. For a less formal outdoor wedding, tin cup style necklaces would be a great choice for pearl bridesmaid jewelry (they make a sweet gift from the bride). And because preppy girls love anything monogrammed, present your bridesmaids their gifts in personalized little silver boxes.

We shouldn't forget the men; preppy guys also have a distinctive style. A formal wedding could call for classic black tie, but for a daytime ceremony, it would look terrific for freshwater pearl earrings the men to wear navy blazers with khakis. For the perfect finishing touch, coordinate the neckties to the bridesmaids' dresses, or choose ties with a great preppy motif like whales or sailboats (anything from Vineyard Vines would work). There are also regional variations on mens' attire, such as Nantucket red pants for a wedding on that island.

It is the little fun touches that will set your preppy style wedding apart. You could go all out, and have a Lilly Pulitzer pattern done on your wedding cake. Instead of numbering the akoya pearl earrings tables at the reception, name them after preppy places like Palm Beach, Greenwich, or Bar Harbor. A game of croquet on the lawn would also be a neat reception idea. Most of all, remember to enjoy your wedding, because if there is one thing preppies love, it's a great party!

Briget has many years helping clients select jewelry and accessories. Let us know if you would like her to write on a particular topic.

 

Every bride deserves to enjoy the special day that she will be united with the man she loves. This wedding day marks the start of a new chapter in her life where she will vow to spend the rest of her life with her loved one.
This is why you must give all the love and support to your daughter who will be marrying. She deserves nothing but the attention and dedication of her family as she bids goodbye to girlhood and prepare to become a wife.

This may be a difficult day too for you as parents. It is not so long ago that your daughter is just a mere little child who would depend on you.
Your daughter is aware of this. As such, it is very important that you take the  cultured pearl jewelry extra mile to show your support to your beloved daughter.
Give her the perfect gift. Give her a pearl jewelry.

The Pearl Jewelry

Pearls are perfect to be given to people who are special to you, especially your daughter. They are very timeless and versatile.
These pearls are by far the oldest gem stone known in the world. They have been around for centuries already and they have been very valuable ever since.
Pearl actually comes from a Latin word that means unique because there can be no two pearls that will resemble each other exactly in any way.

Your marrying daughter will definitely feel special with the pearl considering that she can treasure the pearl very well. It has an elegant and classic style that will bring delight to the wholesale pearl necklace heart of any woman.
Pearls are also very versatile. They can go well with any color and special occasion. They can even make a simple black dress look more elegant. They will never go out of the trends in the fashion world.
The pearls can also give the best symbolism that you can wish your daughter in the day of her wedding. They stand for purity that is very important in a woman.
The pearl can also represent love and protection that is very much needed in a marital relationship.

How to Pick the Perfect Pearl Jewelry Gift

Considering all these good points that a pearl possesses, it is important to now the precise kind of pearl that you will buy for you daughter.
Here are some guidelines to consider as you look for the perfect gift:

1. Determine the Jewelry Piece

There are various jewelry pieces that you can pick from. You can choose among pearls in necklaces, earrings, rings or bracelets.
Pick the jewelry piece that will best suit your daughter, depend it on her personality.

2. Choose the Best Color

To make the pearl perfect for your daughter, pick one that will fit the taste of your daughter.
People are accustomed to the white pearls that are very common. There are also choices among black, peach or pink.
You can choose among these colors that will best fit the wholesale pearl earrings style of your daughter. You can even consider her wardrobe collection to find one that will suit her best.
It is best also to determine on which occasions you expect your daughter to use the gift.
There are pearls that are made especially for dressy occasions like designing them in a string of pearls or making it with a diamond accent for an elegant appeal.

3. Kind of Pearl

There are also different variations in the pearl itself.
There are the natural pearls that are very rare and expensive as they are grown in the natural course of the oyster.
Cultured pearls also grow out of pearl necklace oysters but human interference factored in to create a piece of pearl.
Baroque pearls are the ones that come in irregular shapes as against the freshwater pearls that look like a rice in their puffed state.
Seed pearls are the tiny kinds that are very much popular in Victorian styles. They are often used in wedding dresses.
Keshi pearls are the pearl earrings rarest so far because of their distinct trait of not having any nucleus.

Conclusion

It is undeniable that a pearl jewelry will definitely be the best gift you can give your beloved daughter on her special day.
So before you give her out to the man who she will spend the rest of her life with, give this special gift to her. Make her wedding day even more perfect with a valuable pearl.

Weight. What is a Carat?

Diamonds are sold by the carat (CT), not to be confused with Karat (KT), which in the United States refers to gold quality. Since 1913 most countries have agreed that a carat weighs 200 milligram, or 1/5 gram.
Before 1913 the carat weight varied depending upon the country of origin, the Indian carat didn’t weigh the same as the English carat; the French carat was different from the Indian or the English. This is important if you have, or are thinking of buying , a very old piece that still has the  coral jewelry original bill of sale indicating carat weight; the old carat weighted more than the new, post 1913 metric carat, which is 200 milligram (1/5 gram). Therefore, an old three carat stone will weigh more than three carats by the new standards. Today the term “carat” means the metric carat, the 200 milligram carat. There are five carats to one gram.

Jewelers often refer to the carat weight of diamonds in terms of points. This is particularly true of stones under one carat. There are 100 points to a carat, so if a jeweler says that a stone weighs 75 points, that means it weigh 75/100 of a carat, or 3/4 carat. A 25 points stone is 1/4 carat. A 10 points diamond is 1/10 carat.

The carat is the unit of weight, not size. I wish to stress this point, since most people think that a one carat stone is a particular size. Most people, therefore, would expect a one carat diamond and one carat emerald, for example, to look the same size or to have the  turquoise jewelry same apparent dimensions. This is not true.

Comparing a one carat diamond to a one carat emerald and a one carat ruby easily illustrate this point. First, emerald weighs less than diamond and ruby weighs more than diamond. This means that a one carat emerald will look larger than a one carat diamond, while the ruby will look smaller than a diamond of the same weight. Emerald, with a mineral composition that is lighter, will yield greater mass per carat; ruby, with its heavier composition, will yield less mass per carat.

Equal volumes of materials with the same density, however, should have approximately the freshwater pearl same weight, so that in diamond, the carat weight has come to represent particular sizes. These sizes are based on diamonds cut to ideal proportions.

How does carat weight affect value in diamonds?

Diamond prices are usually quoted per carat. Diamonds of finest quality are sold for the  highest price per carat, and diamonds of progressively less fine quality are sold for a progressively lower price per carat.
Also, as a rule, the price increases per carat as we go from smaller to larger stones, since the larger stones are more limited in supply.
furthermore, stones of the same quality weighting exactly one carat will sell for much more than stones weighting 90 to 96 points. Thus, if you want a one carat diamond of a particular quality, but its cost goes over your budget, you may find one in a 95 point diamond more affordable, and a 95 point diamond will give the impression of a full one carat diamond when set. You might be able to get your heart’s desire after all.

The price of a diamond does not increase proportionally; there are disproportionate jumps. The larger and finer the stone (all else being equal in terms of overall quality), the freshwater pearl jewelry more disproportionate the increase in the cost per carat may be. A top quality two carats diamond will not cost twice as much as a one carat diamond, it easily be four times as much.

What is spread?

The term spread is often used in response to the question ”How large is this diamond?” But it can be misleading. Spread refers to the size the stone appears to be, based o its diameter. For example, if the diameter of the stone measured the same as you see in the cultured pearl diamond sizes chart (shown above) which represents the diameter of a perfectly proportioned stone, the jeweler might say it “spreads” one carat. But this does not mean it weight one carat. But this does mean it weights one carat. It means it looks the same size as a perfectly cut one carat stone. It may weigh less or more, usually less.

Diamonds are generally weighted before they are set, so the jeweler can give you the exact carat weight, since you are paying a certain price per carat. Note, also, that the price per carat for a fine stone weighting 96 points is much less than for one weighing one carat or more. So it is unwise to accept any “approximate” weight, even though the difference seems so slight.

It is also important when buying a diamond to realize that since carat refers to weight, the manner in which a stone is cut can affect its apparent size. a one carat diamond that is cut shallow will appear larger in diameter than a stone that is cut thick (heavy). Conversely, a thick diamond will appear smaller in diameter.

Furthermore, if the diamond has a thick girdle, the stone will appear smaller in diameter. If this girdle is faceted, it tends to hide the ugly, frosted look of a thick girdle, but the fact remains that the girdle is thick, and the stone suffers because it will appear smaller in diameter than one would expect at a given carat weight. These stones (diamonds) are therefore somewhat cheaper per carat.

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FROM her hospital bed, Titi Tazrar, one of only five migrants who survived a crossing from Libya, described how 73 other passengers had died. They included three pregnant women who aborted at sea. “Some died because they fell into the sea at night,” said the 27 year-old Eritrean. “The pregnant women aboard suffered the most. We didn’t know how to cultured pearl help or comfort them. But soon after losing their children they too died.”

On the very day when Ms Tazrar gave her account, a game designed by Renzo Bossi, son of the Northern League’s leader, Umberto Bossi, called “Bounce back the clandestine migrant”, was removed from his Facebook site. A failure to block enough boats led to freshwater pearl a message: “Try again…next time you’ll manage to show you’re a true Leaguer!”

Since May Italian vessels finding migrants in international waters have returned them to Libya instead of taking them to Italy where (whether or not they won asylum) most have tended to remain or else travelled to freshwater pearl jewelry another EU country. The rescue of the 12-metre craft on which Ms Tazrar was found on August 20th triggered the biggest row yet. The church has been critical: the head of the Vatican’s migrants department, Antonio Maria Veglio, is locked in an acrimonious dispute with a leading Northern League figure, Roberto Calderoli. This matters, for history suggests that Italian governments at odds with the church do not last long. And Mr Berlusconi is already in bad odour with the clergy over his private life.

Yet some of the opprobrium heaped on his government’s immigration policy is misguided. The real objection is that the new approach prevents migrants from applying for asylum even if they are entitled to humanitarian protection (typically around a third of pearl jewelry wholesale Mediterranean boat people qualify, according to the Italian government). It then forces them back to Libya, an undemocratic state whose leader scoffs at notions of human rights.

But there is no evidence that Italy is actually ignoring the plight of those, like Ms Tazrar, who manage to reach its territorial waters. Officials insist that she and her fellow passengers were rescued by a coastal patrol as soon as it was alerted to their presence. Since June 1st almost 500 people have been taken in by Italy (although, under the new law, they now risk prosecution for illegal immigration).

Graver doubts hover over Malta. Ms Tazrar and her fellow-survivors say that two days before their rescue their dinghy was approached by a patrol boat whose crew gave them fuel and life-jackets and even “turned on the motor because we were too weak”. Malta accepts that its men found the Eritreans, but says the migrants were in good health and rejected an offer of rescue because they wanted to reach Italy. As a prosecutor in Sicily began investigating the incident, Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, outraged the Maltese government by suggesting that it should limit Malta’s territorial waters because it could not patrol them properly.

Continuing illegal immigration across the Mediterranean cries out for a co-ordinated EU response. Carl Bildt, the foreign minister of pearl jewelry Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, said new proposals from the European Commission would be discussed by foreign ministers in October. But he added that such a complex problem could not be solved at one meeting.

That excuse seems flimsy. But Hungary’s claim that St Stephen is part of the region’s common heritage might be stronger had any Slovak dignitaries been invited to the statue’s unveiling. Komarno has declined to pearl necklace find a prominent place for statues of St Cyril and St Methodius, revered by Slovaks and other Slavs for their missionary work in the ninth century.

Outsiders find it hard to have an influence. The European Socialists temporarily suspended the membership of the pearl jewelry wholesale Smer-SD party led by the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, but nobody seemed to care. The EU has not taken a stance on the language law. Some hope that things will improve as the fortunes of Jan Slota, the Slovak National Party leader, fade. He specialises in inflammatory attacks on wholesale pearl jewlery Hungarians (and gypsies and Germans) and some of his supporters are racist.

Scandals are indeed catching up with Mr Slota’s party. Mr Fico recently deprived it of the environment ministry, one of the gemstone jewelry three cabinet portfolios it holds. But Mr Slota is unlikely to take his party out of government altogether. And the row with Hungary suggests that Mr Fico is all too ready to play the nationalist card himself.

That may not make a huge difference now. But if the pearl jewelry Hungarian conservative leader, Viktor Orban, wins the election that is likely next year, Slovakia may find its needling meets a more vigorous response. It is easy to stir up rows based on old grievances—far harder to calm them down.

INSISTING on good manners does not end quarrels, but over time it can make them obsolete. That was the recipe the European Union applied to pearl earrings its new members in 2004. For Hungary and Slovakia, at least, it is no longer working.

The latest spat came on August 21st, when Slovakia stopped the Hungarian president, Laszlo Solyom, from crossing its border. On an freshwater pearl jewelry ostensibly private trip, he planned to unveil a statue of St Stephen, the first king of Hungary, in the predominantly Hungarian city of Komarno, in southern Slovakia. This was not just a diplomatic snub, but also a pearl jewelry wholesale breach of EU rules on freedom of movement.

Slovaks are prickly about Hungary, which they see as an unrepentant former imperial power (“a thousand years of oppression” is pearl jewelry a common phrase). St Stephen is seen as an unpleasant magyariser and Mr Solyom’s activities as revanchist. Hungarians dismiss this as paranoia. What they mind about is the rights of compatriots stranded by the dismemberment of Hungary after the first world war. Hungarians form sizeable minorities in cultured pearl Romania and Serbia; in Slovakia they are a tenth of the population. Slovakia has come under particular scrutiny since the hardline Slovak National Party joined the ruling coalition in 2006. In July the government passed a language law to promote Slovak that Hungarians see as discriminatory.

Condemnation of Mr Solyom’s planned visit came from Slovakia’s president, prime minister and foreign minister. All insisted that it was the date they objected to most. August 21st is the anniversary of the freshwater pearl Soviet-led invasion that crushed the then Czechoslovakia’s “Prague spring” in 1968, and Hungary was one of the Warsaw Pact countries that took part.

In the largely Kurdish city of Batman, Mufide Agaya, whose son is among thousands of Kurds who went missing at the height of pearl jewelry wholesale the conflict in the mid-1990s, agrees. “I now have hope that, dead or alive, I will recover my boy.” Local prosecutors have been unearthing the remains of victims of the once rampant “mystery murders” carried out by rogue members of the security forces. In Diyarbakir, the de facto capital of the pearl jewelry Kurdish region, where prison inmates were once force-fed their own excrement, banners reading “Qirej Nekin” (Kurdish for “don’t litter”) line the streets. Once officials would have been jailed just for putting them up.

The trickiest part of Mr Erdogan’s “Kurdish overture” is how to get the PKK to stop fighting without negotiating with their imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who continues to hold sway over both his men and millions of pearl jewelry wholesale ordinary Kurds. The main opposition parties have already blasted Mr Erdogan for alleged treason. The obvious way out would be to use the DTP as a proxy, rather as Britain used Sinn Fein to deal with the IRA. The trouble is that the notoriously egocentric Mr Ocalan cannot bear to remain out of the limelight. He now says he will unveil his own road map for peace. Although recent opinion polls show 45% of Turks supporting Mr Erdogan’s Kurdish overture, a deal that followed overt bargaining with the PKK would be tricky to freshwater pearl jewelry sell at home.

At least this time the army is behind the government. The chief of the general staff, Ilker Basbug, has grumbled about undermining the “unitary state” and injecting ethnicity into the constitution. But a string of leaks about attempted coups and botched operations against the PKK have dented the generals’ image. Many of those most likely to torpedo a Kurdish deal are being prosecuted in the Ergenekon case against an alleged network of anti-government plotters. General Basbug has long conceded that military means alone cannot solve the Kurdish problem.

The withdrawal of American troops from Iraq could also work in favour of peace. As their American mentors leave, the Iraqi Kurds are turning to Turkey for protection. In exchange they seem willing to limit the movements of some 3,000-5,000 PKK fighters based in their region and to help disarm and repatriate them to freshwater pearl Turkey under a proposed amnesty.

More than Mr Erdogan’s career is at stake. So is Turkey’s future. A new generation of dissatisfied and radical Kurds could easily unleash a cycle of violence that even the PKK might be unable to control. What is most heartening is that the Kurdish initiative is not merely about responding to European Union pressure: it is a home-grown affair. And the onus is as much on the PKK and its allies as on the government to ensure that it succeeds. It will not be easy, but Mr Erdogan seems determined to plough on. If he succeeds, says Sezgin Tanrikulu, a human-rights lawyer in Diyarbakir, the Kurds will flock to back him—and Ataturk’s words will no longer ring so hollow.

ON MAY 1st 1920 Kemal Ataturk, father of modern Turkey, told the fledgling parliament that “north of Kirkuk there are Kurds as there are Turks, and we never discriminated against them.” Yet for most of pearl jewelry the past 80 years those of Turkey’s 14m-odd Kurds who dared publicly to identify themselves as such have been brutally repressed, kicked out of their villages, tortured, jailed or killed.

The Kurds have fought back in pearl pendant rebellion after rebellion. None so violent or so long as that launched in 1984 by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Over 40,000 people, many of them PKK fighters, have died in a terrorist campaign that has cost the state billions of dollars, blotted its international image, and stymied Turkey’s efforts to become a full-fledged democracy.

Successive governments have mumbled about dealing with the Kurdish problem, only to be stopped by Turkey’s hawkish generals. But now a confluence of pearl necklace circumstances is raising hopes of a more lasting solution under the leadership of Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has staked his political future on this issue.

In a ground-breaking speech in parliament earlier this month, Mr Erdogan provoked tears when he spoke of the common pain of Turkish and Kurdish mothers who had lost sons in the conflict. His interior minister, Besir Atalay, has been making the rounds of pearl earrings assorted politicians and civic leaders to build consensus for an as yet unarticulated plan. Mr Erdogan, who has long shunned the largest Kurdish party, the Democratic Society (DTP), for being the PKK’s political front, met its leader, Ahmet Turk, in early August.

The government’s plan is said to include easing remaining bans on Kurdish broadcasting, allowing Turkified villages to regain their Kurdish names, setting up Kurdish language and literature departments in universities and scrapping laws under which thousands of young Kurds are jailed for allegedly acting for wholesale pearl jewelry the PKK (usually for no more than chanting PKK slogans or throwing stones at police). “This time the government means real business,” concludes Henri Barkey, an American academic who has studied the Kurds.

HONESTY is a rare commodity in the nuclear underworld, where Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, Syria and possibly others—as well as Argentina, Brazil, Libya and South Africa in inflatable times past—have long done deals for the equipment, technology and materials needed for their illicit nuclear programmes. Yet North Korea and Pakistan’s notorious blackmarket-maker, Abdul Qadeer Khan, have both proudly and separately decided to tell the world more about their nuclear exploits. By contrast there is a worrying silence from Iran and Syria, two countries in the spotlight this week at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear guardian, for their suspect nuclear activities.

Iran’s refusal to answer inspectors’ questions about mounting evidence of nuclear-weapons-related work, or to pick up the offer of talks on its nuclear ambitions from America, China, Russia and three European states, bodes ill for the diplomatic effort to hold the non-proliferation line. Come the UN General Assembly later this month, foreign ministers of the six will be taking stock of Iran’s readiness to co-operate before they decide whether to start the hard job of trying to agree more sanctions. They will have little to go on.

Pressed by Russia and China, which have dragged their feet over inflatable castles further sanctions, to show the minimum of willing, Iran handed over its counter-offer on September 9th. The one thing off the agenda, says Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is what everyone else wants at the top of it: a suspension of Iran’s nuclear work, especially its uranium enrichment and any plutonium-related efforts, until Iran can re-establish confidence (of which there is anyway precious little by now) that its nuclear programme is, as it claims, peaceful. At this rate, in a few months the whole diplomatic effort will have run into the Persian sand.

Meanwhile, Iran’s protestations of innocence have been undercut by Mr Khan’s explanation last month to “Islamabad Tonight”, a television talk show in Pakistan, of how in the 1980s Iran secretly sought his help with nuclear technology. “We” wished Iran to acquire such technology, he said, implying official backing for the deals eventually done through his network. “Iran’s nuclear capability [would] neutralise Israel’s power,” he added.

Similar job-lots of centrifuge equipment for enriching uranium, potentially fissile material for a bomb, delivered by Mr Khan and his associates to Libya had come with the design of a nuclear warhead thrown in. Caught out in 2003, Libya handed over both the design and information that helped expose the Khan network. Had Mr Khan sweetened the deals with Iran and North Korea in the same sort of way? Nobody knows. Arrests of inflatable slides his associates in Switzerland turned up digitised versions of an even more sophisticated warhead than that passed to Libya.

North Korea is now boasting that it has completed experiments to enrich uranium, giving it potentially a second stream of fissile material (it has already tested two plutonium-based bombs). That is discouraging, but hardly a surprise. In 2002 North Korean officials privately admitted to the Americans what they were up to (before later denying it again publicly). But no one knew how far they had got.

Mr Khan would neither confirm nor deny—“maybe” was all he was prepared to say, and “at the moment”—that he had supplied North Korea with such equipment. He implied that whatever he had done anyway had state backing. But General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s former president, had already revealed that in the 1990s Mr Khan had supplied North Korea with some 20 of the necessary centrifuge machines, with inflatable tent instructions on running them.

Either way, even with Mr Khan out of the picture and some of his network rolled up, there is scope for mutual help between his customers. North Korea is known to have secretly built a nuclear reactor for Syria, of the sort it used to make the plutonium for its own bomb; that structure was destroyed in an Israeli air raid in 2007.

North Korea’s claim (assuming it is true) that it can now enrich uranium opens up a another dark possibility. Centrifuge machines are hard to inflatable water games operate. North Korea will have needed help in getting them up and running. North Korea and Iran are already known to co-operate intensively in developing nuclear-capable missiles. So what is to stop them helping each other with their nuclear programmes? North Korea has plutonium and warhead-building skills. A master tunneller, it could also help any country wanting to hide its nuclear efforts from satellites. Iran, meanwhile, has the uranium-enrichment skills that North Korea previously lacked. Small wonder Iran thinks it can enrich on happily.

SOLDIERS mostly aim better with bullets than with words, but Yemen’s army can claim unwonted accuracy in its latest offensive, Operation Scorched Earth. Judging from reports of MiG fighter aircraft, helicopter gunships, tanks and Katyusha rockets churning up the spectacular mountainscapes of the country’s rugged north-west, the description is fitting.

The UN says at least 50,000 people have fled since fighting began in August. Thousands more may be trapped in remoter parts of the war zone, which spreads across an area the size of inflatable bouncer Wales that borders Saudi Arabia and protrudes south to within 50km (30 miles) of Sana’a, Yemen’s capital. With reporters banned and aid workers severely restricted, the overall casualty count is unknown. What is certain is that the latest batch of refugees must be added to the 150,000 civilians already uprooted during five previous rounds of the conflict, which started in 2004.

The clashes pit regular government troops, backed by lighter-armed tribal allies, against tribesmen loyal to the Houthi family, a powerful northern clan. The Houthis style themselves mujahideen, in the manner of the guerrillas who chased the Russians out of Afghanistan. Their slogan—“Death to America! Death to Israel! Curse upon the Jews! Victory to Islam!”—would suggest a link to global jihadists. But most of their adherents belong to the Zaydi sect, a normally quietist branch of Shia Islam that is unique to Yemen and which most Sunnis regard as quaintly schismatic.

Zaydis make up a third of Yemen’s 30m people, and for inflatable moving cartoon centuries formed the ruling elite in its mountain heartlands. They remain well represented in government; President Ali Abdullah Saleh is one. But some provincial Zaydis resent the republic that overthrew Yemen’s last Zaydi monarch in 1962, and which Mr Saleh, a former tank commander and relative commoner, has run since seizing power in 1978.

Friction has mounted owing to pervasive corruption that favours Mr Saleh’s own clan, to his craftiness at playing Yemen’s numerous gun-toting tribes against one another, and to his perceived cravenness towards Saudi Arabia. Many Yemenis, pointing to a surge in religiosity among their own Sunni majority, see their rich, radically conservative Sunni neighbour as a pernicious cultural influence.

Yet, as in a family feud, Yemenis struggle to explain what started the Houthis’ quarrel with the government. Its roots go back to the early 1990s, when Saudi Arabia expelled nearly a million Yemeni workers to punish Mr Saleh for backing Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the first Gulf war in 1991. This influx drew recruits into inflatable arches a radical Zaydi cult, known as the Believing Youth, that had been launched by a charismatic member of the Houthi family. Building on perceived government neglect of the north, a deprived region where the lucrative smuggling trade was badly hit by the squabble with Saudi Arabia, and acting on the Zaydi doctrine of legitimate resistance to inept rule, the group soon found itself in opposition to the government in Sana’a.

In a country awash with guns where central authority has always been weak, such tensions tend to be expressed violently. In the first round of open warfare in 2004, government forces killed or captured much of the Houthi leadership. Yet, despite their small number, the Houthis have not only survived repeated batterings, but thrived.

Much of the reason for their success lies with the army itself. Its aerial bombing and artillery fire have proved better at enraging locals than at subduing bands of guerrillas; and its induction of tribal allies has pushed their traditional rivals into the Houthis’ arms. The army’s need to man fixed positions in remote areas and to mount convoys on main roads has provided plum targets. Most of the Houthis’ heavy equipment is captured booty, though they have bought more from corrupt officers or in inflatable cartoon the market in Saada, the region’s capital. With such things as rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft guns on open display, Saada is said to boast the best-stocked arms bazaar west of Pakistan’s Peshawar.

After the last round of clashes sputtered out in July 2008, Houthi forces quietly regained possession of much of the country around Saada, positioning themselves to block the few roads that give access to the rest of the country. Despite the ferocity of the present onslaught, they do not appear to have been dislodged. The government claims advances but Houthi videos posted on YouTube show captured army tanks and soldiers. Each side accuses the other of atrocities and of acting as a cat’s-paw for foreign powers. The government says the Houthis are fighting for Iran. The rebels say the government truckles to the Saudis.

Such reasoning comforts Yemenis, many of whom prefer to blame their PVC model troubles on regional power games. But although there is no proof of Iranian involvement, Saudi Arabia does have a legitimate interest in helping Yemen’s government control its side of their mutual border. The kingdom is, in fact, a reluctant ally of Mr Saleh, as are the Western donors whose aid has long propped up his regime. But with even more perilous potential threats to Yemen looming, such as growing unrest in the once-separate south and menacing signs of a resurgence by affiliates of al-Qaeda, Mr Saleh can still plausibly pose as the only man stopping the country from becoming the world’s next failed state. 

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