RIO DE JANEIRO — Nearly 2,000 Brazilian couples have said “I do” in the largest collective wedding Rio de Janeiro has seen.

The state of Rio de Janeiro hosted the ceremony for low-income couples who can't afford to get married. With relatives joining in, Sunday's celebration at the indoor Maracanazinho sports venue gathered about 12,000 people.

Some couples arrived on a commuter train where brides polished their looks, applying makeup and fixing their hairdos.

Rio de Janeiro has promoted the mass wedding for eight years in a tradition called “The Day of I Do,” which is for people with a monthly family income of less than $1,000. At the end they get a free marriage certificate.

A priest representing the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro was present as well as evangelical Christian pastors.

MOSCOW — Russia's ruble hit a new all-time low on Moscow, dropping more than 3 percent as declining oil prices and the conflict in eastern Ukraine are weighing in on the Russian economy.The Russian currency traded 52 rubles against the dollar at the opening today after shedding 15 percent last week. The ruble was also down 2 percent against the euro.The ruble has been declining throughout the year, losing about 42 percent of this value since January.Oil prices, the backbone of the Russian economy, dropped roughly 25 percent since the summer. Brent crude, an international benchmark, fell 3 percent to $70.15 a barrel on Friday.The latest slide follows OPEC's decision to leave its production target at 30 million barrels a day. Member nations of the cartel are worried they'll lose market share if they lower production, which could have helped to push up the price.

BERN, Switzerland — Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected three citizen-backed proposals to protect the country's wealth by investing in gold, drastically limit immigration and eliminate a special tax that draws rich foreigners.The separate proposals — put to voters nationwide Sunday by conservative politicians, ecologists and a liberal group — had needed a majority of voters and Switzerland's 26 cantons (states) to pass.A proposal to require the central bank to hold a fifth of its reserves in gold was opposed by 77.3 percent of voters, according to final results from Swiss broadcaster SRFFinance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the vote reflects people's confidence in the SNB and the view that gold is no longer as important as it once was as a tool to back up paper money.A proposal to limit immigration to 0.2 percent of Switzerland's population — about 16,000 immigrants a year for a country of 8 million — was opposed by 74.1 percent of voters.A third national referendum, which would have abolished special tax discounts for rich foreigners living in Switzerland, was also defeated. About 59.2 percent voted against the measure.