● INDIA. Man ?marries? 8-year-old out of spite. Police in southern India were looking for a 35-year-old farmer who forcibly married an 8-year-old girl because he believed her father was responsible for his wife leaving him, a newspaper said yesterday. The Asian Age, quoting a police officer from Tamil Nadu?s Theni district, said farmer Vijayarajan caught primary school student Amuthamani on her way to school and tied a ?mangalsutra? (sacred Hindu thread symbolising marriage) around her neck soon after his wife left him following a quarrel. Though the girl?s father protested against the forced marriage, the council of village elders said that, according to social tradition, the little girl would remain married to Vijayarajan as long as he lived. In India, the official age for marriage for girls is 18 years and marrying a minor is illegal. But in hundreds of villages across the country, girls as young as ten are married off to older males. ?Vijayarajan has fled the village but we will get him,? Theni Superintendent of Police A Amalraj was quoted as saying, adding the marriage was invalid.

● INDONESIA. Earthquake rocks Bali, one dead. An earthquake rocked Indonesia?s premier tourist island of Bali yesterday, killing one person and injuring at least two, El Shinta radio reported, quoting hospital officials. The Meteorological and Geophysics Agency in Jakarta said the quake measured 5.5 on the Richter scale.

● LONDON. celebrating 20th birthday. Prince Harry is to hold private, low-key celebrations today for his 20th birthday, a Royal family spokeswoman has said. In contrast to Harry?s London nightlife adventures which periodically make tabloid headlines, the young prince will spend the evening privately as he prepares for his Sandhurst entrance assessment in a bid to secure a place on the Army?s elite officer training course.