India

Mother sold 12-year-old to 70-year-old man

Muneera Begum, now aged 19, lives in Hyderabad, India. She says she was just 12 years old when her parents sold her into a forced marriage with a man from Oman. He was aged 70.

She calls the so-called wedding night "torture."

"I wasn't educated and I couldn't understand anything that was going on," she said. I had a childishness in me."

She says that for two months, he kept her locked in a room, using her repeatedly for sex.

"If he had to go anywhere he would lock me from the inside, come back later and then again that torture would start," she said.

England collapse to series defeat

Legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal finished with a staggering six wickets for 25 runs as England, chasing 203 to win, collapsed from 119-2 to 127 all out.

On a brilliant batting surface, Suresh Raina (63 off 45 balls) and MS Dhoni (56 off 36) earlier struck blistering fifties for India, the latter's first in his 76 T20Is.

England were well placed after 12 overs of their reply, but then Eoin Morgan (40 off 21) and Joe Root (42 off 37) fell to consecutive Chahal deliveries to trigger the dramatic collapse - eight wickets falling for eight runs in 19 deliveries.

India is planning to give free WiFi to more than 1,000 villages

Now, the Indian government is stepping up its own efforts.

It plans to provide free WiFi to 1,050 villages across the vast country under a new pilot project known as Digital Village.

Over the next six months, each village will get its own WiFi hotspot mounted on a special towerto which villagers can connect using their cell phones.

Global tech firms and Indian internet providers are racing to grab a piece of the country's unconnected population of more than 900 million people.

Apple wants to start making iPhones in India

Apple executives met with Indian government officials on Wednesday to discuss a plan to make iPhones in the southern city of Bangalore, a person familiar with the talks told CNNMoney.

Women display clothes they were groped in after sexual assaults in India

The campaign is being run by Blank Noise, a charity which was set up in 2003 to fight the issue of female molestation around the world.

Organiser Jasmeen Patheja says she wants 10,000 photos of dresses and other clothing to display for a project called "I Never Ask For It".

It follows reports of widespread sexual assaults in Bangalore at New Year.

Fury over India flag doormats for sale on Amazon

Sushma Swaraj tweeted that Amazon should issue an "unconditional apology" and withdraw the "insulting" products.

Failing this, she said India would rescind current visas for Amazon officials and not grant any more.

Amazon said it had removed the doormats from its site.

In a series of tweets, Ms Swaraj asked the Indian High Commission in Canada to take up the issue with Amazon after it was brought to her attention by another Twitter user.

Israel warns of New Year terror threat in India

A statement from the Counter-Terrorism Bureau urged particular caution in the south-west of India.

It said travellers should shun crowded areas like beach parties, clubs, and markets.

India is a popular tourist destination for Israelis.

Young visitors from Israel often travel to areas like Goa to relax after completing their compulsory military service.

In a unusual move, the warning was published on Friday evening in Israel, after the start of the Jewish Sabbath when government offices close for business.

Root: I can still improve

The 25-year-old struck 88 in the tourists' 284-4 before falling to spinner Ravindra Jadeja - Moeen Ali leading the way thereafter with an unbeaten 120.

Root converted eight of his first 21 scores of fifty or more in Tests into centuries - that's 38 per cent - but only three of his last 17 (18 per cent), and told Sky Sports: "It's very frustrating.

"The amount of times this year when I've got into a good position and not been able to kick on - it's quite frustrating.

Tropical cyclone Vardah takes aim at India

Tropical cyclone Vardah is packing winds of 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour) and is the first cyclone on the Bay of Bengal to reach hurricane force in 2016, according to CNN meteorologists. It could create a one meter high storm surge as it makes landfall.

Vardah is expected to bring extremely heavy rainfall to Chennai in the southeast state of Tamil Nadu and the state of Andhra Pradesh, added CNN meterologists.

Facebook Express Wi-fi goes live in India

Express Wi-fi offers software to local entrepreneurs to allow them to work with service providers and share their internet connection with the public for a fee.

Users have access to a variety of services, including news and weather reports.

One critic of Facebook's previous plans was more receptive to this one.

"I think it's a great initiative, we need more companies providing access to the internet in India," said Nikhil Pahwa, editor and publisher of MediaNama, an Indian news site.