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Fourteen-year-old Rekha Kalindi, who lives in an eastern India village roiled by starvation and underdevelopment, has never watched India's screen divas portray empowered women in lavish Bollywood movies. Living in a mud hut on one meal a day, Rekha this year made a long journey by train from this obscure hamlet in West Bengal to India's prosperous capital, New Delhi — where she was feted by the country's first female president, Pratibha Patil. The act that brought her fame: Rekha said "no." The girl said "no" to her parents when they arranged her marriage at age 13 last year, an...

LONDON: British children as young as nine "are being compelled into wedlock by their families" against their will, reportes said. This revelation came as official figures disclosed that nearly 60 children were rescued by UK's Forced Marriage Unit in the past four years. The cases fuel concerns that a number of children are disappearing from UK schools to be forced into marriage overseas. Karma Nirvana, a charity which runs a national helpline on forced marriage said in one incident a nine-year-old girl from a Pakistani family was rescued after her parents told her to wed. On average four children a...