The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Bus driver on trial for Delhi gang rape hangs himself
- Venezuela's Capriles joins race, tussles with Chavez heir
- Main accused in Delhi gang rape hangs himself in jail -TV
| Bus driver on trial for Delhi gang rape hangs himself Posted: 10 Mar 2013 08:06 PM PDT NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The driver of the bus in which a young Indian woman was gang-raped and fatally injured three months ago hanged himself in New Delhi's Tihar jail on Monday, police said.
Ram Singh was the main accused of five men and a juvenile put on trial for the attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist in the Indian capital. The assault triggered nationwide protests and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India. A senior police official said Singh had committed suicide in his cell early on Monday. "It is true, he's dead," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The CNN-IBN news channel said Singh hanged himself with his own clothes. Tihar jail is India's highest security prison and officials there are likely to face tough questions about how such an incident could have occurred. "He knew he was going to die anyway because we had and still have such a strong case against him," the physiotherapist's 20-year-old brother told Reuters. "I'm not very thrilled with the news that he killed himself because I wanted him to be hanged ... publicly. Him dying on his own terms seems unfair. But, oh well, one is down. Hopefully the rest will wait for their death sentence." The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court last month while the juvenile's trial began last week. Ram Singh's brother Mukesh Singh, gym assistant Vinay Sharma, bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh and fruit vendor Pawan Kumar are the other men on trial. The five men have pleaded not guilty to rape and murder. Police allege the six attacked the woman and her male companion on the bus as the couple returned home after watching a movie on December 16. The woman was repeatedly raped and tortured with a metal bar. The couple were also severely beaten before being thrown onto a road. The woman died of internal injuries in a Singapore hospital two weeks later. Singh was a bus driver, despite an accident in 2009 that fractured his right arm so badly that doctors had to insert a rod to support it. He appeared on a reality television show in a compensation dispute with a bus owner, who in turn accused Singh of "drunken, negligent and rash driving". In the show, the moustachioed, slightly-built man was seen walking stiffly and holding his right arm at an awkward angle. Singh's neighbours in the south Delhi slum where he lived described him as a heavy drinker with a temper. One young woman said he used to get embroiled in violent rows and a relative recalled a physical altercation with her husband. (Reporting by John Chalmers, Annie Banerji, Matthias Williams; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ross Colvin) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Venezuela's Capriles joins race, tussles with Chavez heir Posted: 10 Mar 2013 07:28 PM PDT CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition leader vowed on Sunday to fight late Hugo Chavez's preferred successor for the presidency next month and the pair quickly locked horns in an angry war of words.
Henrique Capriles, a 40-year-old state governor, will face election favourite and acting President Nicolas Maduro. The pair must register their candidacies for the April 14 vote on Monday. The election will decide whether Chavez's self-styled socialist and nationalist revolution will live on in the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves. "I am going to fight," Capriles said at a news conference. "Nicolas, I am not going to give you a free pass. You will have to beat me with votes." Former Vice President Maduro, 50, a husky one-time bus driver and union leader turned politician who echoes Chavez's anti-imperialist rhetoric, is expected to win comfortably, according to two recent polls. Maduro pushed for a snap election to cash in on a wave of empathy triggered by Chavez's death Tuesday at age 58 after a two-year battle with cancer. He was sworn in as acting president on Friday to the fury of Capriles. "You have used the body of the president for political campaigning," Capriles said of Maduro on Saturday, triggering an angry rebuke. Maduro accused Capriles of sowing hate. "You wretched loser!" Maduro said of Capriles in a televised speech. "You have shown your true face - that of a fascist." Capriles, the centrist Miranda state governor who often wears a baseball cap and tennis shoes, lost to Chavez in October. But he won 44 percent of the vote - the strongest showing by the opposition against Chavez. Capriles has accused the government and Supreme Court of fraud for letting Maduro campaign without stepping down. Opposition supporters were trying to raise their spirits despite the odds. "There's no reason to think that the opposition is condemned to defeat," Teodoro Petkoff, an anti-government newspaper editor, said on his Sunday talk show. MADURO RAILS AGAINST CAPRILES, IMPERIALISM Maduro has vowed to carry on where Chavez left off and ratify his policy platform. He acknowledged he has big shoes to fill. "I am not Chavez - speaking strictly in terms of the intelligence, charisma, historical force, leadership capacity and spiritual grandeur of our comandante," he told a crowd on Saturday. Chavez was immensely popular among Venezuela's poor for funnelling vast oil wealth into social programs and handouts. The heavy government spending and currency devaluations have contributed to annual inflation of more than 20 percent, hurting consumers. "Maduro's success will depend on if he can fix the economy and its distortions," said a former high-level official in the Chavez government who declined to be named. "If he does that, he could emerge as a strong leader instead of one who is an heir." Maduro's first official meeting on Saturday was with officials from China, whom Chavez courted to provide an alternative to investment that traditionally came from the United States. He has adopted his mentor's touch for the theatrical, accusing imperialists, often a Chavez euphemism for the United States, of killing the charismatic but divisive leader by infecting him with cancer. Emotional tributes were paid at a religious service at the military academy housing Chavez's casket on Sunday. Several million people have visited his coffin so far and his remains will be moved on Friday to a museum where a tomb is being built to show his embalmed corpse. He may be moved later to another site next to the remains of his hero: 19th century liberator Simon Bolivar. Chavez scared investors with nationalizations and railed against the wealthy. In heavily polarized Venezuela some well-to-do citizens toasted his death with champagne. If elected, Capriles says he would copy Brazil's "modern left" model of economic and social policies. Given the state resources at Maduro's disposal and the limited time for campaigning, Capriles faces an uphill battle. "If the opposition runs, they'll lose. If they don't run, they lose even more!" tweeted Andres Izarra, who served as information minister under Chavez. The opposition rank-and-file is heavily demoralized after losing last year's presidential race and getting hammered in gubernatorial elections in December, stoking internal party divisions. "There's no doubt that it's an uphill race for Capriles," local political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said. "The trouble is that given the race is so close to Chavez's death, emotions get inflamed and the candidate probably continues to be Chavez rather than Maduro." (With reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Simon Gardner, Terry Wade, Pablo Garibian, Deisy Buitrago, Mario Naranjo and Enrique Andres Pretel; Editing by Stacey Joyce and Cynthia Osterman)
Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Main accused in Delhi gang rape hangs himself in jail -TV Posted: 10 Mar 2013 07:07 PM PDT NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The driver of the bus in which a young Indian woman was gang-raped and murdered three months ago hanged himself in New Delhi's Tihar jail on Monday, TV news reports said. Ram Singh was the main accused of five men and a juvenile who were put on trial for the attack on the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist. The assault triggered nationwide protests and an intense debate about rampant crime against women in India. (Reporting by John Chalmers; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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