Football: LionsXII fall to PKNS

SINGAPORE - After two confidence-boosting wins from their first two Malaysian Super League matches, V. Sundramoorthy's high-flying LionsXII side were brought down to earth on Tuesday night at the Shah Alam Stadium when they fell to their first defeat.

Ironically, PKNS Selangor, the team that defeated them on Tuesday, had entered the match in contrasting fashion - with two losses out of two matches.

But that did not stop PKNS Selangor from stunning the LionsXII and maintaining their 100 per cent home record against the Singapore side.

Last season, PKNS did the double over Sundram's men, beating them in Kuala Lumpur in the MSL as well as in the group stage of the Malaysia Cup.

Tuesday's match seemed headed for a 0-0 draw despite the LionsXII coming close through Fazrul Nawaz, Irwan Shah and Gabriel Quak in the first half which they had also dominated.

Fazrul sent his shot centimetres wide of the post after latching onto a pass by skipper Shahril Ishak. Irwan then missed another scoring opportunity during a goalmouth scramble minutes later, while Quak let himself down by shooting wide with only the keeper to beat after dribbling his way past several PKNS defenders.

In the second half, the two sides switched roles as PKNS attacked more, and had the LionsXII on the backfoot.

In the end, it was Nazrin Syamsul who made the difference when he blasted home the only goal of the game for PKNS.

The LionsXII's misery was further compounded when striker Fazrul was sent off in the dying minutes of the game for a nasty tackle.

The LionsXII's next match is on Saturday against Terengganu at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

- TODAY

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Ann Coulter's wrong on guns and race

Guns offer equal opportunity tragedies, David Frum says. Here's a Glock pistol with a 17-round magazine.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• David Frum: Typical American gun murder isn't like Newtown massacre


• He says conservative commentators wrong to distance whites from problem


• Gun industry, gun laws affect all Americans, Frum says

Editor's note: David Frum, a CNN contributor, is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is the author of eight books, including a new novel, "Patriots," and a post-election e-book, "Why Romney Lost." Frum was a special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002.

(CNN) -- Massacres such as Newtown are horrifying and heart-rending. They are also nothing like the typical American gun murder.

The typical murder has one victim, not many. The typical murder is committed with a handgun, not a rifle. And in the typical murder, both the perpetrator and the victim are young black men. Blacks are six times as likely as whites to be the victim of a homicide. Blacks are seven times as likely to commit a homicide.

The horrifying toll of gun violence on black America explains why black Americans are so much more likely than whites to favor gun control.

David Frum

Conversely, fears of being victimized by violence explain why so many white Americans -- especially older and more conservative white Americans -- insist on the right to bear arms in self-protection. They see gun violence as something that impinges on them from the outside. They don't blame guns for gun violence. They blame a particular subset of the population. And they don't see why they should lose their right because some subset of the population abuses theirs.

A writer I greatly admire, Rod Dreher, an independent-minded conservative, gives voice to such feelings in an article posted this weekend on the American Conservative website. Dreher expresses himself forcefully and frankly. That frankness should be welcomed, because the more clearly a mistaken idea is put, the faster we can reach a better understanding.

Dreher wrote:

"Yesterday the Baton Rouge Advocate published a lengthy analysis of the 2012 murder stats in the city. Take a look at this PDF of one of the inside pages. Last year, 83 people died by homicide in Baton Rouge. Of that number, 87% were black, and 87% were male. Two-thirds had been in trouble with the law before, and one-third had been in trouble with the law for drugs. The median age of victims: 26.

"Of the perpetrators, the median age was 22. Get this: 96% of them were black, and 90% were male. Almost two-thirds had previous arrests. One out of four had a drug record.

"Most of the murders took place in the poorest parts of the city.

"What can we learn from these statistics? That murder in Baton Rouge is almost entirely about young black men from the poor part of town killing other young black men from the poor part of town. It's mostly a matter of thugs killing thugs."

If you look at the world that way, gun control must seem a pointless diversion from the real problem: not guns, but one particular group of gun owners. Somebody else's problem. But life is not so neatly separated.

Guns offer equal opportunity tragedies. More than 8,000 white Americans had to be treated for nonfatal gun injuries in 2008. Eighty percent of those who commit suicide with a gun are white males. The gun that the suburban family buys to protect itself from "thugs killing thugs" ends up killing its own: One important new study finds that a gun kept in the house is 43 times more likely to kill a household member than to be used in self-defense.

Thugs killing thugs? Maybe. But many of those seeming thugs are carrying guns for the same reason that people who consider themselves respectable carry them : in a futile quest to protect themselves with greater firepower. One person can find safety that way. But if two people carry firearms, a confrontation that might otherwise have ended in words or blows ends instead with one man dead, and the other man on his way to prison for life.

Louisiana sends more people to prison than any other state, at a total cost of almost 7% of its state budget. Prison is always expensive, but the incarceration of murderers costs the most, because they remain in prison to the end. The oldest of Louisiana's prisoners cost the state almost $80,000 a year, including their health care.

Widespread gun ownership means not only more gun killings, but also more gun maimings and cripplings. The National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre hailed the ability of a "good guy" with a gun to stop a "bad guy" with a gun. Sixty seconds later, however, that bad guy may need a wheelchair for life. We can't dismiss these human costs as pertaining to only somebody else. They are all part of us.

Yet the urge to subdivide runs strong among Americans. Monday on Fox News, the popular conservative commentator Ann Coulter claimed that the murder rate among white Americans is as low as the murder rate in Belgium. "So perhaps it's not a gun problem," she concluded. "Perhaps it's a demographic problem."

But countries cannot dismiss the sufferings of great blocks of their people by dismissing some "demographics" as unworthy of attention.

If you ignore America's poor, you can make all kinds of problems disappear from view. Not counting the poor and minorities, the country does not have an obesity epidemic. Not counting the poor and minorities, the United States has perfectly adequate schools. Not counting the poor and minorities, America would have a higher average income.

Likewise, not counting hurricanes, America would not have so many natural disasters. Not counting divorces, America would have more intact families. Not counting wars, America would have a smaller public debt. But what's the point of this exercise? The people who make up America count as Americans, and their problems count as America's problems. Their problems do not occur in isolation, but are manifestations of failures to which all Americans contributed together.

Those young men in Baton Rouge who are killing each other in such horrific numbers do not manufacture their own guns. They did not organize the gun trade that brings the guns to their town. They did not write the laws that prevent their town government from acting against guns. They carry guns -- and misuse guns -- thanks to a national system of gun regulation that makes guns easily accessible to those least likely to use guns responsibly.

The gun laws intended to put guns into the hands of "good guys" are the laws that also multiply guns in the hands of "bad guys" -- bad guys who might not have become such bad guys if the guns had not been available to their hands.

The price of redefining gun violence as an issue pertaining only to "those people" -- of casting and recasting the gun statistics to make them less grisly if only "those people" are toted under some different heading in some different ledger -- the price of that redefinition is to lose our ability to think about the problem at all.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.

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Long Island high school on lockdown

Last Updated 12:31 p.m. ET

ELMONT, N.Y. Children at Elmont Memorial High School remain in lockdown mode after a report of a suspicious person, possibly with a weapon, in the area, CBS Station WCBS reports.

The lockdown was put into effect shortly after 8 a.m., in response to a 911 call from a woman who said she saw a male teenager with a backpack and a lime green gun.

No injuries have been reported.

Nassau County Police were still guarding the entrance of school more than three hours later. SWAT teams were also seen in front of the school building.

Radio Station WINS reports students were kept in classrooms with locked doors and the lights turned out. Some students were turned away because they were arriving at school as the lockdown was beginning, but worried parents have began congregating around the school because their kids are still inside.

A search of the school and the area is ongoing.

WINS correspondent Glenn Schuck reports police helicopters also searched the surrounding area by air.

Parents received "robo-calls" notifying them of the situation.

One parent who showed up at the school told Schuck she has been in touch with her child, who told her the students are huddled in corners of their rooms with the lights out.

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Jodi Arias: The New Casey Anthony?

The murder trial of Jodi Arias is drawing comparisons to the trial of Casey Anthony, another woman who initially told elaborate lies and then claimed at trial that she was a victim.

Arias, 32, eventually admitted that she killed her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, but insists it was in self defense because he was an abusive and sexually deviant lover.

Anthony, now 25, insisted her daughter Caylee had been stolen by a nanny and didn't drop that story until the first day of her murder trial when she said the toddler drowned in a backyard pool. Anthony said she had become accustomed to lying to hide alleged sexual abuse by her father for much of her life.

Both women lied about their jobs, sought out sex immediately after the deaths, and even had similar hair styles.

Anthony was found innocent by a jury in 2011, while Arias is still on trial and could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Nancy Grace, a legal analyst for ABC News, says the Arias trial is also similar to Scott Peterson's murder of his wife Laci, who was eight months pregnant when she was killed in 2002. Peterson was having an affair with a masseuse at the time of his wife's death.

Key Players and Key Evidence in Jodi Arias Trial

"The obvious one is that all three of them killed the one they professed to love the most...their love object, the thing they held dearest," said Grace, who has covered all three trials on her TV show.

Matt York/AP Photo|Al Golub/Pool/AP Photo|Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images

Jodi Arias Trial: Jurors See Photos of Bloody Handprint Watch Video

"You also have of course the promiscuity, a very obvious (similarity)," Grace said. "You could argue all three were sexually driven murders. 'Tot Mom' [Grace's nickname for Casey Anthony] clearly wanted a wild carefree single life. She was dancing in a push-up bra and go-go boots while her daughter's body was rotting. She's going from one man's arms to another man's arms."

See Full Coverage of Jodi Arias Trial

"Scott Peterson was a dog, there's no other way I can put it. And then Jodi Arias, who went from slashing the throat of her lover to literally hopping on top of another guy within a few hours," Grace said.

Ryan Burns testified that the day after Arias killed Alexander, he had a date with Arias and she laid on top of him and began kissing him.

"It could also be argued that all three are physically attractive," Grace said, "though I find none of them attractive. But all three use their looks and their charisma."

Each of the three changed their looks, dying their hair different colors and drastically changing their appearances for court. Grace was particularly struck by the similarity of Arias' and Anthony's hair style.

"With Arias coming in like 'Tot Mom' with the long hair draping their faces. If I sat 'Cousin It' at the table I don't think anyone would notice," the commentator said.

Grace claimed that none of the defendants looked at their juries. "They all sit in a position where their lawyers are kind of shielding them," she said.

There are other similarities. Anthony claimed falsely to work at Universal Studios while Arias told friends falsely that she worked at a Margaritaville bar.

Anthony said her daughter was taken by a fictitious nanny while Peterson said he wife was the victim of a Satanic cult. At one point Arias said she was present when a man and woman entered Alexander's apartment and killed him.

"All three lied about their jobs and positions in life, their relationships, what they do," Grace said. "All three changed their stories over and over and all three are caught on tape."

There is one other similarity, Grace said.

"I truly believe that their most important deadly common flaw is that they cannot empathize with others, they can't feel for someone who is suffering, and the murders don't mean anything to them," she said.

Grace predicted that unlike Anthony's trial, Arias will be convicted of murdering Alexander the same way Peterson was convicted of murdering Laci Peterson. In that case, Peterson was sentenced to the death penalty, a fate that Arias could face if convicted.

"It's very hard to get a woman sent to death row," Grace said. "Tot Mom' was acquitted, but I don't think Jodi Arias will be acquitted. The question is will they [jury] have the back bone to send her to death row."

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Is China easing up on local media?

A protester calls for greater media freedom outside the headquarters of Nanfang Media Group in Guangzhou on Jan. 9.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Young: Handling of Southern Weekly row demonstrated tolerant side of new leadership


• Traditional, newer media can serve as tools for achieving goals in China's modernization


• The fight against corruption in China is at the top of the list for incoming leader, Xi Jinping


• Young: Media has also emerged as an important tool for combating other social problems

Editor's note: Doug Young teaches financial journalism at Fudan University in Shanghai and is the author of The Party Line: How the Media Dictates Public Opinion in Modern China published by John Wiley & Sons. He also writes daily on his blog, Young's China Business Blog, commenting on the latest developments in China's fast-moving corporate scene.

Shanghai, China (CNN) -- China's traditional iron-handed approach to the media has taken a surprise turn of tolerance with Beijing's soft handling of a recent dispute with local reporters, in what could well become a more open attitude toward the media under the incoming administration of presumed new President Xi Jinping.

The new openness is being driven in large part by pragmatism, as the government realizes that both traditional and newer media can serve as powerful tools for achieving many of its goals in the country's modernization.

The recent conflict between reporters at the progressive Southern Weekly and local propaganda officials over a censorship incident left many guessing how the government would respond to the first clash of its kind in China for more than 20 years. The result was a surprisingly mild approach, including mediation by a high-level government official and a vague promise for less censorship in the future.

Read: Censorship protest a test for China

The unusually tolerant tack could well reflect a new attitude by Xi and other incoming leaders set to take control of China for the next decade, all of whom have come to realize the media can serve many important functions beyond its traditional role as a propaganda machine.

At the top of Xi's list is the fight against corruption, a problem he has mentioned frequently since taking the helm of the Communist Party last year. The party has tried to tackle the problem for years using its own internal investigations, but progress was slow until recently due to protection many officials received through their own sprawling networks of internal relationships, known locally as guanxi.

Read: Corruption as China's top priority

All that began to change in the last two years with the rapid rise of social media, most notably the Twitter-like microblogs known as Weibo that are now a pervasive part of the Chinese Internet landscape and count hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese among their users. Those social media have become an important weapon for exposing corruption, allowing thousands of ordinary citizens to pool their resources and build cases against officials they suspect of using their influence for personal gain.

This increasingly sophisticated machine was on prominent display last year in a case involving Yang Dacai, a local official in northwestern Shaanxi province who infuriated the online community by smiling at the site of a horrific accident scene. Netizens quickly turned their outrage into an online investigation, and uncovered photos of him wearing several luxury watches he could hardly afford on his government salary. As a result, the government ultimately opened an investigation into the matter and Yang was sacked from his posts.

In addition to its role in battling corruption, the media has also emerged as an important tool for combating and addressing many of the other social problems that China is facing in its rapid modernization. Barely a week goes by without a report on the latest national food safety scandal or case of illegal pollution in both traditional and social media, with such reports often followed by government investigations.

Beijing leaders have also discovered that the media can also be an important vehicle for improving communication between the government and general public -- something that was a low priority in previous eras when officials only cared about pleasing their higher-up party bosses.

Following a Beijing directive in late 2011, most local government agencies and other organizations have all established microblog accounts, which they use to keep the public informed about their latest activities and seek feedback on upcoming plans. Such input has become a valuable way to temper traditional public mistrust toward the government, which historically didn't make much effort to include the public in any of its internal discussions.

Lastly, the government has also discovered that media, especially social media, can be an effective tool in gauging public opinion on everything from broader national topics like inflation down to very local issues like land redevelopment. Such feedback was difficult to get in the past due to interference by local officials, who tried to filter out or downplay anything with negative overtones and play things up to their own advantage. As a result, central government officials often received incomplete pictures of what was happening in their own country.

With all of these valuable roles to play, the media has become an increasingly important part of Beijing's strategy in executing many of its top priorities.

The government also realizes that a certain degree of openness is critical to letting the media perform many of those roles, which may explain its relatively tolerant approach in the recent Southern Weekly conflict. Such tolerance is likely to continue under Xi's administration, helping to shift more power towards a field of increasingly emboldened reporters at both traditional and new media and away from their traditional propaganda masters.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Doug Young.

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Golf: McIlroy joins Nike in blockbuster golf deal

ABU DHABI: World No.1 Rory McIlroy on Monday confirmed he had signed on with sportswear and equipment giant Nike in a deal believed to be one the biggest sponsorship contracts in sport.

With the Abu Dhabi Grand Mosque lit up in the background, McIlroy stepped onto a stage wearing the Nike swoosh and revealed the clubs he will take into competition starting at this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the UAE capital.

No exact details of what the deal was worth were released, but press reports have estimated it could bring the 23-year-old Northern Irishman up to US$250 million over 10 years.

"Growing up I always thought all the best athletes in most sports were Nike players and I'm looking forward to joining the Nike family," he said.

"I began testing the clubs late last year at the Nike factory in Texas and I could not be more happy.

"Hopefully now using Nike I have an even better year than last year. Last year was great winning a second major Championship and getting to No.1 in the world and this year I feel I can go to a new level and higher than I ever had and hopefully more majors."

McIlroy was introduced as a Nike staff player by Cindy Davis, president of Nike Golf, who indicated he had signed a 'multi-year' agreement.

"Today marks a significant moment for our brand and our golf business, and for the career of an extraordinary young athlete," she said.

"We could not be more thrilled with tonight's announcement.

"The beginning of 2013 for us is one of the most exciting times since Tiger Woods joined the 'Swoosh'."

McIlroy, who grew up in humble surrounds in suburban Belfast, insisted his switch of clubs from Titleist to Nike was not about the money.

"I don't play golf for the money as I am well past that," he said.

"I am Major Champion that I have always dreamed of being and I am World No. 1 as I have always dreamed of being, and really Nike is the company that can help me sustain that.

"So I play for Major titles, not the money."

Welcoming McIlroy to the Nike family were three of Nike's famed stars - Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, tennis great Roger Federer and 14-time Major winning Tiger Woods, who delivered video welcome messages to McIlroy.

McIlroy will face Woods in this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, part of the European PGA Tour with both players choosing the emirate to start their season's for the second straight year.

Like Woods, McIlroy was a boy wonder who was the world under-10 champion in 1998, turning professional in 2007, two months after finishing as the leading amateur in The Open at Carnoustie.

He had to wait until the 2009 Dubai Desert Classic for his first victory and oddly he has yet to win on European soil, all his successes since coming in the United States (five, including two majors), Asia (two) or back in the Middle East.

He finished last season with five birdies in a row to lift the DP World Tour title in Dubai.

It was the 2011 US Masters that put him on a new level in terms of fame and popularity.

McIlroy led by four with a round to play and was still out in front at the turn, but in a horrific back-nine meltdown he crashed to an 80 and ended up in only 15th place, 10 shots behind winner Charl Schwartzel.

The sporting world waited to see how long the mental scars would last, and got their answer two months later when he won the US Open by eight shots.

At just 22 he was the youngest winner of the title since Bobby Jones in 1923. A superstar was born.

- AFP/jc

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Nike is making this guy very, very rich

Stable mates

Mac attack

Company man

Major heartache

Talk of the town

In sync

Double act

Ryder Cup rivals

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Nike announces multi-year sponsorship deal with golf's world No. 1 Rory McIlroy


• Sports firm see McIlroy as heir apparent to Tiger Woods according to experts


• Nike to reap the rewards of two of golf's top names competing against each other


• Bumper deal catapults McIlroy into one of sports' biggest earners

(CNN) -- He is the heir apparent to Tiger Woods, on the course and off it. By the end of Monday, Rory McIlroy's bank balance will take a step closer to matching that of the most marketable star the sport has ever seen.

A bumper multi-year deal with Nike, reported by various media outlets to be worth over $200 million, will propel the Northern Irishman into a stratosphere inhabited only by the richest men and women in sport.

Though McIlroy may only have two major championships to his name compared to Woods' 14, at 23 he has time on his side as he strives to eclipse the achievements of his new stable mate.

And while Woods hasn't been able to recapture the form he showed prior to news of his extra-marital affairs breaking, Nike's courting of McIlroy is an attempt to pin down a star of the present and future who comes with less baggage, according to a sports business expert.

Read: McIlroy teams up with Tiger at Nike

"Nike is in a difficult position," Simon Chadwick, professor of Sport Business Strategy and Marketing at Coventry University told CNN, "because their number one golf property historically has fallen on hard times, relatively speaking.

"When Tiger Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant in 2009, Phil Knight of Nike described it as a minor blip. Commercially that's quite interesting because I think they genuinely believed there was still some sustainability and financial value in the Woods brand heading into the future. But that just hasn't transpired.

"Tiger hasn't won a major since then and his public reputation hasn't recovered to where it was. That's a problem for Nike because what you've got to keep in mind is that Nike essentially built their whole golf business on the back of Woods and for a long time the vast majority of their commercial activity and their marketing was based around him. And it was very successful.

"They used not to have a significant golf business but now they do. The problem is that to a large extent, they've been left high and dry. They now have a global golf business without a credible brand spokesperson.

"So essentially what they've been looking for is an heir apparent, somebody with the same competitive characteristics as Woods but without the baggage, as well as somebody who can conceivably carry the brand into the future. That's why I think the length of the deal is absolutely crucial.

"It seems to me that what they're attempting to do is to build a sustainable business on the back of McIlroy over the next 10 years, just as they did with Woods over the first 13 years of their time together."

What (Nike) have been looking for is an heir apparent, somebody with the same competitive characteristics as Woods but without the baggage
Simon Chadwick, sports business expert

At a stroke, the deal transforms McIlroy into one of the hottest commercial properties in sport.

According to the Forbes list of 2012, McIlroy's deal with Nike will make him highest paid young sports star in the world, taking him well above the $17.4 million he earned in the year up to July 2012.

But he still has some way to go to catch Woods, who raked in total earnings of $59.4 million in the same time period. Both trail behind the world's top two highest grossing sports stars, boxers Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, who earned $85 million and $62 million respectively.

While Nike's outlay on Woods and McIlroy is significant, it will seem like money well spent should their twin titans end up battling it out going down the stretch at many a major tournament in the years to come.

But with both of golf's biggest stars now operating under the same umbrella, even if they don't end up slugging it out for honors on the course, the prospect of both players being available for marketing opportunities is a big draw for Nike, according to Tony Martin, a sport, event and project management consultant at Qatar Atlantic College in Doha.

Boulden: Which Nike star will Rory mirror?

"In many respects this is a coup for Nike as they now have some leverage on the two of the most marketable figures in the world of sport," he told CNN. "Golf fans everywhere are longing for the head to head battles between these two, given their considerable differences in age, style and personalities.

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Rory McIlroy capped a sensational year with victory at the Dubai World Championship on Sunday. The Northern Irishman won five tournaments in 2012, including his second major, topped the money list on both the PGA and European Tours and ended the season as the world's No. 1 player.

Icing on the cake

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"Nike will certainly use their leverage to nurture such competition by ensuring their schedules are aligned to foster maximum exposure to such opportunities. When this begins to happen consistently, and I believe it will soon, Nike reaps the unbelievable rewards.

"This deal is not taken lightly and I am sure all of Nike's significant market research is verifying a likeability scale for this young man (McIlroy) that is off the charts."

Just as Nike will hope McIlroy can match Woods' prowess when it comes to bagging majors and green jackets, they could be forgiven for hoping the 23-year-old won't attract any salacious headlines away from the greens.

The sports giant recently dropped disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong after he was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping offenses, and withstood a barrage of bad press for their client when news of Woods' extra marital affairs broke.

McIlroy's only negative press to date has come via the odd misjudged quote -- which can be explained as a byproduct of his youthful exuberance and refreshing honesty in interviews -- and though he has earned plaudits for keeping his feet on the ground, Martin says there is no guarantee how he'll react if he reaches the level of fame Woods currently orbits.

"Rory represents a much different personality than Tiger and on the surface, epitomizes a safe investment for Nike," he said.

"However like Tiger, he appears to be a marketer's dream. The problem is, no one truly knows how any individual is going to react to all this money, fame and adoration until they have lived with it.

"These superstar athletes live in a fish bowl where their every comment, action and especially reactions are fodder for the media outlets around the world. Already, controversy is circling with regard to Rory's Olympic participation decision and legal issues with previous sponsors."

The first time the world will see Nike's new double act in action will be on Thursday when McIlroy and Woods line up for the HSBC Championship in Abu Dhabi.

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India rape suspect actually a minor, lawyer says

NEW DELHI One of the five men charged with gang-raping and killing a woman is a minor, his lawyer said Monday as he demanded an age-determination test in what could be a tactic to delay the case from being tried in a fast-track court.

The five charged in last month's attack of the 23-year-old student in a moving bus in New Delhi would face a possible death penalty if convicted. A sixth suspect says he is 17 years old, and if he is tried in a juvenile court he would face a maximum sentence of three years in a reform facility.

15 Photos

Gang-rape sparks rage in India

Play Video

Indian prosecutors to push for death penalty in gang rape case

The rape of the woman, and the brutal beating that led to severe organ failure, has set off an impassioned debate about what India needs to do to prevent such tragedies. Protesters and politicians have called for tougher rape laws, police reforms and a transformation in the way the country treats women.

The five men charged with various crimes in the incident live in a slum in New Delhi, and were riding in an off-duty bus that picked up the woman and a male companion late in the evening of Dec. 16 in a posh part of the capital. Both were beaten severely and thrown off the bus. The woman died two weeks later of the injuries in a Singapore hospital.

Manohar Lal Sharma, the lawyer for one of the five charged men, Mukesh Singh, said at a court hearing Monday that his client is under 18, and that police documents indicating Singh is 26 had been "manipulated."

"If you could just see his face, he is only a child," Sharma told The Associated Press.

The hearing has been closed to the media under a gag order placed by the magistrate. The defendants have been brought to the court with their faces masked, and authorities have not released photos of the accused.

Sharma said Singh had added several years to his age to get a driver's license. He said he asked the court to order a medical test to determine his client's age, but that the court did not indicate whether it would meet his request.

The case was expected to be shifted to the fast-track court Monday to avoid the delays that plague most trials in India. But the court addressed only procedural matters and paper work at the hearing, and the case was not handed over.

The next hearing was scheduled for Thursday, but it was not clear whether the case would be handed over then to the fast-track court, which was created this month to deal with crimes against women.

Last week, Sharma made a series of inflammatory and often-contradictory statements, saying that police had beaten the five charged suspects and placed other prisoners into their cells to threaten them with knives.

Indian policemen stand with six men, faces covered in black, accused in the gang-rape of a bus passenger in Punjab state, India, Jan. 13, 2013.

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AP

Monday's hearing had been set for last week but was rescheduled when it turned out that the official list of charges was not completely legible.

On Sunday, police said they had arrested six suspects in another gang rape of a bus passenger in India.

Police officer Raj Jeet Singh said a 29-year-old woman was the only passenger on a bus as she was traveling to her village in northern Punjab state on Friday night. The driver took her to a desolate location, he said. There, the driver and the conductor took her to a building where they were joined by five friends and took turns raping her throughout the night, Singh said.

The driver dropped the woman off at her village early Saturday, he said, adding that police arrested six suspects on Saturday and were searching for another.

Also on Saturday, police arrested a 32-year-old man for allegedly raping and killing a 9-year-old girl two weeks ago in Ahmednagar district in western India, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

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Obama to Congress: 'We Are Not a Deadbeat Nation'

President Obama says the U.S. economy is "poised for a good year" but that progress could be threatened by political brinksmanship on the nation's debt limit.

"While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up," Obama said at a White House news conference.

"We are not a deadbeat nation," he said. "The consequences of us not paying our bills would be disastrous."

Lawmakers have until the end of February to raise the nation's debt limit and address the delayed $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts to defense and domestic spending.

Failure to raise the debt limit would set the stage for a U.S. default on its loan obligations or force immediate cuts to government spending that could threaten hundreds of thousands of federal employees and beneficiaries of government aid, including Social Security recipients and active-duty military personnel.

Republicans have said they plan to use the debate on a debt-limit increase to extract spending cuts from the Obama administration. They note a legislative precedent, including most recently in 2011, of coupling the debt ceiling with deficit-reduction legislation.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"The president and his allies need to get serious about spending, and the debt-limit debate is the perfect time for it," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in response to Obama's remarks.

"We are hoping for a new seriousness on the part of the president with regard to the single biggest issue confronting the country," he said. "And we look forward to working with him to do something about this huge, huge problem."

Obama says he will "not negotiate" on an increase to the debt limit, which covers spending obligations that have already been passed into law, insisting that the issue should be independent of a debate on new limits on future spending.

"The financial well being of the American people is not leverage to use," Obama said. "The full faith and credit of the U.S.A. is not a bargaining chip to use."

The White House said the news conference would be Obama's last of his first term, coming six days before the inauguration and at a critical juncture in an ongoing fight with Congress on federal deficits and debt.

It also comes one day before Vice President Joe Biden will present to Obama his task force's recommendations for curbing gun violence in the wake of the deadly Newtown, Conn., shooting.

"They've presented me now with a list of sensible, common-sense steps that can be taken to make sure that the kinds of violence we saw at Newtown doesn't happen again," Obama said.

"I expect to have a fuller presentation later in the week to give people some specifics about what I think we need to do. My starting point is not to worry about the politics," he said. "My starting point is to focus on what makes sense, what works."

ABC News' Mary Bruce contributed to this report.

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Quest: U.S. economy to dominate Davos

The United States and the sorry state of its political and budgetary process will be the center of attention at Davos, writes Quest

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Quest: Davos is a chance to see where the political and economic landmines are in 2013


• Quest: People will be speculating about how dysfunctional the U.S. political process has become


• Quest: Davos has been consumed by eurozone sovereign debt crises for three years

Editor's note: Watch Quest Means Business on CNN International, 1900pm GMT weekdays. Quest Means Business is presented by CNN's foremost international business correspondent Richard Quest. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) -- It is that time of the year, again. Come January no sooner have the Christmas trees been taken down, as the winter sales are in full vicious flood the world of business start thinking about going to the world economic forum, better known as Davos.

For the past three years Davos has been consumed by the eurozone sovereign debt crises.

As it worsened the speculation became ever more frantic.....Will Greece leave the euro? Will the eurozone even survive? Was this all just a big German trick to run Europe? More extreme, more dramatic, more nonsense.

Can China be the biggest engine of growth for the global economy. Round and round in circles we have gone on these subjects until frankly I did wonder if there was anything else to say short of it's a horrible mess!

This year there is a new bogey man. The US and in particular the sorry state of the country's political and budgetary process will, I have little doubt, be the center of attention.

Read more: More 'cliffs' to come in new Congress

Not just because Congress fluffed its big test on the fiscal cliff, but because in doing so it created many more deadlines, any one of which could be deeply unsettling to global markets... There is the $100 billion budget cutbacks postponed for two months by the recent agreement; postponed to the end of February.

At exactly the same time as the US Treasury's ability to rob Peter to pay Paul on the debt ceiling crises comes to a head.

Read more: Both Obama, GOP set for tough talks ahead

The Treasury's "debt suspension period" is an extraordinary piece of financial chicanery that if we tried it with our credit cards would get us locked up!! Then there is the expiration of the latest continuing resolution, the authority by which congress is spending money.

There is the terrifying prospect that all these budget woes will conflate into one big political fist fight as the US faces cutbacks, default or shutdown!!

I am being alarmist. Most rational people believe that the worst sting will be taken out of this tail....not before we have all been to the edge...and back. And that is what Davos will have on its mind.

People will be speculating about how dysfunctional the US political process has become and is it broken beyond repair (if they are not asking that then they should be...)

They will be pondering which is more serious for risk...the US budget and debt crises or the Eurozone sovereign debt debacle. A classic case of between the devil and the deep blue sea.

The official topic this year is Resilient Dynamism. I have absolutely no idea what this means. None whatsoever. It is another of WEF's ersatz themes dreamt up to stimulate debate in what Martin Sorrell has beautifully terms "davosian language" In short everyone interprets it as they will.

What I will enjoy, as I do every year, is the chance to hear the global players speak and the brightest and best thinkers give us their take on the global problems the atmosphere becomes febrile as the rock-stars of finance and economics give speeches, talk on panels and give insight.

Of course comes of these musings, it never does at Davos. That's not the point. This is a chance to take stock and see where the political and economic landmines are in 2013. I like to think of Davos as the equivalent of Control/Alt/Delete. It allows us to reboot.

We leave at least having an idea of where people stand on the big issues provided you can see through the panegyrics of self congratulatory back slapping that always takes place whenever you get like minded people in one place... And this year, I predict the big issue being discussed in coffee bars, salons and fondue houses will be the United States and its budgetary woes.

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