Ken Clarke & two politics

Doctors say a young Indian woman who was gang-raped and severely beaten on a bus in New Delhi has died at a hospital in Singapore. A statement by Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth hospital where the 23-year-old victim was being treated said she “died peacefully” early Saturday. The horrific ordeal of the woman galvanized Indians, who have held almost daily demonstrations to demand greater protection from sexual violence, from groping to rape, that impacts thousands of women every day, but which often goes unreported.

NEW DELHI — The victim of a gang-rape in New Delhi fought for her life at a Singapore hospital Friday as officials in the Indian state of Punjab fired and suspended police officers accused of ignoring the rape of another woman, who then committed suicide. Indian authorities have been accused of belittling rape victims and refusing to file cases against their attackers, further deterring victims — already under societal pressure to keep the assaults quiet — from reporting the crimes.

As the public got news of the guilty verdict in the high-profile Steubenville, Ohio, rape case, CNN reporter Poppy Harlow commented how it was hard for her to watch. “It was incredibly emotional, incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart,” Harlow reported. It was the start of an online firestorm.

If you thought the federal government was through its tough on crime agenda — think again. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson unveiled a plan Monday for 2013 that includes new legislation to toughen penalties for child sex offenses, create a Victims Bill of Rights and better protect the public from those found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

Authorities shut down roads in the heart of India’s capital on Sunday to put an end to a week of demonstrations against the brutal gang-rape of a woman who died recently, and was cremated on Sunday. Thousands of armed police and paramilitary troops blocked roads in central New Delhi to prevent protesters from marching to the presidential palace. A small group of demonstrators gathered at a venue about a kilometer away from India’s parliament to press the government to ensure the security of women in the city.

The Washington Post's Dylan Matthews posted “The saddest graph you’ll see today,” a graphic from the Enliven Project that provides a shocking overview of our legal system’s failure to identify and jail rapists:

This story was interesting.Suppose you are charged with a crime. There won't be just one item on the indictment. There will be 10-20 or more charges.The jury may reach a "compromise verdict". They will acquit you of the more serious charges, but vote guilty on a lesser charge.

Iran has hanged four men convicted of rape and another man found guilty of drug trafficking in Tehran, government newspaper Iran reported on Wednesday.The men hanged on Tuesday were identified as Mehdi, 33, convicted of raping at least two teenage boys, an unnamed 21-year-old man who had raped a retarded 22-year-old woman two years ago, and two other unnamed men who had broken into a house late at night and raped a woman.