Judge reduces possible sentence for WikiLeaks suspect

FORT MEADE: A US judge on Tuesday reduced the potential sentence for WikiLeaks suspect Bradley Manning by 112 days because of his harsh treatment at a military jail, where he was held in isolation despite advice from psychiatrists.

Judge Denise Lind said the US Army private's detention conditions were "excessive" and at times illegal, going beyond what was needed to ensure his safety and prevent the risk of suicide.

But the judge rejected a request by defence lawyers to dismiss all charges against Manning because of his nine-month detention at the US Marine Corps prison in Quantico, Virginia.

The ruling paves the way for a trial in March in which the army private is accused of "aiding the enemy" by passing a trove of secret government files to the WikiLeaks website.

Defence attorney David Coombs had argued the court should drop all charges against Manning on the grounds that he suffered illegal punishment at the Quantico jail, where he was held in a solitary cell 23 hours a day, kept under a strict suicide watch and often ordered to strip naked.

Prosecutors had said strict measures were necessary because Manning posed a suicide risk.

The judge concluded that the government had to ensure Manning did not take his life given his mental health history, as he had reported suicidal thoughts while detained in Kuwait.

"Preventing a detainee suicide is in the legitimate interest of the government," she said.

But she ruled prison authorities at Quantico should not have kept Manning under a "rigorous" super-strict suicide watch regime after military psychiatrists advised he was not suicidal.

Prison officers had no reason to take away Manning's underwear at one point as "no new threat" had emerged and it was "no longer reasonable to withhold the underwear," she said.

She cited a seven-day period in which Manning was assessed by psychiatrists as "no longer at risk" of suicide but was kept under strict isolation, saying it constituted "unlawful pre-trial punishment."

If convicted on 22 charges, Manning would receive credit for his time behind bars in Quantico, with his potential sentence reduced by 112 days, Lind said.

But the judge was not ready to call off the trial over Manning's treatment at the Quantico jail as "the charges are serious in this case," she said.

The 25-year-old private faces a slew of charges, including "aiding the enemy," for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive US military and diplomatic documents to Julian Assange's anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks.

He was arrested in May 2010 while serving as an intelligence analyst near Baghdad and subsequently charged over the largest leak of restricted documents in American history.

Manning was sent briefly to a US jail in neighbouring Kuwait, before being transferred to the Marine Corps jail in Quantico, Virginia in July 2010.

After nine months in the brig, he was moved in April 2011 to a US Army prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he was allowed to interact with other detainees as detention conditions were eased.

If convicted, Manning could spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Before the ruling, the defence and prosecution clashed over whether the court should permit evidence in the trial on Manning's motive in leaking the classified files.

In leaking secret documents, Manning "selected information that could not be used to the harm of the United States or any foreign country," Coombs, the defence lawyer, told the court.

Coombs portrayed his client as a whistle-blower who was trying to inform the public instead of "aiding the enemy" as he is charged.

But prosecutors told the judge Manning's motives for the leak, the largest in US history, were irrelevant.

"The accused knew that he was dealing directly or indirectly with an enemy of the United States," prosecutor Captain Angel Overgaard said.

"He knew that the information would be published on the Internet and was accessible to the enemy," Overgaard said.

Coombs has argued that the case against Manning is virtually unprecedented as usually US authorities prosecute soldiers or government employees who pass secrets directly to an adversary -- and not those who leak information to a media outlet or website.

- AFP/jc

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Seagate embraces SSHDs, phasing out 7,200rpm laptop HDDs

Seagate's SSHD showcased at CES 2013.

(Credit:
Dong Ngo)

LAS VEGAS--You might want to stockpile Seagate 7,200rpm laptop hard drives now. Soon they will be no more.

Or maybe you shouldn't. From what I've witnessed at
CES 2013, what Seagate plans to replace them with is going to be much better. That's the company's third generation of hybrid drive, a type of drive that's now being referred to across the industry as a solid-state hybrid drive, or SSHD.

For many years a hard drive's spinning speed was the factor that determined how fast an internal drive is. That's not necessarily true anymore with the proliferation of solid-state drives (SSDs).

But SSDs have their shortcomings, including the very high cost, the low storage space, and the limited P/E cycles. For that reason, going hybrid seems like the right approach for the industry.

Just two years ago, Seagate's first hybrid drive, the Momentus XT, was the only hybrid drive on the market. Now there are many ultrabooks that use an mSATA SSD and a hard drive in combination, powered by Intel's Smart Response Technology. WD now also has its own SSHDs, and even Apple has jumped in the pool with its recently announced Fusion Drive.

Fusion Drive may be a misleading name since it combines two separate drives, one SSD and one regular hard drive, which work in tandem under
Mac OS 10.8. This provides an SSD-like experience while still offering large amounts of storage space. Fusion Drive works entirely at the OS level, however, and, like Intel's, is a hybrid approach. This generally is much more expensive than SSHD.

A demo showing a PlayStation 3 that's using an SSHD (left) to load the game Dragon Age: Origins more than twice as fast as the other, which is using a stock hard drive.

(Credit:
Dong Ngo)

That said, an SSHD is a true hybrid drive in which solid-state and spinning platter-based drives are combined in one drive of a standard design. Seagate's SSDH comes with 8GB of solid-state memory and offers, for now, up to 1TB of storage space for the 2.5-inch design.

While there were no final products to announce this year at CES, Seagate showcased its prototype drives: one 5mm-thick drive, one 7mm-thick SSHD, and the first SSHD to come in the shape of a 3.5-inch (desktop) drive, which offers up to 4TB. The company also did demoes to show off how much faster its SSDH is than other hybrid drives and SSDs on the market.

The demos showed that Seagate's new SSHDs are almost as fast as SSDs in many cases and are much faster than a 7,200rpm hard drive.

The interesting thing about Seagate SSHDs is that the hard drive part of them only spins at 5,400rpm. However, thanks to the algorithm that automatically puts frequently accessed data on the solid-state part, the drive can offer much faster real speed than drives spinning at 7,200rpm.

In a demo with two
PlayStation 3 game consoles, the one powered by an SSHD loaded the game Dragon Age: Origins, which takes a notoriously long time to load, more than twice as fast as the one using a stock hard drive.

According to Seagate Product Marketing Director David Burks, phasing out the 7,200rpm laptop hard drive helps Seagate focus more on its SSHD as the new high-speed drive. Also using 5,400rpm in SSHDs means lower prices, and in fact when they become available, later this year, SSHDs will cost just about $10 to $20 more than hard drives of the same capacity.

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Father of slain Tulsa twins: "My life's gone"

TULSA, Okla. Four women were found shot dead inside an apartment in south Tulsa on Monday afternoon, with a three-year-old boy as the only survivor, CBS affiliate KOTV Tulsa reported.

Now a father is coming to grips with losing his twin daughters, whom police identified as Rebeika Powell, 23, and Kayetie Melchor, 23, as among the four victims.

"My life's gone. My kids are gone," said Larry Powell.

Tulsa police said the four women were discovered around noon, within an hour of being shot. Aside from Powell and Melchor, the other two victims identified by police were Misty Nunley, 33, and Julie Jackson, 55. The three-year-old boy may have witnessed his mother's death.

"The little baby, you know, he had to sit there all day and look at what they did. How could you do something like that?" asked Larry Powell.

Powell's son died from the flu in 2003 and now his remaining children are gone. "You've got nothing left," said Powell. "All I've got are my two little grand kids and what am I going to do? Their parents are gone. My granddaughter is going crazy over there right now."

Neighbor Gail Barton knew some of the women who were killed. "They were all so lively and fun and beautiful, really were beautiful girls," she said and added: "To take such beauty and life away from so many people and to harm so many family members in the process and for what? Money?"

Police are still seeking a suspect and a motive for the crime.

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James Holmes' Elaborate Booby Trap Plan Revealed

A gasoline-soaked carpet, loud music and a remote control car were part of an elaborate plan by accused Aurora gunman James Holmes' to trick someone into triggering a blast that would destroy his apartment and lure police to the explosion while he shot up a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., according to court testimony today.

FBI agent Garrett Gumbinner told a Colorado court about Holmes' complex plans to booby trap his apartment. Gumbinner said he interviewed Holmes on July 20, hours after he killed 12 and wounded 58 during the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

"He said he rigged the apartment to explode to get law enforcement to send resources to his apartment instead of the theater," Gumbinner said.

Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

His plan failed to prompt someone into triggering the bombs.

Gumbinner said Holmes had created two traps that would have set off the blast.

The apartment was rigged with a tripwire at the front door connected to a mixture of chemicals that would create heat, sparks and flame. Holmes had soaked the carpet with a gasoline mixture that was designed to be ignited by the tripwire, Gumbinner said.

"It would have caused fire and sparks," the agent said, and "would have made the entire apartment explode or catch fire."

Holmes had set his computer to play 25 minutes of silence followed by loud music that he hoped would cause a disturbance loud enough that someone would call police, who would then respond and set off the explosion by entering the apartment.

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Gumbinner said Holmes also told him he rigged a fuse between three glass jars that would explode. He filled the jars with a deadly homemade chemical mixture that would burn so hot it could not be extinguished with water.

Holmes set a second detonation system outside the building, the agent said.

Holmes, Gumbinner said, rigged one of the triggering devices, called a "pyro trip box" with a remote control. He then took the remote control outside and placed it on top of a white trash bag near the apartment building.

Next to the remote, Holmes placed a remote control car. Inside the trash bag, he put a portable stereo set to play 40 minutes of silence, followed by loud music, the agent said.

The plan, Gumbinner explained, was for someone to hear the music and be drawn to the remote control car with what appeared to be the remote control lying next to it. When that person picked up the remote to activate the car, he or she would have unknowingly triggered the explosion in the apartment.

Holmes also left rows of white powder on the floor, which Gumbinner said was ammonium chloride. The powder, Gumbinner believes, was meant "to scare us" and would have created a large amount of smoke if it had ignited.

Prosecutors showed several photographs of the devices in court.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors played two 911 calls in court, including the very first call from movie goer Kevin Quinonez as the shooting was still underway.

At least 30 rapid-fire gunshots could be heard in the background of the 27-second call, along with screaming.

"Gunshots?" Quinonez can be heard saying.

The dispatcher pleads with Quinonez to give the theater address, but the sound of gunshots and chaos drowns him out.

"Say it loud," the dispatcher pleads before the call goes dead.

In a second call, Kaylan Bailey calls to say her two cousins, Ashley Moser and Veronica Moser Sullivan, have been shot. One is breathing and the other is not, she says.

"Are there officers near you?" the dispatcher asks.

Amid the noise and confusion, the dispatcher pleads with the Bailey to start CPR on 6-year-old Veronica Moser Sullivan, who has stopped breathing. Veronica later died.

Victims and families listening to the calls in the courtroom were weeping openly and holding hands. One woman buried her face in her hands. Holmes showed no emotion.

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Tunisia frees man held over attack on U.S. consulate in Libya

Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisia has freed, for lack of evidence, a Tunisian man who had been suspected of involvement in an Islamist militant attack in Libya last year in which the U.S. ambassador was killed, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Ali Harzi was one of two Tunisians named in October by the Daily Beast website as having been detained in Turkey over the violence in which Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other American officials were killed.

"The judge decided to free Harzi and he is free now," lawyer Anouar Awled Ali told Reuters. "The release came in response to our request to free him for lack of evidence and after he underwent the hearing with American investigators as a witness in the case."

A Tunisian justice ministry spokesman confirmed the release of Harzi but declined to elaborate.

A month ago, Harzi refused to be interviewed by visiting U.S. FBI investigators over the September 11 assault on the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi.

The Daily Beast reported that shortly after the attacks began, Harzi posted an update on an unspecified social media site about the fighting.

It said Harzi was on his way to Syria when he was detained in Turkey at the behest of U.S. authorities, and that he was affiliated with a militant group in North Africa.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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US Dollar falls ahead of ECB meeting

NEW YORK: The US dollar retreated Monday against the euro and other major currencies as financial markets girded for a meeting later this week of the European Central Bank.

The euro was valued at US$1.3115 dollars at 22H00 GMT Monday, up from Friday's value of US$1.3067 at the same time.

The US dollar was also lower against the Japanese yen, trading at 87.89 Monday instead of the 88.15 level on Friday night.

The quarterly earnings season unofficially kicks off Tuesday with the report from aluminium producer Alcoa. Several US Federal Reserve officials have public appearances this week.

Given the lack of US economic data to be released this week, "we believe that the US dollar will take its cue from earnings and comments from the Fed officials," said Kathy Lien of BK Asset Management.

After focusing heavily on the US due to the much-touted debate on the fiscal cliff, financial markets were beginning to turn to the euro again with Thursday's meeting of the ECB.

That said, Thursday's ECB meeting "offers little reason to be bullish (about) the euro," said Christopher Vecchio, currency analyst at DailyFX.

Vecchio noted that the euro had fallen after the November and December ECB meetings, which followed a September announcement by ECB President Mario Draghi of a program to keep Italian and Spanish borrowing costs down.

The euro did, however, pick up support on news that former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi would not seek election during the Italian elections next month.

Watchers of the Federal Reserve will be looking for signs later this week in public appearances by the presidents of the Fed banks of Kansas City, Philadelphia and Richmond.

Minutes released by the Federal Reserve last week showed that the US central bank is considering ending its aggressive stimulus plan more quickly than expected. But some market watchers say the Fed will be unlikely to pull the plug on the program given last week's weak jobs report.

"The confusion created by the FOMC minutes makes this week's comments from Fed presidents extremely important because investors want to know how serious the central bank is about phasing out" its stimulus program, Lien said.

The US dollar fell against the Swiss currency, to 0.9212 francs from 0.9246 francs late Friday, while the pound rose to US$1.6114 from US$1.6068.

- AFP/jc

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Cisco adds 'cloud DVR' to video offering for cable companies

Cisco Systems unveils new functionality for its Videoscape platform that allows cable operators and other TV providers to deliver TV Everywhere.

(Credit:
CNET/Sarah Tew)

Cisco Systems is adding new capabilities to its video software platform for TV service providers. The new functionality, unveiled at a press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show Monday, will allow cable operators and other TV service providers to offer digital video recording from the cloud.

The new cloud-based DVR feature is part of Cisco's updated Videoscape Unity platform. The new software suite and service, which Cisco sells to cable operators and other TV service providers, aims to enable new functionality for paid TV customers.

One of the key new functions is to moves the DVR, which is typically a box that records movies and TV shows in your home, to the service provider's "cloud." This will allow video subscribers to record shows from any Internet connected device whether they're home or not. It also allows video subscribers to watch recorded programming on any Internet connected device. That will let viewers restart shows, catch up on past programs and play back their DVR from anywhere, on any screen. In theory, at least.

During the press conference Cisco's executives showed how this would work with an
HTC Droid DNA smartphone. This phone has 1080p video capability. And during the demo, the company showed how Cisco's Videoscape Snowflake user interface looked the same on the phone as it does on the TV screen. And then they showed how using the UI, a subscriber could access a video from cloud-based DVR on the smartphone and view it right on the phone.

The Videoscape Unity features also broaden the TV Everywhere concept by allowing subscribers to watch premium live and on-demand video on any connected device, regardless of where the viewer is located. Cisco is also adding the Connected Video Gateway, intended to serve as a single entertainment hub to distribute video to any connected device in the home.

Cisco has shifted its strategy in the past year to focus more attention on its software business. Cisco created Videoscape Unity by integrating its existing Videoscape platform with technology and assets it bought last year from video software and security provider NDS. The new "platform" is comprised of software and hardware components for the cloud, network and client solutions.

Cloud DVRs make sense
The most interesting aspect of the Videoscape Unity is the cloud-based DVR, which makes a lot sense on several levels. Not only does it allow for more flexibility in terms of viewing and recording programs, but it could offer consumers much greater storage. It also increases the number of programs that can be recorded at once, and is also more efficient and cost effective for cable operators.

But the idea of cloud-based DVR hasn't been without controversy. The TV and movie industry sued cable operator Cablevision in 2007 for implementing what it called a "networked DVR." Cablevision won its lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2008. And it has already been offering customers the option to record and store content in the "cloud" instead of on individual boxes in the home.

Even with Cablevision's court victory, digital rights for video content remains a complicated issue. Some movie studios and TV networks have been reluctant to allow cable operators to offer services that allow the distribution of content on portable devices outside the home. While the Cisco Videoscape Unity platform is designed to allow more access to more devices from anywhere, it's up to the cable companies and other TV service providers to determine how they will implement the services.

For example, Cox Communications, which had an executive at the Cisco press conference, plans to use the Cisco Videoscape Unity platform. But the company has not yet announced a service that will include cloud-based DVR capability.

As part of its Videoscape Unity announcement, Cisco invited several of its customers -- including representatives from Cox, and BSkyB, as well as content providers from Liberty Global, Fox TV and MLB.com -- to discuss the future of TV.

CNET's Casey Newton will be live-blogging the press conference at 2 p.m. PT. So you can follow along as the news is announced here:

CNET's live coverage of Cisco's 2013 CES press conference

Cisco will also be video streaming the announcement and panel discussion

starting at 2 p.m. PT.

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Newtown seen as factor in Ala. teen's bomb plot

PHENIX CITY, Ala. An Alabama teenager teen who described himself as a white supremacist made journal entries about a plot to bomb classmates three days after the Newtown school massacre and began building small homemade explosives, a sheriff said Monday.

Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor told The Associated Press that he believed the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary was a factor because the first date in the boy's journal describing the plan was Dec. 17 — three days after the Connecticut killings.

Seventeen-year-old Derek Shrout is charged with attempted assault after authorities say he planned to use homemade explosives to attack fellow students at Russell County High School.

Taylor said the boy told investigators that he's a white supremacist and five of the six students he named in his journal are black. The journal was found by a teacher, who turned it over to authorities.

A search of Shrout's home found about 25 small tobacco cans and two larger tins, all with holes drilled in them and containing pellets similar to BB's, reported CBS affiliate WRBL. Taylor said all they needed were black powder and fuses to become explosives. The journal also allegedly mentioned using firearms. The sheriff said Shrout's father owned a few household weapons, like a hunting rifle, a shotgun and a handgun.

"He just talks about some students, he specifically named six students and one faculty member and he talked about weapons and the amounts of ammunition for each weapon that he would use if he attacked the school," Taylor said.

The sheriff said he didn't believe the teen's initial claim that the journal was a work of fiction.

"When you go to his house and you start finding the actual devices that he talked about being made, no, it's not fiction anymore," Taylor said. "Those devices were — all they needed was the black powder and the fuse — he had put a lot of time and thought into that."

The teen, who is thin and wears glasses, said little during an initial court appearance Monday. District Judge David Johnson set bond at $75,000 and the teen's attorney said the family expected to post it by the end of the day for his release.

The judge ordered the teen not to contact anyone at his school, students or teachers, and not to use the Internet without parental supervision.

His attorney, Jeremy Armstrong, declined to discuss specifics of the case, but he did say that the talk of the case he has heard so far was "blown a little out of proportion."

"Our position is that our client had no intention to harm anybody," he said.

Seale is about 80 miles east of Montgomery.

More from CBS affiliate WRBL:

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Accused Shooter Was 'Relaxed' After Massacre

Two veteran police officers broke down on the stand today during a preliminary hearing for accused movie theater gunman James Holmes, with one officer choking up when he described finding the body of a 6-year-old girl inside the theater.

Sgt. Gerald Jonsgaard needed a moment to compose himself as he described finding the little girl, Veronica Moser Sullivan, in the blood splattered theater in Aurora, Colo.

An officer felt for a pulse and thought Veronica was still alive, Jonsgaard said, but the officer then realized he was feeling his own pulse.

A preliminary hearing for Holmes began today in Colorado, with victims and families present. He is accused of killing 12 people and wounded dozens more in the movie theater massacre. One of Veronica's relatives likened attending the hearing to having to "face the devil."

The officers wiped away tears as they described the horror they found inside of theater nine.

Officer Justin Grizzle recounted seeing bodies lying motionless on the floor, surrounded by so much blood he nearly slipped and fell.

Grizzle, a former paramedic, says ambulances had not yet made it to the theater, so he began loading victims into his patrol car and driving to the hospital.

"I knew I needed to get them to the hospital now, " Grizzle said, tearing up. "I didn't want anyone else to die."

Arapahoe County Sheriff/AP Photo

Aurora, Colorado Gunman: Neuroscience PhD Student Watch Video

Grizzle drove six victims in four trips, saying that by the end there was so much blood in his patrol car he could hear it "sloshing around."

Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

An officer who took the stand earlier today described Holmes as "relaxed" and "detached" when police confronted him just moments after the shooting stopped.

The first two officers to testify today described responding to the theater and spotting Holmes standing by his car at the rear of the theater on July 20, 2012. He allegedly opened fire in the crowded theater during the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Officer Jason Oviatt said he first thought Holmes was a cop because he was wearing a gas mask and helmet, but as he got closer realized he was not an officer and held Holmes at gunpoint.

Throughout the search and arrest, Holes was extremely compliant, the officer said.

"He was very, very relaxed," Oviatt said. "These were not normal reactions to anything. He seemed very detached from it all."

Oviatt said Holmes had extremely dilated pupils and smelled badly when he was arrested.

Officer Aaron Blue testified that Holmes volunteered that he had four guns and that there were "improvised explosive devices" in his apartment and that they would go off if the police triggered them.

Holmes was dressed for the court hearing in a red jumpsuit and has brown hair and a full beard. He did not show any reaction when the officers pointed him out in the courtroom.

This is the most important court hearing in the case so far, essentially a mini-trial as prosecutors present witness testimony and evidence—some never before heard—to outline their case against the former neuroscience student.

The hearing at the Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo., could last all week. At the end, Judge William Sylvester will decide whether the case will go to trial.

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Five accused in India rape case charged in court

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Five men accused of raping and murdering an Indian student were read the charges in a near-empty courtroom on Monday after the judge cleared out lawyers for bickering over whether the men deserved a defense.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy student died two weeks after being gang-raped and beaten on a moving bus in New Delhi, then thrown bleeding onto the street. Protests followed, along with a fierce public debate over police failure to stem rampant violence against women.

With popular anger simmering against the five men and a teenager accused in the case, most lawyers in the district where the trial will be held refuse to represent them.

Before the men arrived for a pre-trial hearing on Monday, heckling broke out in a chamber packed with jostling lawyers, journalists and members of the public after two of the lawyers, Manohar Lal Sharma and V. K. Anand, offered to defend the men.

"We are living in a modern society," declared Lal Sharma, defending his decision. "We all are educated. Every accused, including those in brutal offences like this, has the legal right ... to defend themselves."

One woman lawyer prodded V. K. Anand in the chest, saying: "I'll see how you can represent the accused."

Unable to restore order, presiding magistrate Namrita Aggarwal ordered everyone to leave except the prosecution, and set police to guard the entrance.

She said the trial would now be held behind closed doors because of the sensitivity of the case.

FACES COVERED

Reuters video images showed the men stepping out of a blue police van that brought them from Tihar jail and walking, their faces covered, through a metal detector into the South Delhi court building.

The court was across the street from the cinema where the victim watched a film before she was attacked on her way home.

Aggarwal gave the men copies of the charges, which include murder, rape and abduction, a prosecutor in the case told Reuters.

Police have conducted extensive interrogations and say they have recorded confessions, even though the men have no lawyers.

If the men, most of them from a slum neighborhood, cannot arrange a defense, the court will offer them legal aid before the trial begins.

Two of them, Vinay Sharma and Pawan Gupta, have offered to give evidence against the others - Mukesh Kumar, Ram Singh and Akshay Thakura - possibly in return for a lighter sentence.

Mohan, describing what he called a heinous crime, said: "The five accused persons deserve not less than the death penalty."

The case has sharpened long-standing anger against the government and police for a perceived failure to protect women.

A male friend who was assaulted with the woman on December 16 said on Friday that passers-by left her unclothed and bleeding in the street for almost an hour and that, when police arrived, they spent a long time arguing about where to take them.

The woman lived for two weeks after her attack, dying in a Singapore hospital where she had been taken for treatment.

FAST-TRACK COURT

Aggarwal said the next hearing would be on January 10. The case is due to move later to another, fast-track court set up since the woman was attacked to help reduce a backlog of sex crime cases in Delhi.

Legal experts say the lack of representation for the five men may give grounds for appeal if they are found guilty. Convictions in similar cases have often been overturned years later.

Some legal experts have also warned that previous attempts to fast-track justice in India in some cases led to imperfect convictions that were later challenged.

The sixth member of the group alleged to have lured the student and a male friend into the private bus is under 18 and will be tried in a separate juvenile court.

The government is aiming to lower the age at which teenagers can be tried as adults, acknowledging public anger that the boy will face a maximum three-year sentence.

The victim was identified by a British newspaper at the weekend but Reuters has opted not to name her.

Indian law generally prohibits the identification of victims of sex crimes. The law is intended to protect victims' privacy and keep them out of the glare of media in a country where the social stigma associated with rape can be devastating.

The dead woman's father repeated on Monday that he wanted her identified and said he would be happy to release a photograph of her.

"We don't want to hide her identity. There is no reason for that. The only condition is it should not be misused," he told Reuters.

He said he was confident the trial would be quick and reiterated a call that the perpetrators be hanged.

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Robert Birsel and Tom Pfeiffer)

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