A five-year-old Indian girl who was abducted, raped and tortured in New Delhi was alert and stable, doctors said on Saturday, as fresh protests erupted over sexual violence in the country. The attack evoked memories of the brutal gang-rape and death of a young female student last December which shook India and sparked weeks of demonstrations against widespread crimes against women and children. Newspapers splashed the rape of the five-year-old on their front pages with headlines such as "Delhi shamed again" and "Depraved Delhi".

Global hopes that democracy could replace dictatorships in Arab Spring nations risk being crushed by repressive regimes, the United States warned Friday in its annual human rights report. "The hope of the early days of the Arab Awakening has run up against the harsh realities of incomplete and contested transitions," the State Department said in its assessment of the global situation of human rights in 2012.

A five-year-old Indian girl was battling for her life on Friday after being kidnapped and brutally raped in the latest incident of sexual violence which has triggered nationwide protests. The girl was attacked inside a locked room over a 48-hour period, police said, after being abducted as she played outside on Monday in a lower-middle class area of the capital New Delhi.

A five-year-old Indian girl was battling for her life on Friday after being kidnapped and brutally raped, in the latest incident of violence against women and girls which has triggered protests. The girl was attacked inside a locked room in New Delhi over a 48-hour period, police said, after being abducted as she played outside on Monday. A neighbour is alleged to have taken her and locked her in a room close to her house in a lower-middle class area of the capital city, a police spokesman said.