S P O T L I G H T

No death penalty to kids in Pak
ISLAMABAD, July 1 (PTI) — Pakistan today promulgated an ordinance abolishing death penalty to children under 18 years of age and empowering provincial governments to establish juvenile courts for their trial. President Rafiq Tarar promulgated the “Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000” which provides protection for children involved in criminal litigation. Under the new law, no child shall be handcuffed, put in fetters or given corporal punishment at any time while in custody.

Japan rocked
TOKYO, July 1 (AFP) — One man was killed in a landslide after a powerful earthquake measuring 6.4 on the open-ended Richter scale rocked central Japan today, the police said. The tremor struck at 4:02 p.m. (1232 IST) with its epicentre located off Niijima and Kozushima Islands, about 150 kms southwest of Tokyo, the meteorological agency said. The man died in hospital on Kozushima after he was pulled out from the wreckage of his car under a landslide triggered by the quake, an official with the Tokyo metropolitan police department said.

60 killed
ADDIS ABABA, July 1 (DPA) — Sixty persons were killed and six injured when a bus overturned trying to pass over a flooded bridge and plunged into a ravine east of Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Radio said yesterday. The radio said Thursday’s tragedy, at the Memrmera river at a point about 120 km east of Addis Ababa, involved a bus heading from the capital to the eastern ancient walled city of Harar.

Solomon rebels
HONIRA, July 1 (AP) — Hopes for peace in the Solomon islands rose today after a key rebel leader said that he would cooperate with the Pacific nation’s new government in an effort to end ethnic tensions. Opposition leader Mannasseh Sogavare was elected Prime Minister yesterday by the country’s lawmakers, a development welcomed by Mr Andrew Nori, head of the main rebel group.