IPT IO N SC R SU B
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2013
9 150 Fils
North Korea warns embassies
JAMADA ALAWWAL 25, 1434 AH
30
Facebook unveils ‘Home’
No: 15770
45
FIFA’s Blatter backtracks on racism sanctions
UN blasts Kuwait Rights body decries hike in death penalty
GENEVA: The UN rights body yesterday criticized Kuwait and several countries in Asia for resuming executions after halting the practice for several years. “We are deeply concerned that a number of countries in the Middle East and Asia have recently started reapplying the death penalty after several years of moratorium,” OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva. He criticized Kuwait, India, Indonesia and Japan for resuming executions in a move that he said flies in the face of “the overwhelming global trend towards abolishing the death penalty.” Kuwait on Monday carried out its first executions in six years, hanging a Saudi, a Pakistani and a stateless Arab who had been convicted of murder. And in Asia, India resumed executions late last year after an eight-year moratorium, and Japan also applied the death penalty for the first time in nearly two years. Last month, Indonesia carried out its first execution in four years. Of the countries that never stopped carrying out the death penalty, like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran, China and North Korea, Colville expressed particular concern about the soaring number of executions in Iraq. At least 12 people had been executed in the country so far this year, he said, while 123 people, including five women, were executed there in 2012. That “was a massive increase over previous years, and deeply worrying in a country where there are persisting serious concerns about compliance with fair trial standards,” Colville said. The United States has meanwhile executed five people so far this year, he said. “In many cases, the death penalty involves clear violations of international norms and standards,” he said, listing for instance the absence of fair trials and due process, executions of juvenile offenders and long waits on death row. “We appeal to all governments concerned to take necessary measures and establish an official moratorium on all executions with the aim of abolishing the death penalty,” Colville said. — AFP
Max 28º Min 18º
KUWAIT: Traffic department displays a warning sign as dusty weather paralyzed activities in Kuwait yesterday. — Photo Joseph Shagra (See Page 3)
45 perish as building collapses in Mumbai More than 20 people missing
MUMBAI: People gather around a heap of debris at the site of a building collapsed as a rescue operation continues on the outskirts of Mumbai, India yesterday. —AP
MUMBAI: A residential building being constructed illegally on forest land in a suburb of India’s financial capital collapsed into a mound of steel and concrete, killing at least 45 people and injuring more than 50 others, authorities said yesterday. The eight-storey building in the Mumbai suburb of Thane caved in Thursday evening, police said. Rescue workers with sledgehammers, gasoline-powered saws and hydraulic jacks struggled yesterday to break through the tower of rubble in their search for possible survivors. Six bulldozers were brought to the scene. “There may be (a) possibility people have been trapped inside right now,” local police commissioner K P Raghuvanshi yesterday. At the time of the collapse, between 100 and 150 people were in the building. Many were residents or construction workers, who were living at the site as they worked on it, said Sandeep Malvi, a spokesman for the Thane government. More than 20 people remained missing
yesterday afternoon and three floors of the building remained to be searched, said RS Rajesh, an official with the National Disaster Response Force who was at the scene. “All the three floors are sandwiched ... so it’s very difficult for us,” he said. The dead included 12 children, police said. A nearby hospital was filled with the injured, many of whom had head wounds, fractures and spinal injuries. Hospital officials searched in vain for the parents of an injured 10-month-old girl who had been rescued. At least four floors of the building had been completed and were occupied. Workers had finished three more floors and were adding the eighth when it collapsed, police Inspector Digamber Jangale said. It was not immediately clear what caused the structure to collapse, but Raghuvanshi said it was weakly built. Police were searching for the builders to arrest them, he said. “The inquiry is ongoing. We are all busy with Continued on Page 14