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The government has sought Chinese assistance for the construction of proposed Padma Bridge, the LGRD minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said on Tuesday.
   ‘We have requested the delegation of Chinese Communist Party to provide assistance for the proposed Padma Bridge and they will inform us about it after discussion with their authorities,’ he said.
   Bhuiyan, also the BNP secretary general, was talking to reporters after a bilateral meeting between the visiting delegation of the Chinese Communist Party and BNP’s senior leaders at the state guesthouse Meghna.
   The LGRD minister said, ‘China has constructed many bridges in Bangladesh and we told the delegation that we need to construct more bridges.’
   The six-member Chinese delegation was led by the head of international division of the Chinese Communist Party and the minister, Wang Jiarui, at the meeting while Bhuiyan led the BNP team.
   Bhuiyan said there was a huge trade gap between two the countries and the meeting discussed ways to reduce the gap. ‘China has already given tax-free access of many Bangladeshi products to their market and we asked for more. We have asked the Chinese delegation to extend further economic assistance and invest more.’
   Talking to reporters through an interpreter after the meeting, the Chinese minister, Wang Jiarui, said they had achieved a great deal from the meeting. ‘At the meeting we had extensive exchanges of views. We have talked about the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, socio-economic development of China and bilateral issues.’
   The law minister, Moudud Ahmed, the environment minister, Tariqul Islam, the food minister, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, the chief whip, Khandaker Delwar Hossain, the BNP standing committee members KM Obaidur Rahman and Chowdhury Tanvir Ahmed Siddiqui, and Lt General (retd) Mahbubur Rahman, MP represented the BNP at the meeting.
   The other members of the Chinese delegation, were Ai Ping, DG international division of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhang Xuyi, Xiao Ning Ning, Zhao Yin and Zhao Qiang. Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh was also present.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on Tuesday said her government would keep up its efforts to ensure the facilities of higher education available in the country and improve its standard.
   ‘Our objective is to make the opportunities of higher education available for the students in the country and maintain the world standard in education and science,’ she told a function marking the laying of foundation stone of Comilla University.
   The prime minister laid the foundation stone of the Comilla University to be constructed on 50 acres of land at Lalmai Bihar, Moynamati.
   Khaleda hoped that academic activities in the university would start as soon as its construction works are completed within the stipulated time.
   She said young students and researchers would get a great opportunity to concentrate on their studies in such a favourable and natural environment of Lalmai hilly area, far from urban bustling.
   The prime minister hoped that not only the local students but also the foreign ones would come here to acquire knowledge.
   The education minister declared that the university would be inaugurated by September this year while classes will start in January 2007.

Breastfeeding, appropriate complementary diet, intake of vitamin-A and zinc supplementation can prevent more than 55 per cent of all childhood deaths, said experts at the 8th Commonwealth Congress on diarrhoea and malnutrition in Dhaka on Tuesday.
   ‘These current available interventions can save the lives of one million children in the commonwealth countries alone,’ added professor Zulfiqar Bhutta of the Aga Khan University of Karachi at the scientific session on the challenges of diarrhoeal diseases and malnutrition in the global child survival agenda at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh auditorium.
   The Commonwealth Association for Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in collaboration with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh and the DFID, Bangladesh organised the three-day congress that began on February 6.
   Five hundred delegates including 100 experts from the commonwealth and non-commonwealth countries attended the conference.
   Professor Zulfiqar, the president-elect of the Commonwealth Association for Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, observed that many countries in South Asia and Africa seemed to be destined to fail in achieving the millennium development goal regarding child health and mortality.
   The ICDDR,B executive director, professor David A Sack, and the president of the Common-wealth Association of Gastroen-terology and Nutrition, Tony Nelson, also spoke on the occasion.

A Barisal court on Tuesday sent nine cases relating to August 17, 2005 bomb blasts in the city to the special tribunal for trial on Tuesday.
   The court also rejected the bail prayers of six arrested accused and fixed the date for accepting the charge sheets against the nine accused of those cases.
   The nine accused in the cases were Golam Morshed Chowdhury, Jalal Arefin, Hafez Saiful Islam, Abu Solaiman Sujan, Jasimuddin and Maruf while Ziaur Rahman Zia, Abu Yusuf Majumdar and Zahid Babu were absconding.
   The first six were arrested and they were taken to the court while the last three accused were absconding. The court sources said the cases were lodged under explosive acts so the trial would be held at the special tribunal.
   Md Safiuddin, district and session judge of Barisal, after hearing and turning down the bail prayers of the six accused, transferred the cases to the special tribunal and set the next date of hearing on February 15 for charge framing.
   The police submitted charge sheet against 13 accused in 12 cases filed in connection with a series of bomb blasts at 18 places in the city.
   The trial of one case started in the special tribunal by accepting charge sheet on Monday and hearing on framing charges of the nine cases against the same nine accused would be held in the same court on February 15.
   Two other cases against 13 accused including the aforesaid nine are under process for trial in the Divisional Speedy Trial Tribunal.

Political parties should be more involved in the environmental movement and the issues should be included in their election manifestos more prominently, said speakers at a discussion on Tuesday.
   Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan organised the discussion at the National Press Cub.
   The president of BAPA, professor Mojaffer Ahmad, chaired the programme which was addressed, among others, by Abdullah Abu Sayeed, ASM Shajahan and professor Firoz Ahmed.
   Among the media professionals, the acting editor of Daily Ittefaq, Rahat Khan, the editor of Daily Observer, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, the editor of Boish-akhi Television, Shawkat Mahmud, the editor of Daily Desh Bangla, Dr Ferdous Hossain Qur-aeshi and the editor of Daily Amar Desh, Amanullah Kabir spoke.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has submitted three charge sheets with the Netrakona district court against nine people, including seven government employees, for misappropriation of government funds of about Tk 9,87,80,600 crore.
   The district anti-corruption officer of Kishoreganj, Md Murshed Alam, submitted the charge sheets on Tuesday, ACC sources said.
   Earlier, the district anti-corruption official filed three cases with the Netrakona police station on December 18, 2002.
   After inquiry, the investigation officer submitted the three charge sheets of cases accusing the nine people.
   The accused in the charge sheet are former Netrakona district accounts officer AKM
   Fazlur Rahman, former auditor of Netrakona district accounts office Md Nurul Alam,
   former OBM operator of Agricultural Extension Department Amal Chandra Malakar, Tapan Chandra Das of Netrakona, Md Jasim
   Uddin of Netrakona, former superintendent of district accounts office Md Nazrul Islam, former auditor of district accounts office Abul Kashem, former auditor of district accounts office Shawpan Kumer Bhoumik and former superintendent of district accounts office Joynal Abedin.
   According to charge sheet, accused AKM Fazlur Rahman, Md Nurul Alam, Amal Chandra Malakar, Tapan Chandra Das, Md Jasim Uddin and Md Nazrul Islam with the help of each other misappropriated government fund of Tk 47 lakh through forgery of signatures and seals.
   According to another charge sheet, accused––AKM Fazlur Rahman, Abul Kashem, Md Nurul Alam, Shawpan Kumar Bhoumik, Amal Chandra Malakar, Tapan Chandra Das, Md Jasim Uddin and Md Joynal Abedin misappropriated government fund of Tk 4,76,30,600 through forgery of signatures and seals with the help of each other.
   According to the last charge sheet, AKM Fazlur Rahman, Md Nurul Alam, Amal Chandra Malakar, Tapan Chandra Das, Md Jasim Uddin and Md Nazrul Islam with the help of each other misappropriated government fund of TK 4,64,50,000.

The speedy trial tribunal in Khulna on Tuesday acquitted all the accused in the murder case of journalist Harun-or-Rashid.
   The three acquitted accused were Sheikh Mukter Hossain Baby, Amjad Hossan alias Kala Amjad and Shahin.
   Md Abdus Samad, judge of the speedy trial tribunal, after recording statements of 12 witnesses, delivered the verdict saying that the charges against the accused persons were not proved beyond reasonable doubt.
   The senior reporter of the local daily Purbanchal, Harun, was gunned down on Khulna-Jessore road at Mujgunni area in Khulna city on March 2 of 2002 on his way to newspaper office.
   Md Maula Bux, assistant police super of CID, Jessore zone and also the investigation officer of the case, submitted charge sheet against the three persons, who were reportedly the cadres of the Purba Banglar Communist Party on March 1, 2005.
   Earlier, all the accused in the journalist SM Nahar Ali murder case of Dumuria thana were acquitted by the speedy trial tribunal on September 29 of 2005. Nahar Ali, who was a correspondent of the local daily Anirban at Dumuria upazila headquarters, was killed in April, 2001.
   Also, all the accused in the newsman Shukur Ali abduction cum murder case were freed by the additional district and session’s judge on July 24, 2005. Shukur Ali was the correspondent of the Khulna local daily Anirban. He was kidnapped from his house at village Ula in Dumuria upazila on July 5, 2002 for murder. The police failed to recover his body.

Hearing of the murder case of former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria was held at the Sylhet divisional speedy trial tribunal on Tuesday.
   The judge of the court Biplab Goshwami framed the charge against eight arrested accused after two hours of hearing on the first day.
   The charge-sheeted accused were AKM Abdul Quayum, Jomir Ali, Jaynal Abedin Jalal, Shahed Ali, Tajul Islam, Ayat Ali, Shelim Ahmed and Joynal Abedin Momin.
   The arrested accused, who wore bullet-proof jackets, were brought to the court by a police van. They were produced before the Sylhet speedy trial tribunal at around 10-30am.
   With the beginning of the hearing, wife of prime accused Abdul Quayum, Suraiya Afroz, his sons Ruhul  Quayum and Faysal Quayum prayed for returning the seized bank cheque book of Tk 81 lakh, which the judge rejected.
   The judge of the tribunal framed charge against the eight accused on sections 302, 34, 120, 326, 324, 43, 307, 109 and 302 and read the charge sheet in the court.
   The court fixed the next date of the case for taking statement of witnesses on February 22 and 23.
   SPP of the divisional speedy trial tribunal informed the journalists present at the court that there are a total of 66 witnesses in the case of the former finance minister.
   Advocate Ahsan Ullah and Jothsna Begum defended for the prime accused in the case while advocate Abdul Mazid Khoka, Biju Roy, Abdul Khalique, Luthfur Rahman, AKM Abdul Hai and Afroz Afgan Chowdhury appeared for other accused during the hearing.
   The former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria along with four others were killed in a deadly grenade attack on Janury 27, 2005, when he was returning from a party rally at Baidyarbazar at Sadar upzila in Habiganj.

Six more bodies were recovered from the River Karnaphuli near Firingi Bazar in the Chittagong city on Tuesday, raising the death to seven from Sunday’s ferry accident.
   The ferry Sugandha-28 carrying 30 passengers and nine trucks laden with about 80 tonnes of stone sank in the mid-river at about 4:00pm due to overloading and strong current shortly after sailing from the Firingi Bazar Bridge terminal.
   The rescue team comprising the Coastguard, the Roads and Highways Department, and Fire Service and Civil Defence also recovered five more trucks on the day.
   Five of the victims were identified as Dilip Kumar Saha, 45, son of Nirapada Saha, of Sher Shah under Kaliganj upazila in Jhenaidah, and Nurul Alam, 45, Hanifa Begum, 40, Noor Begum, 28, and her son Chotan, 7, of Matarbari under Maheskhali upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
   The rescuers said they recovered the bodies of Hanifa, Noor Begum, and Choton from a sunken truck while the bodies of Dilip and Alam were found floating in the river.
   Earlier, the body of Hanifa Khatun, 45, of Matarbari in Cox’s Bazar was recovered on Monday apart from four trucks.
   Soon after the accident, the fishermen rescued 15 of the passengers, but the rests went missing.
   The Roads and Highways Department introduced ferry service on February 18, 2001 as plying of heavy vehicles was prohibited on the Shah Amanat Bridge due to its dilapidated condition.

Top leaders the Bangladesh Chhatra League faced resentment of grassroots activists at the Dhaka University
   Madhu’s Canteen on Tuesday for their unwillingness to hold council session of the
   organisation.
   The angry activists were locked in altercation with the organisation president, Likat Sikder, and general secretary Nazrul Islam Babu, keeping them encircled for about one hour.
   The activists slang derogatory remarks to the leaders, demanding the date of council session and accused them of making ploys to extend the tenure of the incumbent committee. Some angry activists attempted to assault the leaders, but others obstructed them.