A Mymensingh Court on Tuesday sentenced two persons to life-term rigorous imprisonment for rape of a schoolgirl four years ago.
   The judge of women and children repression prevention, Narendra Chandra Das, also the fined them Tk 1 lakh each, in default, to suffer one more year in jail.
   The convicts are Shajahan and Halud Miah of village Mrigaly in Ishwarganj upazila.
   According to the prosecution, Rokeya Begum, daughter of one Fazlur Rahman of
   the village was raped by the convicts while she was returning home from her private tutor’s house on June 4, 2004.
   The victim’s father lodged a case with Ishwarganj police station on June 6.
   Our Sirajganj correspondent reports a court sentenced a man and his son 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment in an arms case.
   The district and the sessions judge, Biplab Goswami, handed down the verdict.
   The convicts Abu Saiyeed Mohuri, 48, and his son, Mahbub Alam, of village Potirampur under Taras upazila of the district.
   According to the prosecution, the Rapid Action Battalion arrested the two and seized a foreign-made revolver and 15 rounds of bullet on June 25, 2007 from their house. The arrested were later handed them over to the Tars police.

Some 845 people are suffering from arsenicosis in different areas of Chapainawabganj.
   This was disclosed at a media campaign programmeat held at the conference room of Chapainawabganj municipality on Wednesday.
   The speakers also said 14 out of 20 deep tube wells in the municipality have remained sealed-off for the last seven years as their water is arsenic-contaminated.
   They said 37.68 per cent tube wells in sadar upazila, 63 per cent in Chapainawabganj municipality, 17.23 per cent in Shibganj upazila, 3 per cent in Gomostapur upazila 2.86 per cent in Nachole upazila and 2.52 per cent tube wells in Bholahat upazila have been contaminated with arsenic.
   The Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh and Comprehensive Poverty Reduction Programme jointly organised the programme.
   The president of Chapainawa-bganj press club, DM Talebun Nabi, was in the chair.
   Civil surgeon Dr Shah Abdul Ahad, executive engineer of Department of Public Health Engineering Saifur Rahman, programme officer of CCDB Debashish De and journalist Mahbubur Rahman spoke at the function.
   The function was also attended by journalists of national dailies and electronic media and some arsenic-affected people.

The police arrested a union parishad chairman and a member at Shaympur under Monirampur upazila in Jessore on Tuesday on charge of grabbing fertiliser
   The arrested are Moshiur Rahman, chairman and Janab Ali, member of the Shaympur union parishad.
   The police said a group of people loyal to union parishad chairman removed 199 sacks of fertiliser from the premises of union parishad office in a bid to grab them.
   A large number of farmers gathered staged demonstrations in front of parishad office protesting at the incident, police sources said.
   Later, law enforcers and high officials of  the district and upazila administrations went to the spot and took the situation under control.
   The police raided the houses of Moshiur and Jonab and arrested them. The police also recovered 13 sacks of fertiliser from Jonab’s possession.

A man was beaten to death allegedly by his son at village Jalabad-Lakshmipur under Muladi upazila in Barisal on Monday.
   The deceased is Mohabbat Ali Molla, 70.
   Quoting family members, the police said the vivtim’s son Bellal Hossain had been mentally ill for last six months.
   On the day of the ivident, Bellal became violent and started beatin up his father, leaving him critically injured.
   He died on way to hospital. The body was sent to the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   Family members handed over Bellal to the police next day.