BANGLADESH

Just two hours before the first semifinal is set to start on Tuesday, Chittagong Kings said they will move court over the BPL authorities' decision to allow Barisal Burnerst to play Duronto Rajshahi in the second semifinals.

Samir Quader Chowdhury, CEO of SQ Sports, which owns the Kings, told a media conference about the decision of the team. Coach Khaled Mahmud and manager Nasir Ahmed were present there.

Shafiqul Haque Heera and Faruque Ahmed, the managers of semifinalists Dhaka Gladiators and Duronto Rajshahi, respectively, and Khulna Royal Bengals media manager Jahid Razzaq Masum were also present in the conference.

Dhaka's Heera said his team will support the Kings if they were thrown out illegally.

Faruque of Rajshahi said they will also back the Kings if they were dropped unlawfully. He, however, added they are not abandoning the first semifinal against the Burners at 2pm.

Islami Chhatra Shibir has called a half-day general strike for Thursday in protest at the deaths of two of its members in a clash at Chittagong University.

The lockdown will be enforced from 6am to 12pm in the port city, Shibir's metropolitan unit (north) president Mohammad Ismail told around 6:30pm on Wednesday.

Ismail said both south and north units of Chhatra Shibir have called on the strike with the support of Jamaat-e-Islami's Chittagong metropolitan unit.

Jamaat's metropolitan unit chief A N M Shamsul Islam MP has also confirmed his party's support for the shutdown.

Two pro-Jamaat-e-Islami students had died earlier in the day in clashes with pro-Awami League students over distribution of invites for the university's Islamic History department first-year orientation programme.

According to police and witnesses, the clash left at least 35 injured including CU proctor Nasim Hasan while police have arrested 10 Shibir activists from the campus.

Doctors at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) had declared zoology second-year student Mohammad Mojaheed and English final year student Masud Bin Habib dead around 3:30pm after they were taken there with fatal injuries.

Meanwhile, the university authorities have ordered all students to vacate the dormitories and postponed academic activities until Feb 16 following the clashes.

The Chittagong Development Authority on Friday blocked an entire road for about five hours to inaugurate an extension.

The primary and mass education minister Afsarul Amin inaugurated the Andarkilla to Laldighi Junction road extension and development project around 5pm.

A giant stage for the inauguration completely blocked the left lane of the extended road from 1pm. The procession of the minister's political followers also clogged up the right lane from 4pm.

Until 6pm, few cars were able to get through the intersection.

CDA chairman Abdus Salam haughtily remarked to that before their project, the road remained blocked at all times.

"Our extension makes it possible to travel on that road. What's the harm in a few more hours of block?" he added.

The extension has created two lanes on the road whereas for many years it had been a one-way.

Salam remarked that citizens did not face much trouble from their road block since businesses in that area of the port city are closed on Friday

During the inauguration traffic was diverted to Nazir Ahmed Chowdhury Road where commuters experienced a temporary gridlock from the added pressure.

CDA announced at the inauguration that the entire fund of Tk 50 million for the 800 by 60 feet extension came from its own funds.

At least 78 percent buildings in the port city are vulnerable to earthquake, according to a research.

A region-based survey published on Saturday said some 142,000 buildings of 41 wards of the city are estimated to be dicey which include schools, hospitals and power sub-stations that are 'most risky'.

The report, conducted by Earthquake Engineering Research Centre (EERC) under the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), also said that mass destruction could be brought upon these buildings if an 8.5 magnitude earthquake hits the city.

The report was published at a workshop organised by Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) on 'Earthquake Preventive Structure Building: Plan, Implementation and Structure Code-2008'.

At least 150 architects and engineers working with several firms in the city attended the workshop.

CUET's civil engineering department dean Mohammad Jahangir Alam conducted the three-year research.

CDA chairman Abdus Salam told reporters the city's Nagar Unnayan Committee have found several errors in the plans of the buildings to be built in the city.

"The workshop has been arranged to raise awareness following their recommendations," he said.

SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS MOST RISKY

According to the report, there are some 1,033 schools in 41 wards and 739 of them would be destroyed if an 8.5 magnitude earthquake is felt in the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

The most risky schools include Chittagong Collegiate Government High School, Government Muslim High School (old), Nasirabad Government Girls' High School, Chittagong Residential School and College and Paharika Girls' High School and several other well-known schools of the city.

Jahangir, also the EERC director, told bdnews24.com: "Compared to the infrastructure of residential buildings, educational institutions must be given more priority."

"Because, there are more people in the schools during classes rather than in residential buildings."

He said most of the schools were built following housing structures plans violating the building code.

Moreover, all the hospitals in the city except Chittagong Medical College and Hospital are vulnerable to earthquake, Jahangir said.

The researcher said residential and hospital building plans are different. "But, most of the hospitals were built following the residential plans while all the private hospitals are in residential buildings."

The report also said that eight of the 13 power sub-stations in the city are at risk.

At least five people have been killed and two others injured after a train has ploughed through a car at a railway level crossing at Barabkunda in Sitakunda.

All the deceased are the officials of the state-owned vehicle-assembling company Pragoti Industries.

"The collision took place between Chandpur-bound Karnaphuli Express and the jeep owned by Progati Industries around 11am on Wednesday," Mohammed Arifur Rahman, sub-inspector of Kumira highway police camp, told bdnews24.com.

He said that all the victims were from the car.

All of them--Progati accounts officer Tofayel Ahmed, assistant marketing officer Saleh Ahmed, security officer Ahsan Ullah, driver 'Morshed'and official Badal Barua—died at the scene.

One of the injured was identified as the company's security officer Abdul Barek.

The locals halted the train to move on after the accident. The police had to intervene to free the train.

Arifur added that the gate of the crossing was open on the side the car was coming from.

The gate at the other side was closed. The train dragged the car a few hundred yards before it stopped, he said.

The Barubkunda plant of the company is located very close to the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. The level-crossing is on the path joining the company and the highway.

"The jeep was going to a bank in Sitakunda for some official work," the company's accounts officer Shafiqur Rahman told.