His Royal Highness Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tuesday granted a farewell audience to the outgoing High Commissioner of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. 

His Royal Highness received His Excellency M.A. Hakim at the Balai Penghadapan Bukit Kayangan.  His Excellency has been High Commissioner of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to Brunei Darussalam since July 2004.

Brunei Darussalam’s courts urgently need properly trained interpreters.  The Chief Justice said the significant importance of the availability of trained interpreters to courts cannot be over emphasised, as they form an important constituent in the entire process of having a fair trial.  He also disclosed that the Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrate’s Court will soon have a new building.  The problem of lack of sufficient courtrooms which has been the stumbling block to speedier trials, he said, will hopefully be a thing of the past when the magistrates move into the new building thus the bottleneck created by the shortage of courtrooms would disappear.  The Chief Justice, Dato Seri Paduka Mohammed Saied was speaking at the opening of the Legal Year 2006.

In addressing the Legal Year 2006, Dato Seri Paduka Haji Kifrawi said under the new Children and Young Persons Order, such courts will be given a wide range of powers when dealing with child offenders, including making orders for probation or for community service.  Such court may also make an additional order requiring either or both the child or young person and his guardian to undergo counselling, psychotherapy or other programme for the purpose of rehabilitation or for enhancing, promoting or protecting the physical, social and emotional well-being and safety of the child or young person.  The Child Care Centres Order and Child Care Centres Regulations, according to the Attorney General, is to protect and ensure the welfare of children in the country.  The Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Order which came into effect early this year allows Brunei Darussalam to extend cooperation in the investigation of criminal cases by foreign countries.

More than twenty participants from all ASEAN member countries are attending the three-day workshop.  It was organised as an activity under the ASEAN-Australia Development Cooperation Programme - Quality Assurance System for ASEAN Fruit and Vegetable Project and jointly funded by the Australian Government through AUSAID and ASEAN and managed by RMIT International.

Some 40 principal of secondary schools and colleges from throughout the country as well as senior officers of the Ministry of Education were involved in the meeting pertaining to the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease.  The meeting was an ongoing effort by the Ministry of Education in handling and monitoring the situation of the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease apart from upgrading steps of precaution to control the affection. The meeting was chaired by the Acting Director of Schools, Doctor Haji Mahali bin Momin.  The Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Dayang Apsah binti Haji Abdul Majid stressed on her ministry’s guidelines concerning the illness.

Members of the public are advised to priotise strict personal hygiene like washing hands properly with soap and clean water and that the practice should be stressed especially on children.  As an added precautionary measure, all public places particularly toilets must be kept clean at all times.

Brunei Darussalam is taking part in the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup in Dhaka, Bangladesh next month.  The team of 17 players made up of B-League Premier One champions, QAF FC and AH United left for the republic Tuesday.