County Party Chief Removed for Bridge Collapse ����A leading county Party official has been fired January 16 following the arrest of three other local officials for their involvement in the collapse on January 4 of a new steel bridge in southwestern Chongqing Municipality. ����Zhang Kaike, secretary of the Qijiang county Party Committee, was removed from his post, and further investigation will be conducted about his involvement in the tragedy, which killed at least 40 people and injured 14. ����Built in February 1996, the 100-meter-long bridge in Qijiang County collapsed because of poor quality and shocked the whole nation with the heavy death toll. ����Three county officials were earlier detained and charged with dereliction of duty so far, including the deputy secretary of the county's Party Committee, Lin Shiyuan. Lin accepted more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) in bribes from the contractor ����The other two officials are both deputy directors of the county's Urban and Suburban Construction Commission. ���� HomeNews 1999-01-17 Page1 Full Story in Chinese