Haque Specialized Group's News

A fire has burned 80 homes at a slum in Dhaka’s Hazaribagh. The fire at the Kalunagar Miah Barhi slum began around 3:30am, said Fire Service Control Room Official Belal Hossain, reports bdnews24.com. The fire was brought under control by five fire service units by 5:00am. Eighty homes have been burned by the fire, said Belal. No casualties have been reported. An electric short-circuit was responsible for starting the fire, said the fire service official. The financial damage is estimated at Tk 1 million.....

Published at: 2017-03-07 00:00:04

The US government has said it assesses terrorist groups in South Asia may be planning attacks in the region, possibly against US facilities, citizens, and interests. "US citizens should avoid travel to Afghanistan, as no region in the country is immune from violence," said the US Department of State in a worldwide caution issued on Monday. A number of established terrorist organisations, indigenous sectarian groups, and other militants pose a danger to US citizens in Pakistan, it said. "Extremist elements are also active in India, as outlined in a recent emergency message," the message reads. Terrorists have hit a wide variety of targets and institutions in Bangladesh, it mentioned. The Travel Warnings are in effect for the following countries - Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.....

Published at: 2017-03-07 00:00:04

North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, prompting Malaysia to take tit-for-tat action, as police in Kuala Lumpur sought to question up to three men hiding in the North Korean embassy over the murder of Kim Jong Nam, reports Reuters. Malaysia has been outraged by the murder of the North Korean leader's estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Feb. 13 by assassins using VX nerve agent, a super toxic chemical listed by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction. Police have identified eight North Koreans wanted in connection with the murder, including a senior North Korean diplomat and a state airline employee. The only people charged so far are a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman. As the row escalated on Tuesday, state-run KCNA news agency reported that North Korea's foreign ministry had issued a temporary ban on Malaysians leaving in order to ensure the safety of its own diplomats and citizens in Malaysia. It effectively made Malaysians hostage in the reclusive, isolated state. Malaysia reacted promptly. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced a ban on North Koreans leaving the Southeast Asian country with immediate effect. Zahid later clarified to reporters that only North Korean embassy staff and officials were banned from leaving Malaysia. Before the murder, North Korea could count Malaysia as one of its few friends, but Malaysia has since stopped visa-free travel and on Monday it expelled North Korea's ambassador for questioning the impartiality of the murder investigation. There are 11 Malaysians believed to be in North Korea, according to a Malaysian foreign ministry source, including three embassy staff and six family members, plus two others working in the country. NO RAID Speaking at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, Malaysia's police chief said up to three of the North Koreans sought in connection with the murder had holed up at the embassy in the Malaysian capital. "How much longer do they want to hide in the embassy... it is a matter of time before they come out," police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said. "We will not raid the embassy building, we will wait for them to come out. We have got all the time," Khalid said. Police have cordoned off the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur. Aside from the suspects said to be hiding in the embassy, police have said that four other North Koreans left Malaysia in the hours after the murder. The only North Korean suspect to be apprehended was deported on Friday, released due to insufficient evidence. US officials and South Korean intelligence suspect North Korean agents were behind the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, who had been living in Macau under China's protection, and had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic rule of North Korea. North Korea has refused to accept that the dead man is leader Kim Jong Un's half brother, and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack. No next of kin have come forward to claim the body, but the Malaysian police chief said he was confident of obtaining DNA samples to formally identify the murdered man.....

Published at: 2017-03-07 00:00:04

A young man was chopped to death by miscreants at a clothes store in the Town Hall area of the Jessore district town on Sunday evening, reports UNB. Witnesses said a group of four miscreants chased Bappa Islam Pappu, 20, son of Motaleb Hossain of Ghop Noyapara Road area in the town, from the Town Hall ground around 6:30pm. Pappu then took shelter in a clothes store of Zila Parishad Market to flee the attackers. However, the hoodlums swooped on the youth at the shop and hacked him indiscriminately in public, leaving him critically injured. He was taken to Jessore General Hospital where doctors declared him dead, said Dr Yusuf Ali, a physician at the emergency unit of the hospital. Officer-in-charge of Kotwali Police Station M Ilias Hossain said they were investigating the incident.....

Published at: 2017-03-06 00:00:04

Asian shares were mixed on Monday following North Korea's launch of four ballistic missiles, three of which landed in Japan's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, reports AP.  Hong Kong's benchmark climbed 0.3 per cent after the opening of the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock index fell 0.5 per cent to 19,366.67. The Kospi in South Korea lost 0.2 per cent to 2,075.42. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 0.3 per cent to 23,615.73. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1 per cent higher to 3,222.52. Australia's S&P ASX/200 rose 0.2 per cent to 5,740.50. Shares in Taiwan also rose. The Dow Jones industrial average was barely changed at 21,005.71. The S&P 500 index gained 0.1 per cent to 2,383.12 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 0.2 per cent to 5,870.75.  Benchmark US crude lost 20 cents to $53.13 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 72 cents on Friday to $53.33 a barrel.  Brent crude, used to price international oils, shed 14 cents to $55.76 a barrel. It added 82 cents to close at $55.90 a barrel in London on Friday. The dollar fell to 113.85 yen from 114.03 yen. The euro slipped to $1.0610 from $1.0623.....

Published at: 2017-03-06 00:00:04