Haque Specialized Group's News

At least seven shops were gutted in a fire that broke out at a local bazar of Mohammadpur upazila sadar of Magura district early Thursday. Magura fire service officer Moniruzzaman said the fire originated from an electric short circuit at a shop around 3:00am and soon engulfed the adjoining shops, reports UNB. Five people were injured when they tried to put out the fire. On information, fire fighters rushed in and brought the blaze under control. The goods worth about Tk 2.0 million (Tk 20 lakh) were reportedly gutted in the fire. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner of Magura visited the spot.....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

Asian shares scaled a two-year top on Thursday as investors wagered policy tightening in the United States would be glacial at best, lifting Wall Street to record peaks and lowering bond yields almost everywhere. The star performer was the Canadian dollar, which rocketed to 11-month highs after the country's central bank hiked rates for the first time in seven years and left the door wide open to further moves. Yet the overall mood was one of relief that Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen had not sounded more hawkish in her appearance before Congress, a green light for risk taking. Sentiment got another boost when China reported upbeat data on exports and imports for June, helping the blue-chip CSI300 index up 0.4 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.2 per cent to its highest since May 2015. Australia's main index jumped 1 per cent, while South Korea rose 1.1 per cent to a record after its central bank kept policy easy to support consumer spending. Japan's Nikkei was restrained by a firmer yen and managed only a 0.15 per cent gain. On Wall Street, the Dow rose 0.57 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.73 per cent and the Nasdaq 1.10 per cent. The rate-sensitive S&P 500 real estate index jumped 1.3 per cent, its biggest gain in about four months. Equities were underpinned by a drop in bond yields as Yellen sounded cautious on inflation and noted the Fed would not need to raise rates "all that much further" to reach current low estimates of the neutral funds rate. "The market did perceive a greater degree of anxiety over inflation – at the margin," said Westpac's US economist, Elliot Clarke. "To our mind, this is unlikely to get in the way of another hike this year." "Two further hikes in 2018 will likely be justified by conditions. However, the case for additional hikes thereafter is nowhere near being made." Indeed, markets doubt even that modest tightening will ensue and imply only a 50-50 chance of a rise by December. OH CANADA Treasuries rallied in reaction, with yields on two-year notes falling to three-week lows, as did bonds in Europe and Asia. The odd man out was Canada, where yields hit their highest since late 2013 after the Bank of Canada raised rates a quarter point saying the economy no longer needed as much stimulus. The Canadian dollar notched its biggest percentage gain since March 2016 and was last trading near one-year peaks at C$1.2740. The main loser was the US dollar which slipped to 112.97 on the yen, while the euro edged up to $1.1437. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was pinned just above nine-month lows at 95.602. The drop in US yields benefited gold, which pays no interest, and nudged the precious metal up 0.3 per cent to $1,223.67 and away from its recent trough of $1,204.45. Oil prices flatlined as producer club OPEC said it expected demand for its crude to decline next year as rivals pump more, pointing to a market surplus in 2018 despite efforts to tighten supply. Brent crude futures were up 1 cent at $47.75 a barrel, while US crude was unchanged at $45.49.   ....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

Inflow of aid for trade (AfT) in Bangladesh stood at $910.10 million in 2015, according to the latest statistics of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). WTO, in association with Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), prepared the latest review on AfT.  The report titled ‘Aid for Trade at a Glance 2017: Promoting Trade, Inclusiveness and Connectivity for Sustainable Development’ was formally released in Geneva on Tuesday. It also showed that average inflow of AfT in Bangladesh was $824 million during 2012-14 and $353.6 million during 2006-08.  Thus, Aft increased by 142 per cent and 10.45 per cent over the last 10 and two years respectively.    ....

Published at: 2017-07-13 00:00:04

International Finance Corporation (IFC) inked Tuesday a loan deal with US-based Excelerate Energy to provide US$ 32.80 million as loan to build the country's first LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal at Moheshkhali Island in the Bay of Bengal. The total project cost is $ 179.50 million of which $ 53.80 million would come as equity and $ 125.70 million as loan. Prime Minister's Adviser on energy issues Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury was the chief guest at the deal signing ceremony held at a city hotel. Terming the project a 'milestone' for the country, Mr Chowdhury said it would be implemented in the quickest possible time to meet the mounting demand for natural gas across the country. He gave an assurance that all-out support would be extended to the terminal developer -- Excelerate Energy Bangladesh Limited - to implement the project. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid spelled out the government plan for using LNG and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as the substitutes of natural gas. LNG is set to be imported from early 2018, he added and stressed the need for improvement of necessary skilled manpower to cope with the changing challenges of energy sector. The LNG terminal having a floating, storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) will be located five-kilometre offshore Moheshkhali Island in south-eastern Bangladesh, approximately 91-km south of the Chittagong port. Bangladesh inked a final deal with the Excelerate Energy on July 18 last year for construction of the terminal. Excelerate will develop the FSRU on a build-own-operate and transfer (BOOT) basis.    Azizjst@yahoo.com....

Published at: 2017-07-12 00:00:05

Indian investigators will interrogate a suspected Bangladeshi militant in custody who allegedly took part in planning a deadly terrorist attack at a café in Dhaka last year, police officials in Bangladesh's capital said Monday, reports benarnews.com. Suspect Sohel Mahfuz had been at large for 11 years and was wanted by Indian police in connection with an accidental bomb blast that killed two people in Burdwan, a district of West Bengal state, in October 2014. He was arrested along with three other suspected members of the militant group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) during a raid by authorities in Chapai Nawabganj, in northwestern Bangladesh, on Friday.  "The police in Bangladesh and India have been looking for Sohel for a long time," Monirul Islam, chief of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's (DMP) counter-terrorist and transnational crimes unit, told BenarNews. "The Indian police have shown their interest in interrogating Sohel." A team from India's National Intelligence Agency (NIA) will be coming to question the suspect and learn more about his cross-border militant network that operated in Bangladesh and India, but an arrival date has yet to be fixed, DMP officials said. Sohel, who had lost part of an arm in an explosion of a Molotov cocktail, was the "emir" or chief of Neo-JMB, a faction of JMB, in Bangladesh's northern districts, according to Islam. He said Sohel had attended a meeting in which he and other Neo-JMB leaders plotted a terrorist siege on July 1, 2016 at the Holey Artisan Bakery, a café in Dhaka's diplomatic quarter that left 24 people dead, including 18 foreigners. Islamic State claimed the attack, but Bangladeshi government officials have since denied that IS has a presence in Bangladesh, although local police have conceded that Neo-JMB - the outfit whom they have blamed for the café massacre - had aligned itself with the Middle Eastern-based terror group.  "In addition to attending the meeting, we have information that he [Sohel] supplied arms and ammunition for the Neo JMB," Islam told a news conference in Dhaka on Monday. He said Sohel could provide information on whether more people were involved.....

Published at: 2017-07-12 00:00:05