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Dollar drops despite strong jobs report

2007-07-08 00:00:00

NEW YORK, July 7 (AFP): The dollar dropped yesterday to near-record lows against the euro as a strong US employment report failed to allay traders' concerns about the state of the world's biggest economy. The European single currency was trading...

Global oil prices jump to 11-month highs

2007-07-08 00:00:00

NEW YORK, July 7 (AFP): Global oil prices surged yesterday to their highest level in nearly a year, driven by heightened unrest in Nigeria and concerns about low US gasoline supplies. New York's main oil futures contract, light, sweet crude...

Gas prices rise, reversing recent trend

2007-07-08 00:00:00

NEW YORK, July 7 (AP): Retail gas prices rose overnight Friday for the first time in more than a month as the closure of a Kansas refinery sent prices in the center of the country sharply higher. Oil futures, meanwhile,...

Iraq Kurdish oil deals must comply with new law

2007-07-08 00:00:00

DUBAI, July 7 (AFP): Iraq's oil minister said yesterday that oil contracts concluded by the Kurdish regional government must be amended to conform with a controversial new draft oil law approved by the Baghdad cabinet. "There is a clear provision...

Tobacco control convention to work on protocol combating illicit tobacco trade

2007-07-08 00:00:00

BANGKOK, July 7 (Xinhua): A total of 146 parties to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) concluded here a 7-day conference yesterday. President of the Conference Juan Martabit expressed satisfaction on the productive results produced...

Kazakhstan to buy Westinghouse stake from Toshiba

2007-07-08 00:00:00

TOKYO, July 7 (AFP): Kazakhstan is to pay 486.3 million dollars to buy a stake in US nuclear reactor firm Westinghouse from its majority owner Toshiba, news reports said today. The Japanese giant will sign an agreement this month to...

S Korea grants $3.5m for e-govt in Nepal

2007-07-08 00:00:00

KATHMANDU, July 7 (Xinhua): South Korea has granted 3.5 million U.S. dollars for the construction of the first Government Integrated Data and Training Center in Nepal, The Himalayan Times reported today. Resident representative of the Korea International Development Agency (KOICA)...

Indian move to cut alcohol beverage duties 'positive': US

2007-07-08 00:00:00

WASHINGTON, July 7 (AFP): The United States yesterday welcomed as "positive" India's announcement that it would reduce some duties on alcoholic beverages following a World Trade Organisation (WTO) complaint. "We are studying India's recent announcement that it has withdrawn the...

Deployment of effective device underscored to save equipment from lightning, power surges

2007-07-08 00:00:00

As industries in Bangladesh have become more dependent on increasingly sensitive equipment, they need proper protection from unexpected lightning strikes and dangerous over-voltage surges, experts told a seminar, reports UNB.They said defence sector industries and business houses in Bangladesh need...

DBBL's workshop on retail banking products held

2007-07-08 00:00:00

FE ReportDutch-Bangla Bank Limited organised a day-long workshop on "Retail Product- Asset and Liability" for the concerned officers and executives from the branches of the bank. Managing Director Md Yeasin Ali inaugurated the workshop at the bank's training center Saturday.The...

Govt's decision to receive loans at local jute sector's expense 'suicidal'

2007-07-08 00:00:00

Our CorrespondentRAJSHAHI, July 7: The discussants at a seminar here have termed the government's decision to receive $2,500 million (250 crore) loans from the World Bank on condition of squeezing the country's jute sector as 'suicidal'.The seminar, titled "crisis in...

Construction of Chaktai-Mariners Road kicks off

2007-07-08 00:00:00

Our CorrespondentCHITTAGONG, Jul 7: Construction of Chaktai-Mariners Road under the auspices of the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) involving Tk 60 million began Thursday.CCC Acting Mayor Monzur Alam and Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Shah Mohammad Akteruddin jointly inaugurated the kick-off...

The end of Blair era in British politics

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Syed Fattahul AlimThe Blair era in British politics has ended. Being the prime minister of United Kingdom, one of the leading and most advanced countries of the world, Tony Blair's impact was felt not only in Britain, it was felt...

The Kanban system

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Yoshiko NakanoFew would question Japan's superiority in manufacturing, but what is the secret of this excellence? A great many specialists from around the world, such as business managers and management researchers, have studied Japan's manufacturing to try and unearth the...

Living under the shadow of food insecurity

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Enayet RasulBangladesh started winning the appreciation of the international community when, in 1999-2000, it came around to achieving self sufficiency in cereal production. In the years following, this good trend followed and was cited as one of the major indicators...

A model that is replicated globally

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Habibur RahmanIt is not everyday that one hears of a Bangladesh project replicated globally. Yet, ASA, a Bangladeshi NGO, has achieved this rare distinction. It now works as a consultant to NGOs in a number of countries that include India,...

Architectural journey through time

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Janet SchayanHildesheim, Goslar, Quedlinburg - ever heard of them? Admittedly the three cities are in the heart of Germany, but not exactly on the usual tourist trails, especially for holidaymakers from abroad. All three have something in common: their buildings,...

Economy holds Kenya election spotlight

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Katie NguyenThe smell of fresh cement thickens the air as builders in dust-smeared T-shirts hoist bricks up the side of an unfinished Nairobi apartment block.Kenyans need only look at the rash of properties transforming the capital's skyline for proof of...

Incidents may shift threat perception in Britain

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Stephen FidlerTwo years ago, the perception about what constituted the greatest terrorist threat to Britain shifted dramatically. The July 7 2005 suicide bomb attacks on the London transport system suggested that the main threat came not from abroad but from...

Awake, sleeping beauty America

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Maurice Saatchi On this July 4, Americans may be perplexed and confused about the way their country is perceived in the world. They may feel like Josef K. in Franz Kafka's The Trial. "Someone must have laid false accusations against...

Blackstone buys Hilton Hotels for $26bn

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Roger Blitz, Leisure Industries Correspondent Blackstone last week bought Hilton Hotels Corporation for $26bn (£12.8bn), giving the private equity company the biggest hotel group in the world by number of properties.The deal, at $47.50 a share, represents a 31.7 per...

750,000 a year killed by Chinese pollution

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Richard McGregor in Beijing Beijing engineered the removal of nearly a third of a World Bank report on pollution in China because of concerns that findings on premature deaths could provoke "social unrest".The report, produced in co-operation with Chinese government...

ECB takes aim at Sarkozy over euro

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt The European Central Bank launched a stiff defence of eurozone exchange rate policy-making last Tuesday in an apparent rebuff to Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.Current arrangements for setting policy, giving the ECB a large role, were...

Europeans see US as threat to peace

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Daniel Dombey and Stanley Pignal in London Europeans consistently regard the US as the biggest threat to world stability, a new poll reveals recently. A survey carried out in June by Harris Research for the Financial Times shows that 32...

Clinton and Obama back China crackdown

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Eoin Callan in Washington Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the frontrunners for the Democratic presidential nomination, have agreed to co-sponsor legislation that would levy punitive duties on Chinese goods to cajole Beijing into revaluing its currency, according to aides. The...

How Asia shrugged off its economic crisis

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Ten years ago, on July 2nd 1997, Thailand's central bank floated the baht after failing to protect the currency from speculative attack. The move triggered a financial and economic collapse that quickly spread to other economies in the region, causing...

White-collar Asia feels outsourcing pinch

2007-07-07 00:00:00

David L Llorito The global outsourcing trend, which first made political waves about job losses in the United States, is now starting to cause similar ripples across high-wage-earning Asian countries. Corporate America's drive to cut costs by shipping service-related jobs...

A new bubble arises in Asia

2007-07-07 00:00:00

William PesekIn the annals of unintended consequences, Asia's reserve bubble deserves a mention. Ten years after the start of the Asian crisis, the region's $3 trillion-plus of foreign-exchange reserves are having two noticeable effects. One, scaring away the speculators who...

Special economic zones

2007-07-07 00:00:00

THE export processing zones (EPZs) in Bangladesh have proved to be useful in drawing mainly foreign investors and contributing to the country's export earnings. But now thoughts are being expressed about the setting up of special economic zones (SEZs) in...

Removing weeds in business

2007-07-07 00:00:00

Qazi AzadBAD news can actually be a piece of good news depending on the nature of its implications. One such news, an agency report, was published in this paper last Monday. The story said revenue earning from the Hilli Land...