OAKLAND, Calif.Oakland police are looking for three men who allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.

Police spokeswoman Holly Joshi says the girl reported being abducted near the Eastmont Shopping Center after midnight Monday and driven to an undisclosed location where she was sexually assaulted.

Joshi says the girl told investigators that she did not know her attackers.

Police described the suspects as men ranging in age between 20 and 40 who were riding in a blue Lexus.

Police have not released any other details about the incident.

Officials are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the attackers.

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Tags : Shopping

Eco-village announcements expected soon

6:14pm Monday 14th March 2011

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OWNERS of a former cement works set to become a ground-breaking eco-village hope to make another announcement about a new business wanting to the move to the site soon.

Yesterday’s revelation that Cluff Geothermal have singed a deal with Lafarge to extract naturally hot water from 3km below the ground at the former Weardale
Works in County Durham was hailed as a boost to plans for a renewable energy village.

The village near Eastgate comprising homes business units and leisure facilities which could create up to 350 jobs was given outline planning permission in June last year.

The project has faltered however after a £1m grant from regional development agency One North East became a victim of Govenrment cuts.

Now Lafarge say they are expecting another announcement soon about another business wanting to move to the site which closed as a cement work sin 2002.

Lloyd McInally, Lafarge’s project manager said: “We are always keen to hear from companies interested in locating in the Renewable Energy Village and we hope that it will not be too long before we
can make a significant announcement in that respect. “The inclusion of Cluff Geothermal in the project has added to the range of users that might now be attracted to the site. “There will
significant heat generated by the geothermal electricity generation process, energy that we do not want to see wasted. “We want to find companies and operations that can make good use of this
cheap, green energy.

“It will add another fascinating dimension to the Renewable Energy Village.”

The company also hopes to have more news soon about a biomass system which, along with the hot water drilled by Cluff, will be used to create electricity.

When completed, the eco-village will use all five forms of land-based renewable energy including wind, solar and hydro.

County councillor for Weardale John Shuttelworth said: “This is something positive which will hopefully see job opportunities forthcoming after nine years of promises.”

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Tags : Announcements

BSP increases interest rates

by Roderick T. dela Cruz

The Bangko Sentral on Thursday raised its policy interest rates by 25 basis points, the first time since July 2009, in a bid to prevent inflation from spiraling out of control amid rising food and energy prices caused by external factors.

The Monetary Board decided to act promptly to rein in inflation expectations. The Monetary Board believes that a preemptive response will minimize the overall impact of rising inflation on domestic activity by helping to firmly anchor the publics inflation expectations, said Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.

Bangko Sentral increased the rates to 4.25 percent for overnight borrowing and 6.25 percent for overnight lending.

It also raised the interest rates on term reverse repurchase facility, repurchase facility and special deposit accounts by 25 basis points.

Tetangco said the rate hike would not affect the countrys economic growth prospects. The government has a fighting gross domestic product growth target of 7 to 8 percent and an official target of 5 to 6 percent for budgetary purposes.

Inflation rate climbed to a nine-month high of 4.3 percent in February. Emilio Neri, corporate economist of the Bank of the Philippine Islands, said inflation rate was expected to peak by the third quarter of the year.

The Bangko Sentral noted signs of stronger and broadening inflation pressures as well as a further upward shift in the balance of inflation risks.

Tetangco said international food and oil prices continued to escalate due to the combination of sustained strong global demand and supply disruptions and constraints.

Bangko Sentral Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said if the Monetary Board decided not to raise the policy rates, inflation for the year could exceed the target range of 3 to 5 percent.

Guinigundo said without a rate hike, the banks inflation forecast for 2011 would be raised from 4.4 percent to 5.18 percent.

Once we implement this hike, the 5.18-percent inflation forecast would be restored within the 3- to 5-percent range, he said.

The Bangko Sentral also assumed a crude oil price of $100 to $110 per barrel for 2011, which was revised upward from its previous assumption of $85 to $95 per barrel.

The inflation forecast for 2012 was lowered slightly from 3.47 percent to 3.44 percent as a result of the rate hike, which are within the target range of 3 to 5 percent, he added.

Guinigundo said the Bangko Sentral acted to preempt the second-round effects of rising crude prices. This is a preemptive move in order to keep inflation expectations anchored, he said.

Bangko Sentral said well-anchored inflation expectations would safeguard price stability and preserve the publics purchasing power.

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Tags : Monetary

European Central Bank council
member and Bank of Finland Governor Erkki Liikanen said monetary
policy ensures that temporary inflation pressures don’t fuel
broader wage and price increases.

“Temporary inflationary pressures should not have second-
round effects,” Liikanen said in a statement accompanying the
Bank of Finland’s latest forecasts published in Helsinki today.
“Monetary policy ensures that inflation expectations remain
firmly anchored and that broad-based inflationary pressures do
not materialize.”

The Bank of Finland noted that the ECB on March 3 said
“strong vigilance” is warranted on inflation, a signal that an
interest-rate increase is imminent. While Europe “will continue
to see sluggish economic growth in the coming years,” euro-area
inflation “may rise faster than expected” if surging food
costs start to drive up consumer prices, the bank said.

It said the natural disaster in Japan “poses a new threat
not only for the Japanese economy but for the global economy as
a while.” At the same time, the economic impact is hard to
estimate at the moment, it said.

Liikanen also said the global economy and world trade will
continue to grow “fairly quickly, but at a very different pace
in different regions.”

“Emerging economies’ share of the global economy will
overtake the advanced economies toward the end of the forecast
period,” he said. The forecasts extend through 2013.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki at
dbenaaron1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Vidya Root in Paris at vroot@bloomberg.net

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Tags : Monetary

With a move to the central valley with a new angle to his practice, Dr. William Bill Hoolihan, DDS, of Smiles Artistry says his business is evolving in todays medical-dental marketplace / Courtesy photo

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Tags : Artistry

New Zealand’s central bank is
studying ways to regulate banks that may limit interest-rate
increases when credit or asset bubbles emerge, Governor Alan Bollard said.

The so-called macro-prudential instruments that target
liquidity ratios or other areas of bank balance sheets “can
possibly help to moderate credit cycles,” Bollard said in a
speech to a banking conference in Sydney today.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was criticized by exporters
after it raised the official cash rate to a record in mid-2007
to counter a housing boom that was fanning inflation. The
nation’s currency surged as foreign investors were attracted to
rising yields, curbing returns from overseas sales.

“We do need to keep preparing for how we might deal with
credit and asset booms when they recur in the future,” Bollard
said. “We have identified several tools that we would
contemplate using in the right circumstances.”

Still, the central bank expects to use such tools
“infrequently” and they shouldn’t be seen as a “panacea” for
imbalances in the economy, Bollard said.

“We should keep our expectations modest,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Tracy Withers in Wellington at
twithers@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephanie Phang at
sphang@bloomberg.net

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Tags : Monetary

The SEC Tournament Bracket 2011 schedule announcement has been released with the college mens basketball classic featured in the powerful conference. The SEC Tournament schedule runs daily from March 10 until March 13 at Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

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Tags : Announcements

The Federal Reserve said it is
conducting tri-party reverse repurchase agreements with money-
market mutual funds as policy makers prepare for the eventual
withdrawal of monetary stimulus.

The transactions, part of a series of open-market
operations that began in 2009, don’t represent any change in
monetary policy, according to a statement yesterday on the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website. Treasuries, agencies
and agency mortgage-backed securities will be eligible
collateral today.

In a reverse repo, the Fed lends securities for a set
period, temporarily draining cash from the banking system. At
maturity, the securities are returned to the Fed, and the cash
to its counterparties. The central bank added more than $1
trillion in extra cash to its balance sheet as part of its
effort to combat the financial crisis.

Today’s reverse repos are with the 32 money funds added as
counterparties in January. The Fed began adding money funds last
year as the 20 securities firms that act as primary dealers work
to shore up their own balance sheets after the worst financial
crisis in decades. The central bank has drained $6.85 billion in
reserves from the banking system through tri-party reverse repos
since it began what it calls “readiness exercises” in 2009.

In a tri-party arrangement, a third party functions as the
agent for the transaction and holds the security as collateral.
JPMorgan Chase amp; Co. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. are the
only banks that serve in a trade-clearing capacity in the tri-
party repo market.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Liz Capo McCormick in New York at
emccormick7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
David Liedtka at dliedtka@bloomberg.net

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Tags : Monetary

(RTTNews) - Analysts at westpac noted on Monday that even though the public holiday in Japan kept G7 markets quiet, solid Asian equity markets supported risk appetite today, with risk/commodity-linked currencies edging higher.

Traders favored riskier currencies such as Australian and New Zealand dollars that rose as high as 1.0023 and and 0.7343 against the US dollar, respectively. While the EUR/USD exhibited range-bound trading between 1.4160 and 1.4190, the Canadian dollar gained some ground to reach a high of 0.9800.

The USD/JPY hit a high of 81.04 in Asia. Analysts are of the view that the pair will show weakness with little economic data to consider this evening. News from Japan and Libya may drive risk sentiment in London and New York trading.

Asian currencies were generally firmer as regional equities mostly followed Wall Street’s positive lead. USD/KRW that tested above 1128 traded mostly choppy around 1125, as the Kospi added 0.7 percent. USD/SGD traded around 1.2730-40 in early Asian session and then slid to 1.2690 in the Singapore morning as Singapore Dollar’s Nominal Effective Exchange Rate increased to 2.5 percent against the Monetary Authority of Singapore policy band midpoint, although still well below the pre-Japan earthquake level of 3 percent. The Malaysian Ringgit rose about 0.4 percent to a high of 3.03.

USD/PHP edged down 0.4% to 43.56 as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Tetangco repeated his warning that the central bank has less scope for keeping rates steady despite a likely negative impact from the Japanese disaster. Traders paid little attention to the Peoples Bank of China’s adviser Li Daokui comments that the USD could fall “sharply” over the next three years due to high federal and state debt. The USD/CNY was mildly lower today.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

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Tags : Commodity

X Factor lowers minimum contestant age

Posted March 15, 2011 15:47:00

Singing hopefuls as young as 14 will be able to audition for The X Factor this year, but no announcements have yet been made about the judges or host.

Seven has announced that contestants as young as 14 will be allowed in the second series of the show, which will air later this year.

Auditions are due to start later this month.

Seven said further announcements about the host and judges would be made in the coming weeks.

The singing competition will kick off its auditions at Perths Parmelia Hilton on Sunday, March 27 before moving on to Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

- AAP

Tags:
arts-and-entertainment, television, australia

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Tags : Announcements