NEW YORK
Police on Sunday arrested a 28-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder of two Metropolitan Police officers during the height of the London riots earlier in August.
The suspect, who has not been named, is suspected of taking part in the early morning attack that left two policemen hospitalized with knee, leg and shoulder injuries.
The officers, who were chasing looters leaving a The Aristocrats clothing store in northeast London, came under direct attack when a green Citroen was driven directly at them at high speed.
One of the policemen was hit so hard that his body armor came off.
The two officers are now recovering from their injuries at their homes.
The incident happened at 1 a.m. on Aug. 8, the second night of rioting and looting that hit London and other British cities in the worst urban violence in several decades.
Police said the suspect is in custody after being arrested Sunday. Another suspect was arrested earlier and set free on bail as investigations continue.
U.K. police have arrested more than 3,000 people over riots that erupted in north London and flared for four nights across the capital and other English cities.
WASHINGTON
Now that the U.S. debt ceiling standoff has been resolved, all eyes are turning to the foundation.
And economists don
Ontario electricity prices are heading higher with or without controversial renewable energy contracts, says a study by the green-leaning Pembina Institute.
The study, released Wednesday, says the relatively high prices paid to wind, solar and biogas power producers under Ontario’s feed-in tariff program, or FIT, are being blamed unfairly for rising power prices.
Even if no more FIT contracts are signed, the study says, the outlook for rising prices doesn’t change much — because the alternatives are no cheaper.
“Prices are going up, and in some ways people need to know that’s inevitable, whichever path one chooses,” says Tim Weis of the Pembina Institute. “There’s no silver bullet to bringing prices down.”
The FIT program would never add more than 1.5 per cent, or about $2 a month, to the typical consumer hydro bill, the study contends.
Curbing renewables produces lower bills until about 2025, the study says; after that, prices are likely to be cheaper with more renewable power in the system.
The issue is likely to be a hot one in this October’s provincial election. The Conservatives have vowed to end the FIT program, calling it “unsustainable.” The Liberals are firmly committed to pushing for more green power.
FIT contracts pay 13.5 cents a kilowatt hour for onshore wind power, an average of 52.5 cents a kilowatt hour for solar power, and 13 cents for hydro.
The key questions if the FIT program is halted in its tracks, says Weis, are: What will replace it? And at what cost?
The Pembina study says natural gas generation will pick up the slack if renewables are curbed. While gas prices have tumbled since 2009 with the discovery of massive shale gas deposits in North America, the study warns that won’t last. Resistance to the environmental damage caused by shale gas extraction may limit production.
Meanwhile, demand for gas could spiral as the U.S. shuts down more coal-burning plants and replaces them with gas-fired units.
The study also assumes some form of carbon tax or carbon pricing regime will come into play in the medium term. And it notes that emissions regulations are already being introduced on U.S. gas generators, and Canada will probably follow suit.
Meanwhile, the price of renewables will likely drop, the study says. The price of solar panels, for example, is falling steadily as more manufacturers join the sector.
Ontario also plans to review the price of new FIT contracts, with an eye to reducing them, later this year — assuming the Liberals are still in power.
Other factors are at play in driving prices higher, including expensive overhauls and additions slated for Ontario’s nuclear plants, and major upgrades looming at Hydro One and local utilities to modernize their transmission systems.
Those costs are coming no matter what kind of power is being produced.
“If it’s going to cost us roughly the same price, it seems to make a lot more sense to be investing money in cleaner renewable energy going forward than placing our bets on a volatile price of gas,” says Weis.
Thirty-one years ago, Linda Little was working as a bank teller when her best friend’s father, a union pipefitter, recommended she look into a career in the electrical trades. She joined International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1 that year
Australia’s economy probably shrank last quarter for the first time since 2008 as floods inundated coal mines and farmland, a contraction the central bank sees as temporary before growth rebounds in the second half of the year.
First-quarter gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent from the October-December period, when it rose 0.7 percent, according to the median of 25 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. The Bureau of Statistics releases the report at 11:30 a.m. in Sydney tomorrow, six days before the Reserve Bank of Australia decides on interest rates.
RBA Governor Glenn Stevens has pledged to look past data distorted by natural disasters and said interest rates will rise “at some point” to contain inflation. The local currency has risen 26 percent in the past 12 months as companies including BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) increase hiring to meet Chinese and Indian demand for iron ore and coal, pushing unemployment below 5 percent.
“The outlook for the economy should remain supportive of a near-term increase in interest rates,” said Joshua Williamson, a senior economist in Sydney at Citigroup Inc., who forecast a 0.3 percent GDP decline and a rate increase in August. “The exceptional strength of planned investment in mining illustrates the significant challenges the RBA faces in trying to ensure that the boom can be accommodated without leading to a significant overshooting of its inflation target.”
Compared with a year earlier, Australia’s economy probably expanded 1.8 percent in the first quarter, after gaining 2.7 percent from a year earlier in the previous period, the survey of economists showed.
Mining Spree
Driving growth is mining investment the government estimates will be A$76 billion ($81 billion) next fiscal year. BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, is expanding its iron ore operations in Western Australia state’s Pilbara region. Energy companies are also considering new developments.
ConocoPhillips (COP) and Origin Energy Ltd. (ORG) say they plan to approve a liquefied natural gas venture in the middle of this year and begin exports in 2015. The proposal, in Queensland state, follows Santos Ltd. (STO) and BG Group Plc developments and may cost more than A$20 billion, according to Citigroup.
“Some areas of the economy are expected to be very strong, while conditions will be quite difficult in others due to the appreciation of the exchange rate and subdued consumer spending,” the central bank said in a quarterly review in Sydney on May 6.
Weaker Spending
Household spending accounts for 54 percent of Australia’s economy, and a government report this month showed retail sales unexpectedly fell 0.5 percent in March, the first decline in five months. Sales adjusted to remove inflation stagnated in the three months through March from the previous quarter.
The local dollar surpassed $1.10 on May 2, the highest level since it was freely floated in 1983. The currency’s strength is hurting exporters including Henderson, Western Australia-based shipbuilder cash advance loan no fax.bloomberg.com/austal-ltd/” href=”http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=ASB:AU” density=”sparse” title=”Get Quote” ticker=”ASB:AU” class=”web_ticker”>Austal Ltd. (ASB)
The RBA’s benchmark interest rate of 4.75 percent is the developed world’s highest, raising debt payments for homeowners. Myer Holdings Ltd. (MYR) and David Jones Ltd. (DJS), Australia’s biggest department store chains, reported declines in quarterly sales on May 11.
In a quarterly outlook released May 6, the RBA forecast growth will be 4.25 percent this year, unchanged from its February estimate. Consumer prices will rise 3.25 percent over the period, from a previous prediction of 3 percent, and core inflation will quicken to 3 percent from 2.75 percent, it said.
Export Income
“Australia’s terms of trade are likely to rise further in the June quarter, to be above the level assumed a few months ago — and at their highest level in at least 140 years — boosted in particular by high prices for iron ore and coal,” the RBA said, referring to a measure of income earned from exports.
Disrupting trade were floods in Queensland state in January that Prime Minister Julia Gillard called the nation’s most expensive natural disaster. Queensland produces 80 percent of steel-making coal exports from Australia, the world’s biggest supplier, and grows more than 30 percent of the country’s fruit and vegetables.
An area the size of Egypt was declared a disaster zone, including parts of the state capital, Brisbane, and helped push Australia’s trade balance into deficit in February for the first time in almost a year.
Slower Job Growth
Expanding resource projects helped Australia post record employment growth last year before hiring cooled in the first four months of the year. Employers shed 22,100 jobs in April, bringing to 26,300 the number of net new positions created in the first four months of the year, the weakest start to a year since 1999.
Still, the number of unemployed Australians in April fell to the lowest level since January 2009.
The April jobs report showed employment rose 22,900 in Queensland and Western Australia, states that are the biggest participants in what the government calls the largest mining- investment boom in the country’s history. The number of jobs in New South Wales and Victoria, home to Australia’s two most populous cities, dropped by 56,200.
“Most leading indicators point to further growth in employment over the months ahead, although at a slower pace than in 2010,” the Reserve Bank said May 6. It also predicted the jobless rate would fall to 4.25 percent by December 2013.
The Australian dollar’s strength is driving consumers to purchase cheaper goods over the Internet, hurting domestic retailers, Patrick Elliott, chairman of JB Hi-Fi Ltd. said April 3. The advance in the household savings rate, which reached 9.7 percent at the end of last year from 1.5 percent three years earlier, is further crimping profits.
Further weighing on consumers, the government said this month it will end 23 years of spending growth to help ease inflation pressure and support the return to a budget surplus. Gillard’s administration is trying to ease the need for higher borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
Demand by institutional and asset management firms for exchange-traded funds has climbed as investors use the products more for “active” investing strategies, Greenwich Associates said.
About 48 percent of asset management firms and one-third of institutional funds plan to increase their allocations to ETFs in the next two years, according to a report published Friday by Greenwich. That compares with another study by the Stamford, Conn.-based firm in late 2010, which found that 15 percent of U.S. institutional funds used ETFs. No asset managers said they expect to cut their ETF allocation by 2013, the study said.
“The perception of ETFs as a retail product is clearly out of date,” the report said. “They are currently being used in institutional portfolios for a variety of strategic and tactical purposes and as a means of obtaining both passive and tactical active exposures instant payday loan.”
Global ETF assets surged to $1.37 trillion as of February, from $74.3 billion in 2000, according to BlackRock Inc. The Greenwich study is based on interviews with 45 institutional funds, including pensions, endowments and foundations, as well as 25 U.S. asset management firms.
Many respondents said they use ETFs for “active” purposes to implement investment strategies, according to Greenwich. ETFs, which trade like stocks, originally were conceived to mimic gauges such as the S&P’s 500 index. Because ETFs usually track an index, they are typically considered passive investments.
The Energy Department has cleared the way for a terminal in southwestern Louisiana to export a portion of the U.S.’s burgeoning supply of natural gas.
The terminal was originally built to import natural gas during shortages, before supplies skyrocketed because of vast discoveries in shale rock formations.
The Energy Department said this marks the first time an exporter has been allowed to send natural gas from the lower 48 states as LNG to all U.S. trading partners.
Houston-based Chenerie Energy Partners LP said Friday it will be allowed to export up to 803 billion cubic feet of gas annually from its Sabine Pass LNG terminal. The gas will be transported on tankers after being chilled by super-low temperatures to liquefied natural gas.
Exports are expected to begin in 2015.
Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong Soo said that the central bank will manage monetary policy carefully in order to avoid creating incentives for excessive borrowing by households or companies.
The nation’s growing inflation expectations will likely push up consumer prices over time and core inflation, which excludes food and energy items, is expected to accelerate further, Kim said in prepared remarks to be delivered today at a seminar in Seoul.
He also said the expected end of the second round of quantitative easing in the U.S. makes the outlook for other major economies more uncertain, adding to concerns over volatile oil prices, Europe’s fiscal crisis, and the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake in Japan.
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