| Hong Kong man gets life for kidnapping
Sorongon also sentenced Yau's wife, Susana, to 12 years' imprisonment for being an accomplice of her husband in kidnapping Onglingswan, who is of Chinese descent. Yau is also implicated in the kidnapping and murder of Jasper Beltran and the kidnapping for ransom of Aki Khan, a Pakistani with British citizenship. Court records show that Onglingswan was rescued by Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) personnel from a safehouse in Bacoor, Cavite on Feb. 11, 2004. Onglingswan is a practicing lawyer and a businessman in the United States. His rescue came 22 days after Yau kidnapped him and demanded from his family a ransom of $600,000 in exchange for his safe release. Records show that Onglingswan boarded a taxi driven by Yau outside the Makati Shangri-la hotel and asked to be taken to the Virra Mall in Greenhills, San Juan City.
Unloved Stocks Ready to Shine
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Archives for: July 2007
Threatened homeowners and town officials moved decisively in the weeks after the storm... But many residents say that the push for Chatham to assert its will in shaping its coastline has failed to gain traction in the face of a more popular philosophy: Let nature take its course... Read the rest of this Globe story here. ________________________ The politics of pollution: The world faces a potent political struggle as it grapples with global warming SOMERSET — Perched like a fortress at the edge of Mount Hope Bay, Brayton Point power plant is a prominent landmark in SouthCoast — a region struggling to reinvent itself as a center for clean, renewable energy. Brayton Point (on right) is one of the biggest electricity producers in Massachusetts. But each year, its smokestacks release several million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — inefficient generators and high-carbon coal fuel make it one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases in the Northeast... Even among politicians who are endorsing action to combat global warming, there are varying degrees of commitment, notes Sue Reid, a staff attorney at the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation.
Stimulus deal promising; housing risks still plentiful
Wall Street loves slogans. One of the most popular is: Don't fight the Fed.
If the Federal Reserve is lowering rates, the saying goes, investors should go with the flow, buy stocks, and sooner or later benefit from the ability of consumers and businesses to borrow money at lower interest rates.
In theory, both consumers and businesses can't resist the urge to borrow at enticing rates. So with rates down, they spend money on everything from sweaters to vacations to computers and business equipment. Then companies benefit from rising sales and profits. And because stocks in theory rise based on company profits, the low interest rates the Fed sets in motion generally end up giving the stock market a boost.
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Sterling Deepens Gloom
The US trade deficit rose to $63.1bln in November from $57.8 bln, overshooting estimates of $59.7 bln as imports rose $6.0 bln due to a $4.8b jump in oil prices. Exports rose by a more modest 0.6 blnn. The widening trade gap increases the probability of sending Q4 GDO growth into negative territory, especially if we get further widening in the December figure. Risk appetite trades in FX are under pressure after the Thursday Wall Street rally proves unsustainable following losses throughout Asia and Europe . Reports of a $15 billion in write downs from Merrill Lynch and new warnings from UBS are just among the factors offsetting the cheery news of BoA's announcement to acquire Countrywide Financial and Fed Chairman Bernanke's signaling of further easing to come. Aside from the short-term psychological effect of the Countrywide announcement, we're unsure how the news is positive for the broader equity indices when the acquisition means that US ' biggest retail bank will inherit a yet undetermined amount of defaulted mortgages as well as dangerous load of legal troubles.
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