sonauledbetter-blog - Tumblr blog

[sonauledbetter-blog]

Artist can paint nude models only after dark

Golub's lawyer, Ronald Kuby, argued that New York laws do not prohibit public nudity in the name of art, and a compromise was reached that was the basis of the court ruling.Under the agreement, "he is permitted to paint bare breasts any time, anywhere, but the G-strings have to stay on until daylight goes out," Kuby said after a hearing in Manhattan criminal court.State laws against public exposure exempt "any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment," Kuby said. Municipalities are allowed to devise their own restrictions, but New York City generally does not do so, Kuby said.Golub, of Nyack, New York, said he likes to paint nude models because their bodies have energy and dynamism that he finds lacking in canvas."I feel that when I do live body painting it's a good thing, a positive thing," he said.Charges against Golub will be dropped in six months if he abides by the terms of the agreement and is not arrested again. Charges against Karla Storie, a model from Texas arrested with him, will be dismissed if she too is not arrested again in the next six months.Golub said he was planning to return to criminal court on Friday and paint a nude model in a park near the courthouse.

[sonauledbetter-blog]

UPDATE 1-IMF push hints at emerging market frustration in G20

* Emerging powers frustrated over impact of euro zone crisis* Developing countries powerless to spur euro debt solutionBy Catherine BremerPARIS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A short-lived push by developing economies at G20 talks to give the IMF more resources hinted at the frustration simmering among emerging powers who are powerless to halt a euro zone crisis that is hurting their own prospects.Several developing countries in the Group of 20 advocated ramping up the International Monetary Fund's firepower as finance deputies met in Paris, but the plan was rejected by the United States and others.China, Brazil and India all favour bolstering the IMF's capital, G20 sources said, and Russian and Mexican officials told Reuters they were open to the idea, with Mexico's deputy finance minister explaining that more tools and funds should be deployed to curb the contagion spreading from Greece.The fact bigger G20 powers moved to quash the idea even before finance chiefs sat down for their opening dinner gave a hint of the tensions hanging over the G20 talks, as the euro zone battles to come up with a convincing crisis resolution plan and stem fears the world is sliding into another recession."The atmosphere is complex. There is a sense of urgency, of crisis," Mexican Deputy Finance Minister Gerardo Rodriguez said.Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said emerging country G20 ministers feared the euro crisis would spur further outflows from their economies into safe havens like the yen."What was different from the meeting in Washington DC was that some countries voiced concern that the European crisis could have severe repercussions for emerging economies," he said. "They pointed out that retreat of capital, mainly to Europe, could slow growth in BRICS and Asian economies."Mexico, which has had to cut its 2012 growth outlook to 3.5 percent from 4.2 percent as economic turmoil rocks the rich world, wants to see the euro crisis brought to a halt, he said."We are worried about the situation because this lack of a deep-rooted solution to the challenges that have arisen in Europe has provoked this contamination towards other emerging countries, including Mexico," Rodriguez told Reuters."It's a concern we are obviously bringing to the table (in Paris) with the idea that they take more concrete, more decisive actions and succeed in halting this atmosphere of uncertainty."RESENTMENT MOUNTSThe G20 finance talks come just over a week before an Oct. 23 European Union summit where Paris and Berlin have promised that a plan will be endorsed to stem the euro zone debt crisis.Emerging market powers -- who have a new voice in global policymaking through the G20 but still have little ability to spur on any euro zone action plan -- are angry that while EU leaders dither, investors are ditching high-risk assets."Our market is suffering from pressures on the European market," said Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak"We have experienced crazy volatility," he said. "There are no fundamental factors in Russia behind such volatility."Central banks from Ankara to Brasilia have come out to defend their currencies as sell-offs in emerging market stocks, bonds and currencies have rekindled memories of a mass flight to safe-haven assets during the 2008-09 financial crisis.Countries like Mexico, which have battled to win investor credibility, resent being punished by financial markets because of a crisis of confidence in Europe, where fiscal profligacy by peripheral euro states has now infected banks in core nations."This is not desirable for emerging economies like Mexico where we have very solid fundamentals, our public finances are in order, we're accumulated reserves and we have tried to be responsible in public debt and the banking sector," Rodriguez said.The United States and other key G20 powers will also pile pressure on EU leaders in Paris to announce a concrete solution to the euro crisis before France's G20 presidency wraps up with a Nov 3-4 summit in Cannes, but they do not want new IMF funding that could dilute their sway over the lender.U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Europe had ample resources to solve its crisis without extra IMF funds."We need to remain focused on the Europeans solving this crisis, and avoid focusing on non-central issues like increasing the resources of the IMF. And not everyone agrees," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said.The idea of more IMF firepower has been mooted before and on Monday Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the Paris G20 would discuss it. One emerging market source said $350 billion could be an appropriate sum to inject.Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said a "careful assessment" should be made of the IMF's liquidity provisions.The IMF is already weighing whether to expand its rescue lending capacity via debt issuance or bilateral borrowing, and one G20 source said the IMF could soon make short-term credit lines available to healthy countries hit by liquidity crises.

[sonauledbetter-blog]

GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares edge lower on caution over global growth

* US Treasury prices up on stock decline* S&P cuts Spain ratingBy Chikako MogiTOKYO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Asian shares inched down on Friday, tracking New York and European shares lower as weak Chinese trade data raised concerns about the global economy, while the euro eased after another sovereign debt ratings downgrade.MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 percent while the Nikkei average opened down 0.5 percent after hitting a four-week high on Thursday.Slower demand in the world's second-largest oil consumer China weighed on oil prices, with Brent crude easing a touch to $111.08 a barrel and U.S. November crude slipping 0.1 percent to $84.12 a barrel.World stocks as measured by MSCI eased 0.2 percent on Thursday after six days of gains, while U.S. shares fell from three-week highs on weak China trade data which underscored worries about the strength of global economy and the impact from the European debt crisis.European financial turmoil reduced demand for securities underwriting and acquisition advice, hitting earnings of JPMorgan Chase & Co. , the second largest U.S. lender the first major bank to post third quarter results.Shares of JPMorgan slid 4.8 percent, with an index of U.S. bank shares falling 2.9 percent and an European lenders' index losing 3.7 percent.Europe is showing signs of accelerating efforts to shore up the euro zone banking sector and limit the damage from the region's spreading sovereign debt crisis, but the cost it would have to pay could pose risks to the single currency and growth.The European Central Bank said on Thursday that forcing private bondholders to accept losses on euro zone sovereign debt could damage the reputation of the euro, hurt the bloc's banks and encourage volatility on foreign exchange markets.The ECB's warnings were directed at the broader concept of forcing investors to take losses on euro zone bonds, and not specifically referring to the current debate on increasing previously agreed plans for a 21 percent writedown for banks holding Greek debt.But ECB policymakers said the euro zone could fall back into recession, noting in its monthly bulletin released on Thursday that downside risks relate especially to financial market turmoil.Downgrades of sovereign ratings continued, with the latest from ratings agency Standard and Poor's which on Friday cut the long-term credit rating of Spain by one notch.Sovereign debt woes have put European government bond yields under pressure, with the ECB having to step into the secondary market to buy after an Italian debt auction on Thursday to cap rising yields.In Asian credit markets, which have reflected the strain of waning confidence in the financial system, spreads on the iTraxx Asia ex-Japan investment grade index widened again by about 8 points early on Friday, after narrowing sharply the day before by about 17 points.The euro edged lower in early Asian trade on Friday after the downgrade on Spain's ratings, but it still remained on track for the biggest weekly rally since January.As investors sought relative safety, prices of U.S. Treasury debt rose, with the benchmark 10-year note up 9/32 to yield 2.1798 percent late in New York on Thursday.

[sonauledbetter-blog]

Deutsche shifts top Mideast ECM banker to London - sources

The German bank said Christopher Laing, head of MENA equity capital markets, was relocating to the UK from the Gulf, without adding further detail.Earlier, four banking sources had told Reuters that Laing was returning to London, having been originally relocated to the UAE in 2008 when Western banks were boosting their presence in the Gulf to offset falling revenues in the United States and Europe.However, the hoped-for boom did not materialise and, with scant equity issuance from the Gulf for the last three years, institutions are now drawing people back."There is just not enough business to warrant keeping a purely ECM banker based in the region," a source with knowledge of the move said.According to Ernst & Young, the value of MENA initial public offerings was down 52 percent in the second quarter of 2011, at $374.8 million from $775.4 million in the same period in 2010.Globally, $64.6 billion was raised by companies through IPOs in the second quarter of this year.Laing will continue to be based in Dubai until the end of the year and will formally begin covering the region from the UK in January, a second source said.Citi has already moved its top MENA equity banker, Adam Key, back to the UK, according to two banking sources.Key, who was also sent to the region from London in 2008, relocated over the summer, the sources said.International banks have been reassessing their presence in the Gulf as a dearth of work is compounded by pressure to make cost savings.Credit Agricole is closing its Middle Eastern mergers and acquisitions operations, with the business to be run from its Paris office, an executive told Reuters last month.Meanwhile, Japan's largest investment bank, Nomura , shut down its research department in Dubai, and Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse cut their top equity research jobs for the MENA region, sources told Reuters in September.

[sonauledbetter-blog]

Philippines' San Miguel offers to sell refinery to govt

It released the letter on Thursday as part of a stock exchange disclosure."Public opinion urging the government to reinvest in Petron as a means to attain effective participation in the industry has reached us," Petron chairman and CEO Ramon Ang said in the letter. Ang is also the president of San Miguel."The company is open to this idea."When San Miguel took control of Petron last December, it said it planned to raise its ownership up to 90 percent and invest at least $2 billion in the refiner over three years.At the time, San Miguel was in the midst of an aggressive diversification away from food and beverages into power, oil refining, infrastructure, telecoms and mining.On Thursday, Ang said Petron, which was state owned before its 1994 initial public offering, was ready to discuss the appointment of a mutually acceptable third party to both sides to establish a valuation basis and transaction structure."We will look into it first," Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug said in mobile text message to Reuters.Ang said Petron supported the government's thrust to counter the adverse effects of rising fuel prices, although it opposes calls to scrap the 1998 Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Law, saying deregulation had benefited the industry and economy."Having control of the largest petroleum refining assets in the country will place the government in a better position to develop and devise comprehensive and long-term programs and solutions," Ang said.By acquiring Petron's refinery assets, he said the government would have "significant influence" on pricing and in securing the country's supply of petroleum products.Shares of Petron fell 3.2 percent on Thursday in a market that rose 0.4 percent.

[sonauledbetter-blog]

Millions of BlackBerry users cut off for third day

Users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India suffered patchy email service and no access to browsing and messaging, ratcheting up negative sentiment towards a company already losing market share to Apple and Samsung .RIM, which had said on Tuesday that services had returned to normal, said later the problems had actually spread beyond EMEA and India to Argentina, Brazil and Chile."The messaging and browsing delays ... were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure," it said. "As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service."The service disruptions are the worst since an outage swept north America two years ago, and come as Apple prepares to put on sale its already sold-out iPhone 4S on Friday."It's a blow upon a bruise. It comes at a bad time," said Richard Windsor, global technology specialist at Nomura."One possibility could be that it encourages client companies to look more at other options such as allowing users to connect their own devices to the corporate server and save themselves the cost of buying everyone a BlackBerry."Many companies, no longer seeing the need to pay to be locked into RIM's secure proprietary email service, have already begun allowing employees to use alternative smartphones, particularly Apple's iPhone, for corporate mail.RIM has made inroads into the youth market attracted by its free BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service, partially compensating for its losses in the corporate market. But new products like its PlayBook tablet computer have been poorly received.Following a dismal set of quarterly results and a plunge in its share price, some investors are now calling for a break-up, sale or change of management at the company.Increasingly frustrated users tweeted their frustration on Wednesday, while RIM's own official Twitter feed was last updated on Tuesday night, saying problems were being resolved and it was sorry for the inconvenience.Veteran British entrepreneur Alan Sugar, who founded electronics company Amstrad in 1968, tweeted: "In all my years in IT biz, I have never seen such an outage as experienced by Blackberry. I can't understand why it's taking so long to fix."Some customers used humour to deal with the situation. One joke making the rounds on Twitter said: "What did the one BBM user say to the other? Nothing."