Abogado se desvincula Grupo Buonpensiero

El abogado Francisco Manuel Lazala Puello se desvinculó de las actividades comerciales que ejecuta la empresa Grupo Buonpensiero, a la cual el Consejo Estatal del Azúcar (CEA), concedió un contrato para gestionar el cobro de 6,000 acuerdos de compra de terrenos, los cuales muestran atraso en el pago.

Lazala Puello, quien tiene su oficina en la suite 301 de la Torre Profesional Biltmore, ensanche Piantini, en esta capital, dijo que constituyó y registró la referida compañía en su condición de abogado, puesto que esa es una de las actividades a la cual se dedica, además de ofrecer servicio de derecho penal, divorcios, cobros, particiones y sucesiones.

La empresa Grupo Buonpensiero la adquirió en el 2010, el ex diputado del Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD), Pedro Vicente Jiménez Mejía, a quien más tarde la administración del CEA le concedió el cobro de los expedientes en mora.

El abogado Lazada Puello hizo la aclaración al figurar su nombre en un trabajo de investigación hecho por este multimedios DominicanosHoy, en fecha 18 de mayo de 2011, sobre el estatus del Grupo Buonpensiero y la razón por la cual el CEA lo favoreció con el mencionado contrato.

Según las indagatorias realizadas por DominicanosHoy, el Grupo Buonpensiero envió una comunicación a todos los adquirientes, a quienes les exigía para normalizar su contrato, el pago inmediato del 50% de la deuda, más el desembolso de RD$3,500 para gastos legales, lo que es igual a RD$21 millones

US adds 115,000 jobs in April, fewer than expected

The US economy created 115,000 jobs during April, down on the previous month and fewer than analysts had expected, official figures have shown.

However, the unemployment rate fell slightly to 8.1% from 8.2% in March, the Labor Department said.
Employment has been rising for the past eight months, but the jobless rate has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.
The weak report pushed US and European shares lower, with the Dow Jones index falling 168 points to 13,038.
Both the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 had their worst week of the year, while markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt closed almost 2% lower.
Meanwhile, the oil price continued to fall, with US light crude dipping below $100 a barrel on concerns about the strength of the world's largest economy.
President Barack Obama said he would urge Congress next week to implement "common sense ideas" to accelerate job growth.
Speaking after the data was released, he said: "We've got to do more if we're going to recover all the jobs lost in the recession."

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Andrea Saul, a spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, said: "President Obama has broken countless promises during his time in office - but none more important than his promise to help create jobs and get our economy moving again".

'Bad sentiment'

US Secretary of Labor: Older and younger people are not in the workforce

The stubbornly high unemployment rate is seen as a drag on economic growth in the US.
Jobs were created in the business services, retail and healthcare sectors in April, but were lost in transport.
The Labor Department said the number of long-term unemployed was "little changed at 5.1 million".
The unemployment rate hit a three-year low, but part of the reason for the fall was a drop in the number of people looking for work, which reduced the size of the workforce.
"The drop in the unemployment rate was actually an unhealthy drop - you had less people looking for work, which shows a bad sentiment," said Ron Florence at Wells Fargo Private Bank.
'Sluggish growth' The US saw two consecutive months of robust jobs growth in January and February, with increases of well over 200,000 jobs in both months.
But the past two months have seen a sharp fall in job creation, with 154,000 jobs added in March, a figure revised up from 120,000.
Analysts had expected a rise in April.
"We're still growing just gradually," said Nigel Gault at IHS Global Insight in Massachusetts.
"Hiring is coming back into line with what you would expect with sluggish growth."
Last week, official figures showed that US economic growth slowed to an annualised rate of 2.2% in the first three months of the year, down from 3% in the final quarter of last year.
The Commerce Department said a cut-back in business investment was the key reason for the slowdown in growth.
The Federal Reserve expects economic growth of between 2.4% and 2.9% in 2012, with an unemployment rate of between 7.8% and 8%.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other '9/11 plotters' back in court

 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has claimed responsibility for planning the 9/11 attacks 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks in 2001 are appearing before a US military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay to be formally charged.

An earlier attempt to try the four in a civilian US court was halted in 2009.
New rules for Guantanamo trials have been since introduced, including a ban on evidence obtained under torture.
However, defence lawyers still say the system lacks legitimacy, because of restricted access to their clients.
US President Barack Obama tried to shut Guantanamo at the beginning of his term. But his efforts to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's trial in New York foundered in the face of political and public opposition.
A small number of victims' relatives are attending Saturday's hearing at the military complex.
'Proud' of attacks Self-proclaimed 9/11 "mastermind" Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four others - Waleed bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi - are accused of planning and executing the terror attacks of 11 September 2001, which saw hijacked planes strike New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania and left a total of 2,976 people dead.

Edward Bracken: 'I'm going to see the people that killed my sister face-to-face'

At Saturday's arraignment, they face charges including terrorism, hijacking, conspiracy, murder and destruction of property.
They are expected to be asked to enter a plea for the first time.
The charges can carry the death penalty.
Ahead of the hearing, Jim Harrington, the civilian lawyer for Ramzi Binalshibh, told Associated Press that although his client had previously said he was "proud" of his role in the attacks he had "no intention of pleading guilty".
"I don't think anyone is going to plead guilty," he added.
The decision to hold a military rather than a civilian trial remains controversial and follows a lengthy legal wrangle over where the five men would face justice.
Another of the defendants' lawyers, James Connell, predicted the trial would take years to complete.
Torture claim Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is of Pakistani origin but was born in Kuwait, was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to the Guantanamo base in Cuba in 2006.

Who are the suspects?

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the most high profile of the suspects, has allegedly admitted to masterminding the 9/11 attacks and others. Captured in 2003, he has been at Guantanamo Bay since 2006
• Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni who allegedly helped locate flights schools for the hijackers
• Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali allegedly helped nine of the hijackers enter the US
• Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, of Saudi Arabia, is said to have helped set up some of the hijackers with money, clothes and credit cards
• Waleed bin Attash, a Yemeni, is said to have been a bodyguard to Osama Bin Laden and trained some 9/11 hijackers

During an earlier, controversial attempt to try him before a military tribunal in 2008, he said he intended to plead guilty and would welcome martyrdom.

In 2009 the Obama administration tried to move their trial into US civilian courts, but reversed its decision in 2011 after widespread opposition.
The five were eventually charged in June 2011 with offences similar to those they were accused of by the Bush administration.
The Pentagon has previously said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted he was responsible "from A to Z" for the 9/11 attacks.
US prosecutors allege that he was involved with a host of other terrorist activities.
These include the 2002 nightclub bombing in Bali, Indonesia, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl and a failed 2001 attempt to blow up an airliner using a shoe bomb.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has alleged that he was repeatedly tortured during his detention in Cuba.
CIA documents confirm that he was subjected to simulated drowning, known as waterboarding, 183 times.

Pop Vocal Legend Whitney Houston Found Dead

 

Whitney Houston WireImage/Tibrina HobsonToo many of us—myself included—are guilty of making insensitive jokes about the demise of Whitney Houston, her frail frame, loss of one of pop's purest voices, and battle with drugs.

But none of us are laughing now.
On Saturday, Houston's publicist confirmed to the Associated Press that the award-winning "I Will Always Love You" singer died. She was 48. The timing of her death, the eve of the Grammys, the biggest music event of the year, makes the horrible news even more tragic. According to CNN, Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. PT at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The Beverly Hilton is the venue for the music industry's most prestigious pre-Grammy party hosted by veteran executive Clive Davis, who discovered Houston.
Saturday's event was cancelled following the news of Houston's passing.
In an industry flooded with novelty artists, who disappear after scoring one hit, Houston's longevity was unquestioned when she released her debut single, the ballad "You Give Good Love" in February 1985. The song's soothing opening ad-libs displayed her soulful roots while also celebrating her pop sensibilities.

Sofia Vergara Named AskMen’s Most Desirable Woman of 2012

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Jim Spellman/WireImageIt's often said that Hollywood is a young woman's game, but AskMen.com readers officially bucked that trend in 2012, as Sofia Vergara was named #1 on the men's online magazine's annual list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women, which was announced on Tuesday. But while the 39-year-old "Modern Family" star snagged the top spot on the site's Top 99, former A-list mainstays like Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie gave way to recent additions and fresh favorites, a clear signal that, as far as AskMen.com readers are concerned, there's a new guard in town.

Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2012

But when it comes to "desirability," Sofia Vergara proves that age is just a number -- in this case, #1. After enjoying a breakout year thanks to ABC's "Modern Family," Vergara placed third on the website's list in 2011. And AskMen.com readers obviously haven't cooled on the fiery Colombian bombshell in the past 12 months, bumping her up to first in 2012. In doing so, the actress beat out a number of younger leading ladies and newcomers to lead the Top 10, such as Victoria's Secret favorites Miranda Kerr (#4) and Candice Swanepoel (#10), rapper Nicki Minaj (#5), and actresses Emma Stone (#6) and Scarlett Johansson (#7).

Meanwhile, perennial favorites like Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie were left off the list entirely in 2012. The tabloid mainstays were also fixtures on the site's Top 99 for years -- especially Jolie, who made the list 10 years in a row from 2001 to 2011 -- but it seems guys are growing tired of the former paragons of desirability. And as the old guard falls, new favorites like Vergara, Kim Kardashian (#8), Rihanna (#9), and Zooey Deschanel (#12) have risen up to take their place.

A Little More About AskMen's Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2012

Now in its 11th year, AskMen's Top 99 Most Desirable Women is annually the site's largest feature, and helps signal shifts in the qualities men are looking for in their dream girls and celebrity crushes; over 1 million readers voted on the Top 99 in 2012. And Vergara's meteoric ascent to #1, combined with the notable omissions of Aniston and Jolie, indicates that guys are increasingly looking for fresh faces.

Larry Busacca/Getty Images
Jim Spellman/WireImage

Nowhere is that trend more apparent than in 2012's Top 5, where it only took a year for Kate Upton to catch the attention of nearly every man in America; after not being ranked in 2011, the "Sports Illustrated" Rookie of the Year skyrocketed to #2. And right behind her is Rooney Mara at #3: thanks to "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and her resulting Oscar nomination, the actress has gone from virtually-unknown to impossible to miss. Other big movers-and-shakers included "Glee" actress Lea Michele (#19), who jumped 72 spots from 2011 to 2012, the previously-unranked Selena Gomez (#14), and Kristen Wiig, who at #36, proves there's a new comedy queen in town, crushing former title-holder and "SNL" alumni Tina Fey (#97). Meanwhile, a trio of newcomers from the music world in Lana Del Ray (#95), Adele (#92), and Kreayshawn (#74) debuted on the list in 2012.

Time will tell if Sofia Vergara can keep charming AskMen.com readers into 2013, but as new names continue to move up in the site's Top 99, displacing old standbys, the curvy 39-year-old actress is leading the charge, and proving that she has the staying power to become a new favorite for men everywhere.

AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women is an annual list based on votes from both AskMen.com readers and staff, ranking the famous females deemed to be the year's most alluring. See the complete list here: Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2012.

Welles's "Citizen Kane" Oscar sells for $861,542

 

• The Oscar awarded to Orson Welles for Best Original Screenplay for his 1941 film …

(Reuters) - Orson Welles's Oscar for writing "Citizen Kane" -- regarded as one of the best films ever made -- sold for $861,542 on Tuesday as a hot market for Hollywood memorabilia helped erase memories of an unsuccessful auction four years ago.

The best screenplay statuette awarded in 1942 -- the only Oscar given to Citizen Kane -- failed to meet its undisclosed reserve price when it was last up for auction at Sotheby's New York in 2007. At that time it was expected to sell for around $1 million.

Although tarnished by age, the Oscar, sold by Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Saunders on behalf of its anonymous seller, carried a reserve price of between $600,000 and $1 million. Bids came in from around the world in what the auction house termed an "exciting" sale.

"This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus Citizen Kane," said Nate D. Saunders, owner of the auction house, in a statement.
The Oscar has a story worthy of a Hollywood movie in its own right. Welles had lost it, but it resurfaced after his 1985 death when it was put up for auction in 1994 by a cinematographer, who claimed Welles had given it to him as a form of payment.
Welles's daughter Beatrice sued and won back ownership of the statue, but she was sued in turn by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the awards, when she tried to auction it in 2003.
After a legal battle, Beatrice Welles was given the right to dispose of the Oscar. She sold it to a California non-profit organization called the Dax Foundation, who tried unsuccessfully to auction it in 2007.
In a bid to stop public sales, the Academy in 1950 introduced an agreement that banned winners from selling their Oscars to anyone but the Academy for the nominal sum of $1.
But several pre-1950s Oscars have gone under the hammer in recent years, including the best picture Oscar for the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind," which was sold for a record $1.54 million in 1999 to Michael Jackson.

"Citizen Kane," a 1942 drama about the ruthless pursuit of power, which Welles also directed and starred in, regularly tops U.S. and British lists of the greatest film of all time.

In a sign of how heated the memorabilia market has become, auctions of Elizabeth Taylor's collection of jewels, gown, art and memorabilia broke records last week on their way to totaling more than $150 million worth of live and online sales, Christie's said on Monday.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Paul Casciato)

Exclusive: Amazon weighed buying RIM but interest cooled

 A BlackBerry handset is displayed in Washington, December 15, 2011. REUTERS/Jonathan …

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd has turned down takeover overtures from Amazon.com Inc and other potential buyers because the BlackBerry maker prefers to fix its problems on its own, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Amazon hired an investment bank this summer to review a potential merger with RIM, but it did not make a formal offer, said one of the sources. It is not clear whether informal discussions between Amazon and RIM ever led to specific price talk, or who else had approached RIM about a takeover.

RIM's board wants co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie to focus on trying to turn around the business through the launch of new phones, better use of assets such as BlackBerry Messaging and restructuring, two sources said. They did not want to be identified as the discussions are private. RIM and Amazon declined to comment.

While RIM could strike technology licensing deals and other kinds of commercial partnerships to boost revenue, an outright sale or joint venture is not on the cards for now, they said.

"They have had approaches from folks who have wanted to have discussions," said one head of technology investment banking at a Wall Street bank. "The issue is it is hard to find a value that makes sense with a falling knife."

RIM's market value has plunged 77 percent in the last 12 months to about $6.8 billion following a series of disappointing quarterly reports, delayed phone launches, weak sales of the PlayBook tablet and other missteps. The shares tumbled last week on weaker-than-expected quarterly results and the announcement of a delay in the launch of the new BlackBerry 10 phones.

Activist shareholder Jaguar Financial Corp has called for a sale of RIM - as a whole or in separate parts, such as the handset business or the patent portfolio.

But RIM's management has told interested parties they do not want to sell or break up the company at this juncture, the sources told Reuters. After last week's news, the board instructed the co-CEOs to set aside any options for a sale, one person briefed on the situation said.

"Selling the company or an economic joint venture is probably not in the cards right now," said the source. "Until you stabilize the platform, people are going to be very nervous about spending $10 billion or more."

Some potential corporate and private equity suitors are holding out for RIM's valuation to fall further, people familiar with the matter said.

AMAZON, RIM STILL IN DISCUSSIONS

Amazon and RIM are still discussing ways to expand their commercial ties, which currently include a service launched last year to make Amazon's music catalog available to some BlackBerry users, according to the sources.

Amazon launched the Kindle Fire tablet in November, which, along with the content the company can package with it, is seen as a potentially formidable contender to Apple Inc's iPad and iTunes store. Amazon does not make smartphones.

As for RIM, it feels it could better "leverage" its assets, such as the BBM instant messaging and the network operation centers that allow for messages to be processed, the sources said.

RIM could also look at licensing out its QNX operating system after the late 2012 launch of BlackBerry 10, which will be the first smartphones using that software, to give handset makers an alternative to Google's Android operating system.

DISTRACTION

RIM's co-CEOs have spent months listening to ideas from a investment bankers, strategic parties and private equity firms. These discussions are now viewed as distracting for management, sources briefed on the situation said.

One of them said the board has backed both Lazaridis and Balsillie, but is of the view RIM needs to develop a "deeper bench" of executives.

Spurred by RIM's share drop and Google Inc's $12.5 billion bid for Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc in August, Wall Street bankers have tried to pitch RIM to other mobile phone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and HTC Corp, in recent months.

But HTC and Samsung already have licensing agreements with Google's Android and did not see the value in tying up with BlackBerry, people familiar with the companies said. Samsung and HTC declined to comment.

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York and Alastair Sharp in Toronto; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Paritosh Bansal and Andre Grenon)

Republicans under pressure over payroll tax cut

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans were under growing pressure on Wednesday to agree to a 60-day extension of an expiring payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and end a stand-off with Democrats that threatens to undercut a fragile economic recovery.

If the Congress cannot reach a deal by December 31, the payroll tax American workers pay to fund the Social Security federal retirement program will rise immediately to 6.2 percent, from 4.2 percent.

Many economists and the White House warn that U.S. economic growth will suffer in 2012 as most workers would be hit with an effective $1,000-a-year tax hike.

The Republican-led House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that had been passed overwhelmingly by their colleagues and Democrats in the Senate, and demanded fresh negotiations on the issue.

Senate Democrats, sensing they have a political advantage on the issue, are refusing to reopen negotiations and most have already left town for the holidays

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which has often disagreed vehemently with President Barack Obama's economic policies, gave Republicans a scathing critique of their handling of the payroll tax cut issue, saying they "achieved the small miracle of letting Mr. Obama position himself as an election-year tax cutter."

The editorial urged Republicans "to cut their losses and find a way to extend the payroll holiday quickly."
The Wall Street editorial page often gives insight into the thinking of the nation's leading conservatives in business and politics. Wednesday's editorial, headlined "The GOP's Payroll Tax Fiasco" suggests widespread anxiety among conservatives over the House Republican tactics.
A number of Republican senators have also blasted their House colleagues over their handling of the issue.

Republican Senator Scott Brown said: "House Republicans would rather continue playing politics than find solutions" and added that their actions would damage a fragile economy.

Veteran Republican Senator Charles Grassley, in an interview with Iowa radio station WHO, said, "I'm not going to argue with the House of Representatives, but do they want taxes to go up on January first or don't they?"

'GET SENATE MEMBERS OVER HERE'

But House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, and the No. 2 Republican in the House Eric Cantor, stood firm on Wednesday, demanding that Democrats re-enter negotiations to extend the payroll tax cut for a year.

"All we're asking for is to get the Senate members over here to work with us to resolve our differences so we can do what everybody wants to do: extend the payroll tax credit for the next year," Boehner told reporters.
The House Republican leaders argue that the two-month extension creates uncertainty for workers and employers and is unworkable.
The Republican stance on the one-year extension is an about-face from their original position on the issue. Just days ago, many House Republicans were speaking out against the extension and questioning its stimulative impact on the economy.
They softened their position after Republican leaders warned of a voter backlash in 2012 if the party was seen to be raising taxes on working Americans.
Cantor on Wednesday called on Obama to get directly involved in the talks to resolve the dispute. The president so far has preferred to keep his distance and instead has been using the bully pulpit of his office to press Republicans to agree to the Senate deal.
The showdown has the potential to deliver a political lift to Obama and his Democrats at the expense of Republicans who want to make 2012 a referendum on Obama's handling of the economy.
White House chief economist Alan Krueger warned that the U.S. economy would suffer if the payroll tax-cut is not extended.
"Many economists have boosted their forecasts of economic growth for next year on the assumption that the payroll tax cut and extended unemployment benefits will stay in effect," Krueger will say in a speech to be delivered in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday.
One business group, the International Franchise Association, on Tuesday said that a failure to extend the worker tax cut could jeopardize the creation of 168,000 new jobs in 2012.
With members ranging from restaurants and hotels to automobile service companies and health clubs, the association said its members' businesses are "deeply reliant on consumer spending." A slowdown in spending, it said, would ruin expansion plans.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Paul Eckert; Editing by Ross Colvin and Vicki Allen)

Government plans to cut solar subsidies "legally flawed"

LONDON (Reuters) - The government plans to cut to cut subsidies for solar panels on homes were ruled legally flawed by the High Court on Wednesday, the Press Association reported.

The decision was a victory for environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth (FoE) and two solar companies, Solar Century and HomeSun, who challenged the proposals and said they were creating "huge economic uncertainty."

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne wants to cut feed-in tariff subsidies (FITs) -- payments made to households and communities that generate green electricity through solar panels -- on any installations completed after December 12 this year.

But Mr Justice Mitting, sitting in London, said the minister was "proposing to make an unlawful decision."