Portrait of doomed love conquers British public's hearts

LONDON (Reuters) - "The Lady of Shalott", a painting by John William Waterhouse of a young woman lamenting unrequited love, has been chosen as the British public's favorite artwork, soon to be displayed among other masterpieces across the nation's billboards. The public's top choice illustrates a section of a poem with the same name by British writer Alfred Lord Tennyson, which describes the Lady of Shalott sitting in a boat "like some bold seer in a trance".In second place came John Everett Millais's "Ophelia", depicting the tragic character from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" floating down a river before she drowns.Francis Bacon's 1949 "Head VI" followed in third place, an unsettling painting based on a 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent IX by Spanish painter Diego Velazquez.The list was compiled based on 30,000 "likes" on Facebook from the public, who voted for their favorite pieces of British art as part of the "Art Everywhere" project.Reproductions of the top 57 pieces will be splashed across 22,000 poster sites in cities, towns and villages across Britain from 12-25 August."Art is for everyone, and everyone who has access to it will benefit from it. This project is amazing and gives the public a voice and an opportunity to choose what they want to see on their streets," Damien Hirst, one of Britain's most commercially successful artists, said in a statement from Art Everywhere.Ninety percent of British adults are expected to see the pieces on show, according to the project's website.Hirst's "Paradaxin", a painting of equally spaced multi-colored dots on a white background, came 48th out of the 57 paintings chosen.The event was inaugurated on Thursday by British painter Peter Blake, who unveiled a poster of his work "The Meeting or Have a Nice Day Mr Hockney" on a giant shopping-center billboard in west London.The display aims to "bring the project to the people", seeking "as far a reach as possible," Art Everywhere press officer Elizabeth Flanagan told Reuters. The posters will be seen in spots as diverse as taxis and escalators, car parks and supermarkets."This is a joyful celebration with no agenda other than to flood our streets with art and celebrate the creative talents and legacy of this amazing country," Richard Reed, who initiated the idea and is co-founder of the "Innocent Drinks" fruit beverage company, said. Innocent is owned by U.S.-based beverage company Coca-Cola.Reed is collaborating with the Tate gallery, which houses the national collection of British art, art fundraisers The Art Fund and the British poster industry.The public partly paid for the project with 30,000 pounds ($46,600) crowd-funded through the Art Everywhere website, where people were encouraged to donate three pounds to purchase the paper and printing required for a poster site."It's a fantastic project and to see my work reproduced on posters across the UK is fulfilling a long-held fantasy!," Cornelia Parker, the only living artist whose work made the top 10, said in a statement on the Art Everywhere website.(Reporting By Amritha John; Editing by Michael Roddy)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

Steadier China economy offers iron ore hope, but caution stays

SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A rally in iron ore prices to five-month highs has spurred optimism a stabilizing economy may help top buyer China absorb rising global supply, prompting some analysts and traders to raise their estimates for the second half of the year. But other forecasters stuck to their price projections, convinced the recent upturn would be short-lived and could quickly falter if Chinese steel demand fizzles out during an anticipated peak season that starts next month.Still, a rosier outlook suggests that the second-biggest shipped commodity after oil will remain a boon to top miners Vale SA (VALE5.SA), Rio Tinto (RIO.AX)(RIO.L) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)BHP.L, although prices remain well below record highs near $200 a tonne (1.1023 ton) reached in 2011.Surprisingly upbeat Chinese trade and factory output data last week pointed to a stabilizing economy after more than two years of slower growth, fuelling hopes steel demand, which has been firm at the start of the second half of the year, could strengthen further."We see stronger-than-expected iron ore demand in the second half since mills have to replenish supplies after destocking in the first half," said Graeme Train, a commodity analyst with Macquarie in Shanghai. "Stronger steel demand will support ore."Train sees iron ore at around $125 to $130 a tonne in the second half, up from a previous forecast of $120, with the possibility of even stronger prices in the fourth quarter.Heavy restocking by Chinese steel mills has boosted spot iron ore prices .IO62-CNI=SI by 29 percent from the year's low at end-May to hit $142.80 a tonne last week, its loftiest since mid-March. The price stood at $139.20 on Monday.Before the rally, analysts polled by Reuters on July 4 had expected prices to fall to an average $116 a tonne in the second half, from $136.70 in January-June.Standard Chartered has also lifted its third-quarter price forecast, to $130 a tonne from its July estimate of $112, and upped its average full-year projection to $133 from $128. Commonwealth Bank of Australia sees upside risk to its forecast third-quarter price of $119 a tonne.Two traders at big trading houses said they see iron ore averaging about $130 a tonne in the second half of the year."Underlying steel demand remains resilient," said an iron ore trader in Shanghai. "As long as the economy continues its recovery and Beijing ramps up infrastructure investment, steel production will grow strongly."MINOR UPSIDEIncreased steel orders, mainly from the property sector, have encouraged Chinese mills to keep production high.Floor space for newly started construction projects jumped 8.4 percent in January to July from a year earlier, compared with a 3.8 percent rise in the first six months and a decline in the first quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.Beijing's plan to boost investment in urban infrastructure and railways is also pushing steelmakers to keep output high.China's crude steel output could rise by 64 million tonnes, or 9 percent, to a record 780 million tonnes this year, the state economic planning agency said earlier this month.That increase in steel output translates to nearly 100 million tonnes of additional iron ore demand, outpacing analysts' estimated increase in global seaborne iron ore supply of 48 million to 65 million tonnes this year.But other analysts see the rally as fleeting.CLSA commodity strategist Ian Roper said the jump in prices only adds "a bit of upside" to the second-half price average, and sees it as a short-term bounce driven by stronger steel orders and the fact that the expected supply increase hasn't come through yet.Roper sees iron ore averaging $115 a tonne in July-December, and falling to $95 in 2014.Standard Bank analyst Melinda Moore has similarly maintained her price forecasts at $113 and $108 for the third and fourth quarters, respectively.Mills are rebuilding iron ore stockpiles ahead of the peak steel consumption season in September and October. If demand is slower than expected during the peak period, mills could be left with high inventories, putting pressure on steel and ore prices.(Additional reporting by Silvia Antonioli in LONDON and Fayen Wong in SHANHGAI; Editing by Richard Pullin and Simon Webb)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

Victorian woman photographer Cameron celebrated at NY museum show

NEW YORK (Reuters) - With a camera meant to amuse her in her solitude and some famous friends, Julia Margaret Cameron managed to forge a body of work focused on Victorian portraiture that is still celebrated a century and a half later. "She was one of the greatest portraitists in photography, and one of the great portraitists in any medium," said Malcolm Daniel, curator of a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which features 35 pristine 19th-century photographs.Cameron, who was British and died in 1879, was "eccentric in manner, spiritual in sensibility and unconventional in technique," Daniel told Reuters on Monday before the opening of the show, which runs through January 5."She was not really interested in the documentation of how people looked. It was about finding the inner spirit and soul of a person," said Daniel, senior curator at the Met's Department of Photographs.As such, he added, the pioneering photographer's work has seen "waves of popularity and dismissal" for generations, with Cameron's soft focus, long-exposure works deemed variously "treacly, or celebrated as an artist."For her part, Cameron dismissed documentary portraiture as "map-making and skeletal rendering of feature and form."Cameron received a camera as a Christmas gift in 1863 from her daughter with the idea that "it might amuse you, mother, to try to photograph during your solitude."With no training in art, she eschewed professional models, instead shooting friends, family, neighbors and household staff.Her friends were not just ordinary folk - among them were the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, a neighbor on the Isle of Wight, and the Victorian scientist and mathematician Sir John Herschel, each of whom is represented by several portraits from 1865-66.Cameron's oeuvre comprised three bodies of work: portraits of great men, such as the philosopher Thomas Carlyle, women such as nieces or maids who often posed as literary or historical figures like Sappho, and staged, costumed tableaux featuring Shakespearean, Biblical or Arthurian themes.For the tableaux, Cameron, who shot in natural light, often looked no further than her own home, with her husband posing as King Lear or Merlin the magician. The latter was for a project request by Tennyson himself, who needed illustrations for a new edition of his tome, "Idylls of the Kings."Another frequent subject was Alice Liddell - the muse of "Alice in Wonderland" author Lewis Carroll, who posed for Cameron a dozen times in 1872 alone, including for the portrait "Pomona" which is among those in the exhibit.More than 1,200 images survive by Cameron, who largely stepped away from photography after moving back to Ceylon in 1875.They all have one thing in common: Cameron never appears in any of them, never once having shot a self-portrait.(Editing by Mary Milliken and Christopher Wilson)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

BHP delays $14 billion Canada potash push as profit drops

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - BHP Billiton's new chief has put his stamp on the top global miner, mapping out a cautious approach to expanding into the potash market, which it sees as its next big growth business beyond 2020. CEO Andrew Mackenzie outlined the low-risk course as he handed down his first results, reporting a 15 percent drop in half-year profit before one-offs, which missed forecasts largely due to Australian mining tax adjustments and other non-operational items.BHP and Glencore Xstrata wrapped up the results season for the world's big five miners, with BHP holding up slightly better than its peers as it stepped up output of iron ore, copper, coal and oil and slashed $2.7 billion in costs in the face of sliding commodity prices.Major miners have come under pressure to rein in spending, sell off underperforming assets and tackle debt after years of rampant spending on new mines and acquisitions as commodity prices soared.Reflecting the austerity drive, BHP said it plans to invest $2.6 billion over the next four years digging shafts at the Jansen potash project, delaying production at least until 2020 from its original 2015 target, while inviting offers for stakes in the mine."The whole basis of the strategy that we're being clear about today is that we want to retain complete flexibility to enter the market at a timing which we think is right to maximize returns for our sharheolders," Mackenzie told reporters.BHP put more than $40 billion worth of new projects on ice a year ago to combat costs that had grown out of control over the previous decade as miners raced to feed booming Chinese demand.Mackenzie reiterated that BHP remains confident in China's long-term growth prospects, as 250 million people move into cities and the country rebalances its economy toward consumption-led growth."In the short to medium term, I think the signs are reasonably positive that they'll hold to their forecast for 7-8 percent annual growth," he said.He outlined a more aggressive cut in capital and exploration spending than recently flagged, with spending to fall 26 percent to $16.2 billion in the 2014 financial year.Attributable profit excluding one-offs fell to $6.12 billion for the six months to June from $7.18 billion a year ago. That was well below analysts' forecasts of $7.16 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.BHP increased its final dividend by 2 cents to 59 cents, just short of analysts' forecasts at 60 cents.BHP's shares fell 3.2 percent in early London trade, underperforming a 0.8 percent fall in the FTSE 100 index."We believe that the market may be surprised that the group is pushing ahead with its Jansen potash project in Canada," Investec said in a morning note in London.POTASH PLANSBHP has long planned to break into the potash industry, targeting a lucrative new business that has been controlled by two cartels, as developing countries look to grow more food over the next few decades.It has already invested $1.2 billion in Jansen and the timing of its entry has been closely watched by the world's major producers, led by Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, which BHP tried to take over in 2010.Its $39 billion bid was blocked by Canada on fears that potash prices and royalties would drop as BHP planned to split from the North American cartel. Now Russia's Uralkali has given potash producers a taste of what could happen as it recently quit the Belarusian Potash Co cartel.Mackenzie said once Jansen's shafts and infrastructure are in place, the mine would be about three years away from production, but the company would decide on when to begin producing based on the market and its ability to fund further development.BHP believes the project will generate returns well above the company's average returns over many decades, he said."As long as we get the timing right, we're not overly aggressive, we think those returns are there," Mackenzie said.(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

Deutsche Wohnen makes $2.3 billion bet on Berlin property with GSW bid

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Wohnen (DWNG.DE) offered to buy rival residential landlord GSW Immobilien (GIBG.DE) for 1.8 billion euros ($2.3 billion) to expand in Berlin's booming rental market and tap nascent interest from international investors. The all-share deal would push an enlarged Deutsche Wohnen closer to the top five European real estate firms by market value, such as British Land (BLND.L) and domestic rival Land Securities (LAND.L), giving it easier access to funding from investors across the continent.Deutsche Wohnen said on Tuesday it plans to finance the bid for GSW by issuing as many as 135 million new shares, more than four-fifths of its existing share capital.The acquisition would be Germany's second-biggest residential real estate deal since Whitehall bought LEG Immobilien (LEGn.DE) for 3.4 billion euros in 2008.Deutsche Wohnen said it would offer 51 of its shares for every 20 shares in GSW, which would give GSW investors a stake of around 43 percent in the enlarged company.The offer represents a 15 percent premium to GSW's three-month volume-weighted average share price and the company's net asset value (NAV), making it more expensive than other recent residential real estate deals.Patrizia Immobilien (P1ZGn.DE) paid a 7 percent discount to NAV when it bought most of GBW in April and property firms LEG Immobilien and Deutsche Annington (ANNGn.DE) both joined the stock market at a discount this year.Still, analysts said GSW was worth the price for Deutsche Wohnen because 72 percent of its portfolio would be in Berlin following the takeover, up from 54 percent, bringing economies of scale.Some 85 percent of Berlin's population rents rather than owns - compared with a nationwide ownership rate of 46 percent - making it an attractive investment for landlords, Close Brothers Seydler analyst Manuel Martin said.GSW, whose chairman and chief executive were forced out by a shareholder rebellion last month, said it would study the offer before deciding how to proceed.The ouster of the two executives followed a campaign led by Dutch pension fund PGGM, which said Chief Executive Bernd Kottmann lacked experience in managing residential real estate.SURGING RENTSIn a sign that European property is beginning to attract investors after a downturn that hammered property values, Blackstone (BX.N) - one of the world's biggest private equity firms - is seeking to raise up to $5 billion for a new fund, a source familiar with the matter said.Last week, data showed the euro zone was emerging from a 1-1/2 year recession, with the economies of both Germany and France expanding faster than expected.The GSW deal would increase Deutsche Wohnen's portfolio of flats by around 63 percent to more than 147,000 and give it a 6.5 percent share of Berlin's rental market. Rents in the capital surged 40 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to research institute Empirica.It would also push Deutsche Wohnen into the No.2 spot in Germany behind Deutsche Annington (ANNGn.DE), the country's largest real estate firm with 179,000 apartments.Shares in GSW were up 6.3 percent at 33.44 euros at 1117 ET, while Deutsche Wohnen was down 4.7 percent at 13.495 euros.Deutsche Wohnen, which has net debt of 3 billion euros, would take on 1.8 billion in debt from GSW.Deutsche Wohnen needs support for the deal from 75 percent of GSW's shareholders, which it expects to get because two-fifths of GSW shareholders also own shares in Deutsche Wohnen.Deutsche Wohnen also has to get backing for the capital increase from its shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting on September 30.(Additional reporting by Christiaan Hetzner and Brenda Goh; Editing by Noah Barkin and Erica Billingham)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

Ally to raise capital, buy back stock from U.S.

(Reuters) - Ally Financial Inc has sold $1 billion of stock in a private placement and will repay the U.S. government nearly $6 billion as the auto lender works to boost its capital levels and exit government ownership. With the transactions, Ally will have repaid the Treasury about $12.1 billion of the $17.2 billion it received during the financial crisis under the Troubled Asset Relief Program."Ally has made great progress in restructuring and strengthening its business in order to repay the taxpayer, and we look forward to continuing to work with the company to recover the remaining investment," Assistant Treasury Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad said in a statement.The company entered agreements with investors for a private placement of 166,667 shares of the company's common stock for $1 billion. An Ally spokeswoman declined to disclose the investors' identity but said they were a diverse group of existing and new shareholders.Ally agreed to pay $5.2 billion to repurchase outstanding preferred securities held by the U.S. Treasury. The car loan company also paid $725 million to terminate the Treasury's right to receive extra payments if the company sells shares below a particular price, a term the company and the government had previously agreed to in 2010 when the U.S. converted some of its preferred Ally shares into common stock.The lender was singled out as the weakest of 18 major banks in the Federal Reserve's stress test in March as being the most weakly capitalized. The Fed objected to Ally's capital plan "both on quantitative and qualitative grounds," and it was the only bank that failed to meet the minimum threshold of a 5 percent capital buffer in a scenario where unemployment rose to 12.1 percent and share prices fell 50 percent.The private placement must take place before November 30, and both that and transactions with the U.S. Treasury is contingent on the Federal Reserve approval of the bank's resubmitted capital plan. Ally has to resubmit its new capital plan by the end of September.Ally reported a net loss of $927 million in the second quarter, driven by a $1.6 billion charge related to a settlement in the bankruptcy case of its subsidiary Residential Capital LLC.(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair and Aman Shah; editing by Andrew Hay)

This article is taken from Reuters.com

Which are the world's friendliest and unfriendliest cities?

Editor's note: "The City" is a CNN special series that profiles the sustainable urban future of five cities over five days. Watch the show every day during our special theme week starting Monday, Aug 19 on "World Business Today" at 1300 GMT and "Connect The World" at 2000 GMT.

(CNN) -- The United States, land of freedom and opportunity, is also the land of scowling faces and folded arms, according to a new poll.

Travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler has unveiled the results of its annual readers' choice survey.

More than 46,000 readers gave their opinions last year on everything from favorite airlines to best hotels and friendliest and unfriendliest cities.

It's the latter category that might cause the most surprises, with U.S. cities dominating the "unfriendly" list.

Newark, New Jersey, is the unfriendliest city in the world according to the survey.

5. Charleston, South Carolina Score: 91.5 The only U.S. city that made it into the top 10 friendliest cities. Charleston took first place in a previous poll to find the friendliest cities in the United States.

4. Queenstown, New Zealand Score: 91.8 "Excellent outdoor vibe," "down-to-earth, nice people," "a feast for the eyes and the palate" and "a tranquil and peaceful town," were some of the comments from Conde Nast Traveler's pollees. New Zealand hasn't had as much love since the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

3. Thimpu, Bhutan Score: 93.7 It's hard to score low when your king has such a charming smile and there's a national policy in place to promote "gross national happiness."

2. Hobart, Tasmania Score: 95.4 "The most beautiful country and people," one reader said.

1. Florianopolis, Brazil Score: 95.8 The city was highly regarded for its friendly locals and fabulous scenery. "The area was stunningly beautiful," said one respondent.

5. Kuwait City, Kuwait Score: 25.4 The travel magazine quoted one reader in the survey: "I typically avoid travel to Kuwait unless there's no other choice. One of the most unfriendly places in the Middle East."

4. Luanda, Angola Score: 25 The city has "construction everywhere with signs of basic poverty next to enormous wealth," according to one reader.

3. Oakland, California Score: 23.1 Readers of Corde Nast described Oakland as having a split personality. It's "growing very hip" but it's also unfriendly and dirty, readers claimed.

2. Islamabad, Pakistan Score: 17.9 Despite its low rating as a friendly city, the readers' reviews of Islamabad were not all negative. Readers said the city has a "peaceful green and soothing environment."

1. Newark, New Jersey Score: 13.4 Unhappy fliers could be the reason for this exceptionally low score. "I visited Newark on business and would not recommend this city for anything, except a cheaper/less busy airport to fly into while visiting other cities," Corde Nast quoted one reader.

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U.S. cities rule 'unfriendliest cities' list

"Newark is best known for being the site of an airport near New York, and for many of our readers, that's the only reason to stop there," says Conde Nast Traveler.

In total, five U.S. cities were voted into the top 10 unfriendly cities list and eight made the top 20.

Oakland, California (third), "has an image problem and a split personality" according to a reader who answered the survey.

New Haven, Connecticut (seventh), home of Yale University, is the city of "rude, unfriendly folks;" Detroit (eighth) was called the "armpit of the world" by one reader and Atlantic City, New Jersey (ninth), was dismissed as a "pale shadow of Las Vegas."

Other cities in the list include Islamabad in Pakistan (second least friendly), Luanda in Angola (fourth), Kuwait City (fifth) Lome in Togo (sixth) and Tangier in Morocco (tenth).

What do you think? Tell us about your own friendly or unfriendly travel experiences in the comments section below.

Conde Nast Traveler stresses that its rankings are inspired by factors including location, political perception, size and language barriers, and don't necessarily correspond to rude behavior of locals.

But enough badmouthing.

The survey also announces the friendliest cities in the world.

Florianopolis, the island city in Brazil, is the world's friendliest city according to the poll.

Hobart in Tasmania followed in second place and Thimpu in Bhutan wrapped up the top three.

One U.S. city made it into the top 10 friendliest cities -- Charleston, South Carolina.

Standing fifth in the global list, Charleston was also voted the friendliest city in the United States in a previous poll.

The world's unfriendliest cities

20. Caracas, Venezuela

19. Bethlehem, Palestine

18. Casablanca, Morocco

17. Wilmington, Delaware

16. Moscow

15. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

14. Shenzhen, China

13. Albany, New York

12. Los Angeles

11. Guangzhou, China

10. Tangier, Morocco

9. Atlantic City, New Jersey

8. Detroit

7. New Haven, Connecticut

6. Lome, Togo

5. Kuwait City

4. Luanda, Angola

3. Oakland, California

2. Islamabad, Pakistan

1. Newark, New Jersey

The world's friendliest cities

20. Cork, Ireland

20. Asheville, North Carolina

18. Edinburgh, Scotland

16.Savannah, Georgia

16. Auckland, New Zealand

14. Victoria, British Columbia

14. Galena, Illinois

13. Dublin, Ireland

12. Christchurch, New Zealand

11. Chiang Mai, Thailand

9. Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

9. Kilkenny, Ireland

8. Mandalay, Myanmar

6. Margaret River, Australia

6. Paro, Bhutan

5. Charleston, South Carolina

4. Queenstown, New Zealand

3. Thimpu, Bhutan

2. Hobart, Tasmania

1. Florianopolis, Brazil

Also on CNN: 20 biggest travel mistakes

This article is taken from CNN.com