European Stocks Retreat, Led by Rio Tinto; Asian Shares Advance

By Daniela Silberstein

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks declined, led by commodities producers as metals dropped and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended selling Rio Tinto Group and Norsk Hydro ASA. Asian shares rose, while U.S. index futures fluctuated.

Rio Tinto, the world’s third-biggest mining company, and Norsk Hydro, the fifth-largest aluminum producer, retreated more than 2 percent. Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. added 2.7 percent as people familiar with the matter said the U.S. will require Citigroup Inc. to raise private capital to strengthen the bank. Citigroup was little changed in Germany.

Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index fell for the fifth time in six days, decreasing 2 percent to 172.63 at 8:11 a.m. in London. The regional gauge has lost 13 percent this year as companies from Anglo American Plc to Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA posted disappointing result and the economic crisis in eastern Europe deepened.

The World Bank, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank will provide $31 billion over two years to bolster banks and businesses in central and eastern Europe, the Washington Post reported. The aid will come in the form of equity and debt financing, credit lines and political risk insurance, the newspaper said.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1 percent today, helping the regional gauge pare its worst start to a year since 1990, as brokerages upgraded technology companies and a weaker yen boosted Japanese exporters’ earnings prospects.

U.S. GDP

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fluctuated between gains and losses before a report that may show the economy shrank in the fourth quarter at a faster pace than previously estimated as companies trimmed inventories.

Rio Tinto slipped 2.9 percent to 1,819 pence, while Norsk Hydro slid 3 percent to 24.1 kroner. Goldman Sachs downgraded the shares to “sell” from “neutral,” citing a reduction in its base metals price forecasts. Copper, lead and nickel fell today.

The Obama administration will require Citigroup to raise private capital and make changes to its board of directors as part of an effort to strengthen the bank, according to people familiar with the matter.

The plan, which may be announced today, will involve the Treasury Department converting preferred shares into common stock. The government doesn’t immediately intend to provide additional money after channeling $45 billion to the bank last year, the people said. Citigroup added 2 cents to $2.48 in Germany.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Japan’s biggest bank, climbed 2.7 percent to 454 yen, rallying from an earlier drop of 1.1 percent. Westpac Banking Corp., Australia’s largest bank by value, gained 1.4 percent to A$16.89.

Lloyds Earnings

Lloyds Banking Group Plc slipped 11 percent to 66.4 pence. The lender’s full-year net income dropped 75 percent to 819 million pounds ($1.2 billion). Lloyds’ HBOS unit posted a 7.5 billion-pound loss for 2008 after bad loans at the bank’s corporate lending arm increased.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 has tumbled 53 percent since the start of last year as credit-related losses at financial firms worldwide climbed to $1.1 trillion and Europe, the U.S. and Japan fell into the first simultaneous recessions since World War II.

Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany wants the European Union to arrange a package of as much as 180 billion euros ($230 billion) to help east European economies, banks and companies weather the financial crisis.

A “European Stabilization and Integration Program” would include short-term financing for governments, coordinated restructuring for private debt, the recapitalization of banks and liquidity for companies in as many as 12 countries, Gyurcsany, 47, said in an interview in Budapest yesterday. He will present the plan at a March 1 EU summit in Brussels.

Hungary’s Budapest Stock Exchange Index dropped 0.6 percent today, while Poland’s WIG20 Index declined 0.3 percent.

Source www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJyRkERf91hA&refer=home#

Sunny Bay Station

The MTR Disneyland Resort Line, which comprises two stations, viz. Sunny Bay Station and Disneyland Resort Station and whimsical Disney-themed trains, are exclusively designed by the MTR Corporation in conjunction with Disney's Imagineers and is the very first dedicated train line for a Disney theme park anywhere in the world. The Line takes visitors on a journey through time from Hong Kong's modern MTR network to the Victorian-themed Disneyland Resort Station. The 3.5-minute train journey is not to be missed for Hong Kong Disneyland guests wishing to enjoy the full theme park experience. It will be a ride to enjoy and remember.

To get there :
Passengers taking MTR can reach Sunny Bay Station from any stations of the MTR system. After arriving at the Station, passengers take only a short walk across the platform to begin their magical journey to Disneyland Resort Station which is just in front of Hong Kong Disneyland.

Opening hours : Around 6:00am to 1:00am

Online Encyclopedia Wikipedia Transforms Research

San Francisco — The world’s largest and most popular online encyclopedia is changing the way knowledge is disseminated and used, but not without objections.

Wikipedia, launched in 2001, ranks among the top 10 most-frequented sites and boasts more than 13 million articles in 250 languages as of September.

Jay Walsh, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s parent organization, said the online reference source owes its success to the fact that it is the first living encyclopedia. Its content is in constant flux as anonymous volunteers write new articles and edit, often repeatedly, many of the existing ones. Some topical articles are updated in nearly real time, often by hundreds of people, to reflect ongoing developments. That is why many new entries related to the 2008 U.S. elections met with great interest immediately after they had been posted, according to Walsh.

He said not-for-profit organizations were among the first to see the benefits of the online encyclopedia. Being able to educate themselves quickly about a variety of issues and locations, “has changed the way they tactically approach different issues and situations,” he said.

Wikipedia also is sneaking into mainstream media and college classrooms. Some argue that the sheer magnitude of information, its accessibility and frequent updates make it potentially useful to journalists and students who work under time pressure.

However, most newspapers and magazines and many universities have kept their distance from the encyclopedia; they ban attributions to it or citations from it because they consider it unreliable. Phillip Blanchard, a Washington Post copy editor, calls it “junk.” But other editors and writers use it as a source guide or a road map to more reliable sources.

Wikipedia itself acknowledges that its articles are not always complete or accurate, although, it says, it constantly works to increase the accuracy of information, prevent editorial vandalism and delete the least-trusted entries.

Walsh said that Wikipedia has some ground rules. It excludes original research and depends instead on reliable published sources, and its articles must present a neutral point of view. Those principles have been vigorously enforced by contributors and registered editors, who correct or remove errors from articles sometimes within hours of their publication, he said.

College students have been much quicker to embrace Wikipedia than have journalists. But many professors refuse to allow students to cite it in their papers.

Sharman Lichtenstein, an associate professor at Deakin University in Australia, told the online magazine Techworld Australia that the reliance by students on Wikipedia as a primary source for research is “crowding out” valuable knowledge and creating a generation unable to source views of “credible experts.”

But Wikipedia has found defenders in academia. For example, some Harvard professors and teaching fellows incorporate it into their syllabi. They argue that some Wikipedia articles are extremely useful, according to the Harvard Crimson, a Harvard University daily publication.

Scholars who distrust Wikipedia often say it is because the site is error-prone and devalues the notion of expertise by relying on “amateurs.”

But that perception may not be entirely true. A 2005 study by the science journal Nature concluded that Wikipedia, at that time, came close to the Encyclopedia Britannica in the accuracy of its science entries. And the late Roy Rosenzweig, who was a history professor at George Mason University, found that Wikipedia’s coverage of history was almost as factually accurate as Microsoft Corporation’s commercial online encyclopedia, Encarta.

Cathy Davidson, a professor at Duke University, cited in a 2008 American Journalism Review article, suggests that the media and academia distrust Wikipedia because they have not yet figured out how to use the Internet to their advantage.

Walsh said that Wikipedia has been trying to encourage scholars to contribute to the encyclopedia to improve its quality, an effort that so far has not produced many recruits. Scholars who hone their expertise do not have much time for writing for an encyclopedia that does not bring them recognition, he said. And experts who contribute to Wikipedia often do not advertise themselves as experts, he added.

Leaders of Wikipedia want to preserve the unique, democratic character of the encyclopedia to which anyone — expert or not — can contribute. Wikipedia welcomes more professors, as long as they do not denigrate other contributors, Jimmy Wales, the online encyclopedia’s co-founder, told the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Two other online encyclopedias compete directly with Wikipedia — Citizendium, started by Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia, and Knol, launched by Google. Both rely on experts and expert editors rather than knowledgeable enthusiasts.

But Wikipedians, as contributors to Wikipedia call themselves, believe that the strength of an encyclopedia derives from its reliance on the knowledge of many rather than that of a selected few. And they may be right, says Gregory Crane, editor-in-chief of the Perseus Digital Library at Tufts University. In a 2005 article, he said the Oxford English Dictionary was written over a period of 70 years by thousands of people, including “an inmate at an asylum for [the] criminally insane.”

Obama picks New Hampshire senator as Commerce chief

Judd Gregg described as "extraordinary," President Obama named the New Hampshire Republican as his nominee for secretary of Commerce, rounding out his economic team and filling one of the last vacancies in the Cabinet.

"He's seen from all angles what makes our economy work for communities, businesses and families -- and what keeps it from working better," Obama said in his remarks Tuesday morning. Obama went on to praise his nominee for his fiscal conservatism and for "reaching across the aisle to get things done." Gregg will be the third Republican addition to the Cabinet, following Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Gregg served four terms in the House and two as New Hampshire's governor before running for Senate in 1992. He currently sits on the Commerce Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, a point Obama made during his introductory remarks.

Gregg spoke sharply about Obama during the campaign but Tuesday called the president's economic plan "bold and aggressive, comprehensive and effective." As the Commerce Department's "steward," Obama said, Gregg will "defy the winds of this crisis" by guiding his team to rebuild infrastructure, create jobs, promote industry and retain U.S. leadership in science and technology developments.

The nomination of the 61-year-old senior senator comes almost a month after the original nominee, Gov. Bill Richardson (D) of New Mexico, bowed out, citing a pending investigation into his administration's possible involvement with lucrative contracts to a political donor.

The news of Gregg's potential nomination had Democrats exulting over a chance to add another Senate seat to their caucus, giving them a supermajority there if they are officially awarded the disputed Minnesota contest. But Gregg proved unwilling to give up the seat if it would tip the Senate's balance further in the Democrats' favor. "I have made it clear to the Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle and to the governor that I would not leave the Senate if I felt my departure would cause a change in the makeup of the Senate," he said earlier this week.

In his acceptance comments Tuesday, Gregg thanked New Hampshire's Gov. John Lynch (D) for "courtesy and courage in being willing to make this possible" by agreeing to appoint a Republican as Gregg's Senate successor.

Sure of the Senate balance remaining stable, Gregg turned to bipartisanship appeals in his final remarks. "This is not a time when we should stand in our ideological corners and shout at each other. This is a time to govern and govern well," he said, accepting the nomination. "It was my obligation to say yes."