LONDON Feb 29 (Reuters) – The euro zone may soon
witness the “green shoots” of economic revival, Ewald Nowotny, a
member of the European Central Bank’s governing council, said in
a newspaper interview published on Wednesday.

Nowotny told the Times there was a prevailing optimism in
the region, helped by progress in the government debts of Italy
and improvements in monthly economic indicators.

“From the demand side we see improvements in most parts of
Europe,” Nowotny was quoted as saying.

“There is a more optimistic perspective now. There is some
talk about green shoots,” he said.

Nowotny, who is also the governor of the Austrian central
bank, was speaking while on a visit to London ahead of the ECB’s
second Longer Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) on Wednesday.

The ECB has injected almost half a trillion euros in cheap
three-year loans into the euro zone banking system and is
expected to lend a similar amount at its second such tender,
known as an LTRO, on Wednesday.

He said the first round of LTRO had been a success and
expects similar results following Wednesday’s instalment, but
warned previous gains would “not mean there should automatically
be a third round”.

Nowotny also warned the long-term structural effects of
emergency cash injections into the banking sector had to be
taken into account.

He said the region has “some specific problems of what’s
called addicted banks, and these have to be solved”.

One of the most complex and divided countries in the region, Lebanon has been on the fringes, and at times at the heart, of the Middle East conflict surrounding the creation of Israel.

Government structures are divided between the various groups. Lebanon has also seen several large influxes of Palestinian refugees, most of whom have limited legal status.

The UN has demanded the dismantling of all armed groups in Lebanon, including Palestinian militias and the military wing of Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon.

When Hezbollah militia seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid in July 2006, Israel responded with a 34-day military offensive and a blockade. Around 1,000 Lebanese, most of them civilians, were killed. The damage to civilian infrastructure was wide-ranging.

International peacekeepers were drafted in to help police a UN-brokered ceasefire. But Hezbollah's leader has rejected calls for the movement to disarm and political divisions in Beirut cloud the issue of what should be done about the group's military presence in the south.

With its high literacy rate and traditional mercantile culture, Lebanon has traditionally been an important commercial hub for the Middle East.

Story By: by Mike Pesca

The long-gone TV show The Superstars aired on ABC in the 70s and 80s, and was a kind of made-for-TV decathlon. it featured all kinds of athletes competing against each other. Olympians often fared well in the competition.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some people devote their lives to ending world hunger, some to lifting children from poverty, and still others to getting Leap Day the respect it deserves.

The cause may seem frivolous but it is not the least bit trivial to leapers, those born on February 29, a date that appears on calendars once every four or sometimes eight years.

Leapers face a range of troubles over their birthdays, from computer snafus to police suspicion during traffic stops to hearing about delivery room negotiations to alter their birth certificate to a day earlier or a day later.

“I’ve had people tell me to my face, ‘Who cares?’” said Raenell Dawn, who with Peter Brouwer in 1997 created The Honor Society for Leap Year Day Babies. The online club for people born on February 29 boasts more than 9,000 members.

“I’ll tell you who cares. One in 1,461 of us do,” Dawn said, citing the chance to be born on Leap Day. There are just over 200,000 leapers in the United States and just under 5 million worldwide, she said.

Lest non-leapers dismiss leapers’ complaints, leapers point out that salaried employees are working for free this February 29 since paychecks are based on a 365-day year.

February 29 is not recognized by some computer services and software programs that power everything from banking to life insurance, Brouwer said.

“Leap year deniers claim February 29 is an invalid date,” said Brouwer, who said he was told by Crown Life Insurance Co. that March 1 had to be listed on his policy because the company’s computer system balked at his February 29 birthday.

EIGHT LONG YEARS

Leap Day has tripped up Google, whose Blogger program will not allow existing users born on February 29 to update their profiles, an annoyance to leapers who use social media. A Google spokesman said the company plans to fix the glitch.

Leap years occur every four years, except those ending in double zeros, such as 1900 and 2100, said Geoff Chester, a spokesman for the United States Naval Observatory.

To confuse matters, there is an exception to that exception: Years ending in double zeros that can be evenly divided by 400, such as 1600 and 2000, are in fact leap years.

Microsoft’s Excel, the world’s most popular spreadsheet, doesn’t realize that 1900 was not a leap year and as a result myriad other companies’ programs, in order to be compatible, have had to put the error in their code. Microsoft has no plans to correct the mistake because “fixing it now would cause greater impact to customers,” a company spokeswoman said.

Because there is no leap year in 2100, anyone born this February 29 who lives a long life will have no birthday from 2096 to 2104.

“Eight years is a long time not to have a birthday,” Brouwer said in an email statement illustrated by a sad-faced emoticon.

These mathematical gymnastics have been executed since about 44 B.C., when Julius Caesar instituted the leap year system to correct a defect in the calendar that would otherwise put the seasons out of sync, said Chester, whose great-grandfather Rear Admiral Colby Chester was born on February 29, 1844.

SWEET 16 AT AGE 64

Because of their quadrennial birthdate, leapers have been known to invite people to their Sweet 16 party to mark their 64th year, Brouwer said.

“It’s my 20th birthday but I’m going to be 80 years old,” said Mary Ann Brown, born February 29, 1932. She is founder of the Worldwide Leap Year Festival, held every fourth year since 1988 in Anthony, a town straddling the border of New Mexico and Texas.

Dawn and Brouwer’s activism to right Leap Day wrongs has included lobbying calendar companies to mark it as a notable day, like New Year’s, and prodding Facebook to clear the block on February 29 as a birthdate on its user profile pages.

Facebook complied, but the calendar effort has so far been largely unsuccessful, they said.

“We’re not curing cancer or stopping world wars but it still is a significant thing that needs to be addressed. It does affect the whole world,” Dawn said.

For most people, February 29 is a quirky extra day to enjoy life but for at least one person it’s Doomsday. Arizona death row inmate Robert Henry Moormann, 63, is scheduled to be executed on Leap Day for beating, stabbing and strangling his adoptive mother and dismembering her body during a “compassionate furlough” from prison to visit her in 1984.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

Story By: by Bob Boilen

“All the Rowboats” will appear on Regina Spektor’s upcoming album, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats.

We last heard new music from Regina Spektor in 2009, but that freeze is about to thaw. According to her label, Sire, a new album called What We Saw From The Cheap Seats is scheduled for a late spring release. Tomorrow you’ll be able to buy a song from the album called “All The Rowboats,” but you can listen to it right now.

The song gives life to great works of art trapped in museums, in a way only Regina Spektor can do it: “it’s their own fault, for being timeless,” she exclaims. Like all the songs on the new album, Spektor wrote “All The Rowboats” herself and recorded it with producer Mike Elizondo over this past summer. Solo piano is again the basis for the songs, but “All The Rowboats gets big — especially the percussion. Elizondo, who also worked on Spektor’s last record, Far, has produced for a wide variety of artists including Fiona Apple, Dr. Dre, Mastodon and Carrie Underwood.

In addition to the new album, Spektor will release seven-inch record with covers of two Russian songs, “The Prayer of Francois Villon” and “Old Jacket,” for Record Store Day, on April 21. Starting in April, she’ll also tour arenas with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

Highlighting its commitment to celebrating employee business performance, Audi Middle East has announced the appointment of Felix Weller as Sales Director. He moves to the position after four years in the role of Audi Dealer Development Director for the Middle East.

Weller has 14 years’ experience of driving business results in the luxury automotive industry and has spearheaded the successful development of many key quality programmes for Audi Middle East, including the Audi Management Academy, the management skill development center for Audi in the region.

He has supported all of Audi Middle East’s 11 markets with implementing business management programmes and was responsible for heading up the project team tasked with developing the largest Audi new car showroom in the world, based in Dubai.

“Felix is very much a ‘homegrown talent’ after joining us in Dubai in 2007 and has proven to be a great advocate of Audi’s ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ philosophy,” Jeff Mannering, Managing Director, Audi Middle East, said.

“Progressing from his previous position, Felix will now have a strong retail focus, targeting volume growth, sales quality and customer satisfaction in line with our strategy of delighting our customers. His role will involve consulting with our regional dealers and enabling them to deliver Audi’s premium performance standards.”

Prior to joining Audi, Weller had strong international experience working with another German premium car manufacturer across the markets of Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, with key roles in sales and marketing, strategy, and network development. His previous key achievements include achieving double digit growth in Central Europe, breaking sales records in the process.

A German national, Felix is an avid football supporter and follows his hometown club VfB Stuttgart. He is fluent in English and French and in his spare time he enjoys travel and sports.

<span class="articleLocation”>(Reuters) – Shares of Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd (CHTP.O) rose as much as 76 percent on Friday after a committee of independent experts recommended the approval of its hypotension drug in the United States.

The FDA panel voted 7 to 4 in favor of the drug’s approval on Thursday. Its recommendation will now be taken into consideration by the FDA, which is expected to make a decision on the drug by March 28.

Wedbush Securities analyst Liana Moussatos said she sees more than an even chance of the drug being approved by the action date, and the company’s stock price at least doubling if the approval comes through.

Last week, the company received briefing documents from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration raising questions related to the short duration of clinical studies and the limited size of the study population given the orphan status that the drug, Northera, has.

Orphan status is granted by the U.S. health regulator to drugs that treat a rare condition affecting less than 200,000 Americans and guarantees a marketing exclusivity of seven years.

But analyst Moussatos cautioned that there was still a risk that the FDA may seek additional trials on the drug.

Northera, which has been in use in Japan since 1989, has shown some post-marketing safety issues, and is being tested in an ongoing trial — Study 306b. Results from the study are expected in the third quarter of 2012.

Leerink Swann analysts said despite the potential utility of the 306b study, additional trials would be required.

“Nearly all panelists noted the desire for additional clinical trials, preferably in longer durations, to be required in the post-marketing setting,” they said.

Northera is being studied to treat neurogenic orthostatic hypotension — a disorder resulting from the deficient release of a neurotransmitter used by autonomic nerves to send signals to regulate blood pressure.

Needham analyst Alan Carr said approval by the FDA action date would prove a challenge.

“The agency may discount the (advisory panel) advice and insist on additional pre-approval trials anyway.”

Even if the FDA follows the panel’s recommendation, there is little time to agree on label and post-approval trial requirements ahead of the action date, Carr said.

Shares of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Chelsea, which have fallen 52 percent since the company received the briefing documents last week, were trading up 52 percent at $3.67 on Friday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Kavyanjali Kaushik in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

* Strong economic fundamentals but few deals

* Turkey seen benefiting from regional turmoil

* Private equity with local presense has an edge

By Greg Roumeliotis and Simon Meads

BERLIN, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Sandwiched between the
economic turmoil of Europe and the political crises of the
Middle East, fast-growing Turkey has piqued the interest of
private equity buyers hungry for deals.

Rapid economic growth, a booming population, and unrest in
neighbouring countries have sent potential investors flocking,
but with fierce competition for a handful of deals, it is the
local players and few global buyout firms with a domestic
presence who will reap the rewards.

Strong GDP growth rates seen at about 8 percent for 2011
and, crucially, a large and youthful populace make the country
attractive. About two-thirds of the country’s population is
under the age of 32.

“Turkey is one of the fastest growing economies in the
world, which offers excellent potential to invest and create
value, and continues to perform despite global economic
challenges,” Can Deldag, co-head of Carlyle MENA Partners, told
the SuperReturn International conference in Berlin on Monday.

Carlyle MENA, a $500 million fund, is the Turkish arm of
Carlyle Group, a private equity behemoth with $148 billion of
assets under management, and one of the few international buyout
groups to have a local presence in Turkey.

Turkey has gradually risen up the private equity agenda,
helped in part by the $2.1 billion sale of Turkish spirits group
Mey Icki by TPG Capital LP and local private equity group Actera
to Diageo PLC last year.

The successful exit for these firms highlighted not only
that Turkey had companies worthy of investment, but also that
those can attract cash-rich corporate buyers when the time comes
to sell – a critical consideration for buyout groups.

“There is a saying in Turkey: ‘When thieves go into a house,
the first thing they are trying to find out is, where is the
exit.’ We are not thieves but we think an exit is very
important,” said Actera director Selmi Haleva.

FAMILY COMES FIRST

M&A deals with Turkish targets shot up to 218 deals worth
$24.9 billion last year from 167 deals worth just $4.0 billion
in 2009, when activity was hit by the last global economic
slump, Thomson Reuters data shows.

But buyout funds have not been as busy. Private equity
dealmaking was subdued in 2011, at just $39.8 million compared
with $2.8 billion in 2008.

Much of this has to do with the dominance of family
businesses.

“There is a huge demand for targets but there are problems
of transparency and pricing. That’s why you do not see a lot of
closings,” said Murat Ozgen, head of the private equity arm of
Turkey’s largest private bank, Is Bank.

Deal inactivity elsewhere could focus greater attention on
Turkey, and bring more deals to light, however, with the Arab
Spring forcing investors to put private equity commitments in
neighboring countries on ice.

“Egypt, which was the driving market for private equity in
the region, is still on hold and I think it will remain on hold
for at least until the middle of this year. All of this has
converged attention on Turkey,” said Stephen Mezias, professor
of entrepreneurship at graduate business school INSEAD.

The sale of hospitals group Acibadem by Dubai-based private
equity firm Abraaj Capital attracted pan-European and global
buyout groups last year, as did retailer YKM and pharmaceutical
group Bilim Ilac.

More sales are in the pipeline, or seen as likely this year,
including Sabah newspaper and ATV television from Turkish group
Calik and Hospitals group Medical Park, part-owned by Carlyle.

“We see consumer-facing businesses in Turkey that are
internationalizing. We also see businesses with real operational
improvement potential,” said Jason McGibbon, a partner with
Bridgepoint Capital who is based in Istanbul.

FAMILY BONDS WEAKEN

As family-owned businesses move into second- and
third-generation ownership, the opportunity for private equity
investment grows as those companies seek to expand or divisions
between family members grow.

Carlyle Group, Advent International, Bridgepoint and Mid
Europa are among the firms to have opened offices in Turkey.

“You have to be local in Turkey to execute,” said Ahmet
Faralyali, a former KKR & Co LP principal and founding
partner of Mediterra Private Equity, which managers a 100
million euro buyout fund focused on Turkish deals.

The growth of the market and its potential is not lost on
the pension funds and fund of funds groups that invest in
private equity houses either.

And Turkey’s maturing home grown private equity firms are
benefitting from that exposure.

Some are raising funds for the first time, others like
Actera and Turkven are coming back to investors for a second and
third time and looking to raise more significant pools of
capital – $1 billion and 500 million euros respectively.

“It’s an emerging market and many deals will be more of
interest to local funds than the pan-European groups,” said
Billy Gilmore, head of private equity at Scottish Widows
Investment Partnership. “We have taken the view that it is a
market that should be able to deliver decent risk adjusted
returns and we have made our first foray in there.”

Given the absence of large buyout opportunities, Turkey
remains the playground of local private equity outfits and
international players with a competitive local presence, so new
entrants will need to be able to invest in a strong footprint.

“When it comes to funds covering Turkey through their London
or New York offices, they have a problem,” said Carlyle’s
Deldag, “because whenever they go to their investment committee
with an opportunity in Turkey they have to go through a painful
process to convince that the currency risk is something they can
take and the political risk is not there anymore”.