A gallery worker walks past Seagram murals by Russian-born American painter Mark Rothko during a media view of the first major exhibition dedicated to his late works at the Tate Modern in London September 24, 2008.

LONDON | Wed Oct 10, 2012 11:50am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A Polish man accused of scrawling his signature on a painting by Mark Rothko worth tens of millions of dollars in a British museum pleaded not guilty to criminal damage on Wednesday.

Wlodzimierz Umaniec listened expressionlessly via video-link to the allegation that he stepped over a wire in front of Rothko's "Black on Maroon" in London's Tate Modern gallery on Sunday and wrote "Vladimir Umanets '12 A potential piece of yellowism" on the canvas.

The 26 year-old Polish national, who has lived in Britain for the last three years but has no fixed address in the country, was refused bail and will appear in court again on October 16.

His lawyer told the local London area Camberwell Green magistrates court that Umaniec would be denying the charge and was willing to stand trial.

"This may be cynical but he might welcome it, so he can have the discussion he wishes to have about the art," said defence solicitor David Clark.

The Tate Modern closed briefly on Sunday after witnesses reported the damage.

No precise value has been put on the damaged painting, but earlier this year Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow" sold for 53.8 million pounds ($86 million)in New York - the highest price paid for a piece of post-war art at auction.

(Reporting By Isla Binnie, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Barbra Streisand performs ''Evergreen'' at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California February 13, 2011.

NEW YORK | Fri Oct 12, 2012 2:05pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blending photo montages with at times a thick accent and a singing voice still soaring at the age of 70, Barbra Streisand performed on Thursday in her first big concert where it all began - her birthplace of Brooklyn, New York.

In the second show of her "Back to Brooklyn" tour, Streisand performed for nearly three hours at a new 19,000-seat arena, kicking off the concert with the words "I've come home at last!" from the show tune "As If We Never Said Goodbye" from "Sunset Boulevard".

Accompanied by more than 50 orchestra players, she connected with fans through references to Brooklyn and her Jewish background, talking about the borough's docks and knishes. She recalled that the last time she sang in Brooklyn she was 8 years old and it was "on somebody's stoop".

"I left Brooklyn to pursue my dreams, but Brooklyn never quite left me," she told the crowd sprinkled with stars such as actor Michael Douglas and musician Sting. "I am so glad I was born and raised here."

She sang a series of songs by Brooklyn-born composers Alan and Marilyn Bergman including "Nice 'n' Easy" and a love song from her 1983 film "Yentl", called "The Way He Makes Me Feel".

Changing costume several times, she kept the crowd entertained with funny anecdotes and introduced other musical acts including the teenage Italian tenor group Il Volo, trumpeter Chris Botti and her son, Jason Gould.

She paid tribute to collaborators such as Donna Summer with a short, snappy version of their 1979 duet "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" and composer Jule Styne with a medley of songs from the musical "Gypsy", and later "People" from the musical "Funny Girl".

In a tribute to another collaborator, Marvin Hamlisch, who died in August, she sang "The Way We Were", with his original orchestration, and then "Through the Eyes of Love", which he wrote for the film "Ice Castles".

"He could always make me laugh, which is not an easy thing to do," she said of Hamlisch.

Other hits included Rodgers and Hart's "My Funny Valentine" accompanied by Botti, "Evergreen" and "Lost Inside of You".

Toward the end of the concert she asked the crowd to take seriously the environment, the upcoming U.S. election and to "appreciate the moment".

She recalled not singing for 27 years after suffering stage fright during a 1967 concert in Central Park, before discarding rumors she would be quitting her career after this tour.

"If I learned anything, it's to say 'Never say never' and it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings - and I ain't fat," she said, before finishing the concert with two encores ending with "Happy Days Are Here Again".

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Dale Hudson)

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The logo of the UNESCO is seen inside at the headquarters in Paris on September 22,2009.

PARIS | Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:50am EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - UNESCO is in its "worst ever financial situation" after its biggest contributor the United States froze funding last year, the director general of the United Nations' cultural agency said on Thursday.

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization was plunged into crisis in October 2011 when Washington, an ally of Israel, cancelled its grant in protest at the body's decision to grant the Palestinians full membership.

The U.N. body had been forced to slash spending, freeze job hires and cut programs after losing the U.S. funding, which had made up 22 percent of its budget, UNESCO's Irina Bokova told reporters.

The organization, which designates World Heritage sites, promotes global education and supports press freedom among other tasks, had started the year with a deficit of $150 million out of $653 million for its budget over 2012 and 2013, Bokova said.

"It's crippling our capacity to deliver," she added.

"We are coping in very difficult circumstances. We're fundraising this year, but it's not sustainable on a long-term basis. We're not closing UNESCO, but member states will have to rethink the way forward. UNESCO will be crippled."

U.S. legislation prohibits funding to any UN agency that grants full membership to any group that does not have "internationally recognized attributes" of statehood.

As a result of the vote on the Palestinians, the U.S. administration, which pays its dues at the end of the year, immediately withdrew its funding to the Paris-based agency.

Among projects to be hit by the change in U.S. policy were a Holocaust education program that is linked to wider campaigns on human rights and genocide and a Tsunami research project, both of which had been directly financed by Washington.

Bokova said it was in U.S. interests to be part of UNESCO and hoped Washington would review its position before next year when it would be stripped of voting rights for not paying its dues.

"There is money in the world, but it's not just about money," Bokova said. "We need the United States to formulate common policies and to debate common values."

Bokova, who took her post three years ago, said the deep cuts UNESCO had been obliged to make were affecting the way it did business. It did not replace 336 jobs amounting to about 15 percent of its total workforce, cancelled projects and slashed expenses.

To compensate for the shortfall, UNESCO created an emergency fund to obtain cash, primarily from other members, that is allocated to projects as it wishes.

The 60-year old former Bulgarian foreign minister said she had managed to raise $69 million, including $20 million each from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as smaller donations from countries including Turkey, Indonesia and Algeria.

It has also received specific project funding from countries that have particular interests in certain fields. On Thursday it is due to sign a $20 million agreement with Norway for education and sustainable development programs.

"It fills gaps, but not in the long-run. We need a predictable budget," she said. "I think UNESCO was caught in between the political turmoil of the Middle Eastern conflict. I think it's unfair."

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Anthony Barker)

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1 of 7. Chinese writer Mo Yan gestures during a news conference in his hometown of Gaomi, Shandong province October 12, 2012. Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan said on Friday that he hoped the jailed 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, can ''achieve freedom soon''.

GAOMI, China | Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:54am EDT

GAOMI, China (Reuters) - Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan unexpectedly called for the release of jailed compatriot Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, having come under fire from rights activists for not speaking up for him.

The author, a portly 57-year-old whose adopted pen name Mo Yan means "don't speak", said he had read some of Liu's literary criticisms in the 1980s, but that he had no understanding of Liu's work once it had turned towards politics.

"I hope he can achieve his freedom as soon as possible," Mo told reporters on Friday in his hometown of Gaomi in the northern province of Shandong, in bold remarks likely to embarrass Beijing which has lauded his victory and denigrated Liu's prize.

Liu should be able to research his "politics and social system", Mo said without elaborating

A number of dissidents and other writers have said Mo was unworthy of winning as he had shied away from commenting on Liu's plight. They have also denounced him for commemorating a speech by former paramount leader Mao Zedong.

But Mo, whose real name is Guan Moye, shot back at those criticisms.

"I believe that the people who have criticized me have not read my books," he said. "If they had read my books they would understand that my writings at that time took on a great deal of risk and were under pressure.

"Many of the people who have criticized me online are Communist Party members themselves. They also work within the system. And some have benefited tremendously within the system," he added.

"I am working in China," he said. "I am writing in a China under Communist Party leaders. But my works cannot be restricted by political parties."

Mo, who was once so destitute he ate tree bark and weeds to survive, is the first Chinese national to win the $1.2 million literature prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy.

He is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou. His books also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine".

Prominent dissident Hu Jia, a close friend of Liu's, praised Mo's apparent sudden change of heart.

"What has happened in the last 24 hours has changed him. A Nobel prize, whether for peace or for literature, bestows on one a sense of wrong and right," Hu told Reuters.

China, long used to wringing its hands at perceived snubs or insults by the Nobel organizers, has worked its propaganda machine into overtime to hail Mo's win as a breakthrough for the entire nation, and recognition of its place as a great country.

Senior Communist Party official and China's propaganda chief Li Changchun congratulated Mo, state media reported, saying he hoped "Chinese writers will focus on the country's people in their writing and create more excellent works that will stand the test of history".

But the mention of Liu by Mo, a vice-chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers' Association, could make things awkward for the Chinese authorities, who jailed Liu for 11 years in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei repeated government criticism of Liu's award, saying it amounted to "grave meddling in China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty".

COUNTRY BOY

Mo's interest in literature dates back to his childhood in Gaomi. When he was six, he was an avid reader of Chinese classics, said Mo's elder brother Guan Moxin, 62. The youngest of four children, Mo loved telling stories.

But Mo's farmer father and brother, who are still living in the dusty, hardscrabble village in Gaomi where Mo grew up, had no idea they had a Nobel Literature Prize winner in their midst.

"What are the chances that a country boy without anything to his name could become a great author?" Guan Moxin told Reuters.

"He is just a man from this remote land, and this poor family; he is not from some big city."

Mo, already hugely popular in China, has become something of a celebrity in Gaomi. Thrilled residents set off fireworks the night Mo's award was announced. Reporters started streaming into the nondescript town. A hotel put up a digital banner congratulating Mo.

"I couldn't quite believe it. It took me awhile before I could believe it. It seemed so impossible. We were all (the village) celebrating, lighting firecrackers," Guan Moxin said.

Mo's books reflect the tumult of modern China. He has credited his early suffering for inspiring his works, which tackle corruption, decadence in Chinese society and rural life.

"When he was little at school he was very naughty," Mo's 90-year-old father, Guan Yifan, told Reuters. "But afterwards he had to stop and do farm work. At the time we had to eat wild vegetables, and he had to go and dig wild vegetables."

(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Terril Yue Jones and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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Chinese writer Mo Yan (L) talks to the media during a news conference in his hometown Gaomi, Shandong province October 11, 2012. Mo won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on Thursday for works which the awarding committee said had qualities of ''hallucinatory realism''.

STOCKHOLM | Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:41pm EDT

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on Thursday for works which combine "hallucinatory realism" with folk tales, history and contemporary life in China.

Mo, who was once so destitute he ate tree bark and weeds to survive, is the first Chinese national to win the $1.2 million literature prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy.

He said the award made him "overjoyed and terrified".

Some of his books have been banned as "provocative and vulgar" by Chinese authorities but he has also been criticized as being too close to the Communist Party.

While users of a popular Chinese microblogging site offered their congratulations, dissident artist Ai Weiwei said he disagreed with giving the award to a writer with the "taint of government" about him.

Mo, 57, who grew up in the town of Gaomi in Shandong province in the northeast of the country and whose parents were farmers, sets his works mainly in the land of his birth.

Mo Yan is a pen name which means "Don't Speak". His real name is Guan Moye and he was forced to drop out of primary school and herd cattle during China's Cultural Revolution.

Speaking to the state-run China News Service, Mo said he was happy to have won.

"But I do not think that my winning can be seen as representing anything. I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognized by the world.

"Next, I'm going to put most of my efforts into creating my new works. I will keep working hard, and I thank everyone. As to whether I go to Sweden to receive the prize, I will wait for word from the organizers about arrangements."

"AT HOME WITH HIS DAD"

Peter Englund, head of the Swedish Academy, said Mo was "at home with his dad" when he was told of the award.

"He said he was overjoyed and terrified," Englund told Swedish television. "He has such a damn unique way of writing. If you read half a page of Mo Yan you immediately recognize it as him."

The award citation said Mo used a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives to create a world which was reminiscent of the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

At the same time, he found a "departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition", the Academy said.

Englund said Mo offers "a unique insight into a unique world in a quite unique manner."

His style is "a fountain of words and stories and stories within stories, then stories within the stories within the stories and so on. He's mesmerising," Englund told Reuters television.

Mo is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrayed the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou. His books also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine".

"My works are Chinese literature, which is part of world literature. They show the life of Chinese people as well as the country's unique culture and folk customs," Mo told reporters in his hometown, Xinhua news agency reported.

The last Chinese-born winner was Gao Xingjian in 2000, although he was living in France by that time and had taken French citizenship. His Nobel was not celebrated by the Chinese government.

CHINA HAS "WAITED TOO LONG"

Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily praised the win in a commentary on its website (www.people.com.cn).

"This is the first Chinese writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Chinese writers have waited too long, the Chinese people have waited too long," it wrote.

Mo, a vice chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers' Association, said he had nothing to say about Liu Xiaobo, the jailed dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and whose name has been banned from public discussion in China.

"His winning won't be of any help for Liu Xiaobo, unless Mo Yan expresses his concern for him," said Ai Weiwei.

"But Mo Yan has stated in the past that he has nothing to say about Liu Xiaobo. I think the Nobel organizers have removed themselves from reality by awarding this prize. I really don't understand it."

Beijing-based writer Mo Zhixu said Mo Yan, who once copied out by hand a speech by Chairman Mao Zedong for a commemorative book, "doesn't have any independent personality."

Yu Shicun, a Beijing-based essayist and literary critic, said Mo Yan was a puzzling choice for the prize.

"I don't think this makes sense," said Yu in a telephone interview. "His works are from the 1980s, when he was influenced by Latin American literature. I don't think he's created his own things. We don't see him as an innovator in Chinese literature."

On the streets of Beijing, there was pride in Mo's achievement.

"I think this is an unprecedented breakthrough, because before this they spoke of Chinese nationals getting the Nobel prize, but it was only the peace prize, never the others such as the literature, the physics and chemistry prizes," said Xu Jiebiao, 28-year-old IT consultant.

"So a Chinese getting the Nobel prize for literature will increase the national pride."

The literature prize is the fourth of this year's crop of prizes, which were established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and awarded for the first time in 1901.

The writer, who was in the People's Liberation Army before progressing to academia, was one of the favorites to win the award this year, according to British bookmaker Ladbrokes, along with Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

(Additional reporting by Johan Ahlander, Simon Johnson, Anna Ringstrom, Niklas Pollard, Sui-Lee Wee, Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Peter Millership)

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A woman walks past a Santander bank branch in Madrid July 26, 2012.

LONDON | Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:07pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Spain's Santander (SAN.MC) pulled out of its 1.65 billion pound (US$2.65 billion) deal to buy 316 UK branches from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) late on Friday, dealing a sharp blow to the state-backed British bank.

More than two years after the deal was struck, it collapsed because the process of carving out the business proved more complex and difficult than had been expected. Santander said it was unwilling to again extend the deadline when it became clear that it would not be completed this year.

RBS, 83 percent owned by the British taxpayer, said it would restart the sale process, which had been ordered by European authorities as a cost for Britain's rescue of RBS in 2008.

RBS could ask for an extension of the deadline. It may struggle to find a new buyer, however, and may have to accept a lower price or consider a flotation.

Santander UK agreed to buy the branches and the business of 1.8 million customers in August 2010, but technology and separation issues pushed back the original December 2011 completion date.

Santander UK Chief Executive Ana Botin said on Friday that she had wanted to take the business in "a steady state" and added: "We have concluded that given delays it is not possible to complete this within a reasonable timeframe."

A report by consultancy Accenture estimated that the transfer of retail customers would not be completed until 2014, and the transfer of corporate customers would not be completed until 2015, Santander said.

The bank said the deal had no chance of being completed by a February 2013 deadline, allowing it to walk away with no break fee.

Santander saw off competition from National Australia Bank (NAB.AX), start-up bank NBNK (NBNK.L) and Richard Branson's Virgin Money to buy the branches, as it was particularly keen to have the 244,000 business customers among the bank's clients.

The Spanish bank was keen to bulk up ahead of a planned flotation of its UK arm. It still wants to separate and list the business, but that is seen as being unlikely in the near future due to depressed UK bank valuations.

Virgin bought nationalized bank Northern Rock and may be the keenest to return for another look if it wants to bulk up.

RBS Chief Executive Stephen Hester faces more bad news as his bank is expected to be next in line to be hit with a big fine for the alleged manipulation of Libor global interest rates.

That and the collapse of the branches deal could overshadow two milestones this month that Hester had hoped would show his bank as being well on the road to recovery. It completed the initial public offering of its insurance arm Direct Line (DLGD.L) this week and later this month could exit a costly government insurance scheme.

The setback could further push back the timeframe for taxpayers to see a return on the 45 billion pound RBS bailout.

A Treasury spokesperson said the deal's collapse was a commercial matter for RBS and Santander, and said the government remained "determined to promote greater competition in the banking sector".

Hester said the work separating the branches would not be wasted.

"Much of the heavy lifting associated with a transfer has already been completed, including separating data for 1.8 million customers and putting in place a standalone management team," Hester said. He added that it was "disappointing" that Santander had pulled out, especially for customers and staff.

The affected business made an operating profit of 186 million pounds in the first six months of this year and has 21.7 billion in customer deposits and loans representing 86 percent of deposits.

Santander's purchase price when the deal was struck represented a 350 million pound premium to net asset value of 1.3 billion at the end of 2009. The price of the deal could have risen to 2 billion pounds or dropped to about 1.3 billion upon completion, depending on certain criteria.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Theodore d'Afflisio)

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