FAMOUS PEOPLE NAMED POLO FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN 1254

          FAMOUS PEOPLE NAMED POLO FAMOUS PEOPLE BORN IN 1254

CROATIAN merchant and adventurer Marco Polo traveled from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He wrote Il Milione, known in English as The Travels of Marco Polo.“When a man is riding through this [Gobi] desert by night and for some reason ... he gets separated from his companions ... he hears spirit voices talking to him ...Often these voices lure him away from the path and he never finds it again."[from "Marco Polo" by Richard Humble.]” Marco Polo was born in 1254, in Venice, Italy. He traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295. He remained in China for 17 of those years. Around 1292, he left China, acting as consort along the way to a Mongol princess who was being sent to Persia. His book Il Milione describes his travels and experiences and influenced later adventurers and merchants. Marco Polo was born in the year 1254 to a wealthy Venetian merchant family. Much of his childhood was spent parentless, and he was raised by an extended family. Polo's mother died when he was young, and his father and uncle, successful jewel merchants Niccolo and Maffeo Polo, were in Asia for much of Polo's youth. Their journeys brought them into present-day China, where they joined a diplomatic mission to the court of Kublai Khan, the Mongol leader whose grandfather, Genghis Khan, had conquered Northeast Asia. In 1269, the two men returned to Venice, and immediately started making plans for their return to Khan's court. During their stay with the leader, Khan had expressed his interest in Christianity and asked the Polo brothers to visit again with 100 priests and a collection of holy water.Khan's Empire, the largest the world had ever seen, was largely a mystery to those living within the borders of the Holy Roman Empire. A sophisticated culture outside the reaches of the Vatican seemed unfathomable, and yet, that's exactly what the Polo brothers described to confounded Venetians when they arrived home.

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MONDAY, JULY 20, 2015 TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES

M & A CF Industries in Merger Talks With Dutch Chemical Maker OCI INVESTMENT BANKING Standard Chartered Shakes Up Management Structure PRIVATE EQUITY Oxford University Doubles Private Equity Exposure HEDGE FUNDS Mutual Funds At Center in Puerto Rico Talks OFFERINGS Italy to List €4 Billion Stake in Post Office VENTURE CAPITAL Newark Venture Fund Seeks to Put New Jersey City on Start-Up Map LEGAL/REGULATORY IRS Said to Be Investigating Singapore Asset Manager

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BY AMIE TSANG GREEK BANKS OPEN Greek banks opened for the first time in three weeks this morning, The Financial Times reports. Restrictions on international transfers remain but the withdrawal limit of 60 euros per day has been replaced with a weekly limit of 420 euros. The reopening provides a morale boost for the crisis-racked state, but many Greeks are worried about the toll that new bailout requirements could take on the economy, Liz Alderman reports in The New York Times. Even if Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can overhaul the economy, it remains to be seen whether that would enable Greece to grow despite staggering debt. The roots of Greece's problems run deep, Ms. Alderman notes. "Nearly every area of the economy is ensnarled by rules and practices thatdiscourage investment and innovation." The sluggish judicial system can take more than four years to enforce a commercial contract, while pharmacies are protected by fixed working hours and a guaranteed profit margin on medicine sales that keep drug prices artificially high. Economists say the changes demanded of Greece by its creditors in the latest bailout package will make little difference over the short term, unless the economy begins to emerge from its latest recession. But with more spending cuts required, the economy could be even more restrained. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has pushed to speed up clarification of the bailout terms. She called on Sunday for a swift start to negotiations over terms and reiterated that there would be no debt forgiveness, but that other relief measures could be discussed once Greece had been stabilized, Alison Smale reports in The New York Times. She suggested that it would be possible to discuss altering the maturities of Greece's debt or reducing interest paid by Athens but only after the first successful review of the bailout package. "A classic haircut of 30, 40 percent of debt cannot happen in a currency union," she said. LOCKHEED SAID TO BUY SIKORSKY Lockheed Martin, the defense contractor, has agreed to buy Sikorsky, the maker of the Black Hawk helicopters used by the United States military, Michael de la Merced reports in DealBook. The deal would be worth more than $8 billion, said one person with knowledge of the matter. The two companies plan to announce the deal on Monday before they report second-quarter results on Tuesday, according to Reuters, which first reported the deal. The acquisition would be Lockheed's biggest since its $10 billion takeover ofMartin Marietta 21 years ago and would give it a major new line of business apart from its already widely used military equipment. It would also conclude the monthslong effort by United Technologies to determine what to do with Sikorsky after owning it for nearly 70 years. Any deal is likely to be scrutinized by the Defense Department, which has indicated that it wants to preserve competition among military contractors. ON THE AGENDA Morgan Stanley announces its second-quarter results at 7 a.m. The bank will hold a conference call on earnings at 8:30 a.m., when Hasbro is also holding a discussion of its results.Halliburton follows with its conference at 9 a.m. IBM's earnings for the second quarter will be announced at 4:30 a.m. E.D.T. Dan Schulman, chief executive of PayPal, will be live on Bloomberg at 9:30 a.m. as PayPal begins its first day of trading as an independent company. Jacob J. Lew, United States treasury secretary, will deliver the keynote address at the Better Markets event on the fifth anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act at 2:30 p.m. AN UPSIDE DOWN PROSECUTION When a director at Abacus Federal Savings Bank discovered a fraudulent scheme at its bank, the loan officer involved was fired. This put an end to the scheme but began a five-and-a-half-year odyssey through the New York State criminal justice system for the Sung family and the community lender they founded. Bank officials reported the fraud to regulators and provided New York State prosecutors with over 900,000 pages of documentation, but the bank was indicted by a grand jury in New York State Supreme Court. Gretchen Morgenson's Fair Game column examines how a powerful prosecutor relentlessly pursued "a speck of a bank that for 31 years has prudently served an immigrant community in New York City." The jury threw out every one of the 80 charges at the trial but the cost was high for the lender. Thomas Sung, the bank's founder, said what Cyrus R. Vance Jr., Manhattan district attorney, managed to do was to make a small bank weaker: "He scared the community, all to glorify his reputation." Contact amie.tsang@nytimes.com MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS » CF Industries in Merger Talks With Dutch Chemical Maker OCINegotiations came after CF Industries and Yara International of Norway shelved separate merger discussions in October. NYT » Schneider Electric to Take Majority Stake in Aveva Aveva would receive Schneider Electric's industrial software business and cash for a 53.5 percent stake in the British engineering company. NYT » Shell Says BG Deal Will Save Billions Royal Dutch Shell expects billions of dollars more in savings from its proposed 55 billion pound takeover of BG Group than previously disclosed as it uses the enlarged company's scale to slash costs in its deepwater oil business and natural gas trading arm. THE FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTMENT BANKING » Standard Chartered Shakes Up Management Structure The British bank will be organized around three business lines, and top managers will report directly to the new chief executive, William T. Winters. NYT » Barclays Said to Consider Cutting Quarter of Jobs Barclays is considering deeper job cuts that could see its work force shrink by about a quarter over the coming years, Bloomberg News reports, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. BLOOMBERG NEWS

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PRIVATE EQUITY » Oxford University Doubles Private Equity Exposure Oxford University's endowment fund has more than doubled its exposure to private equity since 2012, despite its chief executive's issuing a blistering attack on the buyout industry three years ago. THE FINANCIAL TIMES HEDGE FUNDS » Mutual Funds At Center in Puerto Rico Talks Hedge funds are known as heavy buyers of Puerto Rico bonds, but as the United States commonwealth works to restructure about $72 billion in debt, it is a pair of mutual-fund firms that may take the lead in negotiations. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL I.P.O./OFFERINGS » Italy to List €4 Billion Stake in Post Office Italy's government will float a 40 percent stake of its 153-year-old national post office in the first week of August. THE FINANCIAL TIMES Apptio Said To Tap Banks for I.P.O. Apptio, a maker of cloud-based software, is planning an initial public offering that could value the company at roughly $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL VENTURE CAPITAL » Newark Venture Fund Seeks to Put New Jersey City on Start-Up Map A new accelerator and early-stage venture fund, targeted at $50 million, are moving to Newark, N.J., in the hope of creating a substantial technology industry in the city. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL A Light Bulb Goes On, Over the Mall Public lighting that dials into the Internet of Things could use billions of fixtures to collect data about things as diverse as traffic congestion and a shopper in the cereal aisle. NYT » LEGAL/REGULATORY » IRS Said to Be Investigating Singapore Asset Manager Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service are looking into whether a Singapore asset-management firm accepted transfers from undeclared Swiss accounts closed by United States taxpayers, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing lawyers familiar with the matter. THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Barney Frank Takes on Democratic Critics Barney Frank, the architect of the landmark financial reforms that bear his name, says building a wall between traditional lenders and riskier investment banks is not the way to make the financial system safer. THE FINANCIAL TIMES Stanley Fischer Defends Fed Role Stanley Fischer, the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, offered a robust defense of the Federal Reserve's lender of last resort functions amid attempts by some lawmakers to further curb its powers to provide support in a crisis. THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Compiled by Matthew J. Belvedere and Peter Schacknow Send this email to a friend › More Pre-Markets Data IN THE NEWS TODAY U.S. stock futures rose this morning, as earnings season kicks into high gear. A quarter of S&P 500 companies are reporting this week, as Greek and China concerns drift into the background. (CNBC) Morgan Stanley (MS) leads this morning's earnings, beating estimates on profit and revenue. Dow stock IBM (IBM) is out with quarterly numbers after the bell. The S&P is four points away from a new high, while the Nasdaq closed its best week since October in record territory. (CNBC) Greece has started to repay the $6.8 billion it owes to the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, ahead of talks over the details of a third Greek bailout. (CNBC) Market watchers should not focus too much on principal debt forgiveness for Greece because there's little chance the country's European creditors would accept a haircut, said former ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet. (CNBC) After being closed for three weeks, Greek banks reopened today. But capital controls remain in place. No word yet on when the stock market there may start trading again. (BBC) Flirting between gains and losses, Chinese stocks finished modestly higher overnight, amid new guidelines to regulate Internet financing platforms there such as peer-to-peer lending. (CNBC) Gold trimmed losses after falling as much as four percent to itslowest levels in more than five years today, after China ended years of speculation about its official gold holdings. The build-up was smaller than expected. (Reuters) The long-anticipated split of eBay (EBAY) and PayPal (PYPL) becomes official today, with both companies set to begin trading separately at the open. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea, the supermarket company known as A&P, and certain affiliates have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcyprotection-listing assets and liabilities of more than $1 billion. (Reuters) In a weekend interview and op-ed, GOP presidential candidateDonald Trump refused to apologize for ridiculing fellow Republican Sen. John McCain's war record in Vietnam. (NY Times & USA Today) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is set to propose this week a revamp of capital-gains taxes that would hit some short-term investors with higher rates. (WSJ-subscription) The U.S. and Cuba restored full diplomatic relations today after more than five decades of frosty relations rooted in the Cold War. Cuban officials are set to formally inaugurate their embassy in Washington this morning. (AP) The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote today on whether to potentially lift sanctions against Iran before Congress has a chanceto debate the terms of the new nuclear accord. (NY Times) BY THE NUMBERS The outlook of American businesses on sales in the coming months has darkened after sales growth slowed in the second quarter, according to a new survey from the National Association for Business Economics. There are no economic reports due today in what's going to generally be a light week for numbers, but investors do get a look at the latest on existing home sales Wednesday, weekly jobless claims Thursday, and new home sales Friday. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve holds an open meeting at 1 p.m. ET, to discuss a final rulemaking to implement risk-based capital surcharges for systemically important bank holding companies. STOCKS TO WATCH United Technologies (UTX) has agreed to sell its Sikorsky Aircraft unit to Lockheed Martin (LMT) for more than $8 billion. Syngenta (SYT) plans to meet with investors amid shareholdercomplaints over its rejection of Monsanto 's (MON) roughly $45 billion takeover bid, according to the Wall Street Journal. Boeing (BA) is warning air carriers against flying bulk shipments of lithium batteries in its passenger jets, due to the potential fire hazard they pose. Microsoft (MSFT) is buying Israeli cybersecurity company Adallom for $320 million, according to Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist. Barclays (BCS) has no plans to cut jobs further beyond the 19,000 it announced last year, according to Reuters, with sources playing down prior reports of bigger reductions. Bank of America (BAC) revealed the results of its mid-cycle stress tests, which show its capital above the regulatory minimums. WATERCOOLER Due to wild weekend weather, the final round of the British Opengot underway today, with amateur Paul Dunne in the lead after the third round and Jordan Spieth one shot back in his quest for his third major win this year. (USA Today) "Ant-Man," from Disney's Marvel Studios, won this weekend's domestic box office, with a $58 million debut. Universal's"Trainwreck," starring Amy Schumer, opened with $30.2 million, in third behind "Minions," also from Universal. ( Comcast owns NBCUniversal and CNBC) FEEDBACK We value your input—use our simple form to let us know what you think. Click here for Real-Time data and top stories on your desktop or mobile device.

                           

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                                    ISLAND KORČULA

KORČULA, often called "little Dubrovnik" is an island in the central Dalmatian archipelago. The town of Korčula, with its cultural and historical heritage, its town ramparts (similar to those of Dubrovnik) ranks among the favorite tourist destinations in southern Croatia. The island was inhabited as early as the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. A Greek colony existed here in the 6th and the 5th centuries BC; at that time the island was called Korkyra Melaina. From 35 BC the island was part of the Roman Empire; traces of Roman settlements have been discovered in the vicinity of Lumbarda, Vela Luka (locality Beneficij), Blago and on Pelegrin. On the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the island became part of the Ostrogoth state (AD 493) and then came under the Byzantine rule (AD 555). In the 9th century it was taken by the Nerentani/Narentini, and in AD 1000 by Venice. In 1180 the island came under the Hungarian-Croatian king (in 1214 the statute of the town and the island were passed). From 1221, during two centuries, the island had several rulers - rulers from Zahumlje, Venice (in 1298 the Genoese fleet defeated the Venetian fleet near Korčula), King Lodović I (1358), Bosnian rulers (1390) and the Dubrovnik Republic (1413-1417). In the period 1420-1797 the island was under Venice but it retained its autonomy. Due to frequent attacks of the Turkish fleet and pirate ships (all until the beginning of the 18th C) several important points on the island were fortified (especially the town of Korčula). After the fall of Venice there was another period of various rulers (1797-1805 Austria, 1805-1813 France, 1813-1815 Great Britain, 1815-1918 Austria). Korčula was under the Italian occupation in the period 1918-1921, and after that was annexed to Croatia. As for the local economy, shipbuilding (town of Korčula, Vela Luka) and stone cutting (extraction of white marble from a quarry on the eastern coast of the island) have been important branches for centuries.

Korčula enjoys a mild and pleasant Mediterranean climate, enabling you to enjoy your visit to Korčula regardless of the period. The regional road connects major places on the island. Ferry lines connect the island of Korčula with the mainland. The most common ferry with regular departures and arrivals is from Orebić. Naturists, who like to sunbath and swim on isolated spots will find an many beaches around Korčula, with unpolluted spots and the clear blue sea. Recommended excursions: the old settlement Žrnovo and the village Pupnat with its traditional rural architecture, Old Town Korčula, Lumbarda and trip to Badija (small island close to Korčula).

How to find us: from the ferry port Korčula, drive a few kilometers on the local road Korčula - Racisce. From the ferry port Vela Luka, drive 47 km on the island's main road from Vela Luka to Korčula, turn on the local road Korčula - Racisce that leads to Žrnovska Banja. Apartment Vesela is located in the picturesque, quiet and protected bay of Žrnovska Banja on Island Korčula, only 2 km from old town Korčula, the reputed home town of the legendary traveler Marco Polo. Žrnovska banja is a small oasis situated on the eastern part of the island and has a grocery store, restaurant, boat and bike rental, and organized boat tours of the surroundings. Here you will find a peaceful and quiet place to spend your vacation. Enjoy our warm hospitality and comfortable accommodations while exploring Korčula town and many other interesting places. Numerous monuments, small picturesque villages, clean and unpolluted environment and the crystal clear sea with endless "hidden" bays and beaches offer something for everyone. Long walks along the shore or countryside are both very pleasant while providing a "glimpse" of the culture and tradition this island cherishes.

LOCATION - VILLAGE HOUSE VESELA

Village House Vesela is located in the attractive village Žrnovo, situated on the continental side of the island, decorated by slender cypresses and four kilometers from old town Korčula. Žrnovo lies on the road between Korčula and Vela Luka and consists of four hamlets: Prvo Selo, Brdo, Kampus and Postrana. The small fishing village of Bania and the Bila Glavica agricultural area also belong to Žrnovo.  Situated away from the sea and well-protected from pirates, this area was first inhabited by Illyrian's. The 16th century parish church of Sveti Martin is situated on the hill of Mratinovo and is known for its church tower surrounded by ancient pine trees. Sveti Roko's Church in Postrana also features nice views from its big round stone terrace with very old trees. The church of Sveti Vid is the oldest church in Žrnovo and one of the oldest in the region (from around 1300). Numerous small paths make this area a favorite spot for those who like to take long walks along this picturesque countryside.The traditional dance - Mostra is performed in front of Sveti Vid church, as are other local festivities. Another item of interest in Žrnovo is the great number of Dalmatian stone boundary-walls "meje" which support the terraced vineyards. One of the best known and best-preserved "Kaštel" in Žrnovo is in Postrana. It belonged to the respected diplomat Jakov Baničević (1466-1532), a friend of Erazmus of Rotterdam. The inhabitants of Žrnovo, from ancient times until today, were very skilled and talented craftsmen, especially stonecutters and builders. However, they never abandoned their passion for wine making. Terrace like stone walls leap across the countryside, enclosing the soil that nourished this ancient Mediterranean culture. Not far from the Žrnovo hamlet of Brdo above the cove of Vrbovica lies Kočije, an area of chalk dolomites of various forms and a fresh water well. This is a very attractive excursion point and is easily accessible.

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