Foreign investment in China falls in November (AP)

SHANGHAI ? Foreign direct investment in China fell for the first time since 2009 in November, by nearly 10 percent, as weakness in the U.S. and crisis-stricken Europe takes a growing toll on the country's growth.

The $8.8 billion in foreign investment in November was down 9.8 percent from a year earlier, the Commerce Ministry reported. Foreign investment in October climbed 8.8 percent from the year before.

The number of newly approved foreign ventures in November fell 12.9 percent from a year earlier to 2,718, the ministry said.

Foreign direct investment covers spending on physical assets such as factories and excludes financial assets such as stocks.

Actual investment in January through November rose 13.2 percent to $103.8 billion ? slowing from the 15.9 percent increase seen in January to October, when total foreign direct investment was $95 billion.

Investment from the U.S. has dropped 23 percent this year, as of the end of November, to $2.74 billion, though spending by other regions grew or held steady, the ministry said.

Investment from the European Union edged up 0.3 percent from a year earlier to $5.98 billion while investment from Asia jumped 18 percent to $89.6 billion.

In assessing China's trade situation, ministry spokesman Shen Danyang said weak demand due to Europe's debt crisis means China's exporters will face "very severe" conditions in coming months.

The ministry reported a surge in trade with other emerging markets such as Brazil and Russia. China has said it will focus more on boosting exports to those countries to help offset weakness in the West.

___

Online:

China Ministry of Commerce: http://www.mofcom.gov.cn

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_foreign_investment

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India holds rates steady on growth concerns

(AP) ? India's central bank held key interest rates steady as it struggles to foster growth amid high inflation, and took steps to curb currency speculation, lifting the rupee from all-time lows Friday.

The Reserve Bank of India kept the short-term lending rate, or repo rate, at 8.5 percent and the reverse repo rate ? the rate it pays to banks for deposits, at 7.5 percent. The bank also kept the cash reserve ratio for commercial lenders unchanged at 6.0 percent.

"Downside risks to growth have clearly increased," the bank said in a statement. "However, it must be emphasized that inflation risks remain high."

Ambushed by a horde of reporters Friday, RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao declined to say when the bank would start lowering rates.

"I cannot speculate on the timing because I don't know," he said.

Growth slipped to a two-year low of 6.9 percent in the September quarter and industrial production fell 5.1 percent in October, its first contraction since June 2009. But inflation remains above 9 percent.

The bank's 13 rate hikes since March 2010 have kept it out of step with many other emerging economies, which have started to ease monetary policy as global growth slows.

The Reserve Bank noted that Brazil, Indonesia, Israel and Thailand have all cut their policy rates, while China cut reserve requirements.

In India, the Reserve Bank has been waging a lonely ? and largely ineffective ? fight on inflation. New Delhi has failed to back the bank with fiscal consolidation or enact difficult policy changes that could unlock supply-side bottlenecks, pushing down prices and unleashing growth.

India is largely a cash economy, so rate hikes have little direct impact on most consumer demand. They do, however, hit investment, which can curtail supply and make inflation even worse.

"You've killed investment," said Jay Shankar, chief economist at Religare Capital Markets. "Supply responses have weakened significantly. Demand has not weakened. That's leading to inflation pressures."

He said "virtually nothing" is being done on the fiscal side to contain inflation.

He said by restoring excise and customs duties to the levels they were at before the 2008 global financial crisis, India could bring its fiscal deficit down from about 5.7 percent of GDP to 4.7 percent of GDP.

The central bank is now under enormous pressure from New Delhi and business leaders, who want a quick, politically expedient fix for flagging growth.

Businesses said they were disappointed Friday that the bank hadn't taken more drastic action.

"I would like to see RBI do a major rate cut now," B. Muthuraman, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry and vice chairman of Tata Steel, told CNBC-TV18 before the policy decision.

He said he would have liked the bank to cut rates by half a percentage point and reduce the cash reserve ratio to boost lending. That would help small and medium sized businesses ? which are crucial to jobs and output in India's manufacturing sector ? get more affordable financing to grow.

"Government inaction is a big cause of concern for industry," Muthuraman said, citing coal shortages, land acquisition difficulties and slow decision making. "We can have a growth rate in excess of 8 percent, if only we'd had reforms. It's a very sad story."

The rupee, which has been trading at record lows, strengthened Friday, after the central bank took to steps to curb speculation.

Since U.S. debt was downgraded Aug. 5, the rupee has fallen about 17 percent, breaching 54 to the dollar on Thursday.

Shankar said the depreciation of the rupee was alarming because of its speed, not its magnitude. India's inflation has been higher than that of its trading partners, so the rupee's depreciation normalizes inflation-adjusted exchange rates, helping Indian exporters, he said.

The bank has stopped short of massive intervention to prop up the currency, but it has lifted foreign investment limits in debt, raised rate ceilings on nonresident bank deposits, and enacted administrative measures to discourage speculation. Traders say the bank has also been selling dollars.

Meanwhile, India's NDTV reported that pilgrims in the southern city of Hyderabad were praying for divine intervention to stop the rupee's slide.

"All that the measures have done is to restrict the pace of INR depreciation," HDFC chief economist Abheek Barua said Friday. "The turn in the INR will only come once European sovereign concerns subside."

The rupee was at 52.8 in afternoon trade in Mumbai on Friday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-16-AS-India-Economy/id-a658bd59c23c4176840c568c1be3d819

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'Dictator' Trailer: Sacha Baron Cohen Takes On Obama, Kardashians And More

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Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/14/dictator-trailer-sacha-baron-cohen-obama-kardashians/

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Croat's Christmas now comes with a million lights (Reuters)

GRABOVNICA, Croatia (Reuters) ? Zlatko Salaj has come a long way from the bleak Christmases of his youth.

The 67-year old former telecommunications engineer has turned his country estate in Grabovnica, central Croatia, into a festival of light and color that attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Starting in 2002 with 70,000 light bulbs hung on each of the hundreds of small trees and shrubs on his 7-hectare (17 acres) estate, Salaj has this year lit 1.2 million lights, many in the shape of Santa Claus, his sleigh and reindeer.

"My childhood was really... we were poor. My father had a mill but it was destroyed in World War Two. On top of that, my mother left us when I was four so father and I ended up alone," he told Reuters.

After a career spent abroad, mostly in the Middle East and Africa, Salaj returned home and set about the project, which he named "Christmas Story."

"It was a sensation in the whole region, particularly for children. People asked me how many lights I would use the following year and I said '100,000'. So the number grew more and more each year."

He and his family laid 5 km (3 miles) of underground electricity cables and almost 180 km of wires placed on trees and shrubs. Every year he takes almost three months to prepare and another three to dismantle the decoration.

The electricity bill for last December alone totaled some 70,000 kuna ($12,500) so Salaj started charging a small entry fee, but has no intention of stopping.

"God willing, we might have a nice surprise for Easter," he said.

($1 = 5.5999 Croatian kunas)

(Reporting by David Spaic Kovacic, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111212/lf_nm_life/us_croatia_christmas

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Clue found to seizures that cause giggles

Link Information - Click to View

Clue found to seizures that cause giggles
Scientists have pinpointed the part of the brain linked with seizures that cause fits of laughter, a discovery that one day may provide better understanding of why and how we laugh.

Source: MSNBC
Posted on: Tuesday, Dec 06, 2011, 8:00am
Views: 7

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115764/Clue_found_to_seizures_that_cause_giggles

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Rosie O'Donnell engaged to girlfriend

FILE - In this April 11, 2011 file photo, television personality Rosie O'Donnell attends the New York Women in Communications' 2011 Matrix Awards in New York. O?Donnell and her girlfriend, Michelle Rounds, are engaged. O?Donnell?s publicist and a spokesman for the Oprah Winfrey Network say the host of ?The Rosie Show? told her studio audience about the engagement Monday during a commercial break. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

FILE - In this April 11, 2011 file photo, television personality Rosie O'Donnell attends the New York Women in Communications' 2011 Matrix Awards in New York. O?Donnell and her girlfriend, Michelle Rounds, are engaged. O?Donnell?s publicist and a spokesman for the Oprah Winfrey Network say the host of ?The Rosie Show? told her studio audience about the engagement Monday during a commercial break. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

(AP) ? Rosie O'Donnell and her girlfriend, Michelle Rounds, are engaged.

O'Donnell's publicist and a spokesman for the Oprah Winfrey Network say the host of "The Rosie Show" told her studio audience about the engagement Monday during a commercial break. The Emmy Award-winning talk show host's new program debuted in September. She tapes in Winfrey's former Chicago studio.

Rounds is a 40-year-old headhunter for an information technology company. O'Donnell is a mother of four and was previously married. She and former partner Kelli Carpenter publicly wed in San Francisco in 2004, two weeks after the mayor authorized granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The licenses were later voided by the California Supreme Court.

O'Donnell's publicist says a wedding date hasn't been set.

___

Online: http://www.rosie.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-05-US-People-Rosie-O'Donnell/id-05d9a76f538842c7abdd090b3fc09352

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VA4R9dw63dY/ivy-bridge-benchmarks-specifications-and-q2-2012-release-date-leak

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Holiday Shopping: Will Cyber Monday Outshine Black Friday? (Time.com)

Art Collective Melts Modelling Clay into Stunning Portraits [Art]

Jackson Pollock is one of my favorite artists—the depth and delicateness of his paint dribblings is simply sublime. Argentinian art collective Mondongo carries on his artistic legacy but without paint. Instead, they use Plasticine—melted modelling clay. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/6WsknZCPl_M/art-collective-melts-modelling-clay-into-stunning-portraits

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