China factory sector shrinks first time in nearly 3 years (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's factory sector shrank in November in the face of weakening demand both at home and abroad, two surveys showed on Thursday, underlining the central bank's move to cut bank reserve requirements to shore up the economy.

The official and HSBC purchasing managers' indexes are likely to feed worries that the global economy is on a slippery slope as the euro zone is marred by its debt crisis, reinforcing expectations that China will ease policy further.

The official PMI released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) fell to 49 in November from October's 50.4, suggesting activity among big manufacturers shrank in November for the first time in nearly three years, or since the global financial crisis.

The reading was below the median forecast of 50 in a Reuters poll. That level demarcates expansion from contraction.

"The November PMI dropped further to below the boom-bust line of 50... indicates that the economic growth pace would continue to moderate in the future," Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Centre of the State Council, wrote in the CFLP statement.

The CFLP said the sub-index for new orders fell to 47.8 in November from 50.5 in October, while the sub-index for new export orders dipped to 45.6 in November from October's 48.6. Both sets of figures suggest the domestic and overseas new order books are shrinking.

Meanwhile, the HSBC China PMI dropped to a 32-month low of 47.7 in November from October's 51. A sub-index for new orders skidded to a 32-month low of 45 from 52.6 in October.

"The November PMI final reading points to a sharp deterioration in business conditions across the Chinese manufacturing sector," said Qu Hongbin, China economist at HSBC.

In one bright sign though, new export orders in the HSBC survey, geared more to smaller and private-sector factories, was comfortably above 50, suggesting growth.

China's economic expansion has been slowing all this year as Europe and the United States -- China's top two export markets -- have struggled to recover from the global financial crisis in 2008-2009.

In addition to global headwinds, China's once red-hot real estate sector is slowing down as home prices and sales fall.

China's central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for its commercial lenders on Wednesday for the first time in nearly three years to ease credit strains and shore up an economy running at its weakest pace since 2009.

The reserve cut, effective Dec 5, reduces the ratio for the biggest banks to 21 percent from a record high 21.5 percent, freeing up funds that could be used for lending to cash-strapped small firms. Analysts said they expect further cuts in bank reserves.

FALLING INFLATION

The positive side of the surveys was that inflationary pressures in China could ease further, creating more room for the central bank to relax policy to support growth.

"We can see that the central bank is actually increasing the magnitude of policy easing, although it is still early to call it a comprehensive loosening," said Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura.

The prices sub-index of the official PMI fell to 44.4 from October's 46.2.

China's annual consumer inflation dipped to 5.5 percent in October from September's 6.1 percent, pulling back further from July's three-year peak of 6.5 percent.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, forecast that inflation will fall below 5 percent before the end of this year as food price pressures ease, the Economic Daily reported on Nov 14.

The HSBC PMI for November came in lower than its flash number released late in November and based on 90 percent of responses.

Then flash reading of 48 implied annual industrial output growth of 11-12 percent, HSBC said, a pace not seen since 2009 when China was pulling out of the global crisis.

Factory output, which accounts for 40 percent of gross domestic product, hit its weakest pace in a year in October, even though expansion in the first 10 months of 2011 averaged 14.1 percent.

(Reporting by Aileen Wang and Kevin Yao; Editing by Ken Wills and Neil Fullick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111201/bs_nm/us_china_economy_pmi

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Finnish triple murderer caught after prison escape (AP)

HELSINKI ? Finnish police say they have caught a triple murderer who walked out of a low-security prison last week a month ahead of his scheduled release ? the sixth time he has escaped custody.

Detective Chief Inspector Tero Murman says Nikita Fouganthine was apprehended in a car in Helsinki on Thursday and did not resist arrest.

Fouganthine was convicted in Sweden of the 1988 murders of a father, mother and son, and was transferred to serve out his life sentence in his native Finland.

He escaped several times but in 2009 officials said he had changed his ways and commuted his sentence. He was released but was imprisoned again after breaking his parole.

Murman said Fouganthine will serve the rest of his sentence in a prison with more security.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_re_eu/eu_finland_triple_murderer

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Alec Baldwin Will Be A Town Car Friendly Mayor

Alec ?What?s in your wallet?? Baldwin wants to run for mayor ? so he can keep motorists from blocking his Town Car. The ?30 Rock? star was caught on camera Monday night cajoling security at an event to shoo away idling limos blocking his own ride. Fuming Baldwin was seen stalking the row of limos [...]

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Romney the 1st GOP candidate to plant flag in Fla. (AP)

MIAMI ? If there's any Republican presidential candidate who can afford to spend precious time and money focusing on winning in Florida, it's the one campaigning in the state Tuesday.

While others focus on Iowa's caucuses or the early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Mitt Romney spent the morning welcoming endorsements from three top Cuban-American Republicans. He was set to attend several fundraisers and visit the port in Tampa to discuss trade policy.

It's the only early primary state Romney is visiting this week, little more than a month before voters start weighing in on the GOP nominating contest, in Iowa. It's also critical in the race against President Barack Obama, putting Romney in a key battleground state a day after Democrats started spending money to run attack ads against him.

"They don't want to see me as the nominee, that's for sure," Romney told reporters Tuesday. "It shows that they're awfully afraid of facing me in the general election. They want to throw the primary process to anybody but me, but bring it on. We're ready for them."

He announced endorsements from Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart and his brother, former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, among others. They underscore his strengths going into the Jan. 31 Florida primary and would help him appeal to Hispanics in the state should he become the nominee. The Cuban exile community in the Miami area is an important constituency group for Republicans and the three, who endorsed Sen. John McCain over Romney in 2008, are longtime leaders here.

Romney's also racked up support from a list of other establishment Florida politicians, including former Sen. Connie Mack and Sen. Mel Martinez.

Contrast that with his rivals, who have spent most of the primary campaign jockeying to become the consensus conservative alternative to the former Massachusetts governor ? and probably need to win at least one earlier-than-Florida primary to stand a chance of competing with Romney.

Newt Gingrich is spending three days in South Carolina this week. Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman are campaigning in New Hampshire. Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann are in Iowa. Herman Cain is scheduled to make stops in Michigan and Ohio, though his campaign is now battling new accusations that he had an extramarital affair.

"It's almost like every other campaign is focused on this slingshot strategy with having to win one or two other states and then coming into Florida with momentum," said Brett Doster, who ran former President George W. Bush's reelection campaign in Florida and is now advising Romney.

The mechanics of winning here play directly to Romney's strengths as a candidate. He's shown discomfort with the hand-to-hand retail politicking that's critical in other early states but isn't effective in a state of nearly 19 million people. He's sitting on the kind of cash it takes to run TV ads here ? nearly $1.5 million per week for a buy in all 10 of the state's media markets ? and keep raising it.

He can't afford to neglect Florida. Although he has a significant lead in New Hampshire, he's vulnerable in Iowa and South Carolina. His advisers have long said performing well in Florida is critical for his campaign.

Almost all of Romney's rivals, on the other hand, acknowledge they're barely thinking about Florida.

"This race hasn't come to Florida yet," said Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond. Gingrich's first priority is South Carolina, where he's hired nearly a dozen people and opened several campaign offices.

"Iowa and New Hampshire and the earliest states are priorities for the governor's time and our campaign," said Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan.

"We felt all along that Iowa was going to be our priority from day number one," said Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart. "As to when and how we campaign in Florida will be decided after the caucuses."

Most of the Republican field did gather here for three days of events surrounding a debate and a straw poll at the end of September. But since then, Bachmann and Perry haven't come back for public events. Huntsman moved his campaign headquarters from Orlando to Manchester, N.H.

Cain, who won the straw poll, was in Miami earlier this month, where he visited a restaurant in Little Havana that's a frequent stop for political candidates. But he's dogged by allegations of sexual harassment and now an extramarital affair, and has suffered in polls for it.

The straw poll was a setback for Perry. Still, he pays a staff of 11 in the state and has worked to cultivate relationships with tea party leaders. He's also hired a national campaign team that has significant Florida experience. But Perry hasn't been back since September, and a series of bad debate performances has hampered his fundraising and ability to compete here.

Romney didn't compete in the poll, though he attended the debate. He has five paid staffers working for him out of a state campaign headquarters in Tampa ? also the site of the Republican National Convention next summer. He's campaigned here periodically since announcing his candidacy in June.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_el_pr/us_campaign_florida

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EU defense ministers may endorse pooling resources (AP)

BRUSSELS ? EU defense ministers are considering whether to pool and share military resources as austerity measures due to the European debt crisis bite into national defense budgets, officials said Wednesday.

Another cost-saving measure that ministers will consider at their meeting Wednesday is cutting the EU peacekeeping force in Bosnia from 1,400 members to 600, officials said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with customary policy.

The 27-nation bloc collectively has the second-largest defense budget in the world, amounting to nearly euro200 billion ($265 billion). But military spending has already shrunk 15 percent in the past decade and is set to plunge further in the next several years.

Making matters worse for European armies, the fragmentation of national military commands and defense industries has made it almost impossible to achieve economies of scale in the procurement of military equipment.

In the past decade, troops from EU nations have operated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa but they have relied mainly on the U.S. for logistical, intelligence and other support.

Officials who briefed journalists said areas where savings could be quickly realized include standardizing air-to-air refueling fleets, creating joint medical field hospitals, setting up a common a pilot training program, and jointly procuring items like smart munitions from European manufacturers.

Although the EU nations have about 1.6 million men and women under arms, they have been hard-pressed to generate troops and military equipment for overseas missions.

Officials have pointed to the newly launched European Air Transport Command, saying it could serve as an example of how greater integration in strategic transport can result in savings on maintenance and the training of air crews.

The multinational command, based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, coordinates the air activities of a number of air forces with over 200 transport aircraft. The new Airbus A400M strategic freighter is due to become the backbone of the combined European fleet, with nearly 200 scheduled to enter service in eight EU air forces.

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Follow Slobodan Lekic on Twitter at http://twitter.com/slekich

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_eu_defense_ministers

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