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MUMBAI (Reuters) ? The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said inflation remains "sticky" even though risks to growth have risen, while weakening investment imperils growth for the next fiscal year, complicating its policymaking task a day before it is expected to raise interest rates.

Tuesday's forecast rate increase by the RBI would be its 13th since March 2010.

"The baseline inflation path still remains sticky and broadly unchanged from earlier projections. On the other hand, growth risks have increased on account of global headwinds and domestic factors," the central bank noted on Monday in its quarterly report on macroeconomic and monetary developments.

India's economy grew at 7.7 percent in the June quarter, its weakest pace in six quarters, but inflation came in at 9.7 percent in September despite monetary policy tightening that has made the RBI one of the most aggressive central banks anywhere over the last year-and-a-half.

It said it was "inevitable" that some growth would be sacrificed in a high inflation environment.

Of 30 analysts polled last week by Reuters, 17 expect the Reserve Bank of India to increase the key lending rate by 25 basis points on Tuesday, while 13 expect it to hold the rate steady. The forecasts were among the most balanced in recent quarters.

"The language has definitely softened," said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda in Mumbai.

"Earlier, language used to stress more on management of inflation alone," she said, adding that Monday's report reinforces her expectation that the central bank will leave rates on hold on Tuesday.

The central bank said investment demand is softening due to tighter monetary policy, impediments to completing big projects, weakening business confidence and a slowing global economy.

It said planned investment in new projects has fallen "significantly" since the second half of the fiscal year that ended in March, and remained low in the April-June quarter, when project finance data from 33 banks showed a 44 percent drop-off in loan approvals from a year earlier.

"Consequently, the pipeline of investment is likely to shrink, putting growth in 2012-13 at risk," the RBI's report said. The 2012-13 fiscal year starts in April 2012.

Since March 2010, the RBI has raised the repo rate , its policy interest rate, by a total of 350 basis points to 8.25 percent, and its recent hawkishness has made it an outlier at a time when central banks elsewhere are focused on boosting growth.

Whatever the RBI does on Tuesday, it is then widely expected to leave rates on hold for the remainder of the fiscal year.

However, inflation remains well above the RBI's March 2012 projection of 7 percent, and the central bank noted that the recent decline in the rupee, which is down more than 13 percent against the dollar since its 2011 peak in late July, adds a new source of inflationary pressure.

The central bank said India was unlikely to benefit significantly from a decline in global commodity prices, given domestic subsidies that partly insulated it from earlier high prices.

It said domestic food inflation remains high due to demand-supply mismatches in non-cereal crops and upward revisions in government price minimums.

The RBI's perceived comfort zone for inflation is 4-4.5 percent.

"Domestic price pressures still remain significant and broad-based," the RBI noted.

(Editing by Malini Menon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/india_nm/india600925

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BEIJING ? China says trade with its close ally North Korea nearly doubled in the first seven months of the year compared with the same period in 2010.

The official Xinhua News Agency says the 87 percent increase was announced Sunday at the start of a visit to the North by Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang that reaffirms strong ties between the two countries.

North Korea relies heavily on China for food and fuel aid, as well as many ordinary consumer products. Chinese companies are the main investors in North Korean mining operations, and the sides recently signed agreements on road building and jointly developing an industrial park on an island near the Chinese city of Dandong.

Xinhua gave no other details in its report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_nkorea

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BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) ? U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Sunday lauded China for its measured reaction to the latest U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which has triggered harsh words from Beijing but, at least so far, apparently nothing else.

Past U.S. arms sales to Taiwan have prompted Beijing to temporarily cut-off ties with the U.S. military, as happened after last year's $6.4 billion arms package. China deems the self-ruled island an illegitimate breakaway from Beijing's rule that must accept eventual reunification.

But last month's U.S. announcement of a $5.85 billion arms package for Taiwan, including upgrades to F-16 A/B fighter aircraft, has been different, Panetta said.

"I've heard nothing that indicates that they're taking any steps in reaction to that," Panetta told reporters on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, where he will meet Southeast Asian defense ministers later on Sunday.

"As a matter of fact, I guess I would commend them for the way they've handled the news of that sale to Taiwan ... I think they handled it in a professional and diplomatic way -- and we appreciate that."

Panetta suggested a U.S. informal "heads up" to Beijing before the public announcement of the sale may have played a role. He said he hoped to visit China as soon as possible -- but added he had no timeline yet to do so.

Panetta's comments on China came during his first trip to Asia since taking over the Pentagon's top job in July, and at a moment of uncertainty in the region over the implications of China's military buildup and its territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

U.S. DEFENSE SPENDING CUTS

Chinese military advances come as the U.S. Congress is cutting the Pentagon's budget, and Panetta, who is due to visit Japan on Monday, acknowledged concerns among U.S. allies in the region that America's belt-tightening could affect its military's posture in the Pacific.

"There's no question that those concerns have been expressed. And the purpose of my visit is to make very clear to this region, and to our allies in the Pacific, that ... the Pacific will remain a key priority," Panetta, a former CIA director, said.

The U.S. military is facing at least $450 billion in defense spending cuts over the next decade, and some U.S. lawmakers have seized upon China's buildup as one of the reasons to oppose further reductions.

Speaking to U.S. forces in Italy earlier this month, Panetta cited his concerns about China as he explained plans to keep a strong U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

"In the Pacific, we're concerned about China. The most important thing we can do is to project our force into the Pacific," he said.

"To have our carriers there, to have our fleet there, to be able to make very clear to China that we are going to protect international rights to be able to move across the oceans freely."

Panetta leaves for Japan on Monday before continuing to South Korea on Wednesday, two countries where the U.S. military has a combined total of around 80,000 troops deployed.

(Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111023/wl_nm/us_usa_china_taiwan

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bretthoganxy · ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) ? Culture is not a trait that is unique to humans. By studying orangutan populations, a team of researchers headed by anthropologist Michael Kr?tzen from the University of Zurich has demonstrated that great apes also have the ability to learn socially and pass them down through a great many generations. The researchers provide the first evidence that culture in humans and great apes has the same evolutionary roots, thus answering the contentious question as to whether variation in behavioral patterns in orangutans are culturally driven, or caused by genetic factors and environmental influences.

In humans, behavioral innovations are usually passed down culturally from one generation to the next through social learning. For many, the existence of culture in humans is the key adaptation that sets us apart from animals. Whether culture is unique to humans or has deeper evolutionary roots, however, remains one of the unsolved questions in science. About ten years ago, biologists who had been observing great apes in the wild reported a geographic variation of behavior patterns that could only have come about through the cultural transmission of innovations, much like in humans. The observation triggered an intense debate among scientists that is still ongoing. To this day, it is still disputed whether the geographical variation in behavior is culturally driven or the result of genetic factors and environmental influences.

Humans are not the only ones to exhibit culture

Anthropologists from the University of Zurich have now studied whether the geographic variation of behavioral patterns in nine orangutan populations in Sumatra and Borneo can be explained by cultural transmission. "This is the case; the cultural interpretation of the behavioral diversity also holds for orangutans -- and in exactly the same way as we would expect for human culture," explains Michael Kr?tzen, the first author of the study just published in Current Biology. The researchers show that genetic factors or environmental influences cannot explain the behavior patterns in orangutan populations. The ability to learn things socially and pass them on evolved over many generations; not just in humans but also apes. "It looks as if the ability to act culturally is dictated by the long life expectancy of apes and the necessity to be able to adapt to changing environmental conditions," Kr?tzen adds, concluding that, "Now we know that the roots of human culture go much deeper than previously thought. Human culture is built on a solid foundation that is many millions of years old and is shared with the other great apes."

Largest dataset for any great ape species

In their study, the researchers used the largest dataset ever compiled for a great ape species. They analyzed over 100,000 hours of behavioral data, created genetic profiles for over 150 wild orangutans and measured ecological differences between the populations using satellite imagery and advanced remote sensing techniques. "The novelty of our study," says co-author Carel van Schaik, "is that, thanks to the unprecedented size of our dataset, we were the first to gauge the influence genetics and environmental factors have on the different behavioral patterns among the orangutan populations."

When the authors examined the parameters responsible for differences in social structure and behavioral ecology between orangutan populations, environmental influences and, to a lesser degree, genetic factors played an important role, proving that the parameters measured were the right ones. This, in turn, was pivotal in the main question as to whether genetic factors or environmental influences can explain the behavioral patterns in orangutan populations. "That wasn't the case. As a result, we could prove that a cultural interpretation for behavioral diversity also holds true for orangutans," van Schaik concludes.

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Journal Reference:

Michael Kr?tzen, Erik P. Willems, and Carel P. van Schaik. Culture and Geographic Variation in Orangutan Behaviour. Current Biology, October 20, 2011 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.09.017

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020122313.htm

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