■ REAL ESTATE
US foreclosures set record
US home foreclosures spiked to a record high between July and September as a national housing downturn worsened, a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Thursday showed. The MBA projects that 1.5 million homes will be repossessed this year. "Conditions in the housing finance market continue to deteriorate," the MBA's chief economist Doug Duncan said. The percentage of home loans in the foreclosure process was 1.69 percent of all home loans outstanding at the end of the third quarter, the MBA said. The rate jumped from 1.40 percent in the second quarter. "The rate of foreclosure starts and the percent of loans in the process of foreclosure are at the highest levels ever," the MBA said.
■ JAPAN
Economic growth slows
Japan's economy grew less than originally thought in the third quarter because of a downward revision in corporate capital investment, the government said yesterday. The economy expanded at a 1.5 percent annual pace in the July-September quarter, worse than the preliminary estimate of 2.6 percent, figures released by the Cabinet Office showed. "Inventories were a big contributor to the downward revision to the GDP," Minister of Economic Policy Hiroko Ota said at a regular press conference. "Capital expenditure also negatively affected" the data. The government also revised its figures for the April-June quarter to show the economy had contracted 1.8 percent versus 1.6 percent as originally reported.
■ JAPAN
Cartel to shut down
Japan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday that tire-maker Bridgestone Corp and four foreign companies had been operating a cartel in the sales of rubber marine hoses. The commission plans to issue an administrative order to the companies to end the cartel, which aims to raise prices of hoses for use in transporting crude oil from tankers to storage, a FTC official said. It will be the first such order to foreign companies to end a cartel, he said. The four other companies are Dunlop Oil and Marine of Britain, a unit of Trelleborg of Sweden, and Parker ITR and Manuli Rubber Industries of Italy.
■ BEVERAGES
Coca-Cola CEO to retire
The Coca-Cola Company said on Thursday that chief executive Neville Isdell will step down in the middle of next year after four years and will be succeeded by his No. 2, Muhtar Kent. The transition at the top of the world's largest beverages company will take place on July 1. The company said its board had approved Isdell's recommendation "for an evolution of the company's leadership structure." The statement did not say why Isdell, 64, was relinquishing the chief executive post. After a long career with Coca-Cola, he returned to the company from retirement in June 2004 as chief executive and chairman.
■ AVIATION
Boeing mulls next `737'
Boeing Co will decide on a plan to replace its popular 737 aircraft by 2012 at the latest, spokeswoman Sandy Anger said on Thursday. The company started seriously considering a successor for the 737 last year. Anger said Boeing "must ensure it has the right set of breakthrough technologies in engines, aerodynamics, materials and other systems" to top the 737's efficiency. She said a replacement for the 737 "sometime in the middle of the next decade -- give or take a couple of years.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique