■ 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.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Ministry of National Defense said today. Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections. China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises. "The current scale is
RSS