■REAL ESTATE
Trump mulls India project
Donald Trump Jr., the son of New York-based developer Donald Trump, said the Trump Organization is considering investing in an India project in 12 to 18 months. "I would like to take advantage of hotels and resorts coming up for future investment," Trump Jr. said at a real estate conference in Mumbai yesterday. Trump aims to focus on hotels, resorts and high-end homes in India, he said. India's real estate sector is expected to grow to US$90 billion by 2015 from US$12 billion now, estimates by Moody's Investors Service showed. The South Asian nation faces a shortage of about 25 million housing units, government data showed.
■ HEALTHCARE
Mediators table proposal
Mediators trying to prevent a mass resignation by Finnish nurses over a pay dispute have come up with a proposal likely to help end a crisis threatening the healthcare system, union officials said on Sunday. If ratified by both the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (TEHY) and the Local Authority Employers the agreement would stop 16,000 nurses from quitting and spare the healthcare system from potential paralysis. "There is a unanimous mediator committee proposal," TEHY regional head Helena Leppanen said. "We know our negotiators would not come out with one [proposal] that was not acceptable among our members."
■ BANKING
UK minister mulls bank aid
Advisors to British Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Alistair Darling are preparing a plan to continue an emergency loan to troubled bank Northern Rock despite EU rules limiting the period it can receive state aid, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported on Sunday. They are working on a scheme which would allow all or part of the £25 billion (US$51 billion) Bank of England loan to be extended indefinitely, it said. Under EU rules, Northern Rock cannot receive state aid beyond Feb. 17, but lawyers are looking at bypassing that stipulation by changing the status of the cash to restructuring aid, the paper said.
■ OIL
Prices up on supply worries
Oil prices were higher in Asia yesterday as traders again fretted over tight energy supplies with the northern hemisphere winter approaching, dealers said. Indications that OPEC is not about to raise output were also propping up prices, they said. "If one looks at the fundamentals, the market is tight," said Victor Shum, a Singapore-based analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz. "That is why the crude futures are showing fresh signs of strength," he said. In afternoon trade New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was US$0.92 higher at US$94.76 a barrel from US$93.84 in US trades on Friday. The December contract expired Friday, closing US$1.67 higher at US$95.10.
■ GAMING
Sony slashes software price
Sony Corp, the world's largest maker of video-game players, halved the price of a software program package used to develop titles for its PlayStation 3 console yesterday. The package, known as "reference tool," is now priced at ¥950,000 (US$8,600) in Japan and US$10,250 in the US, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, the Tokyo-based company's game unit, said in a statement.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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