Reinforcements have been arriving in Swat as a peace pact collapsed and fighting has intensified since Wednesday.Authorities agreed in February to a Taliban demand for Islamic sharia law in the valley but the militants refused to disarm, and pushed out of Swat closer to the capital.(For a graphic on Pakistan see URL: here )(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony and Kamran Haider; Writing by Jerry Norton; Editing by Robert Birsel and Jeremy Laurence) World. * Starts revert to downward trend set last year Global Markets * Urban multiples tumbles 32.7 pct * Single family home starts fall 8.7 pct (Adds background and analysts’ comment) By Ka Yan Ng TORONTO, May 8 (Reuters) – Canadian housing starts fell19.9 percent in April from March, returning to a downward trendthat began last year, largely on a sharp drop in constructionof condos. Housing starts dropped to a seasonally adjusted annualizedrate of 117,400 units from a revised 146,500 units in March,Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp said. The March figure was originally reported at 154,700 units,which broke a six-month losing string of falling starts. The number of starts for April were well below the averageforecast of economists polled by Reuters who had called for140,000 starts. “New home construction is now at a more sustainable levelafter having been exceptionally strong over the past sevenyears, exceeding 200,000 units per year,” the CMHC said.
April’s reversal for starts came as no surprise to themarket after a surprisingly robust March, and the trenddownwards is expected to go on for some time. “At the end of the day, the economic fundamentals continueto point to further weakness in Canadian housing activity, andas such we believe the level of starts could continue to beunder pressure,” Ian Pollick, an economics strategist at TDSecurities, said in a note to clients. The Canadian dollar was relatively unchanged by the report,having been sandwiched by the top tier data ofbetter-than-expected Canadian and U.S. jobs reports.[ID:nN08444159] Still, economists said the silver lining of falling housingstarts is that inventory will be contained during therecession. “On the upside, during a recession one does not want to seethe building sector dumping new supply onto an alreadydepressed market place,” Stewart Hall, an HSBC Securitieseconomist, said in a statement. Urban single family home starts had a much milder drop of8.7 percent to 42,100 units in April. But it was the urban multiples component that drove thenumber of overall starts lower.
New construction of multipledwellings, such as condos, tumbled 32.7 percent to an annualrate of 54,700 units in April. Most of the decline occurred in the condominium segment inOntario, the country’s most populous province. The provincealso led all regions in lower new home construction for themonth with a 43.7 percent drop in April. Atlantic Canada followed with a 16 percent drop in starts,while Quebec fell 7.1 percent in Quebec. The Prairies reporteda 3.0 percent fall in new home construction. Only British Columbia edged higher with a 1 percentincrease in urban starts. Rural starts were estimated at an annual rate of 20,600units in April.
(Reporting by Ka Yan Ng; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson) Global Markets. FLORHAM PARK, N.J., May 8 /PRNewswire/ — OTC Perspectives Magazine, the newpublication created by industry experts for consumer healthcare marketers, hasnamed its inaugural list of “The Top OTC/Healthcare Marketers of the Year.”The 2009 list includes marketers from both established and upstartmanufacturers, with Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and Novartis ConsumerHealth among the companies with multiple Top Marketer selections (see completelist below). Overall, marketers representing 13 companies have been awardedthe prestigious OTC Perspectives’ Top Marketers honor.”These outstanding consumer healthcare marketing professionals are this year’stop contributors to the advancement of both consumer health and the bottomline via informative, leading edge marketing communications,” said DTCPerspectives Inc chairman Robert Ehrlich. The inaugural Top Marketers’members were selected after an industry-wide nomination and rigorous screeningprocess.