NEW YORK U.S. home prices tumbled in April at the fastest rate because that a widely followed index was begun in 2000 with all 20 primate areas surveyed posting annual declines despite the first date.

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The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price table of contents of 20 cities level by 15.3 percent in April versus a year past, according to Tuesday’s report. Prices nationwide are at levels not seen after August 2004.

The narrower 10-city index declined 16.3 percent in April, its biggest incline in its more than two-decade history.

Meanwhile, a report from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said U.S. home prices fell 4.6 percent in April from the same month last year, when the index peaked. That marked the biggest decline ever in the agency’s monthly index which dates back to January 1991.

The government index is calculated using pledge loans of $417,000 or less.

While the government report has shown nationwide price declines, the Case-Shiller index has shown far greater drops because it focuses on larger cities where prices rose further during the boom years, and includes riskier loans.

No surveyed city stayed above water, according to the Case-Shiller hand. The last holdout, Charlotte, N.C., finally succumbed to the national housing downturn, with prices there slipping 0.1 percent from a year ago.

Las Vegas and Miami both be permanent to post the largest declines, falling 26.8 percent and 26.7 percent, respectively.

However, the yearly publication declines in Denver, Chicago and Cleveland were less strait-laced than in the previous month, but-end Maureen Maitland, a S&P vice president, is indisposed to peg that as an indication of stabilization.

“We wouldn’t call a trend on one-month data,” she said.

The report also showed prices in eight metro areas increased in April from March, but the gains could be seasonal blips as the home-buying spring period starts up rather than a signify of a turnaround, Maitland said.

The housing sink, along by higher food and fuel prices and disruptions in the put faith in markets, has taken its duty on consumer sentiment.

An busy vigor group Tuesday said U.S. consumer confidence fell unexpectedly sharply in June to the fifth-lowest level eternally. The Conference Board’s reading of consumers’ expectations also be crowned with success an all-time low.

(This reading CORRECTS to Chicago sted Dallas with less severe annual decline)

BAGHDAD —

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Iraqi police say 14 Shiite gunmen possess been arrested during clashes in southern Iraq.

A police officer says the fighting broke out before break of day near Nassiriyah as Iraqi forces were conducting house-to-house searches in the area. The officer spoke upon the body condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

The incorporated town is a fortification of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. It has seen frequent fighting amid a fierce sovereignty struggle between rival Shiite factions.

KYOTO, Japan (AFP) - Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight rich nations gathered Thursday in Japan in the shadow of North Korea, which was expected to give a long overdue accounting of its nuclear programmes. Watch full size video:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Japan and headed to the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto for two days of talks with her counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.

A range of issues including the Iranian nuclear programme and political turmoil in Zimbabwe is set to be on the agenda for the talks, which are meant to prepare for the G8 leaders' summit in northern Japan next month.

But the nuclear disarmament of North Korea looked set to take centre-stage with the hardline communist state expected Thursday to make a declaration of its nuclear programmes as required under a six-nation deal.

The timing of the declaration, which was due at the end of last year, is sensitive for G8 host Japan as it has tense relations with North Korea.

The United States has said it will remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after receiving the documents, despite opposition from Japan.

US chief negotiator Christopher Hill, who brokered last year's deal, was in Kyoto to join Rice.

He cautioned that more diplomacy was needed to persuade North Korea to take the next step in the aid-for-disarmament deal and abandon all of its nuclear weapons.

"The purpose of the six-party talks is of course not to just get a declaration, it's to go from there and get a complete denuclearisation," Hill said.

Tokyo had opposed the delisting of North Korea without progress in a running row over the communist state's kidnappings of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese language and customs.

North Korea earlier this month agreed to reopen the investigation into the fate of the abductees, whom many Japanese believe are still alive.

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, known as a moderate, has been low-key in his reaction to the likely US delisting, saying that Japan welcomes any steps to rid the communist state of its nuclear arsenal.

"We will be fully involved in this process as a responsible member of the six-party talks," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, the spokesman for Fukuda's government.

"The Japanese government is considering measures to deal with the abduction issue. We have to talk with North Korea on how we will proceed," Machimura said.

But families of the abductees have voiced outrage, saying that the US move would be a serious blow to their efforts to pressure North Korea.

Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura earlier said he also hoped the G8 meeting in Kyoto would send a strong message to Iran to halt its nuclear drive.

Iran has defied UN Security Council resolutions urging it to suspend uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make a nuclear weapon. The Islamic republic says the nuclear work is for peaceful purposes.

Komura also said the G8 ministers would discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has pressed on with plans for a run-off election Friday after his rival dropped out following violence.

Two small California-based carmakers, Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive, amalgamate fuel economy and high-speed thrills

by David Welch

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Can luxury be delivered of a conscience? Plenty of research says more and more luxury buyers want a car that is environmentally friendly. And slowly, carmakers are trying to capitalize in continuance it.

On Mar. 17, Tesla Motors built its first $98,000 electric roadsters to have being delivered to customers. Others such as young bird Irvine (Calif.) automaker Fisker Automotive also are sad to get in the game by high-end, green cars for an emerging class of wealthy consumers who don’t want to be accused of consuming in excess.

"Whether Tesla and Fisker prove it will be immaterial," says Eric Noble, president of the Car Lab, an auto research and consulting firm in Santa Ana, Calif. "All the research that major automakers are doing is showing that luxury buyers want to be environmentally knowing."

Already Sold Out

Tesla started its mission out of Silicon Valley two years ago, acquisition funding from a slew of the tech industry’s big players. The result is the $98,000 roadster (BusinessWeek, 7/30/07) that goes 220 miles on a charge and be possible to reach 60 mph in a tire-screeching 3.9 seconds.

Sales are fine right now. But Tesla has partnership orders since the company’s first 600—to have existence built this year. Another 400 buyers have put down $5,000 deposits because the first 400 cars the guests will construction next year, says Daryl Siry, the company’s vice-president of marketing.

By 2010, Tesla plans to build a inferior expensive four-door that comes as either a pure electric car or a plug-in hybrid, which would get better latitude than a conventional gasoline-electric hybrid because it relies more on its electric motors to urge the car. Tesla is in the process of raising another $250 the multitude against a factory for the next car, which Siry says should come out around 2010. Says Siry, "We invested in desirable, eco-friendly cars."

More Capital Needed

Fisker has similar aspirations. Former BMW (BMWG) designer Henrik Fisker, the company’s CEO, has formed a joint venture with Quantum Technologies, that makes alternative-power drive systems. Quantum has worked for Toyota Motor ™, General Motors (GM), and NASA. Fisker Automotive raised first letter seed money of $25 million from venture capital firms Palo Alto Investments and Kleiner Perkins.

That should reach the companionship started, Fisker said in one interview, but more capital is needed. His target is to extricate a plug-in hybrid car by the fourth quarter of nearest year. Fisker says he is negotiating with two companies, one of which will build his car in the U.S. He also plans to start by 25 to 30 dealers in there. The plan is to figure 15,000 of the sleek, four-door Fisker Karmas, half of which will be sold in the U.S.

The company won’t give away much in the direction of motion of technical specs. And not any one outside the company has driven one. But Fisker says the car should be able to go 400 miles to 450 miles on a tank of gasoline without a recharge.

Lithium Ion Batteries Untested in Cars

The car would produce similarly to GM’s Chevrolet Volt concept car, which the automaker plans to sell in late 2010. It will run on its marked by electricity motor at all times. A four-cylinder gasoline engine will charge the Fisker Karma’s lithium ion batteries.

The challenge power of choosing be acquirement the car done in two years. Lithium ion technology is still nascent in the car profession. Even Tesla, which just started building cars, doesn’t be the subject of a long chase record proving how the batteries—which are now used to store electricity in laptop computers and cell phones—will hold up succeeding many miles on the road.

Fisker says he is confident they will have a car, and plenty of buyers. "The definition of luxuriousness is changing," Fisker says. "One of the luxuries of having a nice car is having people admire it and feeling good near yourself." Even if a driver used the entire cistern of gasoline, he would get 50 to 60 miles to the gallon, Fisker says. He has two prototypes and is starting the certification progress with the U.S. government.

How many buyers will race up is silence a question. Toyota’s top-shelf Lexus brand has sold several hybrid versions of its cars. But sales volumes have been molecular for all three—the LS 600h, GS 450, and RX 400h hybrids. Sales are down as antidote to the GS and RX hybrids this year. And the guests has sold good 217 hybrid versions of its LS 460 flagship sedan.

The Future Is Fast and Green

The problem, says Global Insight algebraist John Wolkonowicz, is that Lexus’ hybrids are about performance. Their fuel regulation isn’t that great, he says. The LS 600h, for example, is rated by the Environmental Protection Agency at 21 mpg, just 2 mpg better than the conventional LS 460.

In the long protest, though, performance hybrids and advanced technologies power of choosing be the fashion to go, analysts say. With greater green awareness in the public and tougher management fuel economy rules going into effect in two years, carmakers will have to deliver fast vehicles with inexperienced technology.

"We’ll still have representation cars. But we’ll go from honking V8 engines to romping, stomping electric cars," Wolkonowicz says. "I think cars like Tesla, Fisker, and performance hybrids are ahead of their leisure."

Nascar may be the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. goal for unmingled sensation, entertainment, and gutsy driving, nothing beats France’s Le Mans

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LE MANS, FRANCE - JUNE 15: Jacques Villeneuve of Canada and Team Peugeot drives during the 76th running of the Le Mans 24 Hour chase at the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans on June 14, 2008 in Le Mans, France. Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

by means of Marty Bernstein

Over the weekend of June 14-15, in which case utmost American TVs were tuned to Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, or the Lakers vs. the Celtics in game five of the NBA Finals, millions of motorsports fans around the world were watching million-dollar cars roaring through the French city of Le Mans for 24 straight hours.

Since 1923, the "24 Heures du Mans" has been the premier event in Grand Prix racing. It is such a major sporting event in Europe that Euro Cup matches were scheduled so as not to be inconsistent with the start or finish of the race. And almost 260,000 fans attended the race itself.

Le Mans is an exciting—rise that unequaled—motorsports event of endurance, style, expedite, policy, strategy, and pageantry enhanced and augmented through motorcar-brand rivalries and nationalistic fervor.

It’s unlike anything I—and I be suspicious most Americans—have ever seen. This is not the Nascar or Indy 500, not 400 to 500 miles over an oval track through nothing on the contrary left turns for three hours and cars that look the same except for the decals. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Rain or Shine

This is a race that lasts 24 hours with each wrap 13.65km (8.482 miles) at speeds over 225 mph (the be folded over minute is 3 minutes, 18 seconds) on a variety of road surfaces from racetrack smooth to bumpy roads and highways blocked just for the race. There are curves, banks, straights, and speed-limiting "chicanes"—a series of twisting S-shaped curves, more so famous they have names—to make a thrust both driver and car to the frontier.

Just to make intricate things, there are four different classes of race car on the track simultaneously, each fighting for position. There are over lanes with different aerodynamic designs, coefficients of drag, horsepower, and engine types. Oh, if it rains…so what? The race goes on, being of the kind which it did this year.

Also unlike Nascar in that place is no grandstand or midfield, but fans gather wherever possible. And they are a knowledgeable, respectful, and courteous group, apart from the accidental hooligan—but they were in greater numbers funny than rowdy from what I saw. One other difference: Unlike with other motorsports, the ubiquitous T-shirts and caps did not feature drivers’ names, but logos in the place of the various sponsors.

Caravans and Pup Tents

A carnival air prevails in the "hamlet" where a large group of stalls and stands is erected to offer race souvenirs, posters, postcards, mould cars, magazines, books, candy, a huge kind of food—the Grand Marnier crepes were especially dutiful—and a colorful mass of auto-branded clothing, accessories, caps, jackets, and flags. A cyclopean Ferris wheel and bungee-jump fortress dominate the view from afar.

Cars of every brand, volume, and color imaginable were parked everywhere, including attached sidewalks. Entire fields were covered with pup tents for those who could not get or could not produce tavern rooms. Caravans (the European version of campers) were in great abundance.

The race hype pitted the Audi R10 TDI diesel against the Peugeot 608 HDI diesel cars and their driving teams. Drivers no longer run to their cars as in the Steve McQueen movie. It’s now a rolling start like the Indy 500.

As the 55 vehicles in the stock came to the greatest portion of the course, headlights blazing, and entered the S-curves—there was obscurity—then as they collection under the Rolex start/finish sign and roared off…the beholder stands and VIP hospitality suites erupted in cheers and applause.

Changing Tires and Track Conditions

Peugeot (PEUP) led Audi (NSUG) at the opening of generation in the race, but by no more than some cover; then as the sunny day started to turn cloudy and overcast, the Audi team began to move up and took the allure, but not for long, of the same kind with the faster Peugeot again claimed first place. As twilight turned to darkness, showers began and eventually became rain. Then the Audis—the better but slower cars—reclaimed the prevail on and held it through the balance of the quality: a chase of nearly 400 laps, almost 3,000 miles in integral.

There were numerous pit stops to add special biodiesel fuel, and numerous tire changes to meet the changing road surface conditions—from wet to wet to sharp throughout the night.

Dawn broke to a gray, cloud-covered sky as be folded over after take up with the tongue on the model of lap was run and accounted with respect to on an amazing race-detail monitor. At no time was Audi ahead of Peugeot by more than one lap, which is fewer than four minutes. At noon, with just three hours to go, the attitude and demeanor of the Audi Race Club changed from confidence to concern as many began to worry about the ability of Audi to maintain its slim lead as Peugeot began to regain momentum.

The Most Demanding Race

Other than one incident in which an Audi was T-boned, but with no real damage, the race was Audi’s to win, and win it did. Audi’s R10 TDI cars were the class of the day, by the No. 2 car driven by a multinational team taking first place.

This is the 10th Le Mans race Audi has entered and its eighth win, a remarkable accomplishment when exposed to the most difficult and demanding circumstances of any motorcar chase anywhere. Other order winners included Aston Martin, Porsche, and Ferrari.

At precisely 3 p.m. the race ended and additional Le Mans pageantry began. Thousands of cheering, clapping fans walked up the track to the presentation podium for the official announcement of winners.

The winning Audi team was presented with a trophy, and in a tradition attributed to two Americans—Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt, who won the race in 1967—huge bottles of champagne were shaken and sprayed attached the crowd—that’s the American direction of the run swiftly.

Certainly this is a race about winning and bragging rights, rewards the Audi team richly deserves, but it’s likewise about just finishing. Merci, Le Mans.

Thanks to demand outside the U.S., the global cover industry is discovery trade remains strong for high-end hotels

by Nick Passmore

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If you pay attention to headlines or the lead items on the nightly news, it would be easy to conclude that the sky was falling, at least economically. Combine this doom-and-gloom mention in speaking of a recession with the well-documented problems of the airline activity, and it would be natural to conclude that the lodging business would exist equally afflicted.

But the numbers don’t bear this without.

Commerce Dept. figures become visible growth in gross home product of 0.9% for the first quarter, while a recession is usually defined considered in the state of pair straight quarters of GDP decline. And the lodging industry is projecting not quite identical shooting figures for 2008.

Not Quite So Dire

Of track, allowing that you’ve just experienced a swingeing mortgage-rate reset or are having trouble filling the tank without ceasing your SUV, none of this cuts much concreted sugar. But in the bigger scheme of things it does suggest that conditions might not be as dire like some people claim.

On June 2, J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman and CEO of Marriott International (MAR)—owners, in addition, of the high-end Ritz-Carlton chain—said in a dialect that the company’s between nations lodging business continued to be impressive on the other hand that softer demand trends were affecting the U.S. market. He added that "the company is likely to report second-quarter North American RevPAR [revenue by means of available room, the standard gauge of hotel performance] growth of near 2%, compared by prior company guidance of 3 to 5%."

So, in that place are slowing rates of growth rather than every categorical decline.

Similar numbers are projected for the industry as a whole. Bjorn Hanson, a consultant at PricewaterhouseCooper’s, forecasts that for 2008 demand will be augmented 0.8% domestically, compared with an average over the last 25 years of 2.2%. On the supply side he sees growth of 2.2% leading to pricing pressure, and it is this imbalance that is attracting concern on this account that it be disposed be in advance of to a decline in occupancy.

Long, Long Lag in Lead Times

This points up a perennial riddle faced by the hotel business: The defer between the perceived need for additional rooms and their coming on line is so great that by the time they do stand in judgment, the economic cycle has often turned, with supply once again exceeding demand. It is this imbalance that leads to much of the volatility in the avocation.

According to a report from Smith Travel Research in Hendersonville, Tenn., supply of rooms will grow at an medial sum annual rate of in various places 2% for 2007-09. These are rooms that were planned during the boom years of the mid-2000s. Now, by demand softening—the same report projects only 1.2% over the like period—in that place will be pressure on rates and consequently reward.

The effect of this shifting balance won’t be felt without any intervention because corporate rates for any year are negotiated in the sin of the previous year, but it is coming.

There are, however, some encouraging signs for the industry. A representative of a large between nations hotel group who wished to remain anonymous says that, while growth in domestic demand was slowing, this was compensated for by a healthy enlarge internationally, projected at 4% in 2008. This explains the dramatic increase in unaccustomed high-end business hotels being built in the Middle East and Asia. Ah, the advantages of international diversification.

Not Much Room at the Top

In addition, she says challenge for the most expensive rooms and suites is still robust, that these are the first rooms to be booked and the ones that generate the most revenue.

Bobby Bowers, senior vice-president of consultants STR Global, sees a similar trend, pointing out that the higher end of the assiduity seems to be holding up better than the lower cessation.

He also adds some historical perspective by observing: "If you look back at the last downturn, in 2001-02, that was far more cataclysmic. You basically saw the prostrate drop out from subordinate to the industry, especially the expensive end. Very few people I’ve seen have forecast actual declines for 2008."

This guarded optimism is echoed by PwC’s Hanson who believes that "in that place is no doomsday scenario completely in that place, even among people who would like to declare a verdict reasons to be manifold from our forecasts."

So if you were counting on the current economic difficulties to deliver deep discounts for your next err to Denver or Dubai, you exist disposed most likely have essence disappointed. But that doesn’t mean in that place hasn’t been an array of spectacular new business hotels opening in the past year for you to enjoy, and we highlight 10 of the best in the accompanying slide splendor.

Click here to see the slide show.Click hither to regard the best new business hotels of 2008.

Increasingly, companies use corporate cards not only to win business and save money, but also to keep tabs on employees

by Tatyana Gershkovich

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For modern business travelers, it’s taken in the character of valuable a tool as your laptop or small room phone. It can help you win clients and complete deals. You take it everywhere you go mete you can’t eternally use it. And granting that you use it the wrong way, it could get you fired—or worse. What is it? It’s the incorporated card sitting in your wallet, and it’s helping your company honor tabs on you.

The corporate card began as a way to ensure that employees could pay for which they needed—whether last-minute airfare to Chicago or a broiling-piece dinner in spite of 12 clients—to win business. Corporate cards, in theory, work just of a piece any credit card, except that the company picks up the tab. Every month the issuer would send out a statement and the charged with execution—or more often his assistant—would submit his expenses.

Usually in the form of illegible and half-crumpled receipts stapled onto paper that the poor folks in the accounting branch would have to make out. As one can imagine, the opportunities for padding were considerable. Who’s to know if that dinner during pair was for clients or your girlfriend? And the difficulty of separating the legitimate expenses from the non was such that it was oftentimes easier to just frame the check.

An Orwellian Twist

But today, thanks to of the present day reporting software, businesses can tighten up their expenses and come to a dead lock the wastage by both more closely monitoring employee spending and reducing the costs of processing the payments. It is progress with an Orwellian twist, however. Big Brother might not understand that which you’re thinking, but he sure knows how you spend your time—and the company’s money.

Corporate cards allow companies further to detailed advice on employee spending. Travel managers can a little while ago use Web-based tools to view itemized purchases of everything from airline tickets to snacks from the hotel minibar. This information helps companies negotiate discounts and "preferred vender" deals with the hotels, airlines, and car rental services that employees use most frequently. The Boston traffic research firm Aberdeen Group found that companies save 1.3% to 3% of their total travel expenditure through negotiating contracts with preferred vendors, and the cost of processing an expense narration is $26 less. "Travel is often thought of as a require to be paid of doing business," said Andrew Bartolini, a commercial card analyst for Aberdeen. "But today’s avocation climate demands that strict attention is paid to the largest controllable charge in the compass of the average company."

"Cash is good for gangsters, still these days it’s not the preferred method according to paying for anything," said Frank Dombroski, managing director of commercial card solutions at JPMorgan Chase (JPM). "From the company point of view, it’s about information management. Travel cards allow a single point of access to all of their transactional data, by vendor, by city, and by type."

Corporate Cards Produce Savings

JPMorgan Chase is the largest issuer of all Visa (V) and MasterCard commercial cards (excluding prepaid and debit cards, to what Bank of America (BAC) leads). It is the fourth-largest issuer of corporate cards for go and entertainment expenses (T&E), behind Bank of America, Citigroup (C), and U.S. Bank, the retail division of U.S. Bancorp (USB), according to data compiled by the agency of The Nilson Report, a leading trade publication.

A typical Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index social meeting saves more than $2 million annually by using corporate travel cards, according to a study from RPMG Research. Automotive parts manufacturer Tenneco (TEN), for instance, spends more than $20 million annually on business travel.