WASHINGTON: Pending home sales hit a six-month high in April, data showed on June 3, but falling demand for home loans pointed to ebbing activity in the vital housing market due to the expiration of a popular tax credit for buyers.

PETALING JAYA: Paramount Corp Bhd is on track to dispose of its 20% stake in Jerneh Insurance Bhd pending approval from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), said its executive deputy chairman Datuk Teo Chiang Quan.

LONDON: House prices in Britain rose by 0.5% in May, half the rate of the previous two months but enough to lift property values within 10% of their 2007 peak, a survey showed yesterday.

HONG KONG: Ritz-Carlton, a luxury hotel brand of Marriott International Inc, expects to double its China hotel count by 2015, making the country its most important international market, its president said yesterday.

DHAKA (Bangladesh): The death toll from the building collapse on Tuesday night in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka's Tejgaon Area rose to 23 on Thursday June 3 morning as rescue workers pulled out more bodies from the rubble.

KUALA LUMPUR: Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis-REIT) has entered into conditional agreements to acquire two parcels of land with the buildings erected on thme in Teluk Panglima Garang and Petaling Jaya, both in Selangor.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian businesses want more tax breaks for green investments, says workspace solutions provider, Regus, in a global survey.

The survey found 89 per cent of companies in Malaysia had declared that government tax breaks were required to accelerate green investment take-up, it said in a statement Thursday June 3.

SINGAPORE: Chinese property developers' bonds, helped by attractive yields and the falling number of issues, are starting to draw investor interest, Fortis Investment said.

"We are not as negative on Chinese developers as before and we have started to nibble," Adeline Ng, head of Asian fixed income at Fortis. "Nine to 13 percent is a good carry."

KUALA LUMPUR: Hotel chain Tune Hotels.com has opened its latest hotel at Kota Damansara township in Petaling Jaya complementing its existing hotels in the Klang Valley in downtown Kuala Lumpur and the KL International Airtport/ LCCT.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) is currently bidding for RM600 million worth of construction projects.

The results of these projects, which are mostly locally based, will be known within the next three months, said chief executive officer Mohamed Razeek Hussain.