AMMAN, July 29, 2008 (AFP) - A US government agency signed on Tuesday a 250-million-dollar loan deal with three Jordanian banks to help them extend long-term mortgage lending to low-income citizens.

JERUSALEM, July 26, 2008 (AFP) - 'I was married here, I had my five children here and I want to die here,' says a defiant Fawzia al-Kurd, determined that Jewish settlers will not drive her family from their home in occupied east Jerusalem.

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2008 (AFP) - Thousands of people, mostly blacks and Hispanics, lined up outside a Washington hotel Wednesday, clutching documents they hoped would help them save their homes and escape unaffordable mortgages.

JERUSALEM, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Israel plans to build a new city for Arab citizens in the Galilee region, the first housing project of its kind since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, local media reported on Monday.

The proposal for the city, whose location has still to be determined, was made by Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and approved by the cabinet on Sunday.

JERUSALEM, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - The Israeli government plans to build a new city for Arabs in the northern region of Galilee to meet the needs of a growing population, the press reported on Monday.

The proposal for the city, whose location has still to be determined, was made by Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit and approved by the cabinet on Sunday.

LONDON, July 13, 2008 (AFP) - Britain's once-booming housing market is slumping and faces the prospect of an even sharper downturn owing to the global credit crunch, according to economists.

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2008 (AFP) - The US Senate on Friday passed a mammoth housing rescue bill aimed at helping thousands of Americans to keep their homes, amid a deep mortgage foreclosure crisis.

The measure will now be sent back to the House of Representatives, which has passed its own version of the legislation.

MADRID, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - Cement sales in Spain, where a decade-long housing and construction boom has come to an end, fell 16 percent in the first half of the year, the association of cement producers said Thursday.

'At the end of June, volume was down 16 percent down' over the same period last year, to 24,337 tonnes, said the head of the associatiom, Jean Martin-Saint-Leon.

LONDON, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - House prices in Britain slumped 6.1 percent in June compared with the same month last year, the largest decline for more than 15 years, home loans provider Halifax said on Thursday.

The news that prices fell by the fastest annual rate since March 1993, prompted warnings from economists that the country's property market downturn could worsen.

LONDON, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - House prices in Britain dropped by 2.0 percent in June from May as the country battles a downturn to the property market, Britain's largest provider of home loans, Halifax, said on Thursday.

House prices meanwhile slumped by 6.1 percent in June from a year earlier, Halifax, part of British banking group HBOS, said in its latest monthly survey.