Check It Out (Israel National News)
(IsraelNN.com) French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European officials met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Achmed Abu El-Reit Monday. In the meeting the parties discussed the possibility of brokering a cease fire between Egypt and Hamas.

Commercial real estate prognosis (BizJournals)
If 2009 is no worse than 2008, those who own and lease commercial real estate will be relieved.

China PBOC Official: Agencies Discussing Plan For REIT Trial (Nasdaq)
BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- China's government agencies are discussing a plan to launch a trial for real estate investment trusts, a senior central bank official said Tuesday.

Proposed downtown office buildings off to mixed starts (BizJournals)
THEN Date: March 14, 2008 Headline: ‘Downtown office towers jump off starting block in tandem’

Mercator Minerals Ships First Copper Concentrates at Its Mineral Park Mine (CNW Group via Yahoo! Finance)
Mercator Minerals Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has commenced shipping copper concentrates from its newly expanded Mineral Park Mine in Arizona, less than two years from completion of its December 29, 2006 Technical Report.

DJ DGAP-PVR: Publication according to § 26 paragraph. 1 WpHG with the objective of Europe-wide distribution (Financial.de)
alstria office REIT-AG / Release of an announcement according to Article 21, Section 1 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] (share) 05.01.2009 Release of a Voting Rights announcement, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory AG.

No federal bailouts for commercial real estate developers (Seattle Times)
The federal government should refuse the latest group with a request for a federal bailout — commercial real-estate developers. The federal infusion of money to shore up financial institutions was reasonable because the potential domino effect of failure threatened international banking system. The U.S. Treasury cannot heal every economic ill, and it needs to draw the line well short of ...

China to Introduce Real Estate Investment Trusts, Qi Says (Bloomberg)
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- China’s central bank and bank regulator are formulating a plan to allow developers to raise funds through real estate investment trusts, or REITs, said the country’s vice housing minister.

Report: Tough commercial real estate market will linger (BizJournals)
Grubb & Ellis Co. on Monday released its 2009 global forecast that predicts a troublesome year for commercial real estate in the U.S., including Greater Sacramento.

Office Demand Is Down, and So Are the Deals (New York Times)
By most accounts, the commercial property market reached its pinnacle in early 2007 with the Blackstone Group ’s acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust and its prized cache of more than 500 office buildings.