Over the last several years, many people put their life savings into real estate.  They not only bought their own homes, they bought second houses for investment.  These second homes were supposed to secure their children’s future, pay for their college funds or simply provide them with a place to raise their own families or to retire to.

TOKYO (PNA/Xinhua) -- Japan ordered its Self-Defense Forces to destroy debris from Pyongyang’s rocket in the event that its launch fails and fragments fall into Japanese territory, Kyodo reported.

SEOUL (PNA/Yonhap) -- Most South Korean banks are on course to post big losses for the first quarter of this year on provisions for troubled construction firms and shipbuilders, a financial regulator warned on Sunday.

BANGKOK (PNA/TNA) – The ongoing protest against the Thai government by the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) could affect the bargaining position of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during this week’s G20 meeting, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Sunday.

Q:    My brother has a green card, and he was arrested for theft.  Will he lose his green card and be deported?

GUIYANG (PNA/Xinhua) -- The death toll from a quarry explosion on early Sunday morning in southwest China’s Guizhou Province has risen to seven as one injured miner died in hospital, according to sources with the Provincial government.

JAKARTA (PNA/Xinhua) -- The death toll of Indonesia’s dam burst rose to 93, local press reported on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD (PNA/IRNA) -- Pakistan’s main Islamic party has elected Syed Munawar Hassan as its new chief, Jamaat-e-Islami announced on Saturday.

SEMARANG (PNA/Antara News) -- The faculty of public health of state Diponegoro University here will reject all kinds of donations including scholarships from cigarette companies as of 2009, its dean, Tinuk Istiarti, said here on Saturday.

SEOUL (PNA/Yonhap) -- Lee Jae-oh, one of the most trusted confidants of President Lee Myung-bak, said Sunday he has no immediate plans to return to politics following his unannounced return on Saturday from the U.S., where he has been active in academic circles for the past 10 months.

ISLAMABAD (PNA/Xinhua) -- Unknown militants have launched a rocket ambush on Afghanistan-based North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces’ supply terminal in northwestern Pakistan early Saturday, private Geo News TV channel reported.

WASHINGTON (PNA/APP) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Friday pledged to pursue “constructive diplomacy” to calm down tensions between two South Asian nuclear powers, Pakistan and India.

At the 16th Annual Economic Summit of The Greenlining Institute on April 03, 2009, held at Our Lady of the Angels Center at Cathedral Plaza in Los Angeles, California Assemblymember Ted W. Lieu confirmed to this Author that the California Foreclosure Prevention Act, which he co-authored, would become operative on June 14, 2009.

WASHINGTON (PNA/PTI) -- Turning the heat on Pakistan, President Barack Obama today bluntly told the Islamic nation that a “blank cheque” cannot be given if it did not show commitment to eliminate Al-Qaeda within its border and vowed to wipe out terrorists from the safe havens in that country.

ISLAMABAD (PNA/IRNA) -- Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari Friday welcomed US President’s initiatives for Pakistan to strengthen democracy and his call to US Congress to pass a bill for 1.5 billion dollars aid to Pakistan every year.

HANOI (PNA/VNA) -– The Ministry of Science and Technology launched Friday the Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN 3) in Hanoi.

BANGKOK (PNA/TNA) -- Thailand’s red-shirted anti-government protesters, the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), said their mass rally set to begin next Thursday at Sanam Luang before the protesters march to seal off Government House will be extended indefinitely, according to UDD core leader Jatuporn Prompan.

BANGKOK (PNA/TNA) - Deputy Finance Minister Pradit Phataraprasit said the Democrat Party never received a donation from TPI Polene, a listed company in financial difficulty, and vowed he would quit all his political positions if any independent agencies or court inquiries indicated that he was involved in accepting illegal political donations.

NEW DELHI(PNA/APP) -- The visiting CIA chief Leon Panetta on Thursday discussed regional security situation with special reference to terrorism with Indian Home Minister P Chidambaram.

BANGKOK(PNA/Xinhua) -- Over 70 percent of respondents in a real-time survey conducted by Assumption University (ABAC) Thursday during the no-confidence debate against the Thai coalition government discovered the popularity of the Democrat Party and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was not affected by the censure motion by the opposition.