Once completed, Globalfoundries' Fab 2 project is expected to create more than 6,400 direct and indirect jobs in the region.

The economic slowdown could last five to 10 years and cost trillions of dollars, a top US economist has warned. He is urging the US government to introduce a second stimulus package of $500bn to boost the economy.

Solar power leaders remain hopeful in what could be a huge upturn in US solar demand, but continue to be careful about the rest of 2009 after being hit hard from the global credit predicament.

Geithner said the two countries had already demonstrated they could co-operate in laying a foundation for economic recovery.

President Obama said on May 27 that he will use US$467 million in economic-stimulus money for initiatives that in two years will double the country's capacity for clean, renewable energy.

Industry chieftains at the Reuters Global Technology Summit have debated the impact of the Obama administration's tax policies and bailout. Some railed against attempts to chip away at the deficit by cracking down on offshore tax havens. Others say a heavy government hand will hurt competitiveness at a time hardware and software firms are slugging it out for a slice of a stagnant pie.

Verizon Communications has agreed to spin off parts of its business that deliver phone service to mostly rural areas in 14 states in an US$8.6 billion deal with Frontier Communications.

Retailers logged a second straight month of sales declines in April as consumers continued to pull back on all types of unessential purchases, the government reported Wednesday.

As more banks raise money to repay bailout loans, that means big fees for Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Suntech Power and Schott Solar announce plans for new US production plants as demand for panels continues to climb.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke defended Monday the central bank's recent stress tests of the nation's most important banks, and mounted an unusual defense of the US dollar.

Blu-ray player sales in the first quarter of 2009 jumped 72 percent over sales in the first quarter of 2008, according to market research firm NPD Group.

US unemployment climbed to 8.9% in April, its highest level in a quarter of a century, as the economy shed more than half a million jobs, official figures have showed.

The pace of US job losses may be slowing, according to two private reports.

The manufacturing sector in the US continues to shrink ?X but could the renewable-energy rush spur a manufacturing revival?

Last year, for the first time, the US Patent & Trademark Office issued more patents to foreigners than to Americans. And the rest of the world is expected to widen its lead over the US as manufacturing and research and development continue to migrate to emerging markets.

The president announced the establishment of a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. With a proposed budget of US$400 million, ARPA-E will focus on research into clean alternatives for carbon-based energy.

Tesco, ranked No. 3 in the world behind Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour, shrugged off the global recession to unveil the highest profits ever recorded. However, the British supermarket giant was forced to concede that it finds doing business in the US not so easy.

All of Wal-Mart's solar projects will generate enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 2,600 homes and avoid 22,500 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions each year — tantamount to taking about 4,000 cars off the road. The company is considering other sites for solar arrays.

US consumers have more confidence in the US economy than they have had since the sudden collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, which caused the near-implosion of the global banking system, a survey showed on Friday.

Nokia Siemens Networks, seeking a bigger foothold in the US market, has offered to buy large pieces of Nortel Networks, including much of its profitable carrier networks unit and a research unit developing a next-generation wireless technology, according to people familiar with the matter.

A growing number of states are moving to require home builders to offer solar electricity and hot-water systems in new homes, right alongside more traditional options such as fancy kitchen countertops and special window treatments.

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama's ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday (April 2), endorsing a US$3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

The nation's largest developer of renewable energy has planned to unveil a green power purchase program that could shake up the market by channeling all of the money into new wind and solar projects.

A key index of consumer confidence rebounded slightly in March, but it held near historic lows as consumers remained uneasy about the economy and the labor market.

It's no secret that IBM is outsourcing US jobs. Last year, IBM's US employment fell 5%, while emerging market employment rose 15%, particularly in high growth markets like India, China, Brazil and Russia.

Wal-Mart Stores is closing an optical lab in Ohio that employs roughly 650 workers, the world's biggest retailer has said.

The global solar PV (photovoltaic) market grew to at least 5.5 GW of electrical power converted using PV methods in 2008 compared to 2.4 GW in 2007, the EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association) said in a recent report.

Chinese telecommunications-equipment maker Huawei Technologies has won a contract to supply the network infrastructure for a cellphone service that cable-TV provider Cox Communications plans to launch in some markets later this year, people familiar with the matter say.

"We'll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that, when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider set of obligations we have towards each other, that's when we succeed..."

Seeking to boost the US clean-energy industry, President Obama on Monday announced US$1.2 billion for science research at national labs and a proposal to extend a business tax credit for investments in research and development. Obama told researchers and green-technology business people that their work was vital to revitalizing the US economy and cutting the country's dependence on foreign oil.

Installed solar power capacity in the US rose by 17% to 8,775 megawatts in 2008, the strongest growth in a single year, solar advocate Solar Energy Industries Association said in an annual review issued on Friday.

"We'll see the recession coming to an end probably this year," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said. "We'll see recovery beginning next year."

Government's aggressive actions should reinforce some of the economy's normal mechanisms for recovery. As pent-up demand builds, so will the pressure for more spending.

Faced with a steep decline in sales, chipmaker National Semiconductor said Wednesday it will eliminate more than one-quarter of its work force, or 1,725 jobs.

Job cuts announced by US employers in February more than doubled from a year earlier as companies stepped up cost-cutting, a survey by a placement firm showed.