"We want to make sure the government will not simply inject capital into any industry, but hope we could use our leverage to help build up the industry again," Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said in a speech.

Applied Materials announced that its president and CEO Mike Splinter met with President Obama and CEOs of several of America's largest companies at the White House today to discuss the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Splinter focused his remarks on key aspects of the clean technology agenda, including incentives for solar energy adoption as a way to create new jobs as the new administration and both houses of Congress look to reinvigorate and stimulate the US economy.

The politicians are primarily concerned with restoring demand enough to reverse the rising trend in unemployment; for many of the corporate leaders, ensuring the survival of their firms takes precedence over saving jobs. The difficult decision they face is not whether to cut, but how to do so in a way that strengthens their competitive position in the medium term rather than seriously damaging it.

Helping capitalists out of a predicament of their own making is a delicate business, but any rescue mechanism should have built-in sanctions to raise risk awareness and reduce the probability of future crises. Banking regulators, central banks and governments should answer bankers' cries of help with a consistent and robustly capitalist approach.

Taiwan's ex-President, Chen Shui-bian, has been returned to prison pending his trial on corruption charges, after a court reversed a bail order. The Taipei District Court judges are reported to have said there was a risk he could collude with other suspects, destroy evidence and flee the island.

The ministry said Japan aims to have solar power systems installed on more than 70 percent of new homes. The new efforts will also include solar power education in schools, the development of refined deep cycle battery technologies and the installation of grid connections.

Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida on Friday called on the government to prepare a safety net for unemployed workers as companies are forced to carry out aggressive layoffs to combat the economic storm. "Assuming a certain degree (of downturn) in business cycles, the government needs to prepare a safety net in terms of employment."

South Korea has begun full-scale commercial production of micro-electronic mechanical system (MEMS) sensors that can greatly bolster competitiveness in its information technology industry, the government said Tuesday.

Governments should be ready to increase their spending on economic stimulus programs if circumstances require it, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist Olivier Blanchard said.

India is hopeful an auction for third-generation (3G) radio waves next month will draw in bids at a "few times" the reserve price of 20.20 billion rupees ($415 million), a senior government official said on Tuesday.

The US Government must create strategies to eventually dilute its involvement with private enterprise, Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission Christopher Cox said in the Wall Street Journal.

European semiconductor industry executives are launching a concerted push to convince European government leaders to increase support for chip manufacturing and the equipment and materials infrastructure.

Kim Jong-kap, CEO of the world's No. 2 memory chip maker, told the evening newspaper, Munhwa Ilbo, that the global semiconductor industry would face a big change such as a closure of a rival chipmaker by the first quarter of 2009.

Chinese and European leaders plotted their next steps as investors looked to governments to lead major economies out of recession because central banks could start running out of room to cut interest rates further.

"Certainly we wouldn't abandon this industry" in Taiwan, which accounts for about 30 percent of global supplies, Siew said yesterday at an American Chamber of Commerce meeting in Taipei, when asked what the government would do to support the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market. "We should take this opportunity to consolidate the industry to become more competitive," he said.

Key issues agreed by world leaders at this summit included: reform of international financial institutions, a global free-trade deal, improvements to financial market transparency, banks and financial institutions' incentives "prevent excessive risk taking," to draw up a list of financial institutions whose collapse would endanger the global economic system, strengthening countries' financial regulatory regimes and taking a "fresh look" at rules that govern market manipulation and fraud.

Taiwan's Central Bank said Thursday it was cutting a key interest rate for the second time in two weeks, amid slowing economic growth. The cut on the 10-day loan rate to 3.25% from 3.5% percent came because Taiwan's exports have declined while consumer and investment expenditures dropped, the Central Bank said. The announcement helped to stabilize the Taiwan stock market early Thursday after the benchmark index fell 9.3% in the last three trading days in the wake of the financial crisis in the U.S. and Europe.

Huang Ping-chung, budgeting officer at the Legislative Yuan...commented that "We've long budgeted the purchase," He added that the new TV sets are more economical for they consume less power. "Moreover," he added, "they are safer, because the old ones may explode."

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) provided the model numbers of the products in question August 19, 2008. The model numbers that METI announced are MA004J/A (sold 708,000 units), MA005J/A (sold 393,000 units), MA099J/A (sold 424,000 units) and MA107J/A (sold 287,000 units). METI called on consumers to be aware of these models in particular, as it has heard of multiple cases where they have caused an accident while charging their secondary batteries.