The leaders of the Group of 20 will meet in London on April 2, 2009. They need to limit the scope for tariff increases—ideally by finishing the Doha round of trade talks; they should agree to put aside anti-dumping actions and the rest of the apparatus of legal trade protection; and should ensure that subsidies do not discriminate against foreign firms.

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

Fairchild Semiconductor International recently announced it will close a wafer fabrication plant and eliminate some manufacturing at a second site to save up to US$25 million annually, as part of the power-chip maker's ongoing cost-reduction in response to slumping demand.

Agilent Technologies has announced a 2700 employee layoff and a major restructuring of its electronic measurement business in response to what the company described as the "most severe global downturn" in its history.

Hutchison Whampoa has reported a 42% fall in net profit but sounded an upbeat note as losses narrowed at its 3G mobile phone operations. The Hong Kong-based oil-to-telecoms firm said annual profits totalled HK$17.7bn (US$2.28 billion), compared with HK$30.6bn in 2007.

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.

The search engine company Google is planning to cut nearly 200 marketing and sales jobs in its second set of lay-offs this year. The cuts represent less than 1% of the 20,200 people employed by Google.

Shares of MEMC Electronic Materials, which makes silicon wafers for the semiconductor and solar industries, rose as much as 14% on speculation that the company received a takeover offer from German chemicals group BASF.

"I expect that the number of DRAM makers will be reduced by three or four from the current 10 this year," said Hynix Semiconductor CEO Kim Jong-kap.

Growth in Vietnam stumbled to its slowest rate in a decade in the first quarter, falling to 3.1% year-on-year as its export-driven economy is strangled by tumbling global demand and inward investment.

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.

Qimonda's insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe was hoping for signs that there would be further talks in both countries, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday, citing company sources.

IBM will cut about 5,000 jobs in the US, adding to similarly large cuts in the past few months, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Centre for Democracy and Technology told the BBC: "China's actions fail to live up to international norms." The video sharing site has been off limits in China since Monday. Earlier in the week, the BBC reported from Beijing that China cut off access to the website because it carried a video showing soldiers beating monks and other Tibetans.

Global sales of Nintendo's Wii console have passed 50 million, the company's boss Satoru Iwata has said. The Wii is now the fastest-selling games console in history, surpassing the PlayStation 2.

Toyoda Gosei and Showa Denko have signed a patent cross-licensing agreement, while Cree and Honeywell have agreed to end their patent dispute. Cree settles lawsuit with Honeywell

With sophisticated thermal management technology, NeoPac Opto has developed an LED light engine with a single multi-chip LED emitter that can deliver 1500 lm at 30W.