Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street powerhouse, has been accused of defrauding investors by America's financial regulator.

Spansion has received approval and confirmation of its plan of reorganization from the US Bankruptcy Court, which clears the way for Spansion's emergence from Chapter 11.

Passengers face further disruption after flight restrictions were extended until 1900 BST on Sunday (Apr. 18) as the danger from Icelandic volcanic ash continues.

In an interview with AFP, Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou said the framework agreement was just a first step, but that he was confident it would lead to deeper trade agreements with China and continue to lower tensions between the former enemies.

Chip equipment maker Novellus Systems now expects to earn US$0.43 per share, US$0.04 above the high end of the range it had forecast in March. The company is scheduled to report first-quarter earnings on April 21.

"The trouble is that you can't get tools (from ASML). The lead times have extended..."

China's economy accelerated more than expected in the first quarter, while consumer and wholesale inflation - though mixed - indicated a broadly rising trend, stoking further concerns of economic overheating in the economy.

South Korea plans to invest 60 billion won (US$54 million) until 2015 to build up its analog chip industry to help local companies expand their presence in the global semiconductor market, according to the government.

Samsung Electronics said workers at its semiconductor factories face no heightened cancer risk as the world's top maker of memory chips tried to quell health fears following employee illnesses and deaths.

Micron Technology will bring faster interfaces to its enterprise SSD (solid-state disk) line in June when it begins shipping its P300 drives to makers of storage equipment.