Excluding China, which will announce first-quarter GDP figures later this week, the World Bank now expects developing countries in the region to grow by 1.2% in 2009, down from an estimate of 4.8% in 2008.

Yahoo is preparing to lay off several hundred workers in the first round of cuts since Carol Bartz became chief executive in January, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters. The layoffs could be announced next Tuesday, when Yahoo reports its first-quarter financial results.

Cellphone makers are expected to report buoyant sales of lower-priced, feature-packed smartphones as consumers opt for "cheap chic" amid the global recession.

Japan's government is considering providing funds to Elpida Memory to bolster its capital, NHK said, without providing an amount or saying where it got the information.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini says the company's much talked about GPU project, Larrabee is on track and volume shipments are to start early next year.

ASML Holding NV, Europe's largest maker of semiconductor equipment, has reported a first-quarter loss as sales plunged 80% amid an industry slump. The net loss was 117 million euros (US$155 million), compared with a profit of 145 million euros a year earlier.

Singapore's economy shrank by 19.7% in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the previous three months, its biggest quarterly contraction on record.

RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said the BlackBerry maker is reducing supply costs as surging growth provides him with leverage to press for bargains during the recession.

A little-known consumer solutions designer is laying claim to the first non-Apple external LCD displays for Mini DisplayPort-equipped Macs that are designed to look like the Mac maker's new LED-based Cinema Display offerings but retail for a fraction of the cost.

Cheap electronics can be counted as one of the few perks of a recession, but because of China's stimulus plan, tobacco farmers in Qinhai and simple economics, LCD screens are actually getting more expensive.

California state regulators, who have limited automobile emissions and required large utilities to increase use of renewable energy, now are taking aim at a ubiquitous household item - the television.

Novaled AG, leading technology and material provider for a new generation of lighting and display products, will introduce a novel defect tolerant OLED structure at Finetech Japan in Tokyo from 15th to 17th April 2009

Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips reported a surprise first quarter loss of US$78.9 million compared to a US$390 million profit a year ago. Europe's biggest electronics firm is a casualty of slowing global demand as the recession continues to take its toll on sales, which fell 17% to US$6.8 billion.

If Ontario's Bill 150 (the Green Energy and Green Economy Act) is passed as expected in May, Ontario will become the first North American jurisdiction with an incentive system modeled after the German feed-in tariffs (FITs), according to incentive expert Paul Gipe.

With Siltronic's aging Portland factory weathering one of the steepest downturns in its history, the German silicon wafer manufacturer is raising the prospect of renewal to city officials.

China's major solar wafer producer LDK Solar said that it still enjoys stable standing orders despite the on-going global financial crisis that significantly affected international solar cell markets.

It wasn't long ago that Silicon Valley's tech industry, whose operations and customers span the planet, was confident its global reach would help it escape the worst of the deep American recession. But that hasn't happened. Instead, the valley's top companies collectively are suffering the biggest slump since the dot-com bust.