A warning from a government trade council in Taiwan highlights concerns that the island has become increasingly isolated by the burgeoning network of free trade agreements connecting Asia and the rest of the world.

Manosha Karunatilaka, a former account manager at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), pleaded guilty to charges that he participated in an insider trading scheme tied to Primary Global Research, an expert network firm.

Taiwan's currency advanced 0.8% to NT$28.511 against its US counterpart as of 9:24 a.m. local time, according to Taipei Forex. It touched NT$28.495 earlier, the strongest level since October 1997.

The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has asked the government for help compensating victims of the crisis.

A Chinese manufacturing index declined in April from March, indicating that growth may moderate in the world's second-biggest economy after the government raised interest rates and allowed faster gains in the yuan.

Despite past political tensions, enterprising Taiwanese had long been doing business in China. However, it was only until after a financial memorandum of understanding was signed in 2009 that Taiwanese banks were able to follow suit.

Lawmakers in China are revising the income tax law to narrow the wealth gap and to encourage more domestic consumption. The amendment will raise the threshold for personal income tax from CNY2,000 to CNY3,000 a month (from US$304 to US$456).

The Indian government has established a committee to identify technology and potential investors that could set up India's first two commercial semiconductor wafer fabs, the country's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said. The ministry put the rough cost of the two fabs at US$5 billion.

The event was postponed due to the ongoing recovery efforts in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and at the request of Japanese government agencies to help conserve energy resources during the summer months. SEMICON Japan 2011 is now scheduled for December 7-9 in the same venue as PVJapan.

Japanese voters are critical of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's handling of the crisis at a crippled nuclear plant and support raising taxes to finance rebuilding plans after last month's earthquake and tsunami, surveys show.

It may seem strange this has not happened before - Chinese students make up some of the largest groups of foreign students in many countries, including the US and UK.

The reserves increase as Beijing buys dollars and other foreign currency to restrain the rise of its yuan as export revenues and investment pour into its economy. In freer trading, that flood of cash would push up the yuan's value against the dollar, making Chinese exports more expensive abroad.

Japan's unemployment rate fell to a two-year low in February 2011, government data showed. But economists said the rate may rise in the coming months as the devastating earthquake and subsequent power shortages could keep companies from boosting staff.

Like the oil spike that roiled markets in recent weeks, Friday's quake offers yet another reminder of how vulnerable aging, slow-growing, debt-burdened economies are to a shock even in what is supposed to be a period of global economic expansion.

China has offered to send earthquake rescuers and extended its "deep sympathy and solicitudes to the Japanese government and people" on Friday, marking some of the first sober words exchanged between the two nations in months. Last fall relations between Beijing and Tokyo reached their worst point in years.

The Taiwan government's plan to increase the penalties against employers who violate maximum work-hour regulations has drawn expressions of concern among industrial associations, which called for further assessment of the proposal.

The Obama administration is considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in response to rapidly rising gasoline prices brought on by turmoil in the Middle East. Oil for April delivery settled at US$104.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday.

China spent more on its internal police force than on its armed forces in 2010, and plans to do the same this year, as the government deployed security forces around the country to control growing social unrest.

Japan and India have signed a free-trade agreement that will see tariffs on 94% of goods scrapped within a decade.

The arrest of a Taiwanese general accused of spying for China is a warning to Taiwan to be wary of its old foe despite warming economic links that are likely to stay unscathed by the case.

China plans to step up efforts to develop clean energy and other technology industries this year, government officials said Thursday, a strategy that has strained trade ties with Washington and other governments.

Germany's government and an industry group said Thursday they have agreed to trim solar power subsidies by up to 15 percent this year as demand thrives in the country, a leading producer and user of the renewable energy source.

Foreign direct investment in China hit a record US$105.7 billion last year, highlighting growing confidence in the economy even as Beijing seeks to rein in growth. China attracted US$14.03 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in December alone, up 15.6% from a year earlier.

China's President Hu Jintao has said the international currency system was "a product of the past." He also implicitly criticized the Federal Reserve's recent decision to pump 600 billion dollars into the US economy, a move criticized as weakening the dollar at the expense of other countries' exports. The comments came ahead of a state visit to Washington on Wednesday.

Two investment funds backed by the Chinese government are accelerating their purchases of stakes in major Japanese listed firms, with their total market value surging 10-fold to 1.5 trillion yen (US$18 billion) in less than two years, a recent study showed.

The monetary authority has been limiting gains in the Taiwan dollar toward the close of trading almost every day since April.

Intel will receive a grant from the Israeli government to build a 12-inch plant dubbed Fab 28 in Kiryat Gat. Intel promised to employ 3,100 employees at the fab and boost R&D investment.

The Beijing municipal government will raise the city's minimum monthly salary to 1,160 yuan (US$175) from 960 yuan, officials say.

The medical and health agreement will help the two sides set up a system to share information about infectious diseases, ensure drug safety and develop new medicines, as well as address emergency medical needs, according to the Straits Exchange Foundation.

Yonhap news agency quoted sources at the local government as saying Samsung plans to build the lines by 2016, but the spokesperson said details have yet to be decided.

The company terminated its employment of Manosha Karunatilaka on December 16, the day of his indictment. Karunatilaka was one of three technology company workers arrested in the US yesterday on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud as federal prosecutors expanded a probe of insider trading to companies.

What a long, strange trip it's been for the South Korea-US free trade agreement. The two sides announced this weekend that they've reached a deal on revisions to the draft that was signed in 2007 but never ratified. It comes not a moment too soon, given the boost this will give to a US economy stumbling its way to recovery and with tensions rising on the Korean peninsula.

India's government is in discussions with companies that use BlackBerry to gain access to employees' secure communications when seen as necessary, said a top Indian official.

The semiconductor sector of Abu Dhabi's economy is set to pump US$4 billion into the capital, creating up to 6,000 new employment positions in Abu Dhabi over the next decade, according to industry insiders.

October inflation hit a higher-than-expected 4.4%, up from September's 3.6%, the Bureau of Statistics said. It added that the government needed to do more to control price rises.

China, the world's largest producer of rare-earth metals, will speed up exports of the minerals after delays disrupted supply, according to Japan's Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata.

Another source familiar with the situation said the money would likely be used to expand capacity at the company's Beijing plant, specifically to quickly ramp-up production of chips using 65nm technology.