MANILA, PHILIPPINES —  October imports of raw materials for electronics production -- which makes up more than one-third of the Philippines' overall annual imports -- slumped 30% year-over-year, according to the National Statistics Office.

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HONG KONG -- Wong Kong King (WKK) Technology has signed a license agreement to manufacture and sell Nihon Superior's patented lead-free alloy in China.

WKK said in a press release it will dedicate a factory in Dongguan, China, to manufacturing SN100C. The site is scheduled to be ready in April, with deliveries beginning in May.

The alloy comes in bar, paste, solid and cored wire, ribbon, preforms, spheres, and final finish forms, and has a full line of fluxes.

BEIJING -- China's government will subsidize appliance purchases by citizens in its poorer regions as part of a massive program aimed at recharging the domestic consumer electronics industry.

Under the new program, called Delivering Appliances to the Countryside, farmers will be given 13% subsidies toward the purchase of new refrigerators, washers, televisions and cellphones. The program set a goal of 480 million units sold under the program over the next four years.

China's National Bureau of Statistics estimates penetration rates of 94 color TVs, 26 refrigerators and 46 washing machines per every 100 rural households, well behind the marks of 138 color TVs, 95 refrigerators and 97 washing machines for every 100 urban households, according to published reports.

CHICAGO -- Research In Motion is asking a US court to invalidate a previous agreement with Motorola under which the firms agreed not to recruit each others' employees.

In a suit filed in a Chicago court, RIM, the world's top maker of smartphones, asserts improper and unfair competitive practices on the part of Motorola is preventing the hiring of perhaps thousands of laid-off workers. The terminated Motorola workers had signed nondisclosure agreements which in effect would make them unhirable by competitors.

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