Taiwan's tech giant Hon Hai plans to boost its research and development capabilities at its headquarters, with founder Terry Gou saying up to 5,000 engineers will be hired in two years, local media reported Sunday.

Gou on Saturday unveiled his vision outside Taipei city while stumping for a politician campaigning for a local election next month, the Commercial Times and Economic Daily News reported.

Two years after losing its place as the world's biggest rice exporter, Thailand is eyeing a return to the top spot as the impact of a bungled subsidy scheme eases and it sells cheaper grain to a grateful global market.

The subsidy, which offered farmers up to 50 percent above market rates for their rice, helped former premier Yingluck Shinawatra win the rural votes she needed to take office in 2011.

From bargain fakes and cheap technology to high-end designer wear, Hong Kong is a shopper's paradise -- but retailers have taken a huge hit from week-long mass protests that have brought the city to a standstill.

Major shopping areas have been barricaded off by protesters who have camped out for the last seven days to pressure Beijing to revoke their decision to limit who can stand in the city's next leadership election -- a move protesters have labelled a "fake democracy".

Executives from Renault-Nissan and Daimler AG say their expanding partnership is on track and pledged to further grow the business.

Renault Nissan's Carlos Ghosn and Daimler's Dieter Zetsche said at the Paris Motor Show that the partnership has expanded four-fold to 12 projects in Europe, Asia and North America, from three when the partnership began in 2010.

European households are richer than before the global financial and economic crisis battered their continent, though the picture is uneven, a new study by the Swiss bank Julius Baer shows.

Shares in Japan's Skymark Airlines soared Friday after the company said it was negotiating with Airbus to reduce a breach-of-contract penalty tied to the collapse of a $2.2 billion jet order.

JPMorgan Chase said Thursday that information such as names and addresses for 76 million household customers and seven million businesses was compromised in a data breach this summer.

Shares of the retail division of Dubai's Emaar Properties surged in first trading Thursday after an initial public offering that highlighted a return of investor confidence in the Gulf market.

The IPO of Emaar Malls Group -- which owns one the world's largest shopping centers, the Dubai Mall -- was aimed at raising $1.58 billion (1.25 billion euros) but was 30 times oversubscribed.

Spain's jobless queue rose slightly in September for the second month running as a hiring boom for the summer tourist season trailed off, official data showed Thursday against a background of chronically high unemployment.

The number of people in Spain registered as unemployed crept up by 19,720 in September from the August level to 4,447,650 in September, the figures from the employment ministry showed.

The World Bank has given bonuses to senior officials as it pursues a cost-cutting restructuring, raising employees' concerns about management demands on them for belt-tightening, documents seen by AFP showed Wednesday.

"We question the timing of such payments given the sacrifices the rest of us are being asked to make," the Bank's staff association said in an internal memo obtained Wednesday by AFP.