New York - Sof

Singapore  - Singapore is preparing to deal with casino-related offences, such as cheating and prostitution, ahead of the opening of two casino-anchored resorts, the first of which is due to open in December, media reports said Saturday.

Deputy Prime Minister and Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng noted that newly opened casinos are often the subject of syndicate scams, and to combat such schemes, the Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) would increase its staff to 116 by the end of the year from a current 75.

New York, Apr. 17 : In another step in its transformation from an online jumble of amateur videos to a destination for mainstream TV programs and movies, YouTube said Thursday that it had signed deals with Hollywood studios to showcase thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of movies on its Web site.

Google, which owns YouTube, said it might eventually bring another innovation to the site: payment for some premium content.

Tokyo  - Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp Friday revised its earnings estimate for the previous business year, now predicting a greater net loss due to a price slump in the semiconductor market and tax credit costs.

Toshiba now predicts a net loss of 350 billion yen (3.5 billion dollars) for the business year that ended March 31, up from a previous 280-billon-yen loss estimate. Last business year, Toshiba reported net profits of 127.4 billion yen.

Tokyo  - Japan's semiconductor industry is to experience a major shake-up, as electronics companies Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics are considering to merge, a news report said Thursday.

The two companies were in talks and a deal is expected by the end of the month, the Nikkei, a business daily, reported. A merger, which is expected to go ahead by April 2010, would create Japan's largest chipmaker.

The move was to to ensure the companies' survival during the global downturn.

Rio de Janeiro - Brazil's government awarded the national planemaker Embraer a defence contract worth 1.4 billion dollars for developing a new military cargo plane. The KC-390 cargo plane, which is expected to have a capacity of 19 tons, is to be developed jointly with Brazil's Air Force over the next seven years to replace old Hercules-C-130 planes.

The Air Force is expected to place an initial order of 22 jets.