ROUND ROCK, Texas (Reuters) -- Dell Technologies Inc will eliminate about 6,650 jobs, or about 5% of its global workforce, hurt by falling demand for its personal computers, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The company is experiencing market conditions that “continue to erode with an uncertain future,” co-Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke wrote in a memo to employees, the report said.  The previous cost-cutting measures, including a pause on hiring and limits on travel, are no longer enough, Clarke said in the memo. The department reorganizations and job cuts are an opportunity to drive efficiency, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg News. Companies from Microsoft Corp to Amazon.com Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc have cut thousands of jobs recently to help ride out a demand downturn as consumer and corporate spending shrinks due to high inflation and rising interest rates. Layoffs in the United States hit a more than two-year high in January as technology firms cut jobs at the second-highest pace on record to brace for a possible recession, a report showed on Thursday.

 

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SYDNEY (AFP) -- Australia on Monday asked China to resume “unimpeded trade” as ministers from the two countries held talks to repair their strained relationship. China slapped hefty tariffs on key Australian exports such as barley, beef and wine in 2020 at the height of a bitter dispute with the former conservative government. In recent years, they have also been jostling for influence in the strategically important South Pacific region. Australia’s centre-left government has adopted a less confrontational stance since its election in May, and on Monday discussed the eventual “full resumption of trade” with Chinese officials. Trade Minister Don Farrell said he spoke by video link to Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, stressing the need for “unimpeded trade for Australian exporters”. The pair agreed to meet in person in China at an unspecified time.

 

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ATHENS (Reuters) -- Heavy snowfall and plummeting temperatures shut schools and shops in the Greek capital on Monday, with many public services and businesses switching to remote working. Traffic was halted on some central roads and on a national road connecting Athens to central Greece, as storm Barbara swept across the country, blanketing the capital. Some metro stations close to the city’s international airport were also shut and train routes to the northern city of Thessaloniki were suspended. Authorities urged the public to avoid non-essential travel. Fire brigade rescue crews had evacuated four people whose car was stuck in the snow in the Athens suburb of Aspropyrgos, according to state TV ERT. The cold snap was expected to last until Tuesday, gradually affecting eastern and southern regions, including the island of Crete.

 

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SEOUL (AP) -- North Korea has scheduled a major political conference to discuss the “urgent task” of improving its agricultural sector. North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Monday that members of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Politburo met on Saturday and agreed to hold a larger plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee in late February to review strategies on agriculture and set new goals. It said the Politburo members acknowledged a “a turning point is needed to dynamically promote the radical change in agricultural development.” “It is a very important and urgent task to establish the correct strategy for the development of agriculture and take relevant measures for the immediate farming… to promote the overall development of socialist construction,” the KCNA said. The Politburo meeting came amid indications that the country was preparing to stage a massive military parade in Pyongyang, possibly this week.

 

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BANGKOK (AFP) -- Two Thai protesters held under the kingdom’s tough royal insult laws are growing extremely weak after nearly three weeks on hunger strike, a hospital statement said Monday. Tantawan Tuatulanon and Orawan Phupong have refused food and most liquids for the past 20 days to urge political parties to support the abolition of Thailand’s lese majeste laws, as well as other justice reforms. King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close family are protected by some of the world’s strictest royal defamation laws, with each charge carrying a possible 15-year jail term, but rights groups say they are misused to suppress public debate. Tantawan, 21, and Orawan, 23, were still conscious but weak, Thammasat University Hospital said in a statement posted on Facebook early on Monday. As well as food, the two women have refused intravenous drips containing glucose and sodium. They were charged with lese majeste over two separate protests in Bangkok in early 2022 -- one at the UN building and one at a shopping mall, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR).

 

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GOMA (Reuters) – One UN peacekeeper from South Africa was killed in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when a helicopter operated by the peacekeeping force came under fire while in mid-air, the UN mission in Congo and South Africa’s military said. The helicopter came under fire after taking off from the city of Beni in the early afternoon Sunday. Another South African peacekeeper was also wounded in the attack but was able to continue flying and land at the airport of the provincial capital Goma, the South African National Defense Force said in a statement. Neither South Africa nor the UN mission called MONUSCO said who might be responsible. They also did not say what weapon was fired at the helicopter or what caused the casualties. The UN peacekeeping mission of around 18,200 personnel has been deployed in eastern Congo since taking over from a previous UN operation in 2010. Its mandate includes supporting the Congolese government’s effort to stabilize a region racked by rebel violence.