World business quick take

■World markets
Japan spending boost
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday ordered a boost to government spending in the current financial year and a strengthening of his economic reform drive, but analysts were unimpressed. Koizumi told his cabinet to draw up details of a supplementary budget for the year to March after the government and ruling coalitions parties agreed the previous day to earmark an extra three trillion yen (US$24.4 billion) for public works projects and a social safety net. But some ministers and analysts warned the amount was insufficient to fight deflation and end a 12-year economic slump. Job losses and bankruptcies are expected to rise as the government pushes banks to accelerate the write-off of massive bad loans.

■ Computers
Microsoft announces flaw
Microsoft on Thursday announced a critical security flaw in most versions of its Windows operating system and urged users to download a security patch from the company website. The software giant said the flaw afflicted versions of Windows 2000, Millennium, 98 and NT 4.0, allowing attackers to exploit a vulnerability in the software that underlies many database functions and take over the user's computer. It was unclear how many times, if any, attackers had taken advantage of the flaw. The company's newest operating system Windows XP, does not suffer the problem. The announcement was Microsoft's 65th security flaw announced this year, underscoring how far the company has to go to fulfill demands of founder Bill Gates to create a trust-worthy computing platform.

■ Semiconductors
Infineon to post loss
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's No. 2 semiconductor maker, expects to post an operating loss of at least 200 million euros (US$201 million) this fiscal year, <> said, citing Infineon documents. Most analysts expect a profit, the report said. The company expects sales in the year through Sept. 30 to gain 35 percent to 7 billion euros on rising Asian demand for chips for mobile phones, according to internal documents of the management board, FTD said. That's more than analysts' average expectation of 6.2 billion euros in sales, the report said. Infineon aims to save at least 100 million euros this year.

■ World Markets
Vietnam piracy purge
Nearly 36,000 music, video and computer discs, 60,000 print advertisements and 15,668 books have been destroyed in the Vietnamese capital in a purge against piracy and "cultural pollution", officials said yesterday. Over 450 calendars and 1,097 advertising banners were also incinerated on Thursday in the third crackdown of the year in Hanoi against unlicensed and pirated goods. "We destroyed these products mainly because they were fake or unauthorized copies rather than because they contained poisonous material," an official from the city's culture and information department said. However, he added that some of VCDs contained pornography. The majority of the books that were set alight were illegal copies of best-sellers, but there were also some with "superstitious" content, the official said. Vietnam's communist government still remains suspicious about pagan and other traditional beliefs, fearing they could undermine its grip on power.

Agencies