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World business quick take

■Crude oil
Doubts rise over supplies
Crude oil surged to within US$0.18 of a three-month high after OPEC said it won't boost output for at least two weeks to make up for a strike that choked off exports from Venezuela, the No. 4 supplier to the US. The extension of the Venezuela strike into a fourth week comes as Iraq said it has no information to add to its Dec. 8 report to the US denying it has chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The US has accused Iraq of building such weapons and said the country may need to be disarmed by force. "Venezuela's strike has taken oil off the market, and now Iraq's a potential problem again," said Dennis Kongsiri, vice president of Mitsui & Co. Energy Risk Management in Sydney.

■ Investment
Vietnam loses foreigners
One in five foreign investment projects in Vietnam in the past 14 years have been abandoned because of bureaucracy, corruption, the obscure legal system and the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it was reported yesterday. According to the Dau Tu (Investment) economic daily, 884 foreign investment projects worth US$10.53 billion have been scuppered since the 1988 reform of the investments code that contributed towards the opening of the communist country to the market economy. This figure represented nearly 20 percent of the total projects agreed to by the Vietnam government, said the newspaper, citing the investment ministry. It did not give details about the projects.

■ Internet Access
KT Corp to double speeds
KT Corp, the world's biggest provider of high-speed Internet access, said it will start offering connections at almost double the speed of its existing service to maintain its lead over rivals. South Korea's biggest phone company will use an upgraded network to allow home users download information at 20 megabits a second, KT said in a release. The test service, to be offered initially in 12 apartment complexes starting tomorrow, will enable subscribers to receive high-definition television signals and films through phone lines. KT and its rivals such as Hanaro Telecom Inc, have signed more than 10 million Koreans to high-speed Internet services to boost shrinking phone sales.

■ Spanish lottery
Money floods country
Spain's traditional Christmas lottery unleashed a downpour of money, flooding the country with a total of 1.7 billion euros when the winning numbers were announced on Sunday. The biggest lottery in the world, this year's wins were the highest ever. Especially happy were people in the small towns of Velez-Rubio in the southeast and Calahorra in the northern wine producing region of La Rioja, where the lucky winners were reported to have streamed into the streets and raised many a glass with their neighbors. The main prize of 2 million euros -- called "el Gordo" or "the big one" -- fell to the number 08103, a number considered by many experienced players as "ugly" and therefore less lucky because of the zero at the beginning. In many locales, tickets with this number were bought only in the last few days before the drawing. In Velez-Rubio, these "non-sellers" went to the players of the local football team who learned they had become millionaires 10 minutes after the start of the game.

Agencies
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