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World business quick take

■Consumer rights
US opens `do not call' list
US consumers besieged by telemarketing calls will get some relief with a "do not call" registry that will begin operations next week, officials said Thursday. US President George W. Bush was to launch the registry yesterday in a White House ceremony. The program will be administered and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. Consumers will be able to register for the list starting around July 1, and the rules for telemarketers will become effective October 1. The FCC cited industry estimates indicating that telemarketers make as many as 104 million calls to consumers and businesses every day, with the number growing as a result of increased use of autodialers.

■ Software
Google offers new features
Online search engine Google introduced several new gadgets in its popular toolbar for Web browsers, hoping to build even greater brand loyalty amid heightened competition. The new software out Thursday for the toolbar includes a feature that automatically blocks pop-up ads, as well a program that automatically fills out Internet forms seeking a customer's name and address. The function that fills in forms offers an option to store credit card numbers too, but the information is encrypted on the hard drive of a user's computer instead of Google's computers, for security and privacy reasons. The toolbar also enables users to transfer online content to Internet journals known as Weblogs, or ``blogs,'' by pressing a button. Google emphasized that the new toolbar is still being tested and could be revised later. The toolbar works only on Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer, the world's dominant Web browser.

■ Airlines
Thai Air fights corruption
Thai Airways International is undertaking a major restructuring of its cargo department in a bid to eliminate corruption by staff, a report said here yesterday. Deputy Transport Minister Pichet Sathirachawal discovered irregularities in the national carrier's package and cargo handling, the Bangkok Post reported. "I was told that some staff in the department made deals under the table with freight companies by charging extra money for express delivery when sometimes the express service did not exist," the daily quoted him as saying. Such irregularities resulted in substantial lost revenue for the department, which earns around 30 billion baht (US$723 million) per year, the minister said, adding that a restructuring would result in extra annual income of 3.0 billion baht. The carrier, in which the Thai government holds a 93 percent stake, may consider adding a cargo-only aircraft to its fleet.

■ Automobiles
Fiat to cut 12,300 jobs
Fiat SpA announced plans to slash 12,300 jobs worldwide over the next three years and close 12 factories -- part of a turnaround plan unveiled Thursday and aimed at returning the struggling auto-making conglomerate to profitability in 2006. The three-year, US$22.5 billion investment plan was seen as the company's last chance to keep afloat, after years of slumping sales in the Italian and Western European markets. "We are in a situation of crisis as a company, but Fiat has all possibilities to get out of the crisis," said Chairman Umberto Agnelli, who took over after the death earlier this year of his brother and family patriarch Giovanni. Fiat reported a net loss of US$4.8 billion last year.

Agencies
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