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World Business Quick Take

■ Fast Food
McDonald's pulls China ad
McDonald's has been forced to pull a commercial that shows a Chinese man kneeling before an electronics salesman begging for a discount after widespread complaints, Chinese media said yesterday. The video has been taken off screens in the fast-food giant's stores in Xian, the China Daily said. The Legal Daily newspaper said it had also been removed in Shanghai and Henan Province. In the ad, the man's discount coupon has expired and the vendor turns him down. The ad goes on to say people do not have to beg to take advantage of a McDonald's promotion. One woman cited by Huashang Daily said it suggested the integrity of Chinese people was so poor they would get down on their knees to beg for a discount. The paper said 80 percent of Xian residents polled found it insulting.

■ Data Theft
Leak affects 67,000 in Japan
The theft of data on credit and debit cards by a hacker in the US could affect an estimated 67,000 card holders in Japan, the government said yesterday. News reports said the hacker may have stolen data from as many as 80,000 credit card users in Japan. The announcement by the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry about card data suggests the widening possibility of financial fraud, as countries across the globe assess the damage from the data theft. An official for the ministry said that data for 46,000 Visa card holders and 21,000 MasterCard holders in Japan may have been exposed. There were also 31 card holders of Japanese credit-card company JCB Corp whose information may be the victims of data breach, the official said. The trade ministry official could not confirm the total damage, saying, "we are in the process of collecting reports."

■ Sugar
EU to reduce subsidies
The EU's head office yesterday announced sweeping changes to its 40-year-old system for protecting sugar growers despite criticism from domestic producers and exporters from some of the world's poorest nations. The European Commission proposal will cut guaranteed prices to European producers by 39 percent following a successful challenge to the subsidy system at the World Trade Organization by Australia, Brazil and Thailand. However, such cuts face fierce resistance from European producers and poor nations in Africa and the Caribbean who have had preferential access to EU markets. "Europe's sugar market needs urgent reform," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel wrote in an article published yesterday in the Financial Times.

■ Entertainment
Disney limits HK visitors
Disney has set a limit of 30,000 visitors a day when its new US$3 billion Hong Kong theme park opens in September, a government official said yesterday. Tourism commissioner Eva Cheng said that only 12,000 tickets would be sold for the opening day on Sept. 12, as the morning would be taken up by an invitation-only opening ceremony. After that, Cheng said, Disney had set a limit of 30,000 admissions a day to keep crowds inside its first theme park on Chinese soil to manageable levels. One-third of the projected 5 million plus visitors per year to the theme park are expected to come from China. Another third will come from Hong Kong and the rest from around the region.

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