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World Business Quick Take

■ Airlines
EU OKs Lufthansa deal
The EU gave a conditional green light yesterday to German airline Lufthansa AG's 310 million euro (US$374.7 million) takeover of Swiss International Air Lines. EU regulators said approval of the deal was conditional "upon the parties surrendering slots" at several airports including hubs at Zurich and Frankfurt airports. It said beyond these concessions the deal "would not significantly impede effective competition" in the European airline sector. The EU head office said the two airlines committed to give up additional slots at Munich, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Vienna, Stockholm and Copenhagen, after the EU investigation showed competition on routes to those airports would be reduced "significantly" due to the takeover of Swiss.

■ Internet
Virus-writer goes on trial
A German teenager who confessed to creating the Internet Sasser worm that waylaid millions of computers around the globe last year went on trial yesterday charged with sabotage. Sven Jaschan, now 19, was known locally as a friendly high school student until police knocked at his parents' door in the northern village of Waffensen in May last year. The Sasser worm struck on May last year, and in less than a week hit thousands of companies and as many as 18 million computers worldwide, forcing some businesses to shut temporarily in order to debug their systems. Posts affected were as far flung as the European Commission in Brussels, Taiwan's postal service and Australian rail traffic controllers. US airline Delta was forced to cancel several flights and Finland's third-largest bank shut its 130 branch offices in a preventive move to keep the worm from infecting its computers.

■ Logistics
FedEx to set up new hub
US logistics giant, FedEx, will sign an agreement early next month to make Guangzhou's Baiyun Airport its second Asia-Pacific hub, a report said yesterday. Citing unnamed sources close to the deal, the Standard newspaper said the Guangzhou Baiyun Airport Authority would spend up to 1.5 billion yuan (US$181 million) to build a warehouse and runway for the company. Construction would start in August next year and be completed in October 2008 if the deal is approved by China's State Council and its aviation authority. FedEx's other hub is in Subic Bay, north of Manila. Last year, FedEx signed a framework deal with the Baiyun airport with a view of making it its sole Asia-Pacific hub, but decided to adopt a dual-hub policy after the Philippines made concessions to the keep the logistics firm in the country, the paper said.

■ Employee safety
Worker deaths announced
Japanese insulation materials maker Nichias Corp said yesterday that 141 employees, mostly plant and construction workers, have died over the last three decades after developing cancer and lung disease likely caused by the company's production of asbestos insulation. The Nichias employees who died of methothelioma -- a deadly asbestos-related cancer -- as well as black lung were employed at five domestic factories and other construction sites, where sealing materials, thermal insulation and other building materials are made, company spokesman Ikuo Kawamura said. The disclosure comes only days after Japanese industrial equipment maker Kubota Corp revealed that 79 employees died of illnesses caused by asbestos produced at its plants.

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