World Business Briefs

■ COMPUTERS
IBM chief eyes India, China
IBM Corp chairman and chief executive officer Samuel Palmisano is on an unpublicized visit to India, where he is meeting clients, government officials and employees, a news report said yesterday. The visit is the result of IBM's focus on India as a strategic growth market and an important talent base, the Hindu Business Line newspaper reported from the southern technology hub of Bangalore. On Wednesday, Palmisano met IBM's customers and shared with them his thoughts on future plans for key markets, India and China ranking high among them, the paper reported, quoting an unnamed IBM official.

■ INTERNET
Google starts library project
Google Inc's Internet-leading search engine yesterday was to begin serving up the entire contents of books and government documents that aren't entangled in a copy-right battle over how much material can be scanned and indexed from five major libraries. The list of Google's so-called "public domain" works -- volumes no longer protected by copyright -- include Henry James novels, Civil War histories, Congressional acts and biographies of wealthy New Yorkers. Google said the material, available at www.print.google.com, represents the first large batch of public domain books and documents to be indexed in its search engine since the company announced an ambitious library-scanning project late last year.

■ AVIATION
Cathay employees complain
Cathay Pacific flight attendants are accusing the airline of infringing on their privacy with new sick-leave rules requiring them to disclose their medical records to the company. But Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Hong Kong's flagship airline, denied the allegation, saying the company has just stepped up monitoring of employees' sick-leave records out of concern for their health and to ensure smooth operations. Under the revised rules, the airline will identify flight attendants who take long or frequent sick leaves. Those employees may be asked to see desig-nated company doctors for their health problems and provide medical records to the company.

■ INTERNET
Yahoo redesigns its maps
Yahoo Inc has redesigned its online maps to make it easier to get driving directions to multiple destinations and find local merchants -- the latest move in the company's duel with Internet powerhouse, Google Inc. The company planned to unveil its latest mapping improve-ments on Wednesday, less than a month after Google upgraded its maps service. Yahoo's service will be available on a test basis at maps.yahoo.com/beta. Yahoo is matching some of Google's features, such as the ability to scroll across a map without reloading a Web page, as well as introducing tools that haven't been available previously on the Internet.

■ BANKING
China must move: Moody's
Chinese bank reforms have made progress over the past two years but they need to extend beyond just initial public offerings (IPOs), international ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said yesterday. "The state banks need to be transformed into competitive commercial entities which requires much more than just fixing the balance sheets through recapitalization and IPOs," Moody's said in a statement.