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World Business Quick Take

■ BANKING
BOE helps Northern Rock
The Bank of England (BOE) pumped another ?4.4 billion (US$8.8 billion) into money markets yesterday amid turmoil surrounding troubled bank Northern Rock. It is offering cash-strapped financial institutions the extra funds in a bid to deal with short-term liquidity problems sparked by a global credit squeeze. It said in a statement that the cash was in addition to the ?4.4 billion pumped into money markets last Thursday. Northern Rock shares rebounded 9.99 percent early yesterday.

■ SOFTWARE
Yahoo buying Zimbra
Yahoo Inc said on Monday it would buy e-mail software maker Zimbra Inc for about US$350 million. It said Zimbra would help it expand its mail offerings and raise the Internet company's presence in businesses and universities by enabling them to host e-mail by themselves or elsewhere, while retaining their own domain names. Zimbra offers e-mail, calendar and contact management tools through an open platform that lets users tailor the features and tie them with other Web services.

■ IPR
Nintendo wants crackdown
Nintendo is demanding South Korean authorities crack down on copyright violations by companies circulating illegal copies of its games, spokesman Ken Toyoda said yesterday. Nintendo's South Korean unit filed a complaint on Monday with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, demanding action against those who are illegally copying and selling Nintendo games on Web sites, Toyoda said. Kyoto-based Nintendo Co's portable game machine, Nintendo DS Lite, went on sale in South Korea in January, the first Nintendo machine to start selling there, Toyoda said. Nintendo DS sales in South Korea reached 270,000 units in the first four months.

■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota mulls Japan plant
Toyota Motor Corp is looking into a plan to build a new auto assembly plant in Japan, its first plant on its home turf in nearly two decades, company president Katsuaki Watanabe said yesterday. He said the automaker was considering building a new auto plant in Japan, but he did not elaborate.

■ AVIATION
Low-cost carriers upset
Low-cost airline chiefs yesterday say they are unfairly carrying the burden of concerns about the impact of flying on the environment. "Low-cost aviation is being almost demonized, particularly in the UK," easyJet chief executive officer Andy Harrison said yesterday at the opening of the annual World Low Cost Airlines Congress in London. "We are being charged with destroying the planet." John Hanlon, secretary-general of the European Low Fares Airline Association, said that the growth of the low-cost industry had opened up air travel "from the prerogative of the wealthy few to something that everybody can contemplate."

■ CRIME
MUFG fined over lax rules
A subsidiary of Japanese megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Inc was fined US$31.6 million by US authorities for inadequate anti-money laundering measures. The Department of Justice said on its Web site that Union Bank of California (UBOC) had agreed to pay the penalty for "failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program."

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