Microsoft Corp said on Friday that its engineers have developed a software patch to fix a bug in its server software which the company said a hacker had reported to it Thursday afternoon.

The bug, or software flaw, involved sending a string of characters to a Web site which the hacker claimed could shut down a site using Microsoft's Internet Information Server 3.0 running on Windows NT 4.0. Mike Nash, director of marketing for Microsoft's Windows NT servers, said Microsoft estimates its site may have been jammed for "one or two times" on Thursday, but for no more than about five minutes at a time.

The Microsoft site has been congested in recent weeks by an increase in traffic - which has doubled in recent months to around one million individual visitors a day - prompting Microsoft to upgrade its site and add two international mirror sites in London and Tokyo.

Annual EU farm price meet today

: Plans to slash aid to wealthy wheat farmers are likely to be pushed aside at an annual European Union farm price marathon starting in Luxembourg on Monday, EU diplomats said. Farm ministers, except Britain's and Sweden's, are expectedto block EU farm commissioner Franz Fishler's bid to cut payments to cereals and oilseed farmers by 1.4 billion ecus ($1.6 billion) to help finance aid for beef producers crippled by the mad cow crisis.

The cereals aid cut is the most contentious issue in a package of farm prices and measures for the coming 12 months which, if an EU ritual is respected, will be thrashed out after an all-night session after several days of hard bargaining.

Kuwait-Amman direct air links to restart

Kuwait Airways Corp and Royal Jordanian Airlines have agreed to resume direct flights between Amman and Kuwait for the first time since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, an official said on Sunday.

The KAC official told the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) in Amman that the two sides had agreed in talks in Jordan to equally share four flights a week between the two Arab capitals. Kuwait has yet to restore full diplomatic ties with Jordan which was seen as an Iraq sympathiser during the Gulf crisis.

Crucial Opec meet this week

OPEC, the geriatric oil cartel, meets this week to mourn a slide in petroleum prices which it appears to have little power to resist. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has watched helpless as a revenue windfall from a firm market in 1996 was wiped out by a 30 per cent slump in prices this year.

OPEC's response to falling prices will be no different than its reaction at the last gathering in November to a six-year high of $25 for Brent blend. The North Sea crude, a world benchmark, is now worth less than $18 a barrel.

UAE, Germany sign investment promotion deal

Germany and the United Arab Emirates have signed a bilateral investment promotion and protection pact, Germany's ambassador to the UAE said on Sunday. The signing of the agreement, which was initialed earlier this year, had been delayed due to the resignation and new formation of the UAE's government in March, Martin Schneller said.

The ambassador said 1996 figures showed German exports to the UAE stood at 2.1 billion marks ($1.21 billion) while UAE exports to Germany hovered at 213 million marks ($123 million).

IMF lauds India for helping Nepal: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has praised India for providing a strong framework to bring in financial discipline in Nepal and encouraging regional economic integration.

In its annual consultations with Nepal, IMF has appreciated the progress already made and noted that the recent trade and power treaties the Himalayan kingdom had with India had "improved Nepal's long-term growth prospects". However, IMF observed that as the Indian economy was undergoing liberalisation, the Nepalese authorities might wish to revisit the question of appropriateness of the peg-over time.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.