Microsoft released four software patches on Tuesday to fix security flaws, including one that could allow hackers to take over computers running the company's instant messaging programs. Only one of the flaws carried the company's most severe "critical" rating, and it only applies to the Windows 2000 operating system.
Microsoft says it will release a major package of updates and fixes for the Windows Vista operating system in the first half of 2008. The company says a "beta" test version of Service Pack 1 will be released "in a few weeks to a moderate-sized audience". The pack fixes some common problems that cause computers to crash or freeze.
Microsoft will send out replacement parts for its Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel after 50 reports that the video-game controllers overheated and released smoke when plugged in, the software maker said last week. The steering-wheel-shaped controllers mimic the physical sensations of race-car driving.
A European Union court upheld most of a landmark 2004 European Commission antitrust decision against Microsoft on Monday in a crucial victory for the European competition regulator against the United States software giant. The EU's Court of First Instance dismissed Microsoft's appeal on all substantive points.
Seven developing countries in Africa and Asia will be the first to take part in a new global health campaign aimed at directing aid more effectively at the basic needs of poor countries. Health ministers from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Cambodia and Nepal will take part in the launch of the initiative at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office later on Wednesday.
