Bankruptcy court for Malaysia mooted: The Malaysian Investors Association (Mia) has proposed the setting up of a "specialised bankruptcy court" after it felt that the Malaysian legislation relating to bankruptcy appears to be detrimental to debtors, its president PHS Lim said. The proposal came upwhen the association felt that investors, both local and overseas, have been very much perturbed by the recent corporate ill health and development in the country with several companies coming under receivership. Lim also pointed out that the Companies Act 1965, section 176 (10) on power of court to restrain proceedings, "is too limited in scope for debtors to seek court protection from the winding up of a company by creditors."

US promises more waivers over investment in Iran: The United States, after waiving sanctions on three foreign firms over an investment in Iran, has promised more waivers for European Union companies so long as the EU cooperated with Washington on Iran policy. President Bill Clinton announced the decision in London not to penalise Total SA of France, Russia's Gazprom and Petronas Dagang Bhd of Malaysia. The three firms' two billion dollars contract to develop Iran's South pars gas field fell under) the 1996 US Iran and Libya Sanctions Act (Ilsa), which targets investments inthose two countries' energy sectors, Washington ruled.

H-P upgraded server systems: Hewlett Packard has become the first PC server vendor to unveil upgrade programmes to Merced, Intel Corporations's 64-bit processor. The company's server system provides an upgrade path to Deschutes slot-2, Future slot-2 or Merced processor technology. The HP enhanced trade-in offer completes the offering and sets a new standard of investment protection by offering customers solutions for their current and future investments. The upgrades are available immediately in the US, Canada and some other countries. The complete family of HP NetServer systems consist of two distinct lines of PC servers. NetServer L series are designed as enterprise application, workgroup or department servers.

US busts global money laundering ring: US authorities have said they had broken up a huge international money laundering ring in what was being billed as largest such case in US history, involving top Mexican banks and LatinAmerica's most powerful drug cartels. "Today we have hurt the drug cartels where it hurts the most -- in their pocket books," treasury secretary Robert Rubin said, announcing the results of a three-year investigation. The arrest of 142 people and seizure of 35 million dollars is "the culmination of the largest, most comprehensive drug money laundering case in the history of US law enforcement," the treasury and justice departments said in a joint statement.