SYDNEY, DEC. 16--AsiaNet/InfoQuest GOODYEAR BUY-OUT... AKRON - The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company said Friday ithas reached agreement in principle on the final terms toacquire Ansell Limited's interest in their South Pacific Tyresjoint ventures, pending government and other approvals. NEW REEF... LAHAINA - Following two years of preparation, AtlantisAdventures on Tuesday, sank the Carthaginian replica whalingship off Lahaina, Maui, creating an artificial reef that willhave lasting marine life benefits and enhance its submarinetour experience. REUTERS SECURITY... ASHBURN - MCI, Inc Thursday announced that Reuters, theglobal information company, has extended its contract with MCIto monitor Reuters' global enterprise network providing earlywarning threat identification and detection capabilities. MICROSOFT INFRINGEMENT... REDWOOD SHORES - Visto Corporation has filed a legal actionagainst Microsoft claiming the company infringed multiplepatents regarding proprietary technology that providesenterprises and consumers with mobile access to their email andother data. CVC PARTNERS... LONDON - CVC Capital Partners, a leading private equity firmin Europe and Asia, Thursday announced the immediatelyappointment of three new partners, Adrian Mackenzie, GeertDuyck and Roy Kuan. IP EXPANSION... ASHBURN - MCI, Inc. Thursday announced that its latestglobal IP network expansion to deliver much needed bandwidth toSouth East Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE)has been completed and customer traffic is being transmitted onthe new SEA-ME-WE4 submarine network cable system. (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agenciesdistributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwideclients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)