OTHER NEWS - July 6, 1996

Microsoft Apologizes for Offensive Synonyms: The Redmond, Wash.-based software company issued a public apology for the Spanish-language version of a Word 6.0 thesaurus that offered “savage” and “man-eater” as synonyms for the name “Indian.” Reports of the offensive synonyms surfaced in Spain and Mexico, where they caused a media uproar. The firm took out newspaper ads in the two countries promising to make new software available for free. The corrected software should be ready within five weeks. “Between now and the next five weeks, Microsoft will be searching every word in the Spanish version of the Word thesaurus to make sure there are no more offensive terms,” a company spokesman said.