■ Banking
UBS loses customer data
UBS AG, Europe's biggest bank by assets, said its Tokyo office lost a computer hard disk containing customer data from its banking and brokerage units in Japan. The lost disk contains details on about 9,500 of UBS Securities Japan Co's customers, including 500 individual clients, between September 1999 and last August, the firm said in a statement yesterday. It also holds information on about 6,000 customers, including 300 individuals, of UBS AG's Tokyo branch between July 1994 and last December. The data loss follows similar cases at Mizuho Financial Group Inc in March and at Softbank Corp in February. UBS said the disk was created while the bank was transforming customer information to a new system, and it's unlikely the data could easily be leaked as it is recorded in a special format.
■ Microchips
Samsung launches new chip
South Korean microchip giant Samsung Electronics said yesterday it has embarked on the mass production of four-gigabit flash memory chips using microprocessing technology. The chips marked the world's highest density NAND flash device using a 70-nanometer technology, which enabled Samsung to produce the industry's smallest memory cell. The four-gigabit NAND flash writes data at 16 megabytes per second, about 50 percent faster than the conventional two-gigabit device. The new flash memory chip, which stores content even after power is turned off, is widely used for digital cameras and mobile phones. Samsung, the world's largest maker of dynamic random access memory chips for computers, said it has also launched its new 300mm wafer fabrication line one month ahead of schedule.
■ Aviation
German to be Airbus CEO
European jet-maker Airbus SAS's German chief operating officer (COO) has been approved to become the company's next chief executive officer, according to a published report. The Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed person close to the decision, on Sunday said Gustav Humbert, Airbus' (COO) and head of programs, will succeed Noel Forgeard to become the company's first non-French chief executive. The decision was approved by both the Dutch aerospace company European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co, or EADS, which owns 80 percent of Airbus, and co-owner BAE Systems PLC of Great Britain, the newspaper reported.
■ Salaries
Silicon Valley pay jumps
Executive pay at Silicon Valley companies increased 57 percent last year to a total of US$2.1 billion, with Yahoo Inc chief executive officer Terry Semel topping the list, the Mercury News of San Jose, California, reported, citing its own study. The 728 senior executives in the region earned the most in three years, helped in part by stock options, and close to the US$2.3 billion they made in 1999, when the technology boom was close to its height, the newspaper said. The median pay for all the executives, including salary, bonus and gains from options, climbed 26 percent last year to US$758,520, the paper said. Semel earned US$230.6 million, the third-biggest annual pay package in Silicon Valley's history. He was followed by Yahoo chief technology officer Farzad Nazem with US$63.2 million and Maynard Webb, chief operating officer of EBay Inc, with US$46.4 million.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique