■ 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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
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