■ Armani empire expands
Giorgio Armani's luxury lifestyle empire expanded on Sunday as he announced the launch of Armani-designed residences in a Dubai skyscraper billed as the world's tallest building. A statement from the designer's Milan headquarters said a sales office had been opened to start selling the 144 apartments planned for the ninth to 16th floors of the Burj Dubai, which is being developed by the state-owned Emmar Properties. The skyscraper, due to be completed by the end of next year, is also hosting the first Armani Hotel, featuring 160 rooms and suites, restaurants and a spa. Armani said the hotel and private residences -- some as large as 200m2 -- would "bring to life my vision of hospitality."
■ Investment
Stan O'Neal on the outer
Members of the board of US investment firm Merrill Lynch have largely decided that chief executive officer Stan O'Neal will no longer remain at the company's helm, and his decision was to be announced within 24 hours, some leading US newspapers reported on Sunday. However, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported on their Web sites that some details concerning O'Neal's departure still needed to be worked out. Those in the running for O'Neal's job include Laurence Fink, chief executive of money manager BlackRock Inc and Gregory Fleming, Merrill's co-president, the papers said. There could also be some power-sharing arrangement involving the two men, or a temporary solution to give the board more time to find a permanent replacement, the Journal said.
■ Banking
UBS warns of writedowns
UBS AG, Europe's largest bank by assets, said that difficulties in the US subprime housing market may lead to further writedowns. The Zurich-based bank, which reports its third-quarter earnings today, said yesterday that it was still exposed to "further deterioration in the US housing and mortgage markets as well as rating downgrades" on mortgage-related securities. The last three months of the year "started with good results from all businesses," including the investment bank, UBS said in an e-mailed statement. The US subprime problems mean "UBS is not assuming that the quarter will continue as positively as it has begun, or that the current difficulties will be resolved in the short term," the bank said. UBS also confirmed it will report a group loss for the third quarter of between 600 million Swiss francs (US$516 million) and SF800 million.
■ Currency
US dollar plummets
The US dollar plummeted to a new record low against the euro yesterday, as markets awaited an indication from Washington how the Federal Reserve will move later this week. The 13-nation euro opened trading at US$1.4428, before settling back to US$1.4424, still above the US$1.4393 it bought in New York on Friday. The US dollar began to sour last week on the G-7 summit's failure to address its weakness and on a spate of disappointing economic reports from the US. Markets are also looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve Bank's meeting tomorrow, amid fears that last week's run of downbeat economic data is underlining the fact that the Fed's last rate cut of 50 basis points clearly hasn't been sufficient to spur demand.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
KAOHSIUNG CEREMONY: The contract chipmaker is planning to build 5 fabs in the southern city to gradually expand its 2-nanometer chip capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday confirmed that it plans to hold a ceremony on March 31 to unveil a capacity expansion plan for its most advanced 2-nanometer chips in Kaohsiung, demonstrating its commitment to further investment at home. The ceremony is to be hosted by TSMC cochief operating officer Y.P. Chyn (秦永沛). It did not disclose whether Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and high-ranking government officials would attend the ceremony. More details are to be released next week, it said. The chipmaker’s latest move came after its announcement earlier this month of an additional US$100 billion
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
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