Air Canada launches Australia-Oahu service

Air Canada yesterday inaugurated its previously announced Melbourne-Honolulu-Toronto service, linking Australia, Hawaii and Canada three times a week and connecting with the carrier's existing daily Honolulu-Vancouver service. It is the only nonstop Melbourne-Hawaii service by any carrier.

The airline is using 212-seat Boeing 767-300 aircraft on the new service. Air Canada said it intends to expand in the South Pacific.

Argentina may convert peso deposits into dollars

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina >> Argentina could be poised to convert peso bank deposits into dollars and temporarily limit bank withdrawals to halt a run on the fragile financial system, a Central Bank source said late yesterday.

Panicky Argentines lined up at banks and dried up cash machines in downtown Buenos Aires yesterday amid fears of a freeze on their savings -- still mindful of measures taken by ex-president Carlos Menem who froze deposits and turned them into bonds overnight to stop a bank run in 1989.

Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo meanwhile said the local tranche of a major debt swap to restructure Argentina's $132 billion public debt load was a "resounding success," attracting offers of more than $50 billion out of a total $60 billion and said he would announce unspecified economic measures today.

Another top Oracle exec quits as exodus continues

SAN FRANCISCO >> Software giant Oracle Corp. disclosed that another of its top executives defected from the company yesterday, continuing a management drain that has raised investor concerns.

Jay Nussbaum is stepping down as an executive vice president of service industries after 10 years at Oracle to accept a job at one of the company's business partners, CEO Larry Ellison said in a memo to employees yesterday. Without specifically identifying the company, Ellison said Nussbaum is "joining one of (Oracle's) largest and most important partners in a very senior role."

Nussbaum, 58, becomes the third top executive to leave the firm during the past 17 months. The defections have worried investors who believe Oracle is better off with a group of seasoned executives to counterbalance the mercurial Ellison.

In other news . . .

Merrill Lynch & Co. has dismissed Christine A. Callies as its chief domestic stock strategist just 18 months after hiring her away from Credit Suisse First Boston, people at the firm said yesterday. Callies, the firm's main voice on the U.S. stock market and a frequent guest on cable financial network CNBC, is one of thousands of employees leaving Merrill either voluntarily or involuntarily this month. The firm is buying out about 2,600 employees and laying off thousands more as part of a restructuring.