Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock and three other directors will step down as the struggling company ploughs ahead with an internal overhaul, including discussions on dealing with its stakes in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. The corporation - once a Web powerhouse but now agonizing over a range of options to revive flagging growth - on Tuesday said it appointed former Rovi Corp CEO and International Business Machines Corp veteran Alfred Amoroso and ex-eBay COO Maynard Webb as independent directors. Yahoo's board has come under fire from investors impatient with the company's persistent inability to effect a turnaround, and frustrated with the apparent indecisiveness of stakeholders over ...
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has vowed to fight an "anti-business culture" in Britain, warning that a row overexecutive pay and bonuses threatens the country's fragile economic recovery. "Let me say something about the row over bonuses and pay," Osborne said in a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses. "Of course rewards for failure are unacceptable -- and those who believe in the free market are the first to say so. But a strong, free market economy must be built on rewards for success." The Labour Party has heaped pressure on the ruling coalition to curb excessive pay for top executives, using a House of Commons debate to demand the return ...
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Tuesday he is resolved to settle a longstanding territorial dispute with Russia at an annual rally calling for the return of all four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido in northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported. "We'll continue to make steady and determined efforts to move ahead with negotiations," Noda said, stressing the need to sign a peace treaty with Russia. The four islands - which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories - has been the subject of a territorial dispute between the two nations since the end of World War ...
Amanda Knox's Italian lawyer has filed an appeal of her slander conviction in Italy, a Knox family spokesman inSeattle said Monday. In October, an Italian appeals court overturned the young Seattle woman's murder conviction in the 2007 death of her British roommate in Perugia. But the same court upheld Knox's conviction for slander — for falsely accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of involvement in the slaying. Lumumba was freed after two weeks in prison for lack of evidence. Knox later said she was "manipulated" during her lengthy police interrogation. An appeal of the slander conviction was filed Monday, Knox family spokesman Dave Marriott confirmed. He doesn't know when the Italian ...
The Dutch railway will remain 'vulnerable' during wintry weather but Dutch Rail (NS) and track operator ProRail did not help matters during the current cold snap by the late introduction of schedule adjustments to cope with the conditions, transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen told parliament in a briefing on Tuesday. The NS and ProRail assumed on Thursday of last week that there would be three to five centimetres of snow. When the forecast was increased on Friday morning to between 10 and 15 centimetres, it was too late to change the timetables automatically, Schultz van Haegen told parliament. Drivers and conductors ...
Greece can leave the eurozone without damaging monetary union, European digital affairs commissioner Neelie Kroes says in an interview with the Volkskrant on Tuesday. Kroes, a member of the Dutch ruling right-wing Liberal party VVD, is not a supporter of Greece exchanging the euro for the drachma, but says: 'It is absolutely not a case of man overboard if someone leaves the eurozone.' The commissioner is very critical of the new Greek government and says they are not fulfilling their promises. 'Too few spending cuts, too little restructuring,' she says. She says the Greeks should follow the example of Italy where the new ...
Mitt Romney hopes his presidential campaign hasn't ignored Rick Santorum's aggressive attacks for too long, as caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday could reshuffle the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Santorum largely bypassed Florida and Nevada to blanket the two caucus states with criticism of Romney and lay the groundwork among conservatives who have great sway in the process. RivalNewt Gingrich praised Santorum's strategy as shrewd even as he signaled he had no interest in exiting the four-way race, which also includes Ron Paul. "I think that Santorum's going to have a pretty good day," Gingrich told reporters on the eve of the caucuses. "He targeted differently than I ...
Glencore and Xstrata agreed an all-share merger worth $90 billion (56 billion pounds) on Tuesday in the industry's largest ever deal, creating a commodities powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading. Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities tradinghouse, will issue 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in a deal they said was a "merger of equals." The ratio is a 15.2 percent premium to Xstrata shareholders compared with its share price last Wednesday before word leaked out about the merger talks, a joint statement said. "A merger between Glencore and Xstrata offers a unique opportunity to create a new business model in our industry to respond to ...
US White House hopeful Mitt Romney aims for another big caucus win in Colorado on Tuesday, as his well-oiled campaign machine works to cement his position as the Republican front runner in the US presidential race. Polls suggest he should triumph easily in the western US state -- where he scored 60 percent in 2008 -- although there is a tighter race in Minnesota, where last-placed Rick Santorum is hoping to snatch a win. Romney's main rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, is battling to stay in the race after two heavy losses in a row to the former Massachusetts governor, who ...
As President Christian Wulff remains mired in allegations of impropriety, anti-corruption group Transparency International (TI) has called for politicians to use the case as a chance to open up German politics. “We are very concerned that people seem to be starting to think that all politicians behave like Wulff, and that would be fatal,” Christian Humborg, TI Germany’s managing director told The Local. “I think the Wulff affair is a wonderful opportunity for German politicians to react to the cynical attitude that this is normal, and improve things,” he said. He said the fact that the authorities were investigating whether Wulff and his ...
General Motors Co. repeated its opposition to the sale of the Swedish automaker Saab to a group of Chinese investors. GM spokesman James Cain said the company remains opposed to the deal as structured and insisted no deal can move forward without GM’s approval. “Saab’s various new alternative proposals are not meaningfully different from what was originally proposed to General Motors and rejected,” the spokesman said. “Each... [more]
For over a century, a German sparkling wine named after a fairytale character has been used to toast personal milestones and the highlights of the country’s turbulent history. But “Rotkaeppchen”, or “Little Red Riding Hood”, also represents a rare success story — it is the only product from the former communist East Germany to have conquered the West. With its iconic red foil tops, the sparkling wine dubbed... [more]
Britain’s Prince Harry rushed to the aid of a friend who was robbed of his mobile phone while speaking to the royal, The Mail on Sunday newspaper said. Harry, third in line to the throne, heard the robbery and quickly drove to the crime scene in Battersea, southwest London. When the army helicopter pilot could not find Thomas van Straubenzee, he drove to the nearest police station, where his friend was already reporting the crime. Harry,... [more]
South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak urged Japan to have the “courage” to compensate ageing wartime sex slaves before it is too late and let the two nations’ relationship progress. Lee on Sunday told Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto that the issue had prevented their countries from becoming “true partners” in the years since World War II. Japan, which insists the issue... [more]
Has Germany saved the euro or doomed the European Union? ZEIT ONLINE’s Matthias Krupa looks at the high political price of the crisis summit in Brussels. So was that the night the euro was saved? Or will those ten hours on last week go down in history as the moment the European Union began to disintegrate? The leaders of the 27 EU nations certainly couldn’t have made their crisis summit any more dramatic. Even before it began on the... [more]
France is giving Britain a “good kicking”, deputy premier Nick Clegg said in an interview out Saturday, as the spat over each other’s economies rumbled on. Clegg warned against lurches into xenophobia and chauvinism, the day after telling French Prime Minister Francois Fillon to “calm the rhetoric” as Britain hit back at French criticism of its finances. The deputy prime minister said it was important to “keep... [more]
The UN Security Council lifted sanctions on Libya’s central bank and a key investment bank freeing tens of billions of dollars to ease a post-Kadhafi cash crunch. The United States immediately announced it would unblock more than $30 billion dollars of assets of the Central Bank of Libya and its subsidiary, the Libyan Foreign Bank (LFB). Britain said it would release more than $10 billion. An estimated $150 billion of assets were frozen... [more]
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said her government would serve a full three-year term as speculation mounted that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is preparing a leadership challenge. Gillard came to power in mid-2010 after ousting Rudd, who was then prime minister, in a sudden and brutal Labor Party coup. But she has never been as popular with voters as Rudd, who still enjoys wide support, and leads a fragile coalition government backed... [more]
Thai police said Friday they had found and defused six potentially explosive devices in the capital Bangkok, days after the government called for heightened vigilance over the New Year period. A man was arrested on suspicion of planting the devices outside a bank, on an overpass and at a road intersection in the city’s eastern suburbs. “So far six bombs were found at three locations,” Major General Wichai Sungprapai, metropolitan... [more]
The Netherlands will lend a maximum of 17 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the broader agreement reached last Friday among leaders of the 16 eurozone countries and at least six other EU countries outside the eurozone. Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager informed the Dutch parliament on Thursday about the decision. The EU nations met last week in an attempt to stabilise the euro and move Europe out of a deepening... [more]
