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 ...
The Netherlands may decide to block payment of the next instalment of the loans that were earlier pledged to the Greek government. Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager made his remarks after Friday’s cabinet meeting. “The ball is now in the Greek court, they must simply implement the IMF programme. If they don’t, then that’s the end. I don’t care whether there is political opposition in Greece or not, there is no more time for obstruction.” The... [more]
Riot police made heavy use of tear gas and stun grenades to disperse youths throwing stones and petrol bombs at a large march through central Athens Wednesday to protest the Greek government’s harsh austerity measures. The clashes came during a 24-hour general strike that brought most public services to a halt, idled all trains and island ferries, grounded flights for four hours and disrupted public transport. The unions, like many... [more]
Greece came to a standstill on Wednesday as a general strike took effect against new austerity measures by a government seeking to get a new package of help and avoid a damaging debt overhaul. The strike, the second this year called by the country’s main unions, paralysed maritime and intercity train traffic, shut down state services and temporarily halted flights through the country, respective operators said. A four-hour stoppage... [more]
Ireland’s government expects the country’s debts will be restructured within the next three years, The Irish Mail on Sunday reported, citing an unnamed senior minister. The newspaper said the Irish government was hoping a possible restructuring deal for fellow euro zone struggler Greece would pave the way for a rethink about Ireland, which entered into an 85 billion euros ($123.5 billion) bailout package with the EU and IMF last... [more]
Portugal has raised euro1.12 billion ($1.67 billion) in an auction of 3-month Treasury bills, a day after officials said the cash-strapped country had agreed on a euro78 billion bailout. The steep increase in the interest rate on the T-bills Wednesday underscored Portual’s financial plight as investors demanded a 4.65 percent interest rate_ up from 4.05 percent on the same debt two weeks ago. More positively, the government debt agency... [more]
Swedish car maker Saab has agreed to form a strategic partnership with Chinese company Hawtai Motor, Dutch owner Spyker confirmed on Tuesday. Hawtai is to put some €150m into Saab – €120m in the form of share capital (29.9%) and the rest in a convertible bond. The two companies will also work together in both production and technological developments. The deal is still subject to approval from certain Chinese government agencies,... [more]
Portugal needs over 100 billion euros (89 billion pounds) in EU/IMF loans, including up to 10 billion euros for its banks, but there are doubts whether Brussels will allow the bailout to exceed its initial target of 80 billion euros, Diario Economico newspaper said on Tuesday. The business daily said the technical team from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund working in Lisbon had concluded that... [more]
Portugal, negotiating a debt rescue with the EU and IMF, raised one billion euros ($695 million) on Wednesday but had to pay sharply increased interest rates as markets demanded record returns. Even as Lisbon raised short-term funds, sceptical investors were adding to the pressure on the government by pushing 10-year bond yields to record highs, reflecting their doubts that Portugal’s public finances can be stabilised. In midday trading,... [more]
Greece on Friday unveiled plans for a massive sale of state assets, designed to raise some 15 billion euros ($22 billion) by 2013 in order to reduce its huge debt and put its struggling recovery on track. The government said it would privatise the country’s main electricity provider PPC — previously a sacred cow whose sale had been resisted — and would further reduce its 20-percent stake in main telecoms operator OTE. “In... [more]
Almost three years after the global financial crisis, Germany’s Deutsche Bank has been slammed in a US Senate report for allegedly recklessly pushing worthless mortgage-backed securities to investors. The US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations this week said the bank had wittingly pushed high-risk assets known as collateralized debt obligations (CDO) that would help cause the United States’ worst economic collapse since the... [more]
