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 euro is unlikely to “vanish” this year, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Friday, but warned a report this month will show the global economy growing slower than the 4.0 percent estimated in September. “Will 2012 be the end of the euro? My answer is, I don’t think so,” she told a press conference during a visit to South Africa. “The currency itself is not likely to vanish or disappear in 2012.” “Will... [more]
Britain will not accept the European single market being discussed by any group other than the full 27 members of the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Friday. “Why are we in the organisation (European Union)? We’re there because we’re a trading nation, and we want access to the single market and a full say about the rules of the single market,” Cameron told BBC Radio 4. “What we can’t... [more]
Swedish furniture giant IKEA has recalled 169,000 baby high chairs sold in the United States and Canada over reports that the safety belts can open unexpectedly. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada announced the recall on Thursday and IKEA posted a warning on its website over the ANTILOP high chair, sold from August 2006 through January 2010 for around $20. The safety regulators said IKEA had received eight complaints... [more]
Blacks Leisure has announced it is going into administration and suspended its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE.L -news) . The troubled retailer said its 306 stores, which employ some 3,500 staff, will continue to trade as normal. But it said it expects to sell most of the business within the next few days. It is hoped that the deal will help it save many of the jobs by allowing buyers to cherry-pick its best assets, including... [more]
Amsterdam’s most expensive shopping thoroughfare, the P.C. Hooftstraat, has come in at number three on the list of the world’s nicest places to shop. Singapore’s Orchard Road came at the top of the list, which is in its fourth year of publication. Luxembourg’s Avenue de la Liberté came second. The list is compiled by the international shopping public on behalf of the French marketing agency Presence. Almost 400 shops,... [more]
Embattled oil refiner Petroplus said on Thursday that lenders had frozen access to its remaining credit lines in a further blow to the firm in the process of shutting down three of its refineries. “Access to all credit lines under the Revolving Credit Facility have been suspended,” pending the outcome of ongoing talks with lenders, the Swiss firm said in a statement. Petroplus, Europe’s largest independent oil refiner,... [more]
The Dutch have never before been so gloomy about their financial future. One third expect their situation will deteriorate in the next 12 months. During the financial crisis of late 2008 that percentage was at just 20 percent. The above figures were published by the Social and Cultural Planning Office (SCP) in its quarterly reportCivilian Perspectives based on a survey it conducted among 1,000 citizens between 4 October and 2 November. The... [more]
One of Germany’s energy providers was forced to use reserves from Austrian power stations on two days in December as a “precautionary measure,” according to a newspaper report. According to Die Welt newspaper, grid operator Tennet, which runs a huge section of the German national electricity grid, was forced to tap energy from Austria on December 8 and 9 last year to guarantee the stability of its supply. The transaction... [more]
A month ago, Google’s three-year effort to push its Web browser, Chrome, took a major step when analysts said it had passed Mozilla’s Firefox to become the second-most popular tool of its kind on the Internet. Today, that climb continues and has some tech observers wondering whether Chrome could do the unthinkable and topple perennial leader Internet Explorer from atop the browser rankings. According to Web analytics firm StatCounter, the... [more]
SOUTH Korea said it would set up a fund this year to prepare for eventual reunification with North Korea, as the death of the North’s longtime leader Kim Jong-Il refocused attention on the issue. The unification ministry, which handles cross-border relations, said one of its policy priorities this year was practical preparations for reunification including the fund. In a policy document it also vowed actively to engage in “reunification... [more]
