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 ...
Emergency workers searched Tuesday for 29 people missing from an Italian cruise disaster that killed six as the ship’s captain faced an interrogation on accusations that he veered wildly off course The head of the Italian coastguard, Marco Brusco, said there was “a glimmer of hope” for finding more survivors since the giant half-submerged vessel had not yet been fully inspected, but rescuers said the chances were now slim. Brusco... [more]
Striking Greek workers brought the Athens metro to a standstill on Tuesday and kept ferries docked to protest against austerity as the country’s lenders visited Athens to try to avert a disorderly debt default. EU, IMF and ECB officials start combing through Athens’ books on Tuesday as part of efforts to put together a 130-billion-euro rescue package that Greece needs to stay afloat when a major bond redemption comes due... [more]
Belgian authorities on Monday raided the administrative offices of three Catholics bishops, part of an ongoing child abuse investigation that has previously raised the ire of the Vatican and church officials. Belgian Catholic Church spokesman Geert Lesage said the offices in Hasselt, Mechelen and Antwerp cooperated during the raids and handed over requested files as much as possible. He said it was still unclear exactly what authorities... [more]
A Japan Airlines flight bound for Sydney was forced to turn back after takeoff when a business class passenger seat caught fire, according to reports. The small fire was apparently caused by a cigarette lighter — although the airline said it has not yet identified who it belonged to, according to the Kyodo News and Jiji Press news agencies. The Boeing 777, carrying 260 passengers and crew members, took off from Narita airport... [more]
Police divers and rescue crews are circled around the wreckage of the cruise ship that ran aground off the Tuscan coast in an apparent search for the few dozen people who remain unaccounted for. Late Saturday a South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued when firefighters in the unsubmerged part of the Costa Concordia heard their screams. Crews in dinghies were seen Sunday morning touching the hull with their hands. They... [more]
The U.N. Secretary General demanded Sunday that Syria’s president stop killing his own people, saying the revolutions of the Arab Spring show that people will no longer accept tyranny. In a keynote address at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Ban Ki-moon said the days of one-man rule and family dynasties are over in the Middle East. “Today, I say again to President (Bashar) Assad of Syria: Stop the violence.... [more]
German prosecutors have said that they feel they have grounds for a prosecution against Beate Zschäpe in relation to their investigation into the NSU neo-Nazi terror cell. “As a result of our further investigations, we are convinced that she was one of the founders of the terrorist association NSU and that she was involved with it up until the end,” Markus Köhler, spokesman for the Federal Prosecutors Office, said Saturday. The Zwickau-based... [more]
A number of attempted rapes against young girls have spread fear in Lund, in southern Sweden, and police now believe a single perpetrator lies behind all of the attacks. A young woman and several girls, some as young as ten, have recently been attacked in the city’s eastern area. Parents living in eastern Lund have been encouraged to walk their children to school and back, and police have increased their surveillance of the area. “We... [more]
Italian prime minister Mario Monti travels to the UK on Wednesday for his first official visit since taking office, amid concerns that organised crime has tightened its grip on his country’s economy. He has been trying to convince European leaders he has control of the debt crisis that has seen Italy’s cost of borrowing soar. But there are fears that tax evasion and the increasing role of the mafia is robbing the Italian treasury... [more]
AUSTRALIA has not altered its travel warnings for Thailand in response to warnings by US authorities about the increased chances of terrorist attacks in Bangkok. The United States today warned of a terrorist threat against tourists “in the near future” in the Thai capital. This followed an announcement by Thai authorities that they had detained a Lebanese man with suspected links to the Hezbollah militant group. “Foreign... [more]
