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 ...
Germany, as Europe’s top economy, may be currently seen as the land of plenty but its senior citizens are increasingly being forced to take a part-time job in their twilight years just to make ends meet. With more inhabitants over the age of 65 than any of its European partners, Germany’s senior citizens are having to resort to jobs such as animal- or babysitting or as a caretaker to top up their pensions. Notices such as “Still... [more]
Crisis-hit Greece is still losing billions of euros (dollars) to corruption in spite of efforts to stamp out graft and maximise the state’s tax revenue, a report said on Wednesday. The Ta Nea newspaper said that tax evasion cost Greece 13 billion euros ($17.4 billion) annually in lost revenue, citing remarks by experts and state officials at a conference on corruption on Tuesday. The finance ministry’s former information systems... [more]
European stock markets sank on Wednesday and the euro sat near one-year dollar lows on concerns about the eurozone, and after the US Federal Reserve decided against new economy-boosting plans. In morning deals, London’s FTSE 100 index slid 0.74 percent to 5,449.53 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 dipped 0.94 percent to 5,719.77 points and the Paris CAC 40 dived 1.28 percent to 3,039.35. The euro meanwhile tumbled as low as $1.3005... [more]
Authorities at the Auschwitz memorial say that the European Commissionhas donated €4 million to help preserve the site of the World War II Nazi death camp. The authorities said in a statement Wednesday that the money will be used to help preserve women’s barracks of the Birkenau part of the camp. It will also be used to strengthen and improve the security of the archive building, to expand the database system and to modernize... [more]
Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers will meet face-to-face across the Cabinet table today amid growing tensions within the coalition over Europe. The weekly meeting comes a day after their differences were laid bare by Nick Clegg’s decision not to attend the Commons as David Cameron defended using Britain’s veto in Brussels . The deputy Prime Minister was reportedly furious when he heard Mr Cameron had refused to sign... [more]
US House and Senate negotiators unveiled a compromise military spending bill that ties strings to aid to Pakistan, targets Iran’s central bank, and sets high hurdles for closing Guantanamo Bay. The legislation, which was expected to face votes in both chambers this week, requires that Al-Qaeda fighters who plot or carry out attacks on US targets be held in military, not civilian, custody, subject to a presidential waiver. The measure... [more]
Thousands of United Russia supporters gathered on Monday on Moscow’s central Manezhnaya Square to celebrate both the party’s victory in the parliamentary elections and Russian Constitution Day. Entitled “Glory to Russia!” the event brought together activists from pro-Kremlin youth movements, trade unions and supporters of the ruling United Russia party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The party has also nominated Putin as its... [more]
Myanmar authorities have allowed Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition to legally re-register, state media reported, clearing the way for the democracy champion’s party to rejoin mainstream politics. The move, which is expected to see the Nobel laureate stand for a seat in parliament in by-elections early next year, follows a series of reformist moves by a new military-backed government dominated by former generals. Suu Kyi’s National... [more]
The Dutch government is not allowed to force people who qualify for family reunion to take the required integration exam in their country of origin, argues a lawyer representing a Turkish family in a case to be heard at a court in Rotterdam. Doing so contravenes the European Guideline regarding family reunions, adopted in 2005, and the Turkish Association Treaty dating back to the 1960s, according to the lawyer, Ejder Köse. The trial is... [more]
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that the United States used the 9/11 attacks as a “game and pretext” to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. “September 11 was actually a game designed to influence the emotions of the human community, in order to find a pretext for attacking Islamic regions and invading Iraq and Afghanistan,” he was quoted as saying on the website of his office on the 10th anniversary... [more]
