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 ...
Spain’s government, unions and business leaders signed a “grand social pact” Wednesday on sweeping reforms to revive the economy and cut a sky-high jobless rate. The deal is critical to Spain’s campaign to convince the markets that it can push through difficult labour reforms so as to speed up the economy, cut spending, and finance the debt. Lurking in the minds of investors is the fear that Spain may fall into the... [more]
People from Poland, Bulgaria and Romania should be deported back to their country of origin if they are out of work, Louis Bontes, an MP for the anti-Islam PVV said in an interview with website nu.nl. ‘They are often drunk and are involved in petty crime,’ he is quoted as saying. ‘Locals get upset by this, so the police tell me.’ Bontes said there is no legal barrier to deporting EU nationals from the open border area within five... [more]
Thai “Yellow Shirts” vowed to intensify protests in Bangkok after a high-profile nationalist activist was jailed for eight years in Cambodia, in a case that has raised border tensions. The group issued an ultimatum threatening to step up their rally in the capital after Veera Somkwamkid — a former leader of the Yellow movement — and his secretary were sentenced by a Cambodian court on Tuesday. “The Thai government... [more]
The number of people unemployed in Spain, which has the highest jobless rate in the industrialised world, rose in January putting an end to five straight months of declines, the labour ministry said Wednesday. There were 4.23 million people registered as jobless last month, up 130,930 or 3.19 percent from December with over 80 percent of the job losses coming from the service sector, it said in a statement. Compared with the total 12 months... [more]
Naomi Campbell has interviewed Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, praising him for being in “good physical shape” and making a “great impression on women”. The supermodel, who questioned Mr Putin for GQ magazine, avoided political subjects but chose to talk about the prime minister’s fitness regime and a glamour calendar produced in his honour. The model, who lives with Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin... [more]
Russia will react accordingly after Ireland’s “unfriendly” expulsion of a Russian diplomat in a fake passports scandal, a top foreign ministry official said on Wednesday. “This is an unfounded and unfriendly act, which of course will not go without a corresponding reaction,” Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov told the Interfax news agency. Ireland expelled a Russian diplomat Tuesday after an investigation... [more]
President Hosni Mubarak defied a quarter-million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing Tuesday he would serve out the last months of his term and “die on Egyptian soil.” He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters. The protesters, whose numbers multiplied more than tenfold in a single day Tuesday for their biggest rally yet,... [more]
Like the victory goddess it honours, Athens’ ancient Temple of Athena Nike stands free of scaffolding for the first time in nine years in a testament to another triumph — the prolific restoration of the Acropolis. Greece may be struggling to ward off financial collapse but nothing will crush the ambitious plan — first started in 1975 — to restore Classical glory to the country’s most visited monument. The government... [more]
Protesters in Egypt are continuing their call for President Hosni Mubarak to stand down immediately. Egypt’s president of 30 years announced last night he would quit at the next election in September following days of mass demonstrations against his rule. Although the decision was greeted with jubilation, many protesters are calling for Mr Mubarak to leave now and have vowed to continue their demonstrations. President Obama said he... [more]
Haiti ex-dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s Swiss millions have been blocked under new legislation that came into force on Tuesday to ease their return, the Swiss government said. The Swiss Foreign Ministry confirmed the entry into force of the new law on the restitution of assets of politically exposed persons on its website. “The Duvalier finds were then blocked under article 14,” setting in motion... [more]
