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 ...
Terrorism, global health, the environment, the financial crisis and peace keeping efforts were main themes in Prime Minister Jens Stolteberg’s address to the Nation on New Year’s Day. Many people were deeply affected by the events of 22 July last year, Stoltenberg said. Fathers, mothers, siblings and grandparents had to follow their loved ones to their graves. - It was heartbreaking. I have thought of the survivors and the... [more]
Embattled German President Christian Wulff has been accused of trying to block the first reports of his financial affairs by threatening criminal charges against journalists working on the story – leaving a furious rant on an answer machine. When he realised that the country’s biggest-selling newspaper Bild was about to publish details of a €500,000 load he got from the wife of a businessman friend but had not declared, Wulff apparently... [more]
Greece is already seeing its first strike of the year, with pharmacists and doctors walking off the job to protest health sector reforms that include cuts in drug prices. Pharmacists across the country began a 48-hour strike Monday to protest government plans to trim their profits by cutting the retail prices of drugs. They are also demanding payment of hundreds of thousands of euros owed by social insurance funds. State hospital doctors... [more]
European shares were set to fall on Monday in the first trading day of the year after making their biggest yearly fall since 2008, as global growth worries hit investor sentiment with Chinese purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data suggesting factories in the world’s second largest economy were struggling. Trading is expected to be light, with the UK market closed for a bank holiday and many other markets such as the United States... [more]
George, a 39-year-old lawyer, is among many Greeks who traditionally sit around a gambling table on New Year’s Eve, hoping to snare a little luck for the months that lie ahead. But with Greece looking at a fifth straight year of recession and thousands of households reeling from waves of pay cuts and tax hikes, the spare income left to Greeks can no longer fuel their prodigious love for gambling. “I’ve sat at card tables... [more]
Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter and golf prodigyRory McIlroy led the list of recipients of Britain’s New Year’s honours on Saturday. Bonham Carter received a CBE, or Commander of the Order of the British Empire award – one step below a knighthood — after the most successful year of her career, capped by her performance in “The King’s Speech”, the hit film about the stammering king... [more]
European stocks mostly fell Thursday and the euro struggled to recover from an 11-month dollar low, with investor sentiment extremely fragile before another key Italian bond auction, dealers said. In morning deals, London’s FTSE 100 slid 0.11 percent to 5,501.36 points, the Paris CAC 40 dipped 0.11 percent to 3,067.79 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 30 added 0.20 percent to 5,782.16 points. Milan’s FTSE Mib benchmark index... [more]
Figures showing financial improvements for Sweden’s middle and upper classes, at the same time the country’s poorest have seen their incomes decline have given finance minister something to fret about. Figures showing that income differences are on the rise in Sweden, with most household wallets growing fatter, as those with lowest income fall behind, are ‘troubling’, according to minister of finance Anders Borg. Nearly... [more]
One in four people in Germany who lose their jobs have paid so little into the generous social security system that they go straight onto the lowest possible level of support. A new analysis from the Labour Office (BA) shows that the number of people who go directly onto the most basic level of support – known as Hartz IV – has risen since 2008, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday. The rules say that a person who pays into... [more]
Airlines will have to buy pollution permits to fly in Europe from January 1 under a disputed EU system to fight climate change, but slumping carbon market prices could make the bill less painful. The cap-and-trade scheme, which has angered the US and Chinese governments and airlines worldwide, comes into force on Sunday after the European Union’s highest court rejected a challenge brought by US carriers this month. The Airlines for... [more]
