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 ...
Several Chinese companies with offices in Amsterdam are going expand their staff here and one new Chinese IT company is opening an office in Amsterdam, the municipality says following a visit to Beijing by Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan. During the trip, the mayor of Beijing announced he will visit the Dutch capital this week. The exact dates and programme have not yet been disclosed. Huawei, a large Chine telecom and IT firm, has... [more]
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to visit Palestine’s city of Gaza in September 13 or 14 to put an end to an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, country’s Haberturk newspaper said on Sunday, quoting sources in the government. The sources told the paper that the prime minister would get to Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing as new Egyptian authorities gave their approval for that. Israel... [more]
Russian billionaire and the leader of the Right Cause party Mikhail Prokhorov said on Sunday he suggested cutting state stakes in Russia’s mass media to limit governmental influence on it. “We advocate that (the government) should not own more than a blocking pack in federal media,” Prokhorov told reporters, adding that the mass media freedom would allow Russian society to be more “healthy”. He also said that... [more]
THE West must not repeat the same mistake in Libya as it did in Iraq, Italy’s foreign minister said, warning against a full-scale purging of military officials and bureaucrats from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. “Why destroy all the structure, all the apparatus in Libya like we have done in Iraq, making a big mistake,” Franco Frattini told reporters at an economics forum in the Lake Como resort town of Cernobbio. “We... [more]
The growing number of churches no longer serving as such has led to a renovation boom, a national heritage foundation says. As a result of the ongoing secularisation, only 7,000 of Holland’s 19,000 churches are still being used for worship. The other 12,000 have been given a new function or are on sale, according to the foundation. “Giving old buildings such as churches a new lease on life also fits with sustainability trends”, the... [more]
US authorities have given Switzerland until Tuesday to transmit data from tax evaders in the United States who have stashed assets away in Swiss banks, the SonntagsZeitung reported on Sunday. The United States has asked for detailed information on US nationals who have hidden their money in Switzerland, the paper said, basing its report on a three-page letter from the US deputy attorney general James Cole, dated August 31, addressed to the... [more]
The number of people in the Netherlands who can’t pay for their health insurance is continuing to rise. Every day, hundreds of customers ask their insurance companies for help in paying their health insurance premiums. Insurers are usually flexible with people in difficulties but, if arrears continue for six months, customers are referred to the CVZ college of health insurers. Then the arrears are recovered directly from wages or benefits. At... [more]
An early warning radar system will be deployed in Turkey within the NATO missile defense program, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said on Friday. “The deployment of this [missile defense] element in Turkey will constitute our contribution to the defense system being developed within the new NATO [defense] strategy and will strengthen the defense potential of NATO as well as our national defense system,” Unal said. Talks... [more]
The dynamics of Greece’s huge foreign debt has run “out of control,” and government efforts to repair the country’s crippled economy have proved unsuccessful, the Greek parliamentary budget committee said in its report issued on Wednesday. “The steep debt rise, high primary deficit … have exacerbated to the maximum the dynamics of debt, which is out of control,” the report said. “It is clear... [more]
Scrapping the euro and closing the Dutch borders, as called for by right wing populist MP Geert Wilders, will lead to more unemployment in the Netherlands, deputy prime minister Maxime Verhagen says in an interview with website nu.nl. Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV has a formal alliance with the ruling minority coalition, made up of the VVD Liberals and Christian Democrats. ‘What Wilders says sounds very reasonable – ‘What... [more]
