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 ...
France and The Netherlands called on Monday for extra rigour in the EU’s Stability Pact after the Greek debt debacle, with France targeting financial stability and the Dutch attacking slack budgets. Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told Le Monde newspaper that advance warning systems were needed to prevent a repetition of the Greek crisis and that new criteria must be decided to monitor the eurozone’s 16 members. “We... [more]
Dutch brewer Heineken says it has completed the acquisition of Mexican beer maker FEMSA, adding Dos Equis and Sol to its long list of labels. The deal has been approved by all relevant anti-trust authorities and shareholders of Heineken and FEMSA, Europe’s biggest brewer says in a statement. “Today represents the start of a new era for Heineken,” Heineken CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said. In January Heineken valued FEMSA... [more]
Today is Friday, April 30, the 120th day of 2010. There are 245 days left in the year. Koninginnedag – Queen’s Day in Holland The tradition started on 31 August 1885, on the birthday of Princess Wilhelmina, later Queen Wilhelmina. Since 1949, after the ascension of Queen Juliana, Queen’s Day is Queen Juliana’s birthday on 30 April. Although Queen Beatrix’s birthday is on 31 January, she officially celebrates... [more]
Former Dutch MP and Islam critic Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been awarded the Freedom of Expression prize by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. The jury said that Somali/Kenyan-born Ms Hirsi Ali deserved the prize because of “her unrelenting conviction that one’s views are worth fighting for”. Ms Hirsi Ali now lives in the United States where she works for the rightwing American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.... [more]
A court in The Hague has ruled that the street cleaners in The Hague can go on strike on Thursday and Friday. The city council had applied for a temporary injunction against the cleaners’ trade unions AbvaKabo FNV and CNV Publieke Zaak. The cleaners are striking for better working conditions, but the city council says the timing of the strike is “irresponsible”. Friday is Koninginnedag or Queen’s Day. 30 April is... [more]
Outside the Amsterdam office of Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, there is a lone orang utan in a nest 11 metres off the ground with a red and white banner which reads “Give me a break” and looks strangely like a KitKat bar except the name has been replaced by the word “Killer”. The orang utan is in fact a Greenpeace activist. The action is part of Greenpeace’s campaign against Nestlé’s... [more]
People celebrating Queen’s Day in the Dutch capital should take their own rubbish home with them, acting mayor Lodewijk Asscher says, in response to the decision of the city’s rubbish collectors to strike on April 30. But the city council has decided not to go to court in an effort to have the one-day strike ruled illegal, because the unions are taking steps to minimise the risks to public health and safety, the Telegraaf reports. The... [more]
The house where artist Karel Appel was born has opened its doors in Amsterdam. It has been furnished in the artist’s style and will house domestic and foreign students from the Dutch Royal Academy of Visual Arts. Karel Appel who died in 2006 was one of the founders of the avant-garde Cobra movement in 1948. The housing association which owns the house in a lively market suburb of the capital believes the artist lived there till he... [more]
Family, friends and former prisoners of the Nazi concentration camp Dachau gathered in the Amsterdammse Bos, a large park and wooded area just outside of the Dutch capital, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of camp’s liberation. The annual event commemorates the liberation of the camp by the US 7th Army on 29 April 1945. The parade was led by a number of survivors of the concentration camp. People walked along a 60 metre-long avenue... [more]
After three years ‘practising in parliament’, the PVV is ready to rule, party leader Geert Wilders said on Friday at the presentation of the party’s manifesto for the June 9 general election. ‘The PVV wants to join in but the party’s influence must be substantial, otherwise there is no point in being in the cabinet,’ Wilders said. ‘The bigger we are, the bigger the chance we end up in government.’ The... [more]
