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 ...
The founder and three employees of the Megaupload file-sharing website have appeared in court in New Zealand after being arrested in police raids. New Zealand police also seized guns, artwork, more than £5 million in cash and luxury cars valued at nearly £3 million after serving 10 search warrants at several businesses and homes around the city of Auckland. The Megaupload site was shut down on Thursday over US accusations that it facilitated... [more]
The United States Congress is considered likely to scrap Cold-War era trade restrictions on Russia, a senior World Trade Organization official said on Thursday, Dow Jones reported. “There is great confidence that when the moment is right, the United States will do what it has to do,” Cheidu Osakwe, the WTO’s Director of Accessions told the Washington International Trade Association. Speaking on the day WTO members accepted Russia’s... [more]
Moscow refused to award former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov the title of “Honorary Citizen of Moscow” on Friday, explaining that the statutory period after he was sacked had not yet expired. Luzhkov, Moscow’s long-serving mayor, was fired in September 2010 after a public row with President Dmitry Medvedev. The former government chief of staff, Sergei Sobyanin, replaced Luzkhov. “To award the title [of Honorary Citizen] it is necessary... [more]
Oslo and Islamabad insisted on Thursday that their relationship remains strong despite the resignation of the Norwegian domestic intelligence chief after she appeared to reveal that Norway has secret agents in Pakistan. The head of Norway’s Police Security Service (PST), Janne Kristiansen, widely criticised after the July 22nd attacks last year, informed the justice ministry on Wednesday night of her decision to give up her post. Amid... [more]
Greece on Friday raced for a double debt-saving deal in parallel negotiations with private creditors and its EU-IMF bailout partners ahead of a default deadline looming in March. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos was scheduled to meet again with global bank group representatives after late-night talks on Thursday as his finance minister held talks with senior EU-IMF auditors on a new eurozone rescue loan. Greece is seeking to slash around 100... [more]
Sweden should take steps to increase security against attacks at its nuclear plants, including introducing armed guards, according to a new government-sponsored report, published on Thursday. “A terror attack against a nuclear power plant can have the same consequences for the surroundings as a nuclear power plant accident,” the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten) said in a statement. The authority,... [more]
Exxon Mobil Corp. would pay more than $2 million in penalties and cleanup costs toMontana for a pipeline rupture in July that spilled an estimated 1,500 barrels of oil into theYellowstone River, according to a proposed legal settlement unveiled on Thursday. Under the negotiated agreement between Exxon and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the Texas-based oil company would pay a fine of $1.6 million, the largest penalty... [more]
As expected, the government is pressing ahead with plans to scrap grants for students starting a masters’ degree from the next academic year. The decision means students living away from home will no longer get a grant of some €260 a month towards the cost of their degree. Instead, they will be able to borrow the same amount of money from the student loan service, according to the draft legislation sent to parliament on Thursday. ‘They... [more]
The euro held steady against the dollar on Friday and was on track for its biggest weekly gain in three months, having rallied on short-covering following its recent drop to a 17-month low. Market players said position unwinding might give the euro a further lift in the near-term, with one possible upside target at $1.3077, the single currency’s high so far in January. Greece’s negotiations with creditors on a debt swap remain... [more]
Police have raided the home of President Christian Wulff’s former spokesman Olaf Glaeseker as well as the offices of an event manager who was closely connected to the president when he was state premier of Lower Saxony. Investigators looking at corruption allegations against the two men raided Glaeseker’s house near the Lower Saxony capital of Hannover as well as Manfred Schmidt’s offices in Berlin and Switzerland, removing computers... [more]
