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 ...
French prosecutors on Wednesday demanded the maximum 10-year jail sentence for Panama’s ageing former dictator Manuel Noriega on charges of laundering drug money. The 76-year-old general has denied taking payments from Colombian drug lords in the 1980s, dismissing the accusations that he laundered drug money in France as a scheme concocted by the United States. “I call on God’s divine providence to give wisdom to you and... [more]
China told the rest of the world on Friday not to meddle with the way it manages the yuan, setting the stage for a clash with its biggest trading partners at next week’s G20 summit. U.S. President Barack Obama released a letter to his Group of 20 colleagues that zeroed in on prickly policy differences over China’s currency stance and debt-wary Europe’s rush to rein in bulging budget deficits. World leaders gathering in... [more]
JORAN van der Sloot has confessed to the May 30 murder of Lima woman Stephany Flores Ramirez. A high-ranking Peruvian government official told NBC News that van der Sloot had confessed, following reports in the La Republica newspaper that said he broke Flores’ neck after she used his laptop without his permission and found out he was involved in the murder of the American. According to the newspaper the Dutchman, who is also the prime... [more]
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in an apparent criticism of Germany, called for a “carefully designed global approach” to financial reform on Wednesday as he arrived in Europe for talks on a euro zone debt crisis that is shaking world markets. European shares rallied from nine-month lows but the euro remained under pressure amid continuing signs of banks’ reluctance to lend to euro zone counterparts exposed to... [more]
Two million people and eight heads of state from across South America took to the streets of the Argentine capital late into the night Tuesday in celebration of 200 years since its revolution. The leaders — including Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa — accompanied their counterpart Cristina Kirchner at the parade in central Buenos Aires to mark the May 25,... [more]
Venezuela’s socialist president is threatening to “go after” the country’s biggest food producer, and the corporation’s workers are not happy about it. Union leader Richard Prieto says employees of Empresas Polar held meetings Monday and agreed to “defend our jobs throughout the country.” Chavez on Sunday called for authorities to investigate whether the company has been hoarding food, saying... [more]
The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is on an official visit to Norway from 19 to 21 May. Minister of the Environment and International Development Erik Solheim will host the visit. The purpose of the visit is to continue the dialogue on how Norway can contribute to development in Bolivia. The management of gas resources and the rights of indigenous peoples are key topics. The climate negotiations and the run-up to the UN conference in... [more]
The European Union and countries of Latin America and the Caribbean pledged to “avoid protectionism in all its forms”, as the bloc announced free trade deals with the region at a summit. “We remain determined to favour an open non-discriminatory, rules-based multilateral trade system and fully respect its disciplines,” the government leaders and representatives said in a final communique at the Madrid meeting. “We... [more]
Iran has agreed a UN-backed deal on its nuclear programme after mediation talks with Turkish and Brazilian leaders, reports from Tehran say. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said an agreement would be signed shortly to send the country’s nuclear material to Turkey for processing. Low-enriched uranium would be made into a form usable in a research reactor. The West is worried that Iran is trying to build a bomb. Iran denies having... [more]
Brazil’s president met with Iranian leaders Sunday to try to broker a compromise in the international standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program, even as the U.S. says new sanctions are the only way to force Iran’s cooperation. Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to use Brazil’s friendly relations with Iran to show it can be a fair, neutral broker in the escalating dispute. Since evidence of a clandestine Iranian nuclear... [more]
