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 ...
Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is thinking about resigning after the Chancellery failed to tell him about an investigation it instigated into evidence he presented over a fatal attack in Afghanistan. The Christian Social Democrat (CSU) is said to be furious about the move byAngela Merkel’s office, according to the cover story of the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Sunday. Although he would only tell... [more]
Al-Qaeda has announced the death of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, its number three leader and Osama bin Laden’s one-time top money man, in what would be a major blow to the global terror network. US monitoring groups said the death of Yazid, who was the leader of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and its liaison with the Taliban for three years, was announced by the group in a message to jihadist websites on Monday. “We have strong reason to believe... [more]
Senior British officials, including new Foreign Secretary William Hague arrived in Afghanistan Saturday with a warning that Britain wants to withdraw its troops as soon as possible. Hague, Defence Secretary Liam Fox and International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell are set to meet President Hamid Karzai in their first visit to to the country since a new coalition government took power in London this month. Hague described Afghanistan... [more]
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is visiting the Norwegian troops in Afghanistan on Norway’s Constitution Day, May 17th. The surprise visit also includes talks with President Hamid Karzai. On the day of Prime Minister Stoltenberg’s visit, two Italian ISAF-soldiers were killed and two injured when their vehicle was hit by a bomb. So far this year, 198 ISAF-soldiers have been killed. Norway has around 700 troops deployed... [more]
David Cameron has held a meeting with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, his first with a foreign leader since becoming UK prime minister. Both leaders agreed they wanted to “further strengthen” relations between their countries. The talks were held at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence. President Karzai stopped over in the UK on his way back from Washington, where he discussed issues with US President Barack... [more]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton kicked off a day of closed talks with Afghan government leaders by assuringPresident Hamid Karzai that the U.S. will remain committed to his country’s security and reconstruction long after the last U.S. combat troops have departed. “We will not abandon the Afghan people. Our civilian commitment will remain long into the future,” Clinton said, with Karzai at her side in the ornate... [more]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that the United States and its allies still have a long way to go before their security operations are successful in his country. “We have traveled far together, but the international effort in Afghanistan still has miles to go,” Karzai wrote in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post on Saturday. “We are not yet delivering security to large portions of the country.” He said he had... [more]
The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai commands support or sympathy in only a quarter of 121 Afghan areas considered “key” by the US military, a Pentagon report has said. “The overall assessment indicates that the population sympathizes with or supports the Afghan government in 24 percent (29 of 121) of all Key Terrain and Area of Interest districts,” the quarterly report to Congress said Wednesday. “The... [more]
Afghan authorities released on Sunday three Italian medical workers who had been detained for a week, clearing them of allegations they were part of a Taliban plot to kill a provincial governor, Italian and Afghan officials said. The Afghan intelligence service said the three Italian as well as five Afghan employees of the Italian aid group Emergency were freed because they were no longer believed to be part of the plot. A sixth Afghan... [more]
Afghan security forces were on Sunday questioning nine medical workers, including three Italians, after what officials said was a plot to kill a provincial governor. The men were detained on Saturday after suicide vests, home-made bombs, guns and ammunition were found in a storeroom at a hospital in Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, run by the Italian charity Emergency. The three Italians held were said to be Emergency’s medical coordinator... [more]
