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 ...
Saab will restart production within a week, its owner Dutch car maker Spyker said Monday after it reached a deal on a 30 million euro cash injection for the troubled Swedish car manufacturer. “Spyker entered into a 30 million euro ($44.6 million) convertible loan agreement with Gemini Investment Fund Limited with a six month maturity,” the company said in a press release. The loan at an annual interest rate of seven percent sets... [more]
Markets in Japan and South Korea rose Monday amid holiday-thinned trading in Asia after U.S. stocks gained on positive earnings to round out their best month since the end of last year. The dollar rose and oil prices extended declines after news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 1.5 percent to 9,997.91. Asia’s largest market will be closed Tuesday through Thursday amid Japan’s annual Golden Week... [more]
The Norwegian unemployment rate continues to drop, and is now at 2.8 per cent of the total work force. This is an eight per cent drop since April last year, according to the National Labour Office (NAV). It says it is the improvement in the Norwegian economy that has led to lower unemployment and more vacancies. In April there were 14 per cent more vacancies advertised than in the same month last year. The drrop in unemployment is highest... [more]
Mining giant Rio Tinto weighed into the debate over Australia’s proposed carbon emissions tax Saturday, urging Canberra not to rush into a decision while major polluters such as China and the United States held back. Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants to charge polluters from July 2012 under a fixed-price scheme that would move to a full cap-and-trade model linked to international carbon markets within five years. But she faces stiff... [more]
Germany top industry body launched an unusually frank attack on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government on Tuesday, openly calling it directionless and demanding it pick up the ball on much-needed changes such as tax reform. Hans Heinrich Driftmann, president of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), told daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union and their beleaguered coalition... [more]
More than 200 farmers brought two cows to Tokyo where they shouted and punched the air Tuesday in a protest to demand compensation for products contaminated by radiation spewing from Japan’s crippled nuclear plant. The farmers from northeastern Japan wore green bandanas and held signs saying “Nuclear disaster is human disaster” and “Stop nuclear energy” outside the headquarters of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the... [more]
Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the economy will likely contract in the first half mainly due to stalled production after the quake-tsunami, according to the Wall Street Journal. “We are now expecting production and GDP will decline in the first quarter and the second quarter,” Shirakawa said in an interview with the paper on Friday. He said stalled production was the “heart of the problem” facing the... [more]
Striking truck drivers protested for a third day Friday in Shanghai’s main harbour district amid heavy police presence and signs the action has already started to curb exports from the world’s busiest container port. The strike is a very public demonstration of anger over rising consumer prices and fuel price increases in China. It comes as the government struggles to contain higher inflation, which hit 5.4 percent in March,... [more]
Privacy watchdogs are demanding answers from Apple Inc. about why iPhones and iPads are secretly collecting location data on users — records that cellular service providers routinely keep but require a court order to disgorge. It’s not clear if other smartphones and tablet computers are logging such information on their users. And this week’s revelation that the Apple devices do wasn’t even new — some security experts... [more]
The Dutch government wants to join forces with other European Union countries to block the European Commission’s plan to raise the EU’s budget by 4.9 percent. Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager made the announcement in response to the commission’s proposal to increase the budget by six billion euros to a total of 133 billion. He called the raise “totally unacceptable” and “out of proportion”. Last month, Prime Minister Mark... [more]
