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 ...
Germany’s agriculture minister is vowing tough legal action against those responsible for contaminating livestock feed with dioxin-laced fat. Ilse Aigner told the newspaper Bild am Sonntag the case needs to be thoroughly investigated, adding what appears to be “criminal energy coupled with alarming unscrupulousness” needs a severe response. She was quoted as saying “the judiciary has to clamp down hard here.” German... [more]
Royal Bank of Scotland should not be “leading the way” when it came to bankers’ bonuses, the Prime Minister said. But David Cameron warned against “banker-bashing”, saying that it was too easy to make banks the “scapegoats” for the recession. Mr Cameron’s comments came after it was reported RBS chief executive Stephen Hester will take home an estimated £6.8 million in bonuses, salary and other... [more]
Germany and France want Portugal to accept an international bailout as soon as possible in order to prevent its debt crisis spreading to other countries, German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Without citing its sources, the magazine said government experts from both European heavyweights were concerned Lisbon will soon not be able to finance its debt at reasonable rates, after its borrowing costs rose at the end of last year. Berlin... [more]
Universities planning to charge some of the highest fees should recruit more than 90% of their students from state schools, the senior Liberal Democrat MP charged with improving access for the less well-off has suggested. Simon Hughes, an opponent of raising fees who was this month appointed the Government’s Advocate for Access to Education, said there needed to be radical changes in the balance of privately and publicly-educated young... [more]
Russian Alexei Koval, charged in the United States with conspiring with his compatriot Igor Poteroba, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to conspiracy and securities fraud on Friday. As part of a plea deal, Koval, of Chicago, also agreed to forfeit at least $1.4 million in profit from illegal use of inside information in trades. Poteroba, a former executive director at an American subsidiary of Switzerland-headquartered global financial... [more]
The prime ministers of Turkey and Greece Friday traded criticism over long-standing bilateral tensions, but pledged to build on a significant thaw in ties to resolve their disputes. Following talks in the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum, the two leaders also vowed to step up cooperation to stem illegal immigration to the European Union as Turkey’s premier expressed understanding for Greece’s plans to build a barrier on parts... [more]
A US appeals court restored a verdict that found Microsoft infringed on a patent for an anti-piracy technology owned by a competitor, Uniloc USA. But the court did not reaffirm a 388-million-dollar jury award. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overruled the decision of a lower court judge who threw out a jury’s guilty verdict against Microsoft in September. At the same time, it found that the method the jury used to calculate... [more]
Bavaria’s conservatives, the Christian Social Union, announced on Tuesday a push to end the perks given to European Union officials, arguing they are no longer needed to attract workers. Markus Ferber, the party’s leader in the European Union (EU) parliament, told daily Die Welt that he would call for a “radical overhaul” to the pay and privileges given to some 50,000 EU officials during an upcoming party meeting in the Bavarian... [more]
Japanese and South Korean defence ministers will meet next week in Seoul to discuss boosting military ties in the wake of deadly attacks from North Korea, a South Korean official said on Tuesday. But Japan’s Toshimi Kitazawa and his South Korean counterpart Kim Kwan-jin have no plans to sign a joint statement on security cooperation when they meet on January 10, the Defence Ministry official said. “They aim to discuss national... [more]
Google is trying to get media backing for a new Google-operated digital newsstand for users of devices that run its Android software, hoping to muscle in on Apple’s own version, The Wall Street Journal said. Google has already approached several publishers, including Time Warner Inc.’s Time Inc. unit, Condé Nast and Hearst Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, these sources said, Google has told... [more]
