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 ...
Oslo Airport Gardermoen has been ranked Europe’s most effective airport for 2010 by the Air Transport Research Society (ATRS). Altogether 37 airports in Europe were considered. The Copenhagen Airport has for the past several years been ranked the number one airport in Europe, with the Oslo Airport (OSL) in second place. One reason for receiving the Europe Airport Efficiency Excellence Award is that Oslo Airport handles more flights,... [more]
The Obama administration declined to label China a currency manipulator in a long-delayed report on Thursday, spurring fresh calls from U.S. lawmakers for tough new steps to pressure Beijing. Some lawmakers claim a misalignment in China’s yuan currency distorts trade and steals U.S. jobs. The U.S. Treasury’s semiannual currency report, which originally was due on April 15, said China’s yuan remains undervalued but noted... [more]
German women earn up to one-quarter less than their male co-workers, but a new study released Tuesday surprisingly revealed that many women also think they deserve a smaller paycheque. Researchers for the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) surveyed some 10,000 employees across the country to find out whether they considered their salaries fair. They were shocked by the results, according to daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, which... [more]
The strike at Norwegian hospitals was extended Monday morning, to include another 500 employees at six new hospitals. A total of around 950 employees at 10 hospitals are now on strike. However, leader of the hospital workers union (Akademikerne Helse), Rune Froeyland, underlines that all emergency work will proceed as planned. Among the new hospitals affected are hospitals in Stavanger, Trondheim, Oslo and Bergen, as well as some regional... [more]
The Norwegian government has given final approval to Statnett’s controversial plans for building a 420kV power line along and across the scenic Hardangerfjord in Western Norway. The much-debated plan had been opposed by local authorities as well as environmental groups, but the Government’s final approval made on Friday, cannot be appealed. The new power line will become an important part of the National Grid, and is seen... [more]
Embattled German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a blow to her authority Wednesday as her pick for president needed three voting rounds to win election after a rebellion in her ruling coalition. Christian Wulff, 51, a conservative Merkel ally who once described himself as no “alpha male,” secured 625 votes in a special electoral assembly, enough to become Germany’s youngest-ever president. His election was greeted by... [more]
Google has confirmed it will stop automatically directing users of its China search site to its Hong Kong site after Beijing said the company would lose its mainland internet licence if the tactic continued. Google shut down its China-based search engine on March 22 to avoid co-operating with the communist government’s internet filtering and has rerouted users to its unfiltered site in Hong Kong. But Google said regulators told the... [more]
THE leaders of the world’s most powerful countries were to pursue talks today on settling their differences over how to nurse the fragile world economy back to health. The G20 nations convened in the eastern Canadian city of Toronto on the heels of a tough-talking G8 summit, in which the world’s major industrialised powers laid down the law to rogue operators Iran and North Korea. US officials called on leading economies to focus... [more]
There are now 47,600 registered farmers in Norway. This is 5,000 fewer than five years ago. This is shown by official figures from the Norwegian Agricultural Authority. - I am much concerned over the fact that the reduction is this high, says head of the Norwegian Farmers’ Association (Norges Bondelag) to the newspaper Nationen. In the same period the farm land in production has been reduced by 35,000 acres, NRK reports. Share this:... [more]
All TNT postal delivery workers who work more than 25 hours a week are to lose their jobs, the Telegraaf reports on Saturday. Delivery staff who work more than 15 hours may also be out of work, depending on the fine-tuning of the reorganisation, the paper says. It is not known how many workers will be affected by the mass redundancy programme. At the beginning of this year, TNT employed some 15,000 full time delivery workers, the paper says. Unions ‘The... [more]
