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 ...
World stock markets and the euro tumbled Tuesday on fears Europe’s debt crisis will cause a prolonged slump in the region and weaken the outlook for global growth. Asian markets were also hit hard by reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered his military to be on combat alert amid rising tensions on the peninsula. In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 2.5 percent to 4,942.58, Germany’s DAX index dropped 2.5... [more]
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) was finally poised for “lights, cameras and action” on Tuesday, with the first of two semifinals in the Eurovision Song Contest due to air live at 9pm on NRK1. It’s the biggest TV spectacle to be produced in Norway since the Winter Olympics at Lillehammer in 1994. That went well, and NRK officials seemed confident they’d pull Eurovision off as well. “There are a million things we can worry about,”... [more]
A new purple coalition – a combination of the two Liberal parties and Labour – is ‘extremely unlikely’ , VVD leader Mark Rutte said during Sunday’s televised election debate. A purple cabinet – so called because of the mix of party colours – ran the Netherlands from 1994 to 2002 and is seen by many as a popular option this time round. But Rutte told the debate the difference in policies between the... [more]
The week-long strike by transport workers and workers in the cleaning industry was extended from Monday morning. This will mean fewer supplies on the shelves and more uncleaned offices. The strike at freight terminals has so far only affected the Oslo region, but from now on the rest of the country will also be hit, when another 800 members of the Transportworkers’ Union walk out. In addition to the non-food supplies at the grocery... [more]
Australia’s communications minister has calledGoogle’s privacy policy “a bit creepy” in personal attacks against the head of the company and fellow Web giant Facebook in an Internet filtering row. Stephen Conroy said Google had committed the “single greatest breach in the history of privacy” by collecting private wireless data while taking pictures for its “Street View” mapping service,... [more]
Today is Tuesday, May 25, the 145th day of 2010. There are 220 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On May 25th, 1810, Argentina began its revolt against Spanish rule with the forming of the Primera Junta inBuenos Aires. On this date: In 1787, the Constitutional Convention began meeting in Philadelphia after enough delegates had shown up for a quorum. In 1895, playwright Oscar Wilde was convicted of a morals... [more]
Helen Newlove, the widow of a man kicked to death by teenagers, is to become a Conservative peer, according to Sky sources. Her husband Garry was murdered by three youths in Warrington in 2007. He was attacked after confronting the trio about their anti-social behaviour. His death prompted the mother of three to campaign tirelessly for responsible drinking. Earlier this year, she launched the National Licensed Trade Association, which aims... [more]
Dolly Parton — who plays Miley Cyrus’ aunt on “Hannah Montana” — says the final season of the show mirrors Cyrus’ real life, down to the backlash against her. According to Parton, Cyrus’ character takes off her blond “HannahMontana” wig and reveals her true identity as Miley Stewart. Parton says the media were then saying bad things about Miley — “just the same way they’re doing... [more]
A Beverly Hills judge on Monday ordered actress Lindsay Lohan to undergo random drug and alcohol testing and wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet after missing a probation hearing last week in a 2007 drunken driving case. Judge Marsha Revel also said that Lohan, 23, had violated her probation, and the judge scheduled a new hearing in July to determine possible further sanctions. Lohan, who agreed to the conditions on Monday, claimed... [more]
Singer and actress Jessica Simpson has won an arbitration to keep an exercise video featuring her from being marketed, a court filing shows. Lawyers for Simpson asked a New York state court on Friday to approve the April arbitration ruling that bars Speedfit LLC and its owner, Alex Astilean, from using her name and likeness to promote the 2005 video. While the arbitrator awarded Simpson nothing on her breach of contract claim, it awarded... [more]
