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 ...
Chancellor Angela Merkel was slapped with a new shock poll result on Friday that showed just one in five voters is happy with her government and – for the first time – a majority hankers for the old “grand coalition.” If Merkel was hoping in the wake of a string of poor survey results that her numbers couldn’t get any worse, she was wrong: just 20 percent of respondents to the ARD-Deutschlandtrend poll said they were “happy”... [more]
Delays were expected at Berlin’s airports Thursday morning after some ground staff went on strike as a warning shot over failed wage negotiations, the aviation union has announced. About 30 workers downed tools at Tegel airport and another 40 to 50 atSchönefeld, starting at 4am, though a ver.di union spokesman warned hundreds could join the strike over the course of the morning. The industrial action was expected to continue until 10am,... [more]
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in an apparent criticism of Germany, called for a “carefully designed global approach” to financial reform on Wednesday as he arrived in Europe for talks on a euro zone debt crisis that is shaking world markets. European shares rallied from nine-month lows but the euro remained under pressure amid continuing signs of banks’ reluctance to lend to euro zone counterparts exposed to... [more]
German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Saudi King Abdullah late on Tuesday after calling for Gulf nations to help press Iran over its nuclear drive, the official SPA news agency said. Abdullah, his half brother Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and other top officials hosted Merkel and her delegation in a state banquet in the Red Sea port of Jeddah ahead of talks on regional and bilateral issues. That followed a tour... [more]
U2 said Tuesday frontman Bono had been released from a Munich hospital after emergency back surgery for temporary “paralysis,” forcing the cancellation of the band’s US tour and its Glastonbury Festival gig. “Bono has now been discharged from Ludwig Maximilians-University Hospital in Munich where he underwent emergency surgery on Friday, following a back injury,” the Irish band said on its website. “This... [more]
More than 600 people were evacuated from the famous cruise ship MS Deutschland after it caught fire while docked in a Norwegian fjord on Sunday. The fire started in the engine room and was presenting problems to fire crews with the thick smoke that developed, a local rescue spokesman said. The 364 passengers – mostly Germans – and most of the 241 crew were evacuated, as well as the two Norwegian pilots. The heat developed by... [more]
The United States suggested Europe’s debt crisis would have minimal impact on global growth, but China took a more pessimistic view, warning it would impact demand for its exports and other regions would suffer too. The two countries, meeting in Beijing for high-level talks, set the differing tones as eurozone leaders sought to conquer doubts that they can cut fiscal deficits and stimulate growth to overcome the crisis. Global markets... [more]
The number of visitors at the Shanghai World Expo has reached 5 million, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. Xinhua said the 5-millionth guest visited the Expo on Sunday evening. Experts say tourists have become interested in the exhibits, estimating the number of visitors to reach at least 70 million over the following six months. Russia’s pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo welcomed its 500,000th visitor on Sunday, a 22-year-old... [more]
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has approached the delicate matter of the Nefertiti bust while on an official visit to Egypt, telling his counterpart the statue would not be moved. Egyptian calls for the bust to be returned have increased recently, while it has been re-housed in Berlin’s Neues Museum, forming the centrepiece of the Egyptian collection in the German capital. Westerwelle concentrated on the argument that the bust,... [more]
Anxious air passengers relieved to see the volcanic ash no longer threatening their schedule could be held up from next week by striking ground personnel at Berlin’s airports. Union officials warned that the action planned by the 1,750 or so workers who provide airport services including luggage handling at Tegel and Schönefeld, could result in delays and cancellations. Negotiations for a joint agreement for those working for airport... [more]
