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 ...
A North Korean diplomat said Thursday that tensions on the Korean peninsula were running so high over the sinking of a South Korean warship that “war may break out at any moment.” In a speech to the international Conference on Disarmament, Ri Jang-Gon, deputy permanent representative for North Korea at the United Nations in Geneva, blamed the “grave situation” on South Korea and the United States. “The present... [more]
South Korean media have speculated on the whereabouts of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il since a trip to China last month, with some newspapers suggesting he may have taken to an underground bunker amid threats of war. South Korea has blamed the North for torpedoing a naval vessel in March killing 46 South Korean sailors, fuelling bellicose rhetoric on both sides of the world’s most heavily militarised border. But North Korea’s... [more]
Avoiding conflict between the Koreas over the sinking of a warship is an urgent task, China’s premier said Sunday as Beijing appeared more engaged in the crisis despite withholding support for possible U.N. action against North Korea. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s comments came at the end of a weekend summit with Japanese and South Korean leaders that was closely watched for signs that Beijing would get tougher on North Korea,... [more]
North Korea said Thursday that it will scrap an accord aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea after Seoul blamed Pyongyang for a torpedo attack that sank a South Korean warship. Tension on the divided peninsula has risen dramatically since a team of international investigators said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank a South Korean warship on March 26, killing 46 sailors. North... [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]
North Korea threatened Wednesday to block all cross-border traffic and blow up any South Korean loudspeakers blasting propaganda northward after a six-year hiatus, as tensions soared over the sinking of a South Korean warship. The dramatic deterioration in relations came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Wednesday in Seoul for talks on how to deal with North Korea. The North also declared it will cut all ties... [more]
The two Koreas raised their war-like rhetoric on Monday, threatening conflict if the other side pushes too far in escalating tension after Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing one of its naval ships. The United States, which has 28,000 troops on the peninsula, threw its full support behind South Korea, calling the defence of its ally unequivocal and pressing North Korea’s only major ally, China, to rein in the hermit state. The increasingly... [more]
The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama ”fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that killed 46 SouthKorean sailors. The administration said it endorsed President Lee Myung-bak’s demand that “North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior.” Seoul... [more]
South Korea’s president said Monday his nation will no longer tolerate North Korea’s “brutality” and said the regime would pay for a surprise torpedo attack that killed 46 SouthKorean sailors. President Lee Myung-bak vowed to take Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council over the March 26 sinking of the warship and saidSeoul would cut all trade with the impoverished regime — measures aimed at striking back at... [more]
South Korea will take the case of its sunken naval vessel to the U.N. Security Council, the presidential office said on Sunday, as pressure mounted on North Korea which is accused of torpedoing the ship. South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak will deliver a speech about the incident on Monday, presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said. “The president will present frameworks of measures, one about our own steps and the other about... [more]
