Yahoo! is willing to negotiate further with Microsoft, top executive Jerry Yang said in an interview on Tuesday, as he defended his handling of the aborted takeover bid. "We were totally willing to do a transaction, and they walked away," Yahoo! CEO Yang told the <i>Financial Times</i>, adding that he is open to renewing negotiations with Microsoft.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday expressed alarm at reports of rising violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe and said he was consulting with African leaders on how to help resolve the country’s election crisis. "I am deeply concerned at reports of rising levels of violence and intimidation" in Zimbabwe, he told reporters.
More than 15 000 people died when a powerful cyclone swept across Burma last weekend, including 10 000 in a single town, the military government announced on Tuesday in state media. The official New Light of Burma newspaper said the devastated town of Bogalay had suffered most of the losses.
Oil jumped more than to strike a record over a barrel on Monday on the weaker dollar and supply concerns from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members Nigeria and Iran. United States crude gained ,37 to trade at ,69 at 3.55pm GMT, after surging to ,21 earlier.
Debate on the future of the Scorpions gained new steam on Monday as the government released a report from an inquiry it had commissioned into the elite detective unit. The Scorpions still have a role to play in the country’s crime-fighting efforts, states the report that was submitted to President Thabo Mbeki two years ago.
Gold Fields’s South Deep Mine was given permission to resume mining after a meeting with the Department of Minerals and Energy on Monday. ”The section 54 ruling [which suspends mining] has been lifted,” said spokesperson Sputnik Rantau. ”The mine has been allowed to go back into operation.”
The Cape High Court on Monday heard a graphic account of how Najwa Petersen stabbed her husband, Taliep, in the neck one night, eight months before he was murdered. It also heard that the theatre personality’s life was insured for R5,3-million, and that Najwa tried after his death to have the money paid into a Namibian bank account.
South African telecoms operator MTN Group said on Monday that it was in share price-sensitive talks with India’s Bharti Airtel. The group did not give much away amid speculation that Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest phone company, might launch a takeover offer for the local firm.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) will look at ways to protect Test cricket in the wake of Twenty20’s growing impact at a two-day board meeting starting in Dubai on Monday. The India Premier League was launched last month involving several high-profile players and has taken the cricket world by storm, with the England board also planning their own league.
In the latest case of apparent infanticide to shock Germany, police said on Monday that they found three dead babies in a freezer and arrested a woman believed to be the children’s mother. Police said the woman’s grown-up son and daughter discovered the tiny corpses on Saturday evening when they were looking for something to eat when their parents were out.