CHINA

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 7 - Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock and three other board directors will step down as the struggling Internet company keeps up discussions on overhauling its prized Asian assets, including stakes in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan .

A plan to fast-track the stalled Keystone XL pipeline was passed by a key committee in the House of Representatives Tuesday, as Republicans made yet another attempt to spur approval of the project that has become a major issue in the 2012 elections.

Yahoo, No. 2 in search, shook up its board of directors a month after recruiting new CEO Scott Thompson from eBay’s PayPal unit.

Prince Charles led global celebrations on Tuesday marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, a titan of English literature whose vivid stories confronted the injustices of Victorian life.

Tuesday marked the 50th anniversary of the United States' ban on trade with Cuba, a policy that has endured through 10 presidential administrations and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Raspberry said that due to moving their manufacturing overseas, they were having trouble sourcing a quartz crystal for the sub $35 Raspberry Pi computer.

Symantec, the owner of Norton Anti-Virus and other security software brands, said someone claiming to be part of Anonymous attempted to extort $50,000 in return for not posting code.

China is scouring the world for alternative oil supplies to replace a fall in its imports from Iran, as it seeks to negotiate lower prices from Tehran, and has been drawing heavily on Saudi Arabia.

A new guessing game is about to begin: will China's incoming generation of leaders show more courage than the current incumbents in tackling deep economic imbalances that threaten to bring growth to a sudden stop?

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad promised to stop the bloodshed that has engulfed his country for the past 11 months. Assad reached an agreement with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was in Damascus on Tuesday.

Gold prices rose 1 percent on Tuesday as expectations that a Greek rescue deal will be completed drove the dollar down sharplyagainst the euro.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP), the world's largest snack-food maker, is projected to report stronger fourth-quarter profit as PepsiCo continue to capitalize on emerging market growth and proper hedging against commodity price swings.

The member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) recalled their Syrian ambassadors on Tuesday after violence against protestors in the country escalated yet again.

France is gradually losing its vitality and presence in global export markets.

Apple has been sued by Proview Technology for allegedly infringing upon their trademarked iPad name, and the Hong Kong-based company stands to win $1.6 billion and an apology from the world's biggest tablet maker.

The 29 Chinese workers captured in Sudan last month were released on Tuesday.

The International Monetary Fund and Vice President Joe Biden have both raised doubts about China's economic growth, although for different reasons.

Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), the giant beverage maker, said on Tuesday that net income fell 71 percent in the fourth quarter on substantial restructuring charges, but increased beverage sales beat Wall Street expectations, and it announced a cost cutting plan to pay for rising commodity costs and bolster its brands.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Damascus for talks with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

After coming off the bench to score 25 points in last weekend's game, setting a personal record and leading the New York Knicks to a victory against the New Jersey Nets, hopes were high that Jeremy Lin would help the Knicks defeat the Utah Jazz in Thursday night's game. Lin delivered.

Iranian buyers have defaulted on payments for about 200,000 tonnes of rice from their top supplier India, exporters and rice millers said on Tuesday, a sign of the mounting pressure on Tehran from a new wave of Western sanctions.