News Headlines - 04 January 2012

▽Britain urged to rule on lethal force against pirates - AFP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iWWVw5PzY7fG2wOEm6DSbE55Hujg?docId=CNG.de856ece51704a8013815b7dfb5543db.351
Britain's government must give official guidance on when it is legal to shoot and kill maritime pirates, lawmakers said Thursday ahead of a conference in London on the future of Somalia.

▽Government appeals against ruling that solar subsidy cuts were illegal - The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/04/government-appeal-feed-in-tariff-illegal?newsfeed=true
The government lodged an appeal on Wednesday against a judge's ruling that its cuts to solar power subsidies were illegal, arguing that the cuts were essential to encourage as many homeowners as possible to install renewable energy. The government will also argue that the judge's ruling was premature, as the final decision to slash the solar subsidies had not been taken at the time.

▽Switzerland's central bank chief accused of insider trading - The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/04/switzerland-central-bank-chief-insider-trading?newsfeed=true
Switzerland's central bank was embroiled in an insider trading scandal after bank chief Philipp Hildebrand was accused of speculating on currency transactions only weeks before he instituted dramatic policy changes that shifted prices in his favour.

▽Yahoo picks PayPal's pocket to hire latest CEO - Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP82571606a65a4b148056951c98f5f97e.html
Yahoo's previous turnaround attempts have flopped under three different leaders with dramatically different backgrounds — former movie mogul Terry Semel, beloved Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and profanity-spewing Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz.

▽Stephen Hawking at 70: Exclusive interview - New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328460.500-stephen-hawking-at-70-exclusive-interview.html
When he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged just 21, Stephen Hawking was only expected to live a few years. He will be 70 this month, and in an exclusive interview with New Scientist he looks back on his life and work