News Headlines - 12 May 2014

▽Boko Haram demands release of fighters for girls - Businessweek

Under the guns of their captors, dozens of barefoot girls sat huddled together wearing gray Muslim veils as they chanted Quranic verses in Arabic. Some Christians among them said they had converted to Islam.

▽Ukraine crisis: rebels proclaim birth of sovereign 'People's Republic' - Telegraph

Ukraine's most populous regions stood on the verge of joining Russia on Monday when the birth of a "People's Republic" was simultaneously proclaimed in Donetsk and Luhansk.

▽BSkyB in talks to unite Murdoch’s pay-TV businesses in Europe | The Irish Times

Britain’s largest pay-TV company BSkyB is in talks to buy Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia, a €10 billion deal that would realise Rupert Murdoch’s long-held ambition to combine his European TV interests in a single business.

▽Pursuing AstraZeneca, Pfizer Pledges to Keep Jobs in Britain - NYTimes.com

Pfizer pledged on Monday to keep jobs in Britain if it succeeds in taking over the British drug maker AstraZeneca, and it questioned whether AstraZeneca can stand on its own much longer.

▽Hundreds of Chinese families seek wartime compensation from Japan | Reuters

As relations between China and Japan plumb a new low, the descendants of hundreds of Chinese men forced to work in wartime Japan are taking big, modern-day Japanese corporates to court. They are seeking millions in compensation.