DELAWARE
WILMINGTON — Ford executives won rave reviews from investors during what turned into the shortest shareholder meeting on record.
Thursday’s meeting lasted just 45 minutes, much of it spent with shareholders praising CEO Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. for the company’s turnaround.
Mr. Mulally said Ford is moving ahead and growing and that he looked forward to continuing to serve as CEO.
Shareholders expressed confidence in Ford’s management, with more than 96 percent of the nonbinding say-on-pay vote supporting the company’s executive compensation.
Shareholders also overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for each share of Ford’s outstanding stock to have one vote. The Ford family has voting control of Ford Motor Co. because of a two-tier share structure that gives the family 16 votes per share.
ENGLAND
Teen ’spokesman’ for hackers Team Poison arrested in U.K.
LONDON — British police said Thursday they had arrested a 17-year-old suspected spokesman for Team Poison, a hacking group that has claimed responsibility for a series of high-profile cyberattacks.
The boy was arrested Wednesday in Newcastle, in northeastern England, in connection with alleged computer-misuse offenses, London’s Metropolitan Police said.
“The suspect, who is believed to use the online [nickname] ’MLT,’ is allegedly a member of and spokesperson for TeaMp0isoN,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.
“He has been taken to a local police station for interview. Computer equipment has been seized and is undergoing a detailed forensic examination.”
Team Poison, believed to be behind cyberattacks on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook page of outgoing French President Nicolas Sarkozy, “has claimed responsibility for more than 1,400 offenses,” the statement added.
Those offenses include “denial of service and network intrusions where personal and private information has been illegally extracted from victims in the U.K. and around the world,” police said.
Scotland Yard itself came under attack from Team Poison last month, when the group uploaded a four-minute recording of conversations among staff manning Britain’s confidential anti-terrorist hotline to YouTube.
NEW YORK
Change to top of WTC raises questions over height
NEW YORK — A change to the design of a needle that will sit atop One World Trade Center is raising questions over whether the building will be America’s tallest when completed.
Developer Douglas Durst said the 408-foot-tall needle will no longer be enclosed in a fiberglass-and-steel structure called a radome. Mr. Durst said the enclosure was removed from the original design because it would be impossible to maintain and repair.
Without the enclosure, it’s unclear whether the needle is an antenna or a spire. That’s important in measuring the building’s height.
If the needle is considered an antenna, One World Trade Center would be smaller than the Willis Tower in Chicago - and lose its crown as the tallest building in the U.S.
NEW YORK
Free Potter e-books to be offered on Kindle
NEW YORK — Harry Potter has joined the Kindle lending library.
Amazon.com announced Thursday that on June 19, the e-book editions of J.K. Rowling’s seven Potter novels will become part of the Kindle service available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Members can download one free book a month. Amazon’s library has more than 145,000 books.
Financial terms for the online retailer’s licensing agreement with Ms. Rowling were not disclosed.
Ms. Rowling only recently permitted e-books of the Potter series and has been offering them through her own Pottermore website. The e-books on the Kindle will be available in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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