YAHOO chairman Roy Bostock fired the company’s chief executive Carol Bartz over the phone yesterday, ending a tenure marked by stagnation and a rift with Chinese partner Alibaba.

Carol Bartz was fired as Yahoo's chief executive nearly three years into a tenure in which the company fell short of the turnaround she was charged with leading.

YAHOO has said an important partnership with Microsoft is taking longer than expected to pay off, but the company posted quarterly earnings that topped Wall Street targets, sending shares up in after-hours trading.

A nun has been found dead in her residence at a church in a small community on the Navajo Indian reservation near the Arizona-New Mexico border.