China assigned third-generation mobile phone licenses Wednesday to three carriers in a long-awaited step that is expected to prompt $41 billion in spending on new equipment.

When economic turbulence shakes companies off course and investors demand bosses' heads, executives worldwide have long known what to do: yank the ripcord on their 'golden parachutes' and sail to safety.

Telecoms equipment group Alcatel-Lucent on Tuesday dumped both its chairman and chief executive in a bid to cement a still-fragile merger after a series of profit warnings and market share decline.