U.S. carmaker General Motors will present a new viability plan for Opel in mid-December as it aims to reduce capacity across Europe by about 20 percent, a top executive said on Thursday.

A just-announced plan for General Motors to repay roughly $8 billion in debt to the United States and Canada would be re-evaluated in June, the Obama administration's top automotive official said.

The three sit atop the insurance industry's annual list of the safest new vehicles, according to a closely watched assessment used by car companies to lure safety-conscious consumers to showrooms.

Soros Fund Management, the hedge fund run by billionaire investor George Soros, increased its holdings in U.S. stocks to $6.2 billion from $4.2 billion and bought a stake in Ford Motor.

Ford's Fusion mid-size sedan was named Motor Trend magazine's 2010 "car of the year" Tuesday, adding to the perception that changes to the No. 2 U.S. automaker's vehicle lineup are gaining traction.

The company is in a position to start paying back taxpayer loans, but still lost $1.2 billion in the third quarter.

For all its financial troubles and shortcomings as an automaker, no aspect of G.M. has confounded its critics as much as its hidebound, command-and-control corporate culture. The New York Times looks at the carmaker's effort to change.

Police say a low-flying pelican distracted a driver in Texas, causing him to veer off a road and drive his million-dollar sports car into a salt marsh.

General Motors reaffirmed on Friday it wants state aid to help overhaul European arm Opel after a newspaper quoted GM's chairman as saying the U.S. carmaker will not ask German taxpayers for help.

General Motors could be hurt by pay restrictions on senior executives set by the U.S. government, the automaker's chairman said, urging an overhaul of the salary caps.

China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, vying to buy Ford Motor's loss-making Volvo unit, has developed a turnaround plan under which it hopes to double Volvo's sales to near 1 million vehicles a year, media reported on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Merkel urged General Motors to quickly present a restructuring plan for its European unit Opel and said the U.S. automaker should not count on governments to shoulder most of the overhaul costs.

Automobile parts maker Lear said on Monday that it had emerged from bankruptcy protection with less than $1 billion in debt.

General Motors is already feeling the backlash of its decision not to sell European automaker Opel to Magna International, as workers in Germany went on strike.  GM faces not just ire over American-European cultural differences, but worker unease at job security, European-style.

The old Chrysler was famous for its aggressive marketing and auto-show stunts, like running a cattle drive down the streets of Detroit to publicize a new pickup. But for its coming-out party on Wednesday, the new Chrysler stuck to a far more serious and subdued script, says the New York Times.