GERMANY

U.S. carmaker General Motors has decided to sell Opel to a group led by Canadian car parts maker Magna, signaling an end to months of uncertainty for the European unit and its 50,000 workers.

That will ultimately be the question asked about what kind of a future the German carmaker Opel faces.

General Motors' decision to sell Opel to a consortium of Canadian car parts maker Magna and Russia's Sberbank is an important intermediate step but not a final one, Sberbank said on Thursday.

Google Inc's plan to digitize millions of books as part of a class action settlement wrongly creates a virtually compulsory license for books, the U.S. register of copyrights said on Thursday.

The struggle to pick an owner for General Motors' Opel unit was set to come to a head on Thursday after the U.S. carmaker said it had made a decision and would communicate the verdict at a news conference.

Whitney Houston returned to the U.S. pop album chart in grand style on Wednesday as her first album in seven years debuted at No. 1.

General Motors has told Germany it wants to sell its European subsidiary Opel to Canadian auto parts group Magna, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.

The board of General Motors has decided to sell its European arm Opel to Canadian auto parts group Magna , but has attached strings to the sale, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

General Motors was set to end months of suspense over the fate of its Opel unit on Thursday and announce whether it plans to sell the European carmaker to one of two rival bidders.

General Motors was set to end months of suspense over the fate of its Opel unit on Thursday and announce whether it plans to sell the European carmaker to one of two rival bidders.

General Motors was set to end months of suspense over the fate of its Opel unit on Thursday and announce whether it plans to sell the European carmaker to one of two rival bidders.

General Motors Co shook up its management and dispatched a negotiator on the sale of its Opel unit to Berlin after a watershed two-day board meeting under the direction of Chairman Ed Whitacre, people familiar with the proceedings said.

General Motors Co's board concluded a two-day meeting in Detroit on Wednesday and dispatched the automaker's negotiator on the sale of its Opel unit to Berlin ahead of announcements scheduled for Thursday in Germany, people familiar with the proceedings said.

Germany's government would expect General Motors to repay a 1.5 billion euro ($2.2 billion) state loan if the carmaker calls off the sale of its Opel unit following a board meeting on Wednesday, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said.

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Germany's government would expect General Motors [GM.UL] to repay a 1.5 billion euro ($2.2 billion) state loan if the carmaker calls off the sale of its Opel unit following a board meeting on Wednesday, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said.

Whitney Houston returned to the U.S. pop album chart in grand style on Wednesday as her first album in seven years debuted at No. 1.

The United States' and Britain's triple-A sovereign debt ratings are safe for now but both countries will need to severely adjust fiscal policies in the wake of the global financial crisis, Moody's Investors Service said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

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The head of U.S. bank Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday that anger over bankers' pay was understandable and appropriate, and that greater scrutiny of trade in complex instruments was needed to keep banks in check.

Germany expects General Motors to pay back a 1.5 billion euro loan made to help Opel if GM keeps its European unit, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday.