UNITED STATES

DETROIT, Jan 9 - General Motors Co expects to have federal safety officials resolve their investigation of delayed fires in the Chevrolet Volt electric car sooner rather than later, a top executive said on Monday.

Nigeria is in the midst of a general strike and nationwide protests against the government, which removed a fuel subsidy at the start of the year. Is there a movement and is it growing in strength?

China is due to overtake the United States to become the world's biggest oil importer within a year and a half, Goldman Sachs said on Monday.

Gold recovered from lows on Monday, lifted by gains in the euro versus the dollar after French and German leaders said there had been progress on the region's fiscal integration, but its rise was capped by caution after the metal's hefty losses last month.

Ron Paul's 2012 campaign got a boost when he uttered his famous And I Went line during Saturday's New Hampshire debate in a heated exchange with Republican rival Newt Gingrich.

Hyundai Motor Co's Elantra won car of the year honors at the Detroit auto show on Monday, a marketing boost for the car with the fastest sales growth in the Korean automaker's line-up.

Flight attendants with United Airlines could have their new contract in several weeks depending on how the airline's management votes on contract proposal sent to them on Saturday.

Netflix launched in Britain and Ireland on Monday, taking on BSkyB's premium drama and movies offerings and prompting Amazon-owned rival Lovefilm to offer a new cut-price service.

Stocks edged higher on Monday led by technology and bank shares as investors prepared for the start of the U.S. corporate earnings season.

Drew Barrymore is officially engaged to her boyfriend Will Kopelman and she is flaunting her diamond engagement ring to prove it.

The world's best known living scientist, Stephen Hawking, was too ill to attend his 70th birthday celebrations Sunday but in a recorded speech urged people to "look up at the stars" and be curious about the universe.

Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States denied any involvement in drafting a memo that accused the army of plotting a coup and suggested on the first day of a Supreme Court commission on Monday he was being framed.

Stocks were set to tick up at the open on Monday as investors focused on a European meeting intended to find ways to boost the region's economies and tackle a debt crisis and prepared for the start of U.S. corporate earnings.

Audi, the premium car brand of Volkswagen , posted record sales in 2011 as demand for luxury cars in China and Russia helped it gain ground on bigger rivals like BMW and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz.

Amir Mirzai Hekmati, an American of Iranian descent, “confessed” to espionage before the court in Teheran.

European stocks were essentially flat on Monday at mid-day in choppy trade, bouncing from last week's sharp pull-back, with gains in defensives limited by a drop in banking shares led by Unicredit following its rights issue.

Stock index futures edged higher on Monday as investors focused on a European meeting intended to find ways to boost the region's economies and tackle a debt crisis and prepared for the start of U.S. corporate earnings.

German exports bounced back in November boosting the country's trade surplus, a sign that Europe's largest economy may avoid a sharp slowdown in contrast to France which is expected to have run up a record trade deficit in 2011.

Loughner, who was arrested at the scene of the shooting, pleaded not guilty to the attacks. He is currently being treated in a mental health facility of the prison hospital, in hopes that he can stand trial.

An American man, who was arrested last month with charges of working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has been sentenced to death by an Iranian court.

BMW said its new 3 Series model should spur sales in the second half of 2012 after the group posted record sales of 1.67 million vehicles in 2011.