Fritzkrieg

General Motors has ditched its chief executive after just eight months on the job

FRITZ Henderson was due to deliver a speech at the Los Angeles Motor Show on Wednesday December 2nd, to give an update on General Motors’ progress since its spell in bankruptcy this summer. Instead his place had to be taken by Bob Lutz, a former GM executive in his late 70s but recently recalled from retirement to supervise the company’s marketing. The silver-haired showman tried to talk up GM’s prospects, but what his audience really wanted to know was why it had suddenly lost its second boss this year.

The short answer is that GM’s independent directors had decided that Mr Henderson, who had spent almost his entire career at the firm, was not the man to get it out of the mire it had sunk into over the decades. Both Ford and Chrysler, GM’s two big American rivals, have installed outsiders to lead dramatic overhauls. Moreover, GM’s new chairman, Edward Whitacre—put there by the government, which now owns a majority stake in the firm—has his own ideas about the way forward, and has taken over as interim chief executive.

Mr Henderson took charge in March after the government, in exchange for a bail-out, demanded the head of Rick Wagoner, who had presided over the decline of what had been for decades the world’s leading car manufacturer. On his brief watch the brisk Mr Henderson delivered some progress, broking deals with bondholders and the United Auto Workers union that helped pave the way for the company to emerge from bankruptcy early last summer and start planning for an initial public offering of shares in the reborn GM.
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Lawmakers question 2011 Afghan exit plan

Washington (CNN) — Conservative and liberal lawmakers Wednesday sharply criticized President Obama’s plan to start a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in July 2011.

Most Republicans backed the president’s decision to send more troops. They claimed, however, he was playing politics by setting an “arbitrary” withdrawal deadline while insisting that any transfer of responsibility to the Afghan government ultimately will be based on conditions in that country.

They also argued he inadvertently strengthened the hand of Taliban and al Qaeda extremists by allowing them to know when a U.S. departure from the war-torn country would begin.

Several members of the Democratic caucus, on the other hand, expressed unease with the president’s decision to send thousands of additional troops over the next several months. They questioned whether the war is winnable.

Obama’s blueprint faced questions Wednesday as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared before two key committees.
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25 years on, Bhopal still suffers from gas leak tragedy

Bhopal, India (CNN) — T.R. Chouhan walked solemnly through the rusted remains of the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. “I come here frequently,” he said. “We used to work here, and now this is the condition of the plant. So it feels really bad.”

Chouhan was a 10-year veteran employee of the plant when disaster struck 25 years ago. Shortly after midnight on December 3, 1984, a cloud of methyl isocyanate gas wafted into the Bhopal atmosphere. Outside the factory’s concrete walls, quiet neighborhoods quickly became chaotic.

“Everybody started screaming, ‘There’s a gas leak, there’s a gas leak!’ So we started running,” recalled Bhopal resident Bashiran Bi.

“When we stepped out of the house, there was no room on the streets,” remembered Hamid Qureshi, another survivor. “There was chaos everywhere. People were running in each and every direction.”
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Tiger Woods admits ‘I have let my family down’

Golf star Tiger Woods has apologised to his family, amid continuing speculation about his private life following a car crash last week.

“I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart,” he said in a statement, without elaborating further.

“I have not been true to my values and the behaviour my family deserves.”

Woods was found bleeding and semi-conscious after his car hit a tree and fire hydrant outside his Florida home.

He was charged with careless driving, which carries a $164 (£98) fine and four points on his driving record.

‘Personal sins’

The 14-time major champion has been married to his Swedish wife Elin for five years and has two young children.

He denied rumours that physical violence played any role in the incident, saying they were “utterly false and malicious”.
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Top White House officials push Afghan troop surge

Top US officials have begun working to build support for the Afghan troop surge, a day after President Barack Obama set out his new strategy.

Joint Chiefs of Staff head Adm Mike Mullen said the surge would provide “forces to turn this thing around”.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned that failure to act against the resurgent Taliban would have “severe consequences” for the US and the world.

Nato leaders are due to meet, with the issue of more troops top of the agenda.

Mr Obama announced on Tuesday that he was sending 30,000 more US troops to fight in Afghanistan, taking the total number of US soldiers there to more than 100,000.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says other Nato countries will provide at least 5,000 extra troops, and “probably a few thousand on top of that”.

America has asked for 10,000 more troops from Nato allies to help win a war that has in recent months turned increasingly bloody and led to rising foreign troops deaths.
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