DETROIT (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday acquitted seven members of a U.S. Midwestern militia group of all major sedition and conspiracy charges against them, two years after the FBI began arresting them following a long undercover surveillance operation.

The seven, members of a group known as the Hutaree, were accused of plotting to kill law enforcement officers as a way to incite a wider rebellion against the U.S. government.

/DETROIT (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers union is soliciting signatures of support from workers at Volkswagen AG’s U.S. factory, an escalation of its effort to establish a foothold outside the Detroit automakers.

In early March, the UAW started passing out authorization cards for workers to sign in an early formal step needed for union representation, workers at the factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, told Reuters.

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (Reuters) – Volkswagen AG will add 800 jobs at its only U.S. plant to increase production of the Passat sedan, the company said on Thursday.

The new hires will be added to the Chattanooga plant’s existing workforce of 2,200 Volkswagen workers and another 500 who work for a contract firm called Aerotek.

GENEVA, March 6 (Reuters) – General Motors Co’s
alliance with French peer PSA Peugeot Citroen is just
one part of GM’s plan to fix its loss-making Opel unit, Vice
Chairman Steve Girsky said, though he declined to say what would
come next in the plan.

Girsky, a former Wall Street banker, told reporters at the
Geneva Auto Shows on Tuesday he knew investors, consumers and
Opel workers do not like uncertainty but they just had to
believe him when he said GM has a viable plan for Europe.

GENEVA, March 5 (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co has no
plans to form new alliances with other automakers in the
European auto market, where the company may lose up to $600
million this year, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Monday.

Ford’s approach to Europe differs from that of its Detroit
rival General Motors Co, which last week announced a pact
to share purchasing and vehicle development costs with French
automaker Peugeot.

DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. auto sales for February are expected to post a modest rise from year-earlier levels, as the industry continues its gradual recovery thanks to a rise in consumer confidence and the need to replace aging cars and trucks.

“Between surprisingly strong sales over Presidents Day weekend, optimistic economic news, and unseasonably mild weather conditions across the country, things seem to be breaking the right way for both car buyers and dealers,” said Jessica Caldwell, analyst at Edmunds.com.

DETROIT (Reuters) – The leader of a Midwestern militia group bragged to an FBI informant in secretly recorded conversations played this week at his federal trial that he would kill police and their families to try to keep other officers from enforcing federal laws.

David Brian Stone Sr., one of seven members of a group called the Hutaree facing trial on federal charges that they were plotting to kill police to spark a wider insurrection, did not say what would trigger the attack.

DETROIT (Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Nigerian man to life in prison for trying to blow up a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009 with a bomb hidden in his underwear.

“This was an act of terrorism that cannot be quibbled with,” said U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds, who imposed the maximum sentence allowed.

DETROIT, Feb 16 (Reuters) – A federal judge on
Thursday ruled that the Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to
trying to blow up a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit in 2009 can
face life in prison.

A bomb hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,
now 25, caused a fire but failed to explode on a Delta Airlines
flight carrying 289 people on Dec. 25, 2009.

DETROIT, Feb 16 (Reuters) – A federal judge is set to
decide on Thursday if the Nigerian man who pleaded guilty to
trying to blow up a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit in 2009 will
spend the rest of his life in prison.

A bomb hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab,
now 25, caused a fire but failed to explode on a Delta Airlines
flight carrying 289 people on Dec. 25, 2009.