LAGUNA NIGUEL, California (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co <F.N> is open to partnerships in green car technology but will be cautious in committing to any alliance, Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said on Monday.

Ford is treading carefully on tie-ups after global rivals Renault <RENA.PA>, Nissan <7201.T> and Daimler <DAIGn.DE> announced a deal last week that will see them swap stakes and on electric cars, passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

LAGUNA NIGUEL, California (Reuters) – Bill Ford Jr., the scion of Ford Motor Co <F.N>, relishes his current job as the automaker’s executive chairman because it allows him to focus on the future — a future that he says does not include returning to the job of chief executive.

Besides, if Ford has his way, the CEO post won’t open for years since he has taken to half-jokingly urging incumbent Alan Mulally to put off consideration of his own retirement until the middle of the next decade.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, in a previous post as a high Vatican official, recommended caution in the defrocking of a California Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to molesting children, according to a letter released on Friday by lawyers for the victims.

In the 1985 letter, typed in Latin and translated for The Associated Press, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger told the bishop of Oakland he needed more time “to consider the good of the Universal Church” as he reviewed a request to remove the priest.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman has built a slight lead in the California governor’s race after contributing a record-breaking $39 million to her own campaign, a Los Angeles Times/USC poll showed on Monday.

The former CEO of online auction house eBay Inc., making her first bid for elected office, has 44 percent of the vote to Democratic candidate and former governor Jerry Brown’s 41 percent, according to the poll for the November election.

BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) – A message to all those confident young American women from pioneering feminist Gloria Steinem: For all the advances in women’s rights in the past 40 years, equality remains a distant hope.

As she turns 76 next week, the woman who walked the front lines of American feminism in the 1960s and 1970s — often in a miniskirt, big glasses and buttons with colorful expletives — celebrates her good health and “huge, huge leaps forward.”

TORRANCE, California (Reuters) – Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station — Honda Motor Co’s latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars.

The Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that it says points to a home version down the road.

VANCOUVER, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Canada herded 60,000 man-made
moose and made its dignified Mounties dance in the Olympic host
nation’s playful poke at what it means to be Canadian as the
Winter Games came to a close on Sunday.

After seven years of work for 17 days of Games, Canada
breathed a comic sigh of relief in a closing ceremony where
famous actors spoke of pride in people who “know how to make
love in a canoe” and apologise for winning gold medals.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Canada herded 60,000 man-made moose and made its dignified Mounties dance in the Olympic host nation’s playful poke at what it means to be Canadian as the Winter Games came to a close on Sunday.

After seven years of work for 17 days of Games, Canada breathed a comic sigh of relief in a closing ceremony where famous actors spoke of pride in people who “know how to make love in a canoe” and apologize for winning gold medals.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Olympic gold medalist and snowboarder Shaun White wants to be known as the “Animal.”

“Cash cow” might be a more accurate moniker.

White, with his signature shaggy flame-red mane and death defying twists, emerges from the 2010 Winter Games as the standout personality and probably the most marketable athlete.

VANCOUVER, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Olympic gold medallist and
snowboarder Shaun White wants to be known as the “Animal.”

“Cash cow” might be a more accurate moniker.

White, with his signature shaggy flame-red mane and death
defying twists, emerges from the 2010 Winter Games as the
standout personality and probably the most marketable athlete.