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GM emerges from bankruptcy, sells assets

NEW YORK, July 10 (UPI) -- General Motors Corp. completed its race through bankruptcy Friday morning, signing a contract with the U.S. government, a source close to the deal said.

Papers were signed at 6:30 a.m. at the offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges that give the government 61 percent of the company with lesser portions owned by the Canadian government and the United Auto Workers union. Bondholders will also own a share, The New York Times reported.

The company will be temporarily named the Vehicle Acquisition Co., but soon will be renamed General Motors Co.

The plan for the company includes significant shrinkage. GM will no longer produce Saturn, Hummer, Opel or Pontiac brands. The assets that remain include Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC.

Plans include closing factories and laying off 21,000 union workers.

Like Chrysler, which sold most of its assets to Fiat, the bankruptcy process was done at speeds that defy logic. GM filed on June 1 and emerged 40 days later.

GM planned a press conference for Friday morning.

Frederick "Fritz" Henderson will keep his post as the chief executive officer, while Edward Whitacre Jr. serves as the new chairman of the company.

China quake destroys 10,000 homes

KUNMING, China, July 10 (UPI) -- An earthquake struck China's Yunnan Province Thursday, injuring more than 300 people and destroying more than 10,000 homes, authorities said.

The 6-magnitude quake was followed by at least eight aftershocks measuring 3 to 4.1 on the Richter scale, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Authorities said 30 people were hospitalized for treatment of severe injuries.

In addition to the estimated 10,000 houses that collapsed, more than 30,000 were damaged, officials said.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake occurred at 7:19 p.m., local time. The epicenter was in Guantun Township, about 125 miles from the provincial city of Kunming.

Officials distributed food, tents and medicine in Guantun Township, Xinhua said.

Poll: Most want Sotomayor confirmed

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. public, by a slim margin, would like the Senate to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as the next U.S. Supreme Court justice, results of a CNN poll indicate.

Forty-seven percent of people surveyed said they favored Sotomayor's confirmation, while 40 percent said they opposed it and 13 percent said they were unsure, the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday indicated.

Sotomayor's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee begin Monday.

Poll results demonstrated a partisan divide, with nearly seven in 10 Democrats saying they support Sotomayor's confirmation and nearly two of three Republicans indicating they opposed her confirmation. Independents were split.

"Republican opposition to Sotomayor's confirmation is a higher level of opposition from the party out of power than any Supreme Court nominee has faced in the past two decades," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Pollsters said participants seemed braced for a partisan battle when the hearings begin. Six of 10 respondents said a major fight between Democrats and Republicans would erupt, while 38 percent said they thought the hearings will be calm.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll surveyed 1,026 adults by phone June 26-28. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.

Man gored to death in Pamplona run

PAMPLONA, Spain, July 10 (UPI) -- A man participating in Spain's famed running of the bulls was gored to death Friday when a bull broke free from the pack and charged a crowd, officials said.

The man was gored in the neck and lung as he ran through the cobbled streets of Pamplona in northern Spain, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

"He is dead. He had been hit by a horn that punctured a lung," a spokesman for organizers of the San Fermin festival confirmed.

Nine other revelers were injured, hospital officials said.

Friday's run was the fourth of eight conducted during the festival, made famous by U.S. author Ernest Hemingway in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises."

Ghana prepared to greet Obama

ACCRA, Ghana, July 10 (UPI) -- Residents of Ghana say U.S. President Barack Obama will get a bigger welcome than his two predecessors when his plane lands in Accra.

Obama was scheduled to arrive Friday night, making his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as U.S. president, USA Today reported. He will fly from Italy, where he has been attending the Group of Eight summit.

Billboards and banners have been placed along the major arteries in the capital.

"President Obama will see a welcome that has never been given any head of state before," Serwa Twum, a saleswoman, told the newspaper.

President Bill Clinton made an official visit to Ghana in 1998 and President George W. Bush visited 10 years later. Obama is scheduled to address Parliament Saturday and to visit Cape Coast Castle, a fort used in the slave trade.

Obama's father was Kenyan and he has family there. But he told the Web site AllAfrica.com he selected Ghana because of its history of stability and good government.

"Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people," he said. "And we want to highlight that."