Ex-GM CEO to get more than $10M in retirement

Ex-GM CEO to get more than $10M in retirement

DETROIT — Former General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will retire Aug. 1 with a benefit package the automaker valued at more than $10 million.

A Securities and Exchange Commission filing says the package includes a pension payout of $1.64 million for each of the next five years.

Wagoner can also choose to cash out his company-provided life insurance policy at $2.6 million. He also receives $74,030 a year for the rest of his life.

The 56-year-old Wagoner was forced out March 30 by the Obama administration. But the filing says Wagoner will remain on the GM payroll until Aug. 1.

Ousted Honduran leader: Insurrection is an option

GUATEMALA CITY — Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says the Honduran people “have the right to insurrection” against the interim government that forced him out of the country.

Zelaya says that Honduran citizens also have the right to demonstrate and to stage strikes against the government of de facto President Roberto Micheletti, who has threatened to jail Zelaya if he tries to return.

Zelaya said at a joint news conference with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom on Tuesday that “nobody owes allegiance to a usurper government.”

Zelaya said “insurrection is a legitimate process.”

Zelaya was toppled by a military-backed coup June 28. He is recognized by virtually all foreign governments.

Geithner reassures Arabs

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reached out to Gulf Arab leaders Tuesday, stressing to some of America’s top creditors that his country has a “special responsibility” to steer the world through a global recession that may finally be showing signs of easing.

A key aim of Geithner’s trip is to convince the major oil producers that the U.S. still welcomes their business and has plans to get itself out of a crisis stemming from what he said was an “unsustainable fiscal path.”

But though noting that the International Monetary Fund and other analysts have begun raising their growth forecasts for the second half of 2009 and into 2010, he cautioned that the signs of improvement were fragile and that the “process of repair and recovery is going to take considerably more time.”

Ill. cemetery legislation

CHICAGO — Prompted by the gruesome discoveries at Burr Oak Cemetery, the Illinois state Senate expects to vote today on a legislative package that includes tougher regulation of graveyards, better record-keeping requirements and stronger criminal penalties.

Also today, a Cook County judge could appoint a receiver to seize control of the operations at the Alsip cemetery.

Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, said Tuesday that lawmakers have been working with aides to Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes to craft a package of regulations. Several members of the Senate’s Black Caucus also have been involved in the talks, prompted by outrage over what happened at Burr Oak, a prominent resting ground for blacks.

In the House, a group of black lawmakers led by Rep. Ken Dunkin also is backing a plan to have legislative hearings to inquire about the situation at Burr Oak and propose additional reforms.

Episcopal support for gays

NEW YORK — Episcopalians declared gays and lesbians eligible for “any ordained ministry” Tuesday, a vote expected to upset world Anglican leaders who had sought a clear moratorium on consecrating another gay bishop.

Leaders of the Episcopal Church, the Anglican province in the United States, insisted they were still committed to membership in the Anglican Communion. Some Anglican leaders, however, predicted the vote would break their fellowship.

Mexican drug agents killed

MORELIA, Mexico — Twelve people tortured and killed in a cartel-plagued Mexican state were federal agents investigating organized crime, the government said Tuesday, marking one of the boldest attacks on federal forces since President Felipe Calderon launched his war on drugs.

Mexico’s national security spokesman, Monte Alejandro Rubido, said the 11 men and one woman were off duty when they were ambushed and abducted by members of the La Familia drug cartel in Calderon’s home state of Michoacan, which has been a center of his crackdown on drug traffickers.

Combined dispatches