British ExxonMobil executive shot dead

A British oil executive has been shot dead in front of his wife in Belgium.

Nicholas Mockford, 60, an executive for ExxonMobil, was shot three times as he left an Italian restaurant in a suburb of Brussels. His wife, Mary, was left beaten and covered in blood, cradling her husband and shouting for help.

Witnesses said they saw the couple walk across the street to their Lexus car before shots were fired. Reports suggest two men were spotted running away from the scene, one holding a motorcycle helmet.

The shooting is understood to have happened on 14 October, but the news has only now emerged after Belgian police imposed a reporting blackout.

The Daily Telegraph said police in Belgium were considering all possible motives for the shooting, including an attempted carjacking, although Mockford's car was not stolen.

The Belgian prosecutor's office said a "judicial instruction" from the investigating judge, Martine Quintin, meant they could give no detail about the killing. A spokesman said this was "usual in such a serious murder investigation", the Telegraph reported. Read more >>

GM sales down 30 percent for the year

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Toyota sales in December rose to 187,860 from 141,949 a year earlier. For all of 2009, sales fell to 1.8 million from 2.2 million in 2008. Lexus sales were down 17 percent for the year.

Honda sold 1.15 million vehicles in 2009, down from 1.42 in 2008.

For Detroit, the numbers were worse. General Motors sales were down 30 percent for the year. Ford was off 15 percent. Chrysler sales plunged 36 percent and the company sold fewer than 1 million vehicles for the first time since 1962.

Subaru, Kia and Hyundai were the only automakers to report sales gains in 2009. Each set new sales records.