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SAAB

Saab owner makes $3bn claim against GM

Dutch car-maker Spyker said Monday it has filed a three-billion-dollar claim in a US court against General Motors, whose actions it said lead directly to Swedish Saab's bankruptcy last year.

Saab owner makes $3bn claim against GM

“The lawsuit seeks redress for the unlawful actions GM took to avoid competition with Saab Automobile in the Chinese market,” Saab’s owner Spyker said in a statement issued in Zeewolde in the Netherlands.

The Swedish carmaker filed for bankruptcy in December last year after attempts to raise funds in China were thwarted by General Motors, which had previously owned Saab and refused a transfer of patents needed for the Chinese deal to go through.

“GM’s actions had the direct and intended objective of driving Saab Automobile into bankruptcy, a result of GM’s tortiously interfering with a transaction… to restructure and remain a solvent growing concern,” Spyker said in the statement.

Spyker said it would pay for Saab’s legal costs in return for a “very substantial share of Saab Automobile’s award when the proceedings are successful,” it added.

Saab received a new lease on life last month with Asian investors aiming to revive the iconic brand to make electric cars for the Chinese market buying the company out of bankruptcy.

National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), a new company created by two firms in Hong Kong and Japan just a few months ago and registered in Sweden with the express purpose of buying Saab, said it would buy the ill-fated automaker for an undisclosed sum.

Chinese carmaker Youngman had long been interested in buying Saab and tried to snap it up before it declared bankruptcy — but those efforts were stymied by Saab’s former owner GM, which balked at transferring the necessary technology licences.

Saab was on the brink of bankruptcy when GM sold it in early 2010 to Spyker for $400 million.

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TERRORISM

Swede among ‘terror’ suspects arrested in the Netherlands

Dutch police have arrested four men including a Swedish citizen suspected of being involved in terror-related activities, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Swede among 'terror' suspects arrested in the Netherlands
Stock image/Depositphotos

“Rotterdam police detained four men early on Sunday evening on suspicion of being involved in terrorism,” the public prosecution's office said in a statement.

One of the men, aged 29, arrived on a flight from Stockholm earlier on Sunday while the other three aged 21, 23 and 30 come from the cities of Vlaardingen, Delft and Gouda in southwest Netherlands.

Dutch police raided three homes in the three cities and seized data but found no weapons or explosives, the statement said.

Although “there is no concrete information to indicate a terror attack, police and the public prosecution's office are not taking any chances,” prosecutors said without giving further information.

The suspects remain in custody pending a court appearance.

A Dutch citizen was sentenced to four years in November for preparing a terror attack following his arrest in Rotterdam last year, when police discovered an assault rifle and a large amount of fireworks.

In another scare, Dutch military police shot and wounded a man armed with a knife at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport earlier this month, but authorities said the incident was not terror-related.

The Netherlands has so far been spared from the slew of terror attacks to have rocked its closest European neighbours in recent years.