General Motors Co. is suspending production of its Chevrolet Volt electric car for five weeks amid disappointing sales.

A GM spokesman said Friday that the company will shut down production of the Volt from March 19 until April 23, idling 1,300 workers at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant.

The buzz at Paris' ready-to-wear shows on Friday wasn't just about the clothes.

Bill Gaytten, former designer John Galliano's temporary replacement, was again at the helm of Christian Dior's fashion collection, directing a demure, play-it-safe show that channeled the powerhouse's bread-and-butter New Look-inspired gowns with cinched 1950s waists.

Director Julie Taymor has hit back at her former creative partners in "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark," arguing in court papers that she was the victim of a conspiracy to unfairly push her out of the production and that her one-time collaborators were secretly working on a rival script behind her back.

Taymor's legal team on Friday defended the Tony Award winner against claims in an earlier countersuit from producers, the latest installment in their bitter legal battle over financial rewards for Broadway's most expensive show.

Oprah Winfrey has landed an interview with Whitney Houston's daughter and other family members for a TV special that will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

"Oprah's Next Chapter" will feature an interview with 18-year-oldBobbi Kristina, Houston's only child. It will also include Patricia Houston, who's the singer's sister-in-law and manager, as well as the singer's brother Gary. It is scheduled to air March 11.

A suicide bomber blew up a vehicle in the Syrian city of Daraa on Saturday, killing two people and wounding 20, including security force personnel, the official SANA news agency reported.

The "suicide terrorist" struck near the al-Masri roundabout in the center of the city, south of Damascus, which was the cradle of the uprising that erupted against President Bahar Assad's regime in March last year, SANA said.

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic lost for the first time this season, falling to Andy Murray 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals of the Dubai Championships on Friday.

The surprisingly one-sided victory ended Djokovic's 10-match winning streak that included the Australian Open title and his bid for a fourth successive Dubai title.

Syrian troops shelled Saturday several districts in the rebellious central city of Homs where a standoff continued between a Red Cross convoy and the government that has blocked the delivery of food, medical supplies and blankets to the thousands still stranded in the area.

Abu Hassan al-Homsi, a doctor at a makeshift clinic in Khaldiyeh district of Homs, said he treated a dozen wounded.

Eight people connected to a tribally-owned construction company were indicted by a federal grand jury in an elaborate kickback and money laundering scheme involving Iraqi construction projects, U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales announced Friday.

The 91-count indictment filed this week said former officers of Laguna Construction Co. and four foreign nationals from Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon face charges including conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering after a four-year, international investigation involving U.S. defense contracts for wartime rebuilding projects in Iraq.

Residents and rescue workers went house to house Saturday in a desperate search for survivors after tornados ripped open the U.S. heartland, killing 31 people and wiping out entire communities.

Even as stunned Americans grappled with the magnitude of the massive swath of destruction brought by Friday's twisters, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued new tornado warnings Saturday for parts of Georgia and Florida, in the country's southeast.

The ratings agency Moody's downgraded Greece to the lowest rating on its bond scale late Friday, following a deal with private investors that would see them ultimately lose an estimated 70 percent of their holdings in Greek debt.

Moody's lowered Greece's sovereign rating to C from Ca, arguing that the risk of default remains high even a bond-swap deal with banks and other private investors, due to be completed this month, is successful.