NEW YORK — General Motors Corp. may have to wait out the long holiday weekend to learn if its bankruptcy plan is moving forward, after U.S. Judge Robert Gerber adjourned a three-day hearing without indicating when he will rule on GM's plan to sell its good assets to a new company.

Gerber asked GM's attorneys to submit a proposed order that would be entered if the sale is approved. They said they would do so by last night or today. Gerber is expected to rule some time after that.

A lawyer for GM warned the court that the only alternative to GM's plan would be a liquidation of the company's assets that would have "horrific" consequences for everyone involved.

VOLKSWAGEN TO SELL ELECTRIC CARS IN 2013

BERLIN — Volkswagen AG hopes to introduce its first electric cars to the market in 2013, the German automaker's chief executive said yesterday.

In a speech to an industry group, Martin Winterkorn criticized the German auto industry for failing to invest sufficiently in research and development of electric technology and said VW is working on going electric with its Up line of micro-cars.

"It will significantly influence the future of individual mobility," Winterkorn said of electric technology. He said the key is developing a sufficient battery that would not take more than two hours to charge.

BUFFETT GIVES $1.25B TO GATES' CHARITY

SEATTLE — Billionaire Warren Buffett has donated $1.25 billion in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The gift is the third installment in Buffett's plan to transfer the majority of his wealth to the Seattle-based foundation run by the Microsoft Corp. chairman and his wife. The foundation is the world's largest, with an endowment of $27.5 billion as of April 2009.

Last year, before the recession depressed Berkshire Hathaway's stock, Buffett's gift of a similar number of shares was worth $1.8 billion, 30 percent more.

Thursday's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission also lists donations of shares of Class B stock worth $125 million to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and nearly $50 million each to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.