News In Brief

British Parliament committee wants to question De Lorean

A British parliamentary committee wants American auto tycoon John De Lorean to explain the disappearance of $17.5 million entrusted to him for his bankrupt sports car plant in Northern Ireland.

Both Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government and the previous Labour Party administration have been criticized for investing more than $91 million in the Belfast factory. The money, some of it from British taxpayers, was ostensibly for engineering work on the car.

The company, which went bankrupt in 1982, was closed just hours after De Lorean was arrested in Los Angeles on drug charges, of which he was acquitted last Thursday.