FRANKFURT — General Motors's Opel unit says it plans to invest $15 billion through 2014 and will cut 8,300 jobs across Europe as it seeks to streamline its operation.

Chef Executive Nick Reilly said as he presented Opel's restructuring plan today that the automaker is seeking billions from European governments in loans and loan guarantees.

The figure for job losses was in line with that previously given. Opel and British sister brand Vauxhall employ around 48,000 people in Europe, about half of them in Germany.

Reilly said that "we have no time to waste. We need a plan that is going to be realistic about the tremendous economic pressures we face."

LOS ANGELES — The Obama administration on Monday asked California's largest for-profit health insurer to justify plans to hike customers' premiums by as much as 39 percent, a move that could affect some 800,000 customers.In a letter to the president of Anthem Blue Cross, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was very disturbed to learn of the planned increases, calling them "extraordinary.""I believe Anthem Blue Cross has a responsibility to provide a detailed justification for these rate increases to the public," Sebelius wrote. She said the company also should make public what percentage of customers' premiums go to medical care versus administrative costs.In a statement, Anthem Blue Cross of California blamed the weak economy and rising health care costs for the rate hike, while pledging to reply to Sebelius' query promptly.Sebelius said Anthem Blue Cross' parent company, WellPoint Inc., "has seen its profits soar, earning $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone."

Oil prices rose above $72 a barrel today as a weakening U.S. dollar offset concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery.By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for March delivery was up 40 cents at $72.29 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract gained 70 cents to settle at $71.89 on Monday.Some analysts said conditions were building up for oil prices to break out of their recent range between $70 and $85 a barrel and reach an average of $92 a barrel in the second half of 2010.