A federal judge approved the sale of General Motors Corp.'s assets to a new government-run company, removing a key hurdle to the auto maker's plan to exit bankruptcy. Judge Robert E. Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued an 87-page ruling late Sunday allowing the sale to go forward. He rejected pleas from dissident bondholders and product-liability claimants who objected to GM's plans. The judge said the only alternative to GM's plans would be liquidation, "a disastrous result for GM's creditors, its employees, the suppliers who depend on GM for their own existence... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124685350559099233.html