| Problems
in the motor industry |
| Ford to
cut production |
agencies
Ford
Motor Co. on Friday said it would cut fourth-quarter
production by 21 percent and also reduce third-quarter
production to accelerate its turnaround plan.
The automaker said it would cut North American
production in the fourth quarter by 168,000
units and reduce third-quarter production by
20,000 vehicles.
"We know this decision will have a dramatic impact on our employees, as
well as our suppliers," Chief Executive Bill Ford told employees, but he
said it was the "right call."
He said full details of the accelerated plan
would be announced in September.
Ford, which is battling shrinking U.S. market
share and rising costs, had said it would accelerate
its turnaround plan to respond to the weakening
demand
for fuel-hungry trucks and sport utility vehicles in the U.S. market as gasoline
prices have remained high.
For the full year, Ford now plans to make 3.048
million vehicles in North America, down 9 percent
from a year earlier.
"We are determined to match production and inventories with consumer demand," said
Ford's president of the Americas, Mark Fields.
"We'll reduce incentive spending and inventory carrying costs for our dealers
-- with the intent to improve residual values for our customers."
Ford, which posted a second-quarter loss of
$254 million and has hired an outside financial
adviser, has said it will close 14 plants
and cut
up to
30,000 factory
jobs to return its North American unit to profitability by 2008.
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| John
Mark Karr |
| JonBenet
suspect seen deported soon |
agencies
Thai
authorities hope to deport the American accused
of the 1996 murder of child beauty queen JonBenet
Ramsey to the United States this weekend, officials
said on Friday as questions surfaced over the
schoolteacher's story.
John Mark Karr, 41, arrested in Bangkok this
week, told reporters he was with six-year-old
JonBenet when she died but her death at Christmas
a decade ago was an accident.
Casting doubt on his story, his ex-wife Lara
told KGO-TV in San Francisco he was with her
in Alabama the entire Christmas season that year
and did not believe he could have been involved
in JonBenet's murder.
But Thai police denied U.S. media reports that
Karr had said he had drugged JonBenet, despite
no evidence of drugs being found in her body.
They also denied he said he had picked her up
from school, which was closed for the Christmas
holiday.
"
Karr did not tell interrogators he drugged the
girl," Thai Immigration Police chief Lieutenant-General
Suwat Tumroungsiskul told Reuters. "He said
he had sex with her and her death was accidental."
Watching cable television reports from his
Bangkok cell, Karr expressed displeasure at
the media
coverage of the case.
"
He said he did not drug her. He said he wants
the world to know the truth. He asked for another
press conference," said a police interrogator
who had been with Karr in his cell.
It was not clear whether his request would
be granted. Thai officials said they were
more interested
in getting Karr out of the country.
"
We want him to be out as soon as possible," the
interrogator told Reuters. "We are aiming
for this weekend.
But it is up to the Americans
to find an available seat on a commercial
flight for him."
PALE AND DAZED
Karr, whose arrest was the latest twist
in the sensational December 26, 1996 murder,
was paraded
before reporters on Thursday, looking pale
and dazed and surrounded by police. Asked
if he was
innocent, Karr shook his head and said, "No".
"
I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr
said. "The death was an accident."
JonBenet was found in the basement of
her Boulder, Colorado, home, strangled
with
a complicated
garrote made from a stick and cord, her
skull fractured.
The girl's body was found by her father
hours after her mother stumbled on a
bizarre, three-page
letter claiming she had been kidnapped
for $118,000 ransom.
Slender, sandy haired and dressed in
a blue polo shirt and beige trousers,
Karr
spoke
to reporters
in a quiet voice. "I loved JonBenet," he
said.
His father, Wexford Karr, told the Denver
Post his son had been so interested in
the JonBenet
case that he wanted to write a book about
it.
SUICIDE WATCH
Karr, to be taken into custody in Boulder
to await trial, was under constant watch
in his
cell at Bangkok's immigration bureau.
His request for a shaving razor was turned
down, a police
officer said.
Boulder County District Attorney Mary
Lacy suggested his arrest came sooner
than she
would have liked.
Karr started teaching at a Bangkok school
on Tuesday and while investigators would
have
liked more time to develop evidence safety
worries
sometimes prompted an arrest in criminal
cases, she said.
Karr had been in and out of Thailand
five times in the past two years, police
said,
and in
February had been employed for two weeks
at St. Joseph's
Convent School in Bangkok.
"
He worked here on trial for a very short time
but he did not meet our standards, so he was
fired," said an official at the private
Thai school who declined to give her name.
Lacy would not say what evidence her
office had against Karr, who came
to the attention
of authorities
by contacting a Colorado journalism
professor who has made documentaries
about the murder.
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