November 13, 2003

Standard & Poor's lowers Ford Motor Co's debt to its lowest investment grade rating, reflecting skepticism about company's turnaround plan and gloomy view of domestic auto industry; graph (M)

Paul Reichmann is grappling to save London's Canary Wharf Group that helped push his Olympia & York into bankruptcy decade ago; Reichmann says he will temporarily step down as chairman of publicly traded Canary Wharf to dedicate himself to finding financial backing to buy company; any bid Reichmann makes will be competing with one from Brascan Corp, which owns 9 percent of Canary Wharf; Brascan's 1.48 billion pound ($2.46 billion) all-cash bid was rejected by company, but Brascan says it will lobby investors directly for their support; photo (M)

Profile of and interview with Boy George, who rocketed to fame in 1980's British club scene as lead singer of Culture Club and is now performing as Leigh Bowery in new Broadway musical Taboo; musical, which had moderate success in London last year and is being produced by former talk show host Rosie O'Donnell, reconstructs swinging club scene of 1980's London; photos (M)

Interview with best-selling Swedish mystery writer Henning Mankell, whose eight novels and book of short stories featuring gloomy and crochety Police Inspector Kurt Wallander have made him international phenomenon; photo (M)

Bush administration moves up its timetable for self-government in Iraq, concluding that increasing attacks on American and other foreign forces lend urgency to need for Iraqi self-rule by mid-2004; administration will try to hold elections in first half of next year and turn civilian authority over to temporary government before new constitution is written; new plan is intended to change political climate in Iraq and reduce anger toward occupying forces that fosters support for violence, by demonstrating to Iraqis that US is moving more quickly to establish self-rule; it is not clear whether those behind guerrilla attacks would regard changed political situation as significant if large numbers of American forces remain in Iraq; American administrator L Paul Bremer 3d, in Washington for high-level talks, heads back to Iraq to begin consultations about new American plan with Iraqi leaders, who have grown increasingly impatient with American-led occupation; members of Iraqi Governing Council say they will reject any plan to write new constitution in coming months because that would be too divisive; say they will propose instead that they immediately assume powers of provisional government (M)