SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A Mississippi jury ordered Ford Motor Co to pay $131 million to the family of a man who died while driving an Explorer, an attorney for the family said on Thursday.

The trial centered on a 2001 accident involving Brian Cole, who at the time had been a prospect for the New York Mets, the family's attorney Tab Turner said.

Turner said that after the jury returned its verdict, Ford reached a settlement with the family. He declined to disclose the amount.

The case was heard in Jasper County Circuit Court.

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said Cole had been driving over 80 miles per hour when he went off the road and was not wearing his safety belt. She said Ford would have won the case had the judge not excluded certain pieces of evidence.

"This was a tragic accident and our sympathy goes out to the Cole family for their loss, but it was unfair of them to blame Ford," Evans said.

Ford also declined to disclose the amount of the settlement.

Turner said the damages in this case were higher than other rollover cases because of Cole's profession.

Ford severed a nearly century-old partnership with Firestone in 2001 after blaming the tiremaker for blowouts and rollover accidents that caused a slew of deaths and injuries in rollovers of its Explorer sport utility vehicle.

Ford, which has vigorously denied allegations the Explorer was especially prone to rollovers, earmarked $2.6 billion in the early part of the decade to replace a total of 19.5 million Firestone tires.

The automaker has also spent an unknown amount on settlements of wrongful death lawsuits involving the Explorer.

(Reporting by Dan Levine and Bernie Woodall)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – News Corp (NWSA.O) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch said the global economy is still in an uncertain state and the media industry is going through a fundamental transformation that is unpredictable

"I do not believe we are out of the turmoil yet. Sovereign debt pressures, soaring deficits and unacceptable U.S. unemployment levels are key obstacles to the global economic recovery," said Murdoch in a letter to shareholders in his company's annual report published on Thursday.

"Others may see more positive signs, but I believe until these issues are addressed, markets, governments, currencies and consumer behavior will be unpredictable," he said.

Murdoch was bullish about how his company, which owns the Fox TV networks, newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and Hollywood studio Twentieth Century Fox, had navigated both the difficult economic environment and threat to traditional content business models by new Web-based services from companies like Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O).

He highlighted successes for the company including convincing cable operators to pay retransmission fees for its free-to-air Fox broadcast networks and the record-breaking 3D movie Avatar, now the biggest-selling movie of all time.

"I am only half joking when I wonder if there is anyone left on this planet who has yet to see Avatar," he said in the letter.

Murdoch described the 700 pence per share offer for the 61 percent of BSkyB (BSY.L) it does not already own as "attractive" and a "logical and disciplined plan."

Under Murdoch's drive News Corp units have been pushing to seek new business models which embrace technology like e-readers and tablets like Apple's iPad.

News Corp's Fox and Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) ABC broke with other major TV studios on Wednesday to strike a deal to launch a new 99-cent rental service for Apple TV.

"Companies that do not innovate will struggle to survive," wrote Murdoch. "They will be digitally disoriented, quickly losing touch with their customers, who will be more technologically literate than those who seek to provide them with services and products."

Shares of News Corp have fallen around 3.4 percent since the start of the year.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund will give Pakistan $450 million in emergency flood aid and disburse funds in September to help the country's economy cope with the devastation, the head of the IMF said on Thursday.

Severe flooding in Pakistan has destroyed cropland and livestock and displaced millions of people, causing damage the

government has estimated at $43 billion, or almost one quarter of the South Asian nation's 2009 GDP.

"The IMF ... will be the first agency likely to disperse very rapidly money which is absolutely needed," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told reporters after a week of discussions with Pakistani officials. "The most important thing is to keep the Pakistani economy .. on track."

(For a slideshow: Children of the flood, click http://in.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=INRTR2HTZZ)

Talks with a delegation led by Pakistan's Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on the terms of an $11 billion IMF loan program left him satisfied with the country's commitment to reforms, the IMF chief said.

Under the 2008 IMF loan program, Islamabad pledged to implement tax and energy sector reforms and give full autonomy to the State Bank of Pakistan.

"What is important is what was decided by the government to do to improve the economic situation, especially in the tax sector but in other fields also," said Strauss-Kahn.

"What I heard from the authorities is that they really want to move on with the program," he said.

Shaikh said Islamabad remained committed to loan terms, including fiscal authority and tax reforms.

Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, said IMF faith in its reform commitments could help boost international "solace and confidence" in the country's economic prospects and fiscal discipline despite the flood calamity.

"We expect the markets to respond positively and we also expect other donors in a more aggressive manner now that they know Pakistan is going to continue with economic reforms," he told Reuters in an interview.

Describing the flood damages as "manifold worse than the (2005) tsunami, the Haitian earthquake and the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan," Haqqani appealed to Washington to take steps to allow Pakistan to export more textiles to the U.S. market under special low-tariff programs.

One program, the "Reconstruction Opportunity Zones" trade package that allows tariff goods for certain Pakistani garments, remains stalled in the U.S. Senate and faces opposition from some American textile groups.

"Because of the magnitude of the impact of the floods, as well as the fact that Pakistan is a front-line state in the global war against terrorism, there is a case to be made that Pakistan needs to be given that preferential access," said the ambassador.

(Editing by Andrew Hay)

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