AUTOS

General Motors Corp. said it plans intermittent closings of 14 North American assembly plants through mid-June to cut production, including some for as long as five weeks. The temporary closings will affect nearly half of GM’s 29 assembly plants in North America. The world’s biggest auto maker also plans to indefinitely slow assembly at four plants so they will make fewer cars and trucks. General Motors and other large auto makers have been idling factories and laying off workers to reduce inventories of unsold automobiles as demand declines after record U.S. auto sales in 2000.