EVENTS
TWO RIVERS TO CREST IN KANSAS CITY Thousands of businesses and homeowners piled sandbags at their doors, boarded up their windows, and cleared out as the Missouri and Kansas Rivers closed in on Kansas City, both bulging toward a crest on July 27. The Kansas River, which converges with the Missouri at Kansas City, was expected to crest at 55 feet (17 meters) on the morning of July 27 - well above the flood stage of 33 feet and close to the top of a 57-foot-high levee. The Missouri was expected to crest later in the day at 49 feet just under t he flood walls, which are about 52 feet high. About 3,500 people were evacuated the night of July 26 from Armourdale, a low-lying residential and commercial neighborhood in Kansas City, Kan. Clinton, Rostenkowski spar
Urging Congress to "get on with it," President Clinton pressed lawmakers on July 27 for a compromise deficit-reduction bill just as key congressional leader, Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D) of Illinois, was telling him to butt out.
"This institutionalized gridlock and delay is bad for America," Clinton told a jobs conference in Chicago, Mr. Rostenkowski's home town.
Responded Rostenkowski: "I wish the president would be president and let us negotiate." US immigration plan
As part of a comprehensive plan to keep unwanted people out of the country, President Clinton wants to speed up the reviews of people seeking asylum, according to a White House official.
The $172.5 million plan, which Mr. Clinton unveiled July 27, includes the hiring of up to 600 additional border patrol agents and ordering federal agencies dealing with immigration to better coordinate their efforts, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Kurds, Turks clash
Five Kurdish rebels and three state-paid village guards were killed in clashes in southeast Turkey, security officials reported on July 27. The rebels have seized six Western tourists four Frenchmen, a Briton, and an Australian and say they will only release the hostages if Turkey calls off its military operations.
Turkish forces are pursuing an iron-fist campaign against the separatist Kurdish Workers' Party, which broke its own unilaterally declared cease-fire in May after two months of relative calm in the area. Car bombs explode in Peru
Maoist rebels exploded a car bomb outside the US Embassy on July 27, seriously wounding two Peruvian guards and killing at least one guerrilla, police said. It was the first major attack on a US installation in Peru since a bomb killed three Peruvian guards at the US ambassador's residence in February 1992.
On July 26, rebels exploded a car bomb in front of a private school in an apparent bid to mar President Alberto Fujimori's third anniversary in power. No injuries were reported. Other rebel attacks on July 26 left two dead and four wounded around Lima. IBM reports losses, cuts
IBM yesterday reported an $8 billion second-quarter loss, including a huge charge for a corporate restructuring that includes the early retirement of 50,000 employees, twice the company's earlier projection.
The company said it expected another 35,000 employees to leave by the end of 1994. IBM reported revenue of $15.5 billion, a 15 percent drop from a year ago that reflects the company's continuing struggle with the changing market for mainframe computers, for years its most lucrative product. US wages rise a little
American workers' wages, salaries, and benefits rose 3.6 percent in the year ending June 30, the same pace as that of the previous 12 months, the Labor Department said on July 26. Analysts had predicted the increase in the department's Employment Cost Index, considered one of the best gauges of wage inflation pressures.
The report said wages and salaries increased 2.8 percent, failing to keep pace with the 3.0 percent inflation rate. Benefit costs, on the other hand, rose 5.5 percent, slightly faster than the 5.3 percent pace a year earlier.
