News In Brief

Seagate Technology, the world's largest maker of disk drives, will streamline its operations in Malaysia, closing one plant and offering "voluntary retirement" to 6,000 workers, a spokeswoman said. In all, the San Francisco-based company employs 11,000 people in the southeast Asian nation. Last year, Seagate cut 8,000 jobs in its overseas operations - 1,600 of them in neighboring Singapore.

In other employee-cutback moves:

* Daewoo Motor, the deeply indebted South Korean automaker, announced plans to eliminate 3,500 jobs, almost one-fifth of its workforce, next year despite immediate threats of worker unrest by employee unions. The company also said it would trim pay scales, close unprofitable overseas plants, and cut back on advertising. Still, it will need $730 million in support loans to cover operating expenses through mid-2001, the announcement said.

* Pep Boys, the automotive parts seller, said it will close 38 unprofitable stores and two distribution centers, resulting in 1,500 layoffs. The Philadelphia-based chain operates 627 stores and has almost 28,000 employees.

* Alliance & Leicester, a leading mortgage lender in Britain, said it would cut 1,500 jobs as part of an overall effort to save $145 million in costs by 2003.

Interest rates on three-month Treasury bills climbed to the highest level in almost 10 years. The Treasury Department auctioned $11 billion Monday at a discount rate of 6.180 percent. The bills averaged 6.22 percent on Jan. 28, 1991.

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