Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993                   TAG: 9311110370
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

IN BUSINESS

World telephone traffic grew 12 percent in 1992, about twice the rate of the U.S. market, according to TeleGeography 1993, a report edited by Washington communications lawyer Gregory Staple.

And the U.S. long-distance company to benefit most from this boom was MCI, whose international telephone traffic grew by 30.2 percent, compared with AT&T's 6.5 percent growth, according to the report released Wednesday.

In absolute terms, MCI added more international traffic than did AT&T, which began the year with four times MCI's international traffic base.

- The Washington Post

Independent truckers strike to start today

Trucks were in short supply Wednesday as truckers, some fearful of violence, parked their rigs in anticipation of a midnight strike start to protest surging diesel fuel prices.

"For the first time since the late 1970s, our members are turning freight down . . . in a big way," said Terry Turner, executive director of the Interstate Truckload Carriers Conference in Alexandria. "They're turning down 500 to 1,000 [truck] loads a day."

Turner estimates that the trade group's members haul at least 8,000 loads a day.

There's no telling how widespread the threatened strike, scheduled to run today through next Wednesday, will be. The strike isn't supported by any major trucking companies, unions or trade associations. But independent truckers, who are leading the strike, are drawing strong support because diesel prices have jumped 40 cents a gallon and more since Oct. 1.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune