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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994                   TAG: 9404130128
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

3 TRUCKING FIRMS SEEK INTERIM PACTS

Three more trucking companies - TNT Holland Motor Express Inc., TNT Red Star and Sea-Lane Service - on Tuesday asked the Teamsters Union for interim agreements that would let them return to the highways pending an overall settlement of the week-old strike.

If approved, the agreements would permit the companies' 4,350 drivers and dock workers to join Teamsters employees of two other carriers who had been exempted from the strike in earlier, separate agreements with the union.

Trucking Management Inc., which represents the truck firms, accused the union Tuesday of stringing out the interim agreements for the sake of headlines.

- Associated Press

Savings bond sales set March record

WASHINGTON - The Treasury reported Tuesday that it sold $901 million in U.S. savings bonds in March, the third-highest March sales in the program's history.

The value of savings bonds held by Americans at the end of March was $174.9 billion, 7 percent higher than the $163.6 billion of a year before.

Savings bonds issued on or after March 1, 1993, and held five years or longer earn the market-based interest rate if it averages more than the guaranteed minimum of 4 percent.

Bonds issued before March 1993 retain their existing guaranteed minimum rates until they enter a new extended maturity period.

- Associated Press

Virgin Atlantic, Delta are partners

Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways announced a partnership agreement Tuesday to increase international traffic between London and seven U.S. cities.

The Delta-Virgin relationship does not immediately involve an ownership stake by either airline but is the latest in a growing list of global air alliances.

Executives of both Delta and Virgin said the initial deal involves code-sharing, an arrangement that allows flights of both airlines to be entered in reservations systems as if they were a single airline. The flights will be jointly marketed, and operating costs will be shared.

- Orlando Sentinel

Dibrell raises its tobacco stake

Dibrell Brothers Inc., a Danville processor and distributor of leaf tobacco and fresh flowers, said Tuesday it has increased to 9.9 percent its stake in the common stock of Standard Commercial Corp., an international leaf tobacco and wool processor and dealer based in Wilson, N.C.

Dibrell, which previously owned 6.2 percent of Standard's common stock, last year proposed a merger of the two companies, which was rejected by Standard.

- Staff report

by CNB