Pacific Rim

Next to the General Motors Corp. plant on Broening Highway, where 2,700 workers were sent home after the plant ran out of parts, Titan Steel Corp. and its 60 workers are waging their own economic battle.Unlike the GM plant, paralyzed by sparring between labor and management in Flint, Mich., Titan Steel is wrestling with a more distant foe: the Asian currency crisis.The company, which buys tin-plated steel, customizes it and resells it, ordinarily ships 40 percent of its products to Asia."That's down to 20 percent and falling even further," said Peter Reid, the company's president.

WASHINGTON -- While the world frets over India's high-tech nuclear-weapons tests, an old-style explosion of street rioting in Indonesia is posing a more immediate danger to America's stake in Asia.With 210 million people, billions of dollars in U.S. investment, close military ties with the United States and a strategic position astride vital sea lanes, Indonesia is a quiet giant that, if badly hurt, could damage the Pacific region and, by extension, the United States.Indonesia "is the core of Southeast Asian stability, on which the region's prosperity has rested for three decades," said James Clad, a professor of Southeast Asian studies at Georgetown University.

Yesterday's must-see is next year's been there, done that. Last year's tourism pariah is this season's hot spot.In the supersonically shifting world of travel, nothing is more constant than change. The new year is no exception.Former travel destination all-stars Vietnam and Hong Kong have stumbled, while Los Angeles and Miami have rebounded on the strength of newfound chic.When it comes time to choose a 1998 vacation, no one wants to be a travel fashion victim. No worries (as they say in Australia)

WASHINGTON -- International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus said yesterday that the IMF plans to rush $2 billion to South Korea on Dec. 30 to help stabilize the nation's financial and currency markets.The money is an expedited payment coming before the next scheduled installment of another $2 billion on Jan. 8 if reforms by the South Korean government pass muster. It won't add to the almost $60 billion bailout put together by the IMF earlier this month. It will just replace an installment that had been set for later in 1998.

SEOUL -- South Korea may attempt to raise as much as $10 billion in a first-ever international sale of government bonds to provide cash to corporate borrowers that a U.S. rating firm says are at risk of defaulting on their debts."

SEOUL, South Korea -- An apparent agreement for a rescue of the South Korean government unraveled yesterday and negotiations began again, as Seoul resisted taking severe steps, such as the closing of insolvent banks, that were advocated by the International Monetary Fund.By this morning, some government officials were saying a new agreement had been reached and a Cabinet meeting was called to endorse the plan. All three major networks were reporting that South Korea had partly capitulated, agreeing to close more than half of the 12 nearly insolvent merchant banks.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Leaders gathered for the annual Asian-Pacific economic summit declared yesterday that stringent domestic economic policies and closer international monitoring are the only way to contain the financial emergencies that have crippled South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand in recent months and have endangered Japan's already weakened financial system.While previous Asia-Pacific summits have made traditional declarations about the importance of sound economic policies, the Asian financial crisis is expected to pressure member nations to turn these platitudes into policy.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- A day after describing the spreading economic turmoil in Asia as a mere glitch, President Clinton met yesterday with leaders of the region's largest countries to deliver a tougher message, telling them that while the United States and international organizations could help, they would have to take painful steps on their own to recover.Clinton held meetings with the leaders of Indonesia, China, Japan and South Korea, four nations that represent the full range of economic, geopolitical and human-rights issues driving U.S. policy in Asia.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- With Asian markets tumbling and the U.S. trade deficit on the rise, President Clinton and 17 other Pacific leaders are gathering in Vancouver to explore emergency measures aimed at averting long-term economic distress.Clinton expressed optimism yesterday that Asian economies would bounce back with the help of the International Monetary Fund, internal reforms and the kind of free trade that is the prime goal of heads of state in Vancouver for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

NEW YORK -- Hideki Irabu was a smash on Broadway. He took the mound at Yankee Stadium last night a portly, unproven Japanese pitcher and came back a star.The newest New York Yankee struck out nine batters over 6 2/3 innings and held the Detroit Tigers to just five hits on the way to a 10-3 victory in his long-awaited American major league debut.The ramifications could be felt as far East as the Pacific rim -- where more and more Asian players figure to set their sights on American baseball -- and as far south as Baltimore, where the prospect of another star-quality pitcher in the Yankees starting rotation cannot be very comforting.