April 21, 1993

I.B.M. reported yesterday that it lost $285 million in the first quarter, as the company's drive to cut expenses failed to make up for the slide in its mainframe computer business. The loss, compared with a profit in the period a year earlier, suggests that the International Business Machines Corporation's new chief executive, Louis V. Gerstner Jr., faces a difficult first year at the helm. Mr. Gerstner, the former chairman of the RJR Nabisco Holdings Corporation, took over at I.B.M. at the start of April, after an exhaustive search for an outsider to head the troubled computer giant.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had no recent evidence that children were being beaten in the Branch Davidian compound, F.B.I. Director William S. Sessions said today. The Director's remarks contradicted assertions by President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno that escalating child abuse had been a major reason to assault the complex near Waco, Tex., on Monday.

Fighting spread throughout Bosnia today as Serbian, Muslim and Croatian forces attacked civilians with a ferocity that appeared more than ever to overwhelm the United Nations military forces sent here to mitigate the effects of the war. United Nations commanders who spoke over the weekend of building a broader peace from a fragile cease-fire in the besieged Muslim enclave of Srebrenica today were hopscotching across Bosnia in a desperate attempt to curb the new rush of hostilities. Deadlocks and More Deadlocks Even the Srebrenica agreement, which established the eastern town as a "safe area" for tens of thousands of Muslim civilians, appeared to be in danger of collapsing as Bosnian and Serbian commanders deadlocked over meeting the terms.

NEW YORK CITY CORRUPTION SCANDAL HITS ANTI-GRAFT UNIT The agency created four years ago to clean up graft in New York City school construction contracts faced its first corruption scandal, as two of its own managers were arrested in connection with a bid-rigging scheme. One of the managers was hired despite a burglary conviction in 1989. A1. LIBERALS ARM FOR SCHOOL FIGHT Gay-rights advocates, liberal clergy and some parents' and teachers' groups are organizing more aggressively than ever before to influence the elections for New York City's local school boards. A1.

Gay-rights advocates, liberal clergy and some parents' and teachers' groups are organizing more aggressively than ever before to influence the elections for New York City's local school boards. These groups have often had common interests in the past, but this year they find themselves working together even more closely in the face of an energized effort on the other side of the political spectrum by the Roman Catholic Church, the Rev. Pat Robertson and some community groups with a conservative social agenda.