June 7, 1993

Two weeks after Albert A. Cardone was forced out as chairman of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the company's board has found that it may owe Mr. Cardone hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance pay and pension benefits, perhaps more than $1 million. The exact amount is unclear because for years the board routinely approved Mr. Cardone's severance agreement without ever asking how much it would cost.

Sears, Roebuck & Company has named the New York office of Young & Rubicam to create advertising campaigns that could prove crucial to the struggling retailer's fate. Sears, the nation's fourth-largest advertiser, ended a five-month review on Friday by choosing Y.& R. New York to direct the apparel account of its huge merchandise group. The agency will be responsible for producing broadcast commercials and print advertisements to sell Sears's brand-name and private-label men's, women's and children's clothing.

The Federal Government, the largest customer of military contractors, requires those companies to diversify their work forces and their managements. Yet the image of the weapons industry as a group led by white, high-technology ex-military men is as vivid now as it has been for many decades. Data provided by the nation's 10 largest weapons makers show that of the 2,612 executives listed as senior management, women made up 5.3 percent and minorities 4.8 percent. That is better than a decade ago but still lags behind what many industry executives and others say is desirable.

Paul Azinger, the best bunker player on the PGA Tour, hit his greatest sand shot ever to make a lightning bolt of a birdie on the final hole today and steal the Memorial Tournament from his close friend, Payne Stewart. Trailing Stewart by one stroke on the final hole, Azinger nipped the ball perfectly from what appeared to be a hopelessly difficult position at the bottom of a steep bunker. The ball, loaded with backspin, barely cleared the lip, skittered for two hops and then trickled toward the hole 20 feet away. After an excrutiatingly slow journey, it teetered on the left edge and fell in.

NEW YORK CITY SMUGGLED TO NEW YORK: 7 DIE AS IMMIGRANT SHIP RUNS AGROUND A tramp steamer smuggling hundreds of illegal Chinese immigrants into New York runs aground in a pounding surf off the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, ending a 17,000-mile odyssey from the Far East in a nightmare of panic, chaos, death and capture within sight of the golden door. At least 7 people are killed and 16 are seriously injured, officials say, as scores of terrified passengers leap into the sea and try to swim and wade ashore. A1. A TRIP BOTH DEVIOUS AND DESPERATE The freighter that ran aground off Rockaway Peninsula is part of a recent surge of illegal Chinese immigrants who have made their way east to Hawaii, California, Guatemala, Florida and now, for what is believed to be the first time by boat, to the shores of New York. Why the immigrants chose a tortuous route around the Horn of Africa and into the North Atlantic is not clear. A1.