Photograph: Dianne Feinstein jokingly battles for the mike with Willie Brown at the podium as she is re-elected mayor of San Francisco, November 8, 1983.
A Democratic shift on Grenada was signaled by House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Reversing his criticism of President Reagan for practicing “gunboat diplomacy” in the invasion of Grenada, Mr. O’Neill said that a 14-member House fact-finding mission had convinced him that the action was “justified” to rescue endangered Americans.
A shallow grave containing four burned bodies was found by United States soldiers acting on a tip from a Grenadian cook. The Grenadian said that one body was that of the ousted Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, who was slain.
Agriculture Secretary John R. Block said today that the nations of the world were spending too much money on arms at the expense of food aid to developing countries. Mr. Block also announced that the United States will provide $50 million in direct emergency food aid to 22 drought-stricken African nations, twice the amount originally planned. The Secretary is in Rome as chairman of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s biennial conference.
In an address to the 100 delegates, Mr. Block reaffirmed United States commitment to international food programs, but added, “The answer to the world’s food problems does not lie in the United States. We could not single-handedly feed the world.” At a news conference after the speech, Mr. Block said, “In the world today, we are spending too much money on arms relative to food and assistance of other kinds.”
Efforts for a cease-fire in the fighting between Palestinian factions were pressed by the Mayor of Tripoli, Lebanon, and other local leaders who are fearful that the fighting will sweep into the port city. The Mayor of Tripoli and other local leaders met today with Yasser Arafat, who promised he would do “everything in my power to avert a blood bath.” The police said the shelling here today was the lightest since dawn Thursday, when the attack on positions held by supporters of Mr. Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman, began. The city officials formed a committee to try to negotiate a cease-fire and sent a message to Hafez al-Assad, the President of Syria, urging him to help end the fighting. Mr. Arafat has been contending that without strong support from Syria it would have been impossible for rebel Palestinians to begin their attack against his last remaining strongholds just north of here. The officials said they hoped to have a similar meeting with Colonel Saeed Musa, the leader of the rebel group opposing Mr. Arafat.
Yitzhak Shamir met challenging questions from some Israeli soldiers about Israel’s role in Lebanon as he toured Israeli positions there. In a freewheeling question-and-answer session between the soldiers and the Prime Minister, one soldier stood to challenge the validity of Israel’s continuing presence.
President Reagan orders holding off on a planned air strike on an Iranian-linked site in Beirut.
Afghan rebels shot down a Soviet helicopter, killing a Russian general and the 10 others aboard, a Western diplomatic source in New Delhi reported. The source, quoting a reliable Afghan informant, said the unidentified general had been on an inspection tour near the western Afghan provincial capital of Herat when his helicopter was downed October 17. Apparently in response, Soviet garrisons at Jalalabad and Khost have reportedly been reinforced by 3,500 troops each.
French External Relations Minister Claude Cheysson confirmed that five Super Etendard jets were delivered last month to Iraq, which is fighting a three-year-long war with Iran. The jets can launch the highly accurate Exocet missile, used with effectiveness by Argentina against British warships during the Falkland Islands war. Reports of the jets’ imminent delivery prompted Iran to threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz, at the foot of the Persian Gulf, if the planes are used to attack Iranian oil facilities.
Saudi Arabia has given up hope that an Arab League summit can be held in Riyadh as scheduled Nov. 20 and has canceled hotel rooms reserved for the conference. Most Arab states had sought a postponement, fearing that Mideast tensions would doom the meeting to failure. A Western analyst said the key issue “is the Syrian one.” Saudi Arabia reportedly has asked the league’s secretary general, Chedli Klibi, to arrange a meeting of foreign ministers in Tunisia to select a new date and perhaps a new site.
The leading Soviet literary journal charged that defendants are not given a fair chance at trials and said the nation’s court system should be reformed to eliminate a heavy prosecution bias. Saying that Soviet courts are falling into disrepute, Literaturnaya Gazeta suggested that the judicial system be changed to put greater responsibility on prosecutors to prove their cases. It also called for abolition of the present practice by which judges question lawyers or defendants at the beginning of a trial before witnesses are heard, implying that the accused is guilty before evidence is considered.
Belgium’s strongest earthquake in 45 years struck the city of Liege, 75 miles east of Brussels, killing at least two people, injuring 26 and damaging hundreds of buildings. The quake, measuring 5 on the Richter scale, spilled rubble from collapsed chimneys and walls into the streets in the city of 200,000. Police barred traffic, fearing that more walls might collapse. The quake was also felt in the industrial Ruhr valley of West Germany, but no damage or injuries were reported there.
Salvadoran President Alvaro Magana went on nationwide radio to deny as without foundation guerrilla reports of a coup attempt against him. The reports, in a rebel broadcast, said the rumor of a coup “headed by Colonel Jaime Abdul Gutierrez has been detected by our intelligence service.” Gutierrez, who led the 1979 military coup that toppled then-President Carlos Humberto Romero, also denied the reports. However, he denounced the Magana government for allowing “corruption to continue as before” and for failing to defeat the rebel forces.
Brigadier General Oscar Mejia Victores, the Guatemalan leader, has expelled a Mexican missionary and several Nicaraguans and accused Roman Catholic missionaries with taking part in “subversive affairs,” the Government said today. General Mejia Victores also said 19 Guatemalan lay preachers believed to be involved in guerrilla activities turned themselves in to the army and sought amnesty. He said the 19 lay preachers were being held in a refugee camp and would soon be turned over to Catholic officials. The Guatemalan leader did not say exactly what subversive activities the missionaries or preachers were involved in.
President Reagan travels to Japan for a state visit. The President is due to arrive in Tokyo Wednesday afternoon. He will leave Saturday for a two-day visit to South Korea.
The Japanese Government, on the eve of President Reagan’s arrival for a three-day visit, agreed formally today to export advanced military technology to the United States. The United States is presumably interested in Japanese advances in fiber optics, lasers and robots, but has yet to make specific requests. No American requests for specific military hardware have been made. Today’s announcement, in essence, added the necessary bureaucratic details to a technology-transfer agreement reached in outline early this year. But with Japan under attack in the United States for not spending more for its own defense, the Government of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone appeared to want some sort of military offering for Mr. Reagan.
An Angolan jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Lubango airport in southern Angola, killing as many as 150 passengers and crew members, according to wire-service reports from Yugoslavia and Anola. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoted control-tower officials in Luanda, the Angolan capital, as saying that about 150 people were aboard the Boeing 737 on a domestic flight and that none survived. Tanjug said reliable sources reported there were no foreigners among the victims.
A High Court judge ruled today that the detention of Dumiso Dabengwa, a top aide of Joshua Nkomo, the opposition leader, was illegal and ordered his released within 24 hours. Mr. Dabengwa, 46 years old, was detained in April after being acquitted in the High Court on treason and illegal arms charges. His lawyers filed an application for his release because he had been in detention more than 191 days without his case coming before a review tribunal. Under Zimbabwean law, such cases must be reviewed within 30 days. Mr. Dabengwa’s lawyers said this had not been done and argued that the detention was illegal.
W. Wilson Goode was elected the first black Mayor of Philadelphia. Mr. Goode, a Democrat who is the son of a North Carolina sharecropper, took a commanding lead as the returns poured in.
Martha Layne Collins won her bid to become the first woman to be elected Governor of Kentucky. Mrs. Collins, a Democrat, defeated Jim Bunning, a Republican State Senator and former major league pitcher.
Bill Allain swept to victory in his bid for Governor of Mississippi. Mr. Allain, a Democrat, overcame last-minute allegations of soliciting sex from black men. Analysts attributed his overwhelming triumph over Leon Bramlett, a Republican, in the traditionally Democratic state to a backlash against smear tactics.
Kathryn McDonald lost her effort to succeed her husband, the late Representative Larry McDonald of Georgia, as George Darden, a State Representative, won a special runoff election for the House seat.
Powered by her landslide victory in an April recall election and opposed by five little-known rivals, Mayor Dianne Feinstein coasted to a second term today after a low-key campaign. With 88 of 707 precincts reporting, Mrs. Feinstein had 23,132 votes compared with 1,952 votes for her nearest opponent, Cesar Ascarrunz. The recall election was prompted by Mrs. Feinstein’s support of a ban on handguns. After an 82 percent victory in the recall vote, she ran her November campaign for about $300,000, less than a third of the cost of a normal re- election bid.
A bombing in the Capitol outside the Senate chamber prompted Senate and House leaders to approve new security regulations for the building. From now on, visitors will be allowed through only four doors, instead of the 10 that have been used. Also, visitors will be required to pass through additional metal detectors, and neither tourists nor lobbyists will be allowed in the hallways just outside the House and Senate chambers on the second floor.
New nerve gas weapons would be produced under legislation approved by the Senate, with Vice President Bush breaking a tie vote.
Broadcasters may stage debates between political candidates of their choice without violating the equal time law, under a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission. The action, which reversed an eight-year-old policy, was a major victory for radio and television broadcasters and was criticized by several groups as bad public policy.
Mayor Kevin H. White violated a Massachusetts law that prohibits government employees from involvement in political fund raising. Boston city records show that Mr. White’s chief campaign fund raiser, Theodore V. Anzalone, was appointed Boston’s deputy penal commissioner on the day that he established one of the mayor’s fund-raising groups. Mr. Anzalone confirmed that Mayor White had appointed him to the penal commission.
Federal drug authorities agreed not to spray the herbicide paraquat on marijuana plots in the national forests without conducting environmental impact studies. The consent decree, approved by U.S. District Judge June Green in Washington, D.C., resulted from two suits filed by the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, the National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Sierra Club attorney Rick Middleton said paraquat is extremely toxic to wildlife. NORML contended that paraquat-contaminated marijuana presents a health hazard to smokers.
The President’s Private Sector Survey on Cost Control reported that the government could save nearly $24 billion in three years by repealing three major labor laws and improving management of research projects. It also said government accounting methods underestimate the yearly deficit by $100 billion. The labor laws are the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires that the “prevailing wage” be paid to workers on federally financed or assisted construction projects; the Walsh-Healey Act, which applies mainly to overtime pay, and the Service Contract Act, which deals with wages under government service contracts.
James G. Watt quietly left office as secretary of the Interior, then told a New Orleans investment conference a few hours later, “It’s nice to be liberated.” Watt’s departure was prompted in part by a remark he made about the makeup of a coal advisory committee he had appointed. He said it included “a black… a woman, two Jews and a cripple.” Watt had been expected to stay in office until William P. Clark was confirmed as his successor. His resignation was effective at noon EST Tuesday. “It’s kind of fun to be just a citizen,” Watt told reporters.
The New York state attorney general and the parents of a severely deformed infant filed suit to prevent the Reagan Administration from obtaining the baby’s medical records. “Baby Jane Doe” was born October 11 with spina bifida. Without life-prolonging surgery, she is expected to live two years; with it, she could live to 20 but would be severely retarded and in constant pain, doctors say. In a suit brought by right-to-life activists, the state high court sided with the parents’ refusal to authorize corrective surgery. Then the Justice Department demanded the child’s records to determine whether she is being discriminated against on the basis of her handicap.
A bloody day of violence that left two prison guards dead last month in the federal maximum-security prison in Marion, Illinois, triggered renewed calls for a federal death penalty. Prison officials said the suspects in each slaying were inmates already serving life sentences-the maximum penalty allowed under federal law. “What can you do with persons like that?” Dean Leech, associate warden at the penitentiary, asked.
Operation of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant was upheld in part by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Voting 4 to 0, the commissioners agreed to allow the Pacific Gas & Electric Company to load fuel at the southern California plant.
The first genetic test for one of the most devastating hereditary diseases was reported by scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital. The ailment is Huntington’s disease, a fatal nervous system disorder that destroys the mind and motor function. The researchers said the test, now used only in research, will not be available for widespread application for another year or two.
The NASA Space Shuttle STS-9 vehicle again moves to the launch pad.
Atlanta’s Dale Murphy wins his 2nd consecutive National League MVP Award, joining Ernie Banks, Joe Morgan, and Mike Schmidt, who also accomplished that feat. Murphy hit .302 with 36 home runs, 121 RBI, and 30 stolen bases this season, and received 21 of a possible 24 first-place votes.
Mets reliever Jesse Orosco garners four votes for the National League Most Valuable Player Award, ending a six-year drought in which not one player on the team received a single vote for the honor. The last time a writer cast an MVP vote for a New York National Leaguer was on the 1976 ballot when the writers gave Tom Seaver was given consideration.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1214.93 (+0.10).
Born:
Chris Rankin, New Zealand-British actor (“Harry Potter” movies), in Auckland, New Zealand.
Died:
Betty Nuthall, 72, English tennis player (U.S. National Championship, 1930), of a coronary arrest.
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