After winning the biggest electoral vote total in the nation’s history, President Reagan said he regarded his victory as an endorsement of his economic policies and as an opportunity to press for a breakthrough in arms control talks with Moscow. In final returns, Mr. Reagan won 59 percent of the popular vote and carried every state except Minnesota. The President’s total of 525 electoral votes exceeded the 523 won by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.
President Reagan offered no detailed plans for his second term, but said he would “take our case to the people,” if necessary, in seeking to transform his overwhelming victory into policy successes with Congress.
President Reagan receives a congratulatory call from former President Gerald R. Ford.
Walter F. Mondale is retiring from electoral politics in the wake of President Reagan’s stunning victory. The former Vice President, who said he would return to Washington as a lawyer, predicted that the Democrats would never again nominate a Presidential candidate with his admitted weaknesses in communicating by television.
Republicans made only modest gains in the House, and they apparently failed to dislodge the grip of the Democratic leadership on power in the chamber. Nearly complete returns showed that the Republicans, who were behind 99 seats, had gained about 14 seats.
President Reagan faces a tougher task in leading a divided Government in his second term than when he entered the White House nearly four years ago. Leaders of both parties said the Republican failure to gain effective working control of the House would bring increased pressure on Mr. Reagan to strike political compromises on major issues.
Republicans lost two Senate seats, reducing their margin there to 53 to 47. Democratic Senate leaders predicted that their gain would pose legislative problems for President Reagan, strengthen the position of moderate Republicans and place the Democrats within striking distance of capturing the Senate in 1986.
Democrats held the line around the country against Republican gubernatorial candidates, who appeared to benefit only slightly from President Reagan’s victory. Madeleine M. Kunin, a Democrat, won the governorship of Vermont, a bastion of moderate Republicanism.
Democratic Party leaders began a long and tough appraisal of how they can renew their national appeal to the white majority and still hold the allegiance of minorities, the poor and others seeking Federal assistance. Democratic Presidential candidates have not won a majority of white voters since 1964.
The women’s “silent vote” cited by feminists failed to materialize in Tuesday’s elections. Despite the historic choice of Geraldine A. Ferraro as the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee, the Mondale-Ferraro ticket failed to attract the wide support from women that Democrats had expected and needed.
A total of 6.6 million New Yorkers voted in Tuesday’s Presidential election, an increase over 1980 but far fewer than in the 1950’s, 1960’s and in 1972. In addition, despite near-record voter registration, the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots was lower than in 1980.
Party alignment in Albany was little changed by Tuesday’s elections. In the New York State Assembly, the minority Republicans gained four seats and were awaiting a recount in a fifth district.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that senior Soviet Politburo member Mikhail S. Gorbachev will visit Britain next month. Addressing the House of Commons, Thatcher said she hopes that Gorbachev’s visit will provide a chance to seek ways of reducing “the burden of armaments.” Gorbachev is widely considered the No. 2 man in the Kremlin and a possible successor to President Konstantin U. Chernenko.
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger urged West Germany to join the United States in research on a space-based anti-nuclear defense system. Writing in the West German newspaper Die Welt, Weinberger said, “I cannot stress enough how important West Germany’s contribution to an effective deterrent is to us all.” The space weapons initiative, which Reagan unveiled in March, 1983, calls for a multibillion-dollar research program to find ways to destroy Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles in space by the year 2000.
The Soviet Union celebrated the 67th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution with the traditional military parade through Red Square, but Defense Minister Dmitri F. Ustinov, scheduled to be the main speaker, did not show up. Ustinov, 76, a powerful member of the ruling Politburo’s inner circle, was reported to be too ill to attend the ceremonies. Victor V. Grishin, a member of the Politburo and head of the Communist Party in Moscow, told reporters that Ustinov merely had a cold and a sore throat and added, “Everything is OK.” In his place, Marshal Sergei L. Sokolov, a First Deputy Defense Minister, said in a keynote speech that American policy presented a threat of war and that “we have never wavered and will never waver in the security of our country and the security of our allies.”
The three security officers charged with killing the Rev. Jerzy Popiełuszko were said today to have been stopped by highway patrolmen who routinely checked credentials as the pro-Solidarity priest lay in the trunk of the car. The road check was described by Jerzy Urban, the Government spokesman, as he summarized the investigation into the case. The killing has shaken the Government and the ruling Communist Party as well as the Roman Catholic Church and the Solidarity movement. As recounted by Mr. Urban, the three officers were not diverted either by the traffic check nor by the earlier escape of the priest’s driver, Waldemar Chrostowski, from their car.
Islamic Jihad, a Lebanese terrorist group, condemned Israeli-Lebanese negotiations scheduled to begin today and vowed to attack American personnel and facilities in Lebanon, promising that “the region will be put on fire.” “We, the Islamic Jihad Organization, warn on the re-election of Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Presidency, that we shall blow up all American interests in Beirut and any part of Lebanon,” the caller said, using the Arabic word for holy war. “We address this warning to every American individual residing in Lebanon.” Last September 20, a suicide truck bomber drove through the new American embassy building in a Christian suburb near East Beirut, killing what the Lebanese authorities now say was a total of 11 people. Islamic Holy War took responsibility for the attack. The threat came as the Lebanese Cabinet named an eight-man armed forces delegation to negotiate with Israel on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. In the southern port city of Sidon, meanwhile, guerrillas killed an Israeli soldier and wounded four, the Israeli military command said.
Jerusalem’s Supreme Muslim Council has called for a general strike Saturday to protest the stationing of Israeli border police in the Temple Mount area, one of Islam’s holiest sites. A council spokesman said that Muslims have long objected to Israeli police near the mosques but that the officers have become increasingly unruly, eating and playing radios. Border police were assigned to the area in January after authorities foiled a plot by Jewish extremists to blow up Al Aqsa mosque.
Egypt has evidence that Libya planted mines in the Red Sea because Egypt refused to annul the 1979 Camp David treaty with Israel, the MidEast Report said. The New York-based newsletter said Egypt intercepted a coded message in which Libya informed Iran that it had completed the mining operation. Iran reportedly replied that it was “sorry about this action because we don’t want to disturb the traffic route… which we are using. “The mines damaged 19 ships in the Red Sea region.
Amnesty International accused government soldiers in Chad of carrying out hundreds of summary executions and random killings in the last two months. The London-based human rights organization blamed the slaughter on a drive by Chadian security forces against their opponents in southern Chad. The African nation has been torn by fighting between President Hissen Habre’s troops and Libyan-backed rebels in the north. Amnesty said government troops had executed at least 80 people suspected of armed opposition after they were rounded up in the Longone area September 27. Amnesty also said some people were burned to death when they sought sanctuary in a church in Moyen Chari district.
The Indian Army rushed reinforcements to New Delhi and Punjab State today in anticipation of possible renewed violence Thursday, the anniversary of the birth of the man who founded the Sikh religion. The capital was calm for the fourth day after at least 600 people died in this city in violence, mostly directed at Sikhs by Hindus, after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi a week ago. The police have identified the assassins as two Sikh members of Mrs. Gandhi’s bodyguard. On the birth of the founder of Sikhism, the 15th-century guru Nanak Dev, Sikhs traditionally organize religious processions. But given the violence of the last few days, Jaswant Singh Kalka, the head of the Sikh Temple Association in New Delhi, said the processions would be canceled.
A Chinese judge was named to the World Court today, becoming the first representative of the Peking Government on the court since the nation was admitted to the United Nations. Ni Zhengyu, 78 years old, a legal counsel in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, was elected by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council to the court, formally known as the International Court of Justice, which sits in The Hague. Mr. Ni received a law degree from Stanford University in 1929. He is the first mainland Chinese World Court judge since the Peking Government joined the United Nations in 1971. Taslim Olawale Elias of Nigeria, the court president, was re-elected, as were Manfred Lachs of Poland and Shigeru Oda of Japan. Jens Evensen of Norway will take the seat being left by Hermann Mosler of West Germany.
Premier John Buchanan of Nova Scotia led his Progressive Conservatives to an overwhelming third consecutive victory Tuesday in Nova Scotia’s elections. The Tories won 42 seats in the provincial legislature, a gain of four seats for the party from its strength in the last legislature. The Liberals took six, the socialist New Democratic Party three and the Cape Breton Labor Party one. The Liberals lost six seats and the New Democrats gained two. Labor representation stayed the same. The province’s Liberal Party leader, Sandy Cameron, lost his seat in the rural district of Guysborough.
Washington warned Moscow it would not tolerate the delivery of advanced fighter aircraft to Nicaragua, the State Department said. The warning was prompted by United States concern that a Soviet freighter that has reached the Nicaraguan Pacific port of Corinto might be carrying such sophisticated planes. A department spokesman, John Hughes, said the warning was conveyed to Soviet officials in both Washington and Moscow. Other Administration officials said the freighter, which was shadowed by United States Navy ships and planes as it approached Nicaragua, docked at the Pacific port of Corinto this morning. The Administration officials said the Government did not know whether the ship was carrying Soviet MIG warplanes. President Reagan, speaking at a news conference in California, said, “We cannot definitely identify that they have MIG’s on there, or planes of any kind.” Vice President Bush, speaking to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, said “I don’t think all the facts are in yet.”
But officials said there was sufficient suspicion to warrant a reiteration to Moscow of the United States position that the delivery of advanced jet fighters would constitute an unacceptable change in the balance of military forces in Central America. Specifically, the officials said, the aircraft would give Nicaragua the ability to attack nearby nations, including Honduras and El Salvador, that lack sophisticated air defense systems. In addition, with advanced fighters, Nicaragua would be within relatively easy striking distance of the Panama Canal. Mr. Reagan said that if the Nicaraguans took delivery of advanced aircraft it would “indicate that they are contemplating being a threat to their neighbors here in the Americas.” Mr. Hughes said, “The addition of advanced combat aircraft to the Sandinista military arsenal would be a serious development which the United States would view with the utmost concern.”
Nicaragua denied it was about to obtain advanced fighter planes from the Soviet bloc. Foreign Minister Miguel d’Escoto Brockman said that a Soviet freighter had arrived in the Pacific port of Corinto this morning and was unloading cargo there, but that the cargo contained nothing that would endanger the peace of nearby nations. He linked reports that the planes were in transit to the presence of an United States warship that he said had entered Nicaraguan waters off Corinto this morning. He said that the arrival of the American warship and recent overflights of Nicaragua by what he charged were spy planes were actions “obviously meant to intimidate us,” and warned that they “could very well be the beginning of something bigger.”
A human-rights group in Johannesburg said today that the South African police had detained more than 1,000 people since January 1, a figure described as the highest “for many years.” The tally was the first public assessment of the scale of security police operations against anti-Government activists after widespread unrest in the past two months. There was no immediate comment from the authorities on the group’s assessment. The rights group, the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee, composed mainly of white lawyers considered liberals in South Africa, also said 2,000 more people had been arrested and 130 killed “nearly all as a result of police action.” The group makes a distinction between those detained under security legislation, which does not require a court appearance, and those arrested on charges heard in court. The figures did not include at least 22 people reportedly killed this week.
The U.S. Supreme Court, examining a sensitive issue of church-state relations, was urged to allow states to forbid businesses to fire or demote employees who refuse to work on their religious Sabbath. In a case from Connecticut that the court is expected to decide by July, the justices are considering whether to reinstate a state law that protected workers from retaliation for taking a religious day of rest from their jobs. The Reagan Administration has joined the state of Connecticut and lawyers for a demoted worker, now deceased, in arguing that such statutes lawfully protect freedom of religion. The case is one of several on the Supreme Court’s agenda that is expected to provide important new guidelines on the constitutional separation of church and state.
NASA’s STS 51-A launch is scrubbed because of high shear winds. The space shuttle Discovery was readied for launching tomorrow after turbulent, high-altitude winds of 90 miles an hour prompted a postponement of the space shuttle mission. The postponement came less than 30 minutes before the scheduled liftoff as the five astronauts sat in their spaceship on the launching pad here at the Kenneday Space Center. Project officials said the 90-mile-an-hour winds, which whipped through in opposite directions, were “unacceptable” because they could have twisted and battered the winged vehicle. Air Force meteorologists said that wind conditions Thursday morning could still pose problems. A cold front stalled over the Florida coast was generating the troublesome winds at altitudes from 20,000 to 40,000 feet. But launching crews resumed the countdown and proceeded with plans for a liftoff scheduled for 7:15 AM Thursday.
If the launching is delayed again, another attempt could be made Friday morning. Officials were under pressure to get the eight-day mission under way no later than Sunday so the Discovery could rendezvous with the two errant communication satellites that the astronauts want to bring back to the earth. The five-day launching opportunity for the salvage mission occurs every 45 days. The two satellites are the Indonesian Government’s Palapa B-2 and the Western Union Corporation’s Westar 6. In addition, the Discovery crew plans to deploy two new communication satellites, Leasat and Anik D-2, on the second and third days of the flight. Leasat, owned by the Hughes Aircraft Company, will be leased to the United States Navy. Anik is owned by Telesat Canada, a private telecommunications organization.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has invited Senator Jake Garn to be the first politician to take a ride into space on a shuttle. “I’m still pinching myself,” the Utah Republican said. But he has no plans to be more than an observer in orbit. “Obviously, with the amount of training I have, I will not be a mission commander or pilot,” he told reporters in Salt Lake City. Garn said that he hoped to go on a flight of the shuttle Challenger scheduled for February 12, when the Senate will be in recess. As chairman of a subcommittee overseeing space agency spending, Garn often has joked to NASA officials appearing before him that he would consider their requests for funds if they sent him into space. In a letter to Garn, NASA Administrator James M. Beggs said: “Given your NASA oversight responsibilities, we think it appropriate that you consider making an inspection tour and flight aboard the shuttle.” Garn, 52, is a former Navy pilot and has more than 10,000 hours of flight time. He said his wife is not enthusiastic about the shuttle flight. “She preferred I not go, but, if something happens to me, she knows I’d die with a smile on my face.”
The reactor at Three Mile Island came closer to meltdown than was previously believed, according to research commissioned by the Federal Department of Energy. A meltdown occurs when the uranium fuel is so overheated that it turns from a solid into a liquid. If the process had continued, some experts believe, huge amounts of radiation would have entered the environment. An analysis of the damaged Unit 2 nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island shows that temperatures inside the core during the 1979 accident were closer to the melting point than had been reported earlier. Plant operator GPU Nuclear Corp. said the study found uranium-zirconium ceramic material on a piece of fuel rod. The material would only appear at a temperature of at least 4,800 degrees Fahrenheit, the study said, which approaches the 5.080-degree melting point. The TMI accident was the worst in U.S. commercial nuclear history.
Cigarette smoking, a contributor to heart attacks, also causes a rare but lethal disease that weakens the heart’s pumping power, according to researchers in Milwaukee. New research indicates that cigarette smoking can cause cardiomyopathy, a rare disease that weakens the heart’s pumping power. The condition results in heart problems and is often fatal. Dr. Arthur J. Hartz of the Medical College of Wisconsin speculated that the nicotine or carbon monoxide in the smoke poisons the heart. Hartz’s study, conducted at St. Luke’s Hospital and the Wood Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee, was published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Other research has shown that men who smoke are two to three times as likely as nonsmokers to die from heart attacks.
Convicted murderer Timothy Charles Palmes is scheduled to be executed in the electric chair today in Starke, Fla., after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay his death sentence by a 7-2 vote. Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, who consistently oppose the death penalty, dissented. Palmes, 37, was sentenced to die for the 1976 murder of James Stone, a Jacksonville, Fla., furniture store owner whose body was stuffed in a wooden box and dropped in the St. John’s River.
The Florida agriculture commissioner announced the easing of a ban on sales of fresh Florida citrus within the state, saying dealers who comply with citrus canker eradication standards may resume selling on Friday. “This will mean much to our citrus industry, the tourist trade and the state of Florida,” Commissioner Doyle Conner said. The sale of fresh Florida citrus within the state was halted after tree-killing citrus canker was confirmed at a Polk County citrus nursery Sept. 8.
The Army listed 20,000 more enemy casualties in the 1968 Vietnam War Tet offensive than it said fought in the battle, David Boies, a lawyer for CBS, said during the trial of Gen. William C. Westmoreland’s $120-million libel suit against the network. Westmoreland says the CBS documentary, “The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception,” distorted the facts when it reported Westmoreland deceived President Lyndon B. Johnson about the number of enemy troops in efforts to persuade Johnson to commit more U.S. forces to the war. Earlier in the day, Colonel John Stewart, who briefed Westmoreland before and after the offensive, said Self Defense and Secret Self Defense forces were not counted by the Army in its estimate of the enemy.
Arthur Rudolph, the developer of the Saturn V moon rocket and manager of a German rocket factory where slave laborers were worked to death during World War II, was originally described by American military authorities as an “ardent Nazi” but the assessment was later reversed, long-secret documents show. Mr. Rudolph, who returned to West Germany and gave up his American citizenship this year, was also categorized as a “100 percent Nazi, dangerous type” and a “security threat” who should be confined. Instead he was brought to the United States in 1945 with 117 other German scientists and technicians and later became director of the Army’s Redstone and Pershing missile programs and manager of the Saturn V project for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration before retiring in 1969. The assessments appear in copies of Army intelligence documents provided to The New York Times in response to a request for Mr. Rudolph’s file under the Freedom of Information Act. However, some information deemed still confidential was withheld by the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command in Fort Meade, Maryland.
A Texas couple broke months of silence today by testifying before a Houston grand jury that indicted their son for murder in the slaying of a mail carrier. Bernard and Odette Port have been jailed since September 12 on contempt charges for refusing to testify against their son, David, 17 years old, accused in the June 7 shooting death of Debora Sue Schatz, 23. The Ports were returned to jail after testifying as the grand jury recessed. David Port remained free on $20,000 bond.
More than 50,000 shots of a Salk-type polio vaccine may have lost potency and people who received injections in the past 18 months should be re-immunized, the Food and Drug Administration said today. The Federal agency said physicians and health departments were being alerted. A small number of people in the United States receive the Salk injectible, an activated polio vaccine. It is used primarily by people, particularly children, with defective immune systems. The agency said there was no problem with the more commonly used oral, or Sabin vaccine. The maker of the injected Salk vaccine, Connaught Laboratories Ltd. of Willowdale, Ontario, discovered the possible potency loss in routine testing.
An additional $1.7 million has been allocated to 38 University of California research projects aimed at finding the cause and a treatment for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, the university announced in Berkeley. UC officials said a university-wide task force allocated the funds to research projects on seven campuses from the $3.1 million in state funds made available to the university this year. Another $800,000 already had been set aside for the AIDS clinical research centers at U.C. San Francisco and UCLA, and $400,000 was allocated for “directed programs,” research focusing on needs that cannot be met through individual research grants. The remainder will be used on research begun last year.
A five-mile-long oil slick from the sunken stern of the tanker Puerto Rican floated away from the Farallon Islands, a habitat for birds, seals and other wildlife that was briefly threatened by the orange-colored goo. Some of the slick washed ashore on the islands, about 30 miles west of San Francisço, but the oil was of the light lubricating type that is not considered as serious a threat to marine life as the heavy bunker, or fuel, variety. “I think we may be lucky on this one,” said Pat Gullette of the state Department of Fish and Game. About 50 oil-covered birds were spotted near the islands, a breeding place in spring for 300,000 birds. Meanwhile, the Coast Guard started a hearing into the mysterious explosions that hit the ship October 31, shortly after it sailed out the Golden Gate. A formal report is not expected for several months. One of the 29 crew members is missing and presumed dead.
FIFA soccer player Diego Maradona (24) weds long-time fiancée Claudia Villafañe in Buenos Aires.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1233.22 (-10.93)
Born:
Amelia Vega, Dominican actress, model, author, singer and beauty queen (Miss Universe, 2003), in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.
Died:
George Mathews, 73, American stage and screen character actor (“The Eve of St. Mark”), of heart disease.
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