Vitaly Yurchenko seeks to return to the Soviet Union. Mr. Yurchenko, a K.G.B. officer, has been described as one of the most senior Soviet officials ever to defect to the West. The State Department said Mr. Yurchenko would not be allowed to leave the United States until American authorities had met with him “in an environment free of Soviet coercion to satisy ourselves about his real intentions.” Mr. Yurchenko appeared late this afternoon at a news conference at the Soviet Embassy. Surrounded by smiling Soviet diplomats, Mr. Yurchenko told reporters he had been kidnapped in Rome last summer by American authorities, drugged and transported to the United States, where he was held prisoner by the Central Intelligence Agency. American officials have said that Mr. Yurchenko defected to the West in Italy three months ago and that he has been giving them information since then at an undisclosed location in the United States.
Washington will not deploy a space defense against strategic missiles until the two superpowers “do away with offensive missiles,” according to a statement President Reagan made to four Soviet journalists. The interview was made public today at the White House, shortly after details of it became public in Moscow. In his comments, Mr. Reagan firmly linked deployment of the “Star Wars” space-based missile defense — a deployment that is said to be far in the future — with the phased and gradual elimination of the nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet newspaper Izvestia devoted a full page to its version of the interview, but omitted several significant points. It also printed an often strident rebuttal of equal length by the four Soviet interviewers. White House officials insisted, however, that Mr. Reagan was not seeking the elimination of all nuclear weapons before the United States develops the proposed space-defense shield, which has emerged as a cornerstone of Administration military policy.
Senior United States and Soviet officials conferred in Moscow today to see what agreements could be reached for the meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail S. Gorbachev in Geneva this month, American diplomats said. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, carrying a letter from President Reagan, is to see the Soviet leader on Tuesday to discuss an “agenda for the future,” the Americans said. As today’s talks stretched into the evening, Izvestia, the government newspaper, published virtually the entire text of an often contentious interview given by Mr. Reagan to Soviet journalists. The granting of the interview and its publication in the Soviet Union are regarded by the two sides as something of a milestone in relations.
In a full page of type, Izvestia today published its version of an interview with President Reagan by Soviet journalists, but omitted several significant points. The omissions included statements that Soviet troops installed the government in Afghanistan, that Warsaw Pact troops outnumbered NATO troops in Europe, and that after World War II the United States proposed giving up its nuclear weapons to an international authority. The published text of the interview was accompanied on the following page by a detailed rebuttal of equal length by the four Soviet interviewers. They declared that Mr. Reagan had said nothing substantively new “to anyone who is even marginally familiar with the political world-view and, of course, the practical political actions of Ronald Reagan.”
Andrei D. Sahharov broke the silence the Soviet authorities have imposed on him for nearly six years of internal exile by sharing in a telephone call from his anxious family in the United States. For a few minutes, speaking from a post office telephone in Gorky, he unexpectedly joined in a conversation that his wife, Yelena G. Bonner, was holding with her mother, son, daughter and son-in-law shortly after 8 A.M., Eastern standard time. “Hello, I am sending kisses to you all,” Dr. Sakharov said, adding that he had heard, apparently from Western radio broadcasts, of his family’s efforts to publicize his plight. The relatives — Miss Bonner’s son, Aleksei I. Semyonov; her daughter, Tatyana I. Yankelevich, and son-in-law, Yefrem V. Yankelevich — had placed the call to Gorky, the Volga River city of a million people to which the Sakharovs have been banished. The relatives wanted to confirm reports that Miss Bonner would be allowed go abroad for medical treatment.
“To survive a nuclear war is our duty,” physicist Edward Teller said at the opening of a three-day conference sponsored by the American Civil Defense Association in Los Angeles. Teller, one of the key developers of the atomic bomb, contended that such a war would be survivable if Americans had enough underground shelters. He criticized President Reagan for failing to build an adequate civil defense system and said the Administration is keeping Americans in the dark about the Soviet civil defense system.
Prime Minister Bettino Craxi asked the Italian Parliament for a vote of confidence and vowed that the Achille Lauro affair, which led to an Italian-American diplomatic crisis, “must not be repeated.” However, Craxi implied strongly that he believes the United States misused a U.S.-Italian base when it forced down a chartered Egyptian jet carrying the Achille Lauro hijackers. The confidence vote, reaffirming the five-party Craxi coalition, is expected to win Parliament’s approval. It could come as early as Wednesday.
A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into an Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army militia post in southern Lebanon, killing at least three people, police said. The Syrian National Social Party claimed responsibility and identified the bomber as a 24-year-old Syrian who left a will saying that Israel “is like a cancer that should be uprooted.” The Syrian group claimed that the bomber drove into an Israeli army convoy near the village of Arnoun, killing or wounding 15 Israeli soldiers, but police said the casualties were limited to the Syrian, an SLA guard and his wife.
The Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yasser Arafat, arrived in Cairo this evening for talks with Egyptian officials aimed at shoring up the faltering Jordanian-Egyptian Middle East peace initiative. Mr. Arafat, who arrived amid tight security, was met at Cairo International Airport by the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Esmat Abdel Meguid, and a presidential adviser, Osama el-Baz. Mr. Arafat is scheduled to meet with Egypt’s President, Hosni Mubarak, on Tuesday. It will be their second public meeting since Mr. Mubarak took office and Mr. Arafat’s third known visit here since 1979, when Egypt signed the Camp David accord with Israel.
A Lebanese guerrilla group asserted today that it had killed or wounded 15 Israeli or Israeli-allied troops in a car bomb explosion in southern Lebanon, but other reports cast doubt on the number of casualties. The bombing was the 13th mission of its kind in the last five months and the second attack in two days. The explosion today occurred near a roadblock manned by Christian militiamen of the Israeli-supplied South Lebanon Army on the fringes of the Israeli-designed security zone, six miles north of the Israeli border. The guerrilla group, the National Syrian Social Party, said in a communique issued in the southern port of Sidon that one of its members had carried out the attack and that 15 Israeli troops or South Lebanon Army militiamen had been killed or wounded. The state-run radio said only that the driver, a South Lebanon Army soldier and the soldier’s wife had been killed. One woman was wounded, it said.
A Soviet army private who sought refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Kabul because he was “unhappy with a soldier’s life in Afghanistan” left the American compound after four days to return home, the State Department said. Alexander V. Sukhanov, 19, was released only after U.S. officials were convinced that he had decided “freely, without constraint” to return home and after Soviet Ambassador Fikryat A. Tabeyev gave assurances the soldier would receive no punishment more severe than a reprimand, the department said. Spokesman Charles Redman said the Reagan Administration will “do our very best to monitor” Sukhanov’s treatment after he returns home.
Police overpowered 14 South Korean students and freed three hostages, all Korean secretaries, after an anti-government, anti-U.S. occupation of the American Chamber of Commerce office in Seoul. The students shouted “Down with military dictatorship!” and “Withdraw American capitalists!” as police took them away.
The Reagan Administration today called on President Ferdinand E. Marcos to conduct the proposed early presidential elections in the Philippines in a “credible and fair” fashion, with “broadly based” citizen participation. Officials said today that the Administration statements were designed to convey its concern that the quality of the elections be such that they not backfire and prompt widening unrest in the Philippines instead of increased democracy. In raising that possibility, the officials and some Congressional experts said they were concerned that Mr. Marcos was seeking the elections before the opposition could adequately unite and mobilize to conduct a campaign. Mr. Marcos said Sunday that he intended to call for an election to settle what he called “a silly claim” that his government is inept. He said the election would be held on Jan. 17, the anniversary of the lifting of martial law in 1981.
The fragmented Philippine opposition parties began urgent meetings today to settle on a single candidate to oppose President Ferdinand E. Marcos in elections he said he would call. The President, meanwhile, was shown on government television in what amounted to a campaign appearance among farmers north of Manila, who were described as giving enthusiastic support to his announcement. Opposition leaders said they had been caught off guard by Mr. Marcos’s announcement Sunday night that he was prepared to ask the legislature to approve elections to be held Jan. 17. The President’s six-year term ends in 1987.
Prime Minister David Lange denied today that New Zealand had made a political deal with France in return for dropping murder charges against two French agents accused of sinking the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior. The two, Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur, pleaded guilty today in the Auckland District Court to lesser charges of manslaughter and arson after an unexpected intervention by the country’s chief prosecutor.
Mexican police and armed forces units sealed off parts of Veracruz state in a search for members of a marijuana-smuggling gang that killed 21 policemen in an ambush. A number of suspects are already under arrest, according to Sergio Garcia Ramirez, Mexico’s attorney general, but he provided no details. The shootout was the bloodiest yet between police and drug smugglers in this southeastern coastal area. It occurred when police came upon 50 drug traffickers loading marijuana onto boats.
Soviet arms shipments to Nicaragua have sharply increased in recent weeks, with the weapons shipped through Cuba, according to the Reagan Administration. An Administration official said the United States became aware of the purported buildup in the Cuban port of Mariel during the week of Oct. 20, and confirmed it last Thursday with photographs taken by an SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. Neither the White House spokesman, Larry Speakes, nor the State Department spokesman, Charles E. Redman, would reveal what the United States knew about the contents of the purported shipments. But another Administration official asserted that armored vehicles, aircraft and heavy weapons had recently been taken into Mariel aboard Soviet and Bulgarian ships. At least some of the materiel, he said, was transferred to two Nicaraguan freighters and carried to Nicaragua.
The Christian Democratic candidate for President finished a strong first in elections Sunday to return Guatemala to civilian government, but fell short of winning a clear majority, according to incomplete results made public today, The Christian Democrat, Marco Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo, called on the second-place finisher, Jorge Carpio Nicolle, to withdraw from the race so that a runoff election could be avoided. But Mr. Carpio said he was not prepared to do so. Unless Mr. Carpio changes his position, he will face Mr. Cerezo in a runoff on December 8.
Argentina’s ruling party won 43 percent of the national vote in midterm congressional elections Sunday, giving President Raul Alfonsin a solid victory, but falling far from a hoped-for sweep, according to nearly complete returns. Argentine President Raul Alfonsin hailed the victory of his Radical Civic Union party in parliamentary elections as “a great day” for democracy. The party increased its slim majority by one seat, giving it 130 seats in the 254-member lower house of Congress, according to nearly complete returns from Sunday’s elections. The opposition Peronist party lost seven seats, leaving it with 104 seats. The remaining 20 seats were split by small parties.
Ugandan rebels announced the formation of an interim government in areas of the country under their control. Diplomats in Kenya Isaid the move is likely to harm prospects for a peace settlement. The Uganda National Resistance Army said that its officials, dealing with such matters as finance, education and minerals, will “provide services pending an agreement with the junta in Kampala.”
President Reagan has dismissed 11 of the 21 members of a committee of outside advisers who help him develop his foreign intelligence policies, the White House said today. The White House disclosed nothing of its decision to “streamline” the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board until today, when the 11 members received the President’s dismissal letter, dated November 1. According to one of the recipients, Mr. Reagan said in his letter: “It has become clear that the board has grown to a size which makes it difficult to focus intimately and actively on some of the new critical intelligence problems we will have to address. I intend therefore to reconstitute and streamline the board.”
President Reagan attends an Economic Policy Council meeting to discuss the Farm Credit matter.
The delay by Congress in raising the national debt ceiling will cost the Social Security trust fund $38 million in interest in the next 10 days, a Treasury spokeswoman said. The Treasury dipped into the trust fund last week for $15 billion so it could meet government obligations, spokeswoman Kim Hoggard said. Hoggard said the money borrowed from Social Security is enough to last through November 14. “We will lose roughly $38 million (in interest) between November 1 and November 14,” Hoggard said.
Whether private homosexual acts between consenting adults is protected by the Constitution from criminal prosecution will be addressed by the Supreme Court. The Court, in an unsigned order, set the case for a hearing next spring.
Houston voters are electing a mayor today and Kathy Whitmire, the incumbent, is widely favored over Louie Welch, a former mayor. A source close to Mr. Welch said his campaign suffered a major blow when he blurted out over an open television microphone that one way to combat AIDS would be to “shoot the queers.”
The Reform Jewish movement, long a staunch supporter of public school education, endorsed the creation of Jewish day schools for the first time. Although a dozen Reform day schools have sprung up in recent years, the liberal Jewish movement had long resisted giving private Jewish schools its official sanction.
Humphrey the wayward whale, lured by the flutelike recorded sounds of fellow humpbacks feeding, splashed through the Golden Gate into the Pacific Ocean today after a three-and-a-half-week freshwater cruise that made him a national celebrity. Racing at three knots against a rising tide, the 40-foot, 45-ton whale cleared the fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge at 4:36 this afternoon as crewmen aboard a flotilla of military and civilian boats cheered and waved goodbye. The whale, which shook off two radio transmitters shot into his skin as he neared the end of a journey that took him 70 miles inland, swam almost nine miles today before reaching the sea.
The recent arrest of a number of police officers here has increased concern over the temptations of South Florida’s multibillion-dollar drug traffic and brought the announcement of several investigations into allegations of police corruption. In the last few weeks Miami police officers have faced charges ranging from using cocaine to kidnapping and attempted murder, and the Miami Police Department announced that $150,000 earmarked for a drug investigation had disappeared from a safe in its special investigations unit. At the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it was looking into allegations of police corruption, while a state agency is continuing a two-month investigation into charges that police officers have committed burglaries and robberies. For months reports alleging collusion between some police officers and narcotic dealers have been circulating in this area. They have been fueled by accounts of young police officers driving expensive cars and living far beyond their regular income.
U.S. marshals, armed with machine guns, led Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in chains from jail in Charlotte, North Carolina, to a flight to Oregon to face charges of arranging fake marriages for disciples to dodge immigration laws. Rajneesh, 53, was moved under heavy guard because of death threats made against government officials holding him.
The visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to Washington, beginning Saturday, has sent a frisson of excitement throughout the capital unmatched in the memory of old-timers. Not many institutions have the longevity of the British monarchy, and those that do are not easily personified.
A prosecutor in the McMartin Pre-School molestation case was questioned by defense attorneys as to whether he had ever said that the alleged child victims he represents should not be believed, whether he feels that the district attorney embarked on a vindictive prosecution, and whether he and other prosecutors misled parents without first fully investigating the allegations against seven Manhattan Beach nursery school teachers. However, Los Angeles Municipal Judge Aviva K. Bobb sustained objections to most of the questions on relevancy grounds, and the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Glenn Stevens, was excused after a half day on the witness stand in which he said little more than that he has been a deputy district attorney for seven years and is still assigned to the case.
Chrysler Corp.’s second largest assembly plant, at Fenton, Missouri, was shut down after negotiations on a local contract broke down Sunday night, and about 2,800 workers walked off the job. It was the second time since Sept. 12, when the contract with United Auto Workers Local 110 expired, that the plant was closed by strike activity. A 12-day strike connected with a national walkout ended October 27. A union spokesman said that no further talks had been scheduled.
Boston & Maine Railroad workers walked off the job this morning, stranding 38,000 Boston commuters, but agreed tonight to return to work when a Federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against the strike. Train service was scheduled to resume Tuesday. Federal District Judge Frank Murray said Local 1331 of the United Transportation Workers had “no valid cause” for the strike. The union. which represents conductors, trainmen and yardworkers, had charged that repairs to the rail line were not being conducted safely because flagmen were not assigned to construction sites. A further hearing on the matter was scheduled for November 13. The walkout, which began at 4 AM, shut down the railroad’s commuter rail service, which it operates under contract with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The strike also halted the railroad’s freight operations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and New York. Amtrak service was not affected. A spokesman for the transportation agency said it added buses to existing lines and brought in private buses to other areas served by the railroad.
As negotiations resumed today, the United Automobile Workers said it was seeking amnesty for more than 100 pickets fired or disciplined in the strike against the General Dynamics Corporation. The six-week-old strike has idled 5,000 General Dynamics workers who build Army tanks in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Navy, worried about morale in the face of pilot shortages, plans to cut back operations beginning next year. The cutback was spurred by a shortage of 1,100 carrier-based tactical aviators. Pilots who have left the service have complained of the length of Navy cruises. The chief of naval operations, Admiral James Watkins, ordered the cutback to begin January 1 with the goal of keeping each ship at its home port “at least 50% of the time.”
At least five people were reported killed yesterday as rivers swollen by rain from the remnants of Hurricane Juan rose over their banks in central Appalachia, forcing thousands of people from their homes, closing more than a hundred highways, isolating towns, and sweeping away cars and pickup trucks. At least one person, a 10-year-old boy, was reported missing.
In a survey for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 84% of a sampling of American adults said that teenage pregnancy is a serious problem, but 64% said parents have little or no control over youngsters’ sexual activities. Only 13% of those polled said that parents should explain contraception. Planned Parenthood president Faye Wattleton, announcing results of the survey in New York, said they suggest a need for more sex education in schools and improved access to contraceptives for teenagers “even if it means providing them free.”
Two researchers at the University of Chicago said they have found direct evidence that the drug known as “Ecstasy,” which was outlawed this summer, damages brain cells but only after repeated use, the university reported. The researchers, in a paper to the Drug Enforcement Administration, said that rats given one dose of the drug MDMA suffered few effects, but those given eight doses suffered damage to their brain’s serotonin metabolism. Serotonin is a neuro-transmitter involved in regulation of sleep, mood, pain perception, sexuality and other functions.
“Edge of Darkness” first airs on BBC Two, featuring Bob Peck and Joanne Whalley
NFL Monday Night Football:
Neil Lomax brought St. Louis to life with a 46-yard touchdown pass to Pat Tilley early in the second half and added a clinching toss to J. T. Smith with four minutes left as the Cardinals ended a four-game losing streak by beating the Dallas Cowboys, 21–10, tonight. The St. Louis comeback from a 10–0 halftime deficit dropped Dallas (6–3) into a first-place tie with the Giants in the National Football Conference East. The Cards improved to 4–5. While St. Louis staggered against the Cowboy defense, Dallas built a 10–0 halftime advantage on Danny White’s 8-yard pass to Drew Hill and a 19-yard field goal by Rafael Septien. St. Louis caught fire on its first possession after halftime, with Lomax’s 10-yard pass to Doug Marsh lighting the fuse on an 81-yard drive. Lomax followed with a 13-yarder to Tilley, and the Cards picked up an additional 15 yards on a roughing penalty. Lomax then connected with Tilley to cut the Dallas advantage to 10–7 with 12 minutes 5 seconds left in the period. Television replays of the play appeared to show that Tilley spiked the ball before reaching the end zone, but the play was ruled a touchdown. The Cardinals moved 65 yards on their next possession for the go-ahead touchdown. Lomax completed passes of 11 yards to Smith and 15 and 12 yards to Tilley to set the stage for Earl Ferrell’s 8-yard touchdown run with 4:07 left in the quarter. The Dallas offense was continually frustrated throughout the second half by an aroused St. Louis defense that prompted two turnovers. St. Louis moved 80 yards in 10 plays for the clinching score. Stump Mitchell ran 21 yards and then took a Lomax pass for 25 to put the Cardinals on the Dallas 42. Lomax hit Smith for gains of 10 and 19 yards before connecting with him on a 9-yard scoring play with 4:13 left. Lomax completed 17 of 32 for 260 yards.
Dallas Cowboys 10, St. Louis Cardinals 21
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1389.68 (-0.57)
Born:
Tom Crabtree, NFL tight end (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 45-Packers, 2010; Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers), in Columbus, Ohio.
Joe Savery, MLB pitcher (Philadelphia Phillies, Oakland A’s), in Houston, Texas.
Died:
Constantine “Cus” D’Amato, 77, American boxing manager (Mike Tyson, Floyd Patterson, José Torres), of pneumonia.
History Diaries 