Contrasting assessments were made by President Reagan and his top advisers about progress at the summit with Mikhail S. Gorbachev. President Reagan sought today to lower expectations about progress at his summit meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader. At the same time, some of Mr. Reagan’s top advisers said efforts were under way to encourage progress on arms control. Mr. Reagan told Republican Congressional leaders at a White House meeting that he expected difficulty in bringing about a “genuine improvement” in relations with Moscow. But in a decidedly more optimistic assessment, Mr. Reagan’s chief arms control adviser, Paul H. Nitze, said the United States was not giving up on the prospect of progress in the arms talks in Geneva. Despite wide gaps between the two sides, he said, the Administration is working on a set of guidelines to give a fresh stimulus to the talks.
Vitaly S. Yurchenko was described as a major Soviet spy who rose to the military rank of “General-designate” in a 25-year career with the K.G.B., a biography issued by the Central Intelligence Agency said. The action by the C.I.A., which almost never makes public products of its intelligence-gathering, may have been part of an effort to counter questions raised by some Administration officials and members of Congress about the significance of Mr. Yurchenko’s defection and the value of the information he provided in three months of interrogation before he apparently decided last week to return the Soviet Union. The agency’s biography outlines in detail Mr. Yurchenko’s responsibilities in a succession of increasingly significant assignments, providing an unusual case history of a Soviet intelligence operative. The agency, however, did not give any information on whatever data Mr. Yurchenko provided to the United States. Titled “Vitaly Sergeyevich Yurchenko,” the document offers several intriguing glimpses at one of the Kremlin’s most secret organizations. It cryptically notes that at one point in his career, Mr. Yurchenko was responsible for use of “special drugs.”
Mr. Yurchenko failed to persuade the wife of a Soviet diplomat in Canada to join him in the United States, sources familiar with the case of the former Soviet defector said. Vitaly S. Yurchenko, a former Soviet defector who returned to Moscow from Washington this week, was driven to Ottawa by American intelligence agents in late September so he could ask the wife of a Soviet diplomat to join him in the United States, according to sources familiar with the case. The woman, with whom Mr. Yurchenko is said to have carried on an earlier love affair, turned his proposal down, the sources said, and he went back discouraged. Later, he decided to go home to the Soviet Union. His trip was made with the help of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, which handles intelligence matters for Canada, in response to a request from the Central Intelligence Agency, according to the sources.
President Reagan attends a National Security Council meeting to discuss the “Medved affair” of the Soviet sailor who may or may not have tried to defect.
President Reagan hosts a luncheon with religious leaders to discuss the upcoming summit meeting with the Soviets in Geneva. President Reagan expressed optimism about the upcoming summit in meetings with GOP leaders and religious figures.
The Air Force backs mobile missiles while the Reagan Administraion is proposing a ban on them. An Air Force analysis says the development of a single warhead mobile missile could help maintain the survivability of a land-based missile force in a nuclear conflict. The Air Force calculations are contained in a draft of a report by the Air Force’s ballistic missile office. The analysis, prepared before the Administration’s shift against mobile missiles, is circulating within the Pentagon and has been reviewed by some members of Congress. The analysis, which was described by Senator Albert Gore Jr., other Congressional sources and Pentagon officials, deals with the number of Soviet weapons that would be needed for an effective barrage attack on a force of American Midgetman missiles, according to different scenarios.
An Air Force psychiatrist who interviewed a Ukrainian sailor near New Orleans last week believes the young seaman probably reversed his decision to defect after officers on his ship made “threats” about the safety of his parents. The doctor’s seven-page report was issued today by the State Department as White House officials debated whether to keep the Soviet freighter, now docked in the Mississippi River, from leaving until American officials could interview the seaman again. Senate aides said today that they had succeeded in serving a subpoena for the sailor, Miroslav Medved, to appear before the Agriculture Committee, although the Soviet authorities did not willingly take delivery of the subpoena. Legal specialists said the subpoena would become an international problem only if the Administration decided it had to help the committee enforce it by detaining the ship, the Marshal Konev. [Page 6.] Competent to Make Decision The psychiatrist, Maj. William M. Hunt 3d, interviewed Mr. Medved twice last week after the 25-year-old sailor had jumped ship, been returned by immigration agents, and then brought back for further interviews with American officials.
U.S. Senate aides said today they had “to our mind” succeeded in serving a subpoena for Miroslav Medved, a Soviet sailor who jumped ship last week and then apparently changed his mind about defecting. His freighter, the Marshal Konev, is docked at a grain elevator here, 45 miles upriver from New Orleans, and is preparing to leave Saturday. The subpoena calls for Mr. Medved to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee, which wants to interview the seaman once again about his intentions. The State Department has said that after talking to Mr. Medved, it was satisfied that he did want to return to the Soviet Union.
Italy’s Senate gave a decisive vote of confidence to Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, ending the latest political crisis over the Achille Lauro hijacking. The confidence vote in the Senate, carried by 180 to 102, came after a lengthy address by Mr. Craxi in which he sought to explain and tone down remarks he made earlier this week defending the legitimacy of Palestinian armed struggle. Mr. Craxi’s off-the-cuff remarks had threatened to tear the coalition apart again.
The Belgian police said today that they had uncovered an international arms smuggling ring that reportedly involved 40 people, 20 companies and unidentified embassies that helped deliver arms to terrorist groups, including the Basque movement E.T.A. in Spain. The police said they had not made any arrests in the case.
King Hussein of Jordan today welcomed as a “positive step” a declaration on Thursday by Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, renouncing terrorist acts outside Israeli-occupied territory. But the King said the P.L.O. would have to do far more at an appropriate time to position itself as an acceptable “partner in peace” with Jordan. In an interview at the Marigny, France’s guest residence, the King said Mr. Arafat’s organization would have to become more “cohesive,” to speak and act “with one voice.” Moreover, he said, Mr. Arafat would eventually have to declare at an “appropriate” time the P.L.O.’s acceptance of United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which implicitly recognize Israel’s right to exist. It would also have to declare its willingness to negotiate peace with Israel at an international conference, and to renounce all acts of violence inside and outside Israel.
A letter of appeal to President Reagan that was apparently signed by four American hostages was delivered today to a Western news agency here. In the letter, the hostages called on Mr. Reagan to reconsider his refusal to negotiate with their captors, who are believed to be Muslim fundamentalists. In Washington, the Reagan Administration again rejected the idea of negotiating with the captors. “The United States policy on negotiation with terrorists has not changed,” said Larry Speakes, the White House spokesman. The appeal to Mr. Reagan, along with a bundle of letters in what appeared to be the hostages’ handwriting, was delivered to The Associated Press bureau here. It arrived a day after an anonymous caller telephoned a Western news agency here and said all six Americans believed to be held hostage in Lebanon had been killed. The caller, who spoke Arabic, purported to represent the Islamic Holy War organization, a secret group believed to be made up of Shiite activists who espouse the principles of the Islamic revolution in Iran.
The U.S. will excavate the 13-year-old crash site of a warplane in Vietnam. The Pentagon announced today that American investigators would excavate a bomber crash site near Hanoi later this month, the first time Vietnam has allowed Americans to participate in the search for remains of missing servicemen since the war ended in 1975. Pentagon officials and representatives of families of the missing said the agreement was a significant breakthrough in the effort to account for the 2,441 Americans still listed as missing in action in Indochina, most of them in Vietnam.
Japan Air Lines said today that it had suspended the cockpit crew of a jumbo jet that wandered off course north of Japan a week ago and apparently caused Soviet commanders to send up interceptors. An airline spokesman, Horofumi Tanaka, said that the crew members would be indefinitely grounded with pay and that their flying skills would be re-evaluated. The Boeing 747, with 132 people aboard, was bound from Tokyo to Paris via Moscow on October 31. The pilot, Captain Morihiko Nishioka, forgot to return the plane to automatic pilot after steering manually around turbulence, airline officials said Thursday.
Philippines President Marcos’ party approved legislation that allows him to resign but remain in office until January elections. President Ferdinand E. Marcos said today that he would submit a letter of resignation Monday to pave the way for elections early next year, but that he would nonetheless remain in office. “If we must be technical,” he said, “I ask the question: when the constitution says resignation, does it say immediate resignation? It does not.” His announcement, at the end of a party caucus, was in response to opposition criticism that his plan to call an election without first resigning to create a vacancy would be unconstitutional. Mr. Marcos said he would send the letter of resignation to the National Assembly on Monday along with his proposal for an election in January. But he said the resignation would take effect only upon the assumption of office of the winner of the election.
A spokesman for the environmentalist group Greenpeace said France agreed today to pay compensation to the family of a Dutch photographer killed in the sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in July. The spokesman, Ron van Huizen, was referring to reported negotiations between the French Government and Leo Spigt, an Amsterdam lawyer who represents the family of the photographer, Fernando Pereira.
The death toll at the Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia, after guerrillas seized it rose to 100 as medical teams continued to search the charred building for bodies. The dead include the President of the Supreme Court and eight other judges. Soldiers and police ended a 28-hour siege of the palace by rebels of the organization known as M-19 with a dramatic assault Thursday afternoon. The Government of President Belisario Betancur has issued no official statement on casualties or provided other details of the incident.
A white South African newspaper editor who ran an interview with a banned black leader was arrested. The government took court action today against a prominent South African newspaper editor for publishing an interview with a black nationalist adversary. The action came on a day of sharpening confrontation between the authorities and foreign correspondents. Tony Heard, editor of the Cape Times newspaper, was charged under the Internal Security Act in a magistrates’ court. He was accused of quoting what is called a banned person by publishing an interview Monday with Oliver Tambo, a leader of the outlawed and exiled African National Congress.
President Reagan today vetoed a bill that would have required the National Institutes of Health to undertake specified research activities. He said he had taken the action because the measure would have imposed “undue political control” over research decisions. The veto came just one day after 78 Senators signed a letter urging Mr. Reagan not to veto the measure, which had been unanimously approved by the Senate and overwhelmingly approved by the House, 395 to 10.
The space shuttle orbiter Atlantis moves to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for mating with it’s external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters for the upcoming STS 61-B mission.
The House has voted to authorize three more monuments in Washington, which already has 106 national monuments, statues and memorials. The new monuments would honor Korean War veterans, women who served with the armed forces and blacks who fought in the American Revolution.
The Jewish Defense League was said by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to be most likely reponsible for three recent bomb attacks, against the leader of an Arab-American organization in California and two men suspected of being Nazi sympathizers on the East Coast. Two of the attacks resulted in deaths. The national leader of the Jewish Defense League, Irv Rubin of Los Angeles, said today that his group had nothing to do with the bombings. The most recent bombing, in Santa Ana, California, last month, killed Alex M. Odeh, the 41-year-old leader of an Arab-American organization, and injured seven people.
Anti-abortion groups and several conservative organizations said today they would oppose the nomination of Dr. Otis R. Bowen to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, asserting he had not been a consistent opponent of abortion. In addition, Dr. Bowen faces scrutiny from Congress because of statements he made recently suggesting that Medicare would save money and elderly people with terminal illnesses would suffer less if they could more easily order a halt to medical efforts to prolong their lives. Critics of Dr. Bowen said he had, in effect, advocated steps that could lead to euthanasia. Aides to Dr. Bowen said he would not respond to the criticism until he testified before the Senate Finance Committee at his confirmation hearing, probably later this year. The committee has jurisdiction over many of the programs of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Over the strenuous objections of government attorneys, a federal judge today ordered the release of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh on $500,000 bail. The 53-year-old guru smiled at word of his release but said nothing. His followers said he would return immediately to his commune at Rajneeshpuram, 160 miles east of Portland. Federal District Judge Edward Leavy refused to impose the $5 million bail sought by federal attorneys. But the judge ordered Mr. Rajneesh not to travel by airplane, to get rid of the sect’s plane and to stay in Oregon. Earlier today, the guru pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to arrange sham marriages for disciples to circumvent immigration laws. He was arrested October 28 with six of his followers aboard two rented Learjets when they landed in Charlotte, North Carolina, in what the authorities say was an attempt to flee the country. Mr. Rajneesh left Charlotte on Monday and was held for three nights in Oklahoma before being flown to Portland Thursday night.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced restrictions today on the selling and burning of used oil containing contaminated waste. It said the use of such oil as fuel could cause cancer and other illnesses. The rule, which will go into effect within the next two weeks, would ban the burning of all such oil containing more than specified levels of toxic chemicals and metals. Some 500 million gallons of used oil burned each year in about 30,000 residential, institutional and commercial boilers. This oil amounts to less than 1 percent of the nation’s fuel.
Rubin (Hurricane) Carter was freed without bail after a Federal judge in Newark on Thursday overturned a triple-murder conviction from a 1976 retrial of the case. After almost 19 years in prison for a triple-murder conviction, Rubin (Hurricane) Carter walked out of a Federal courtroom today a free man. Judge H. Lee Sarokin of Federal District Court, who on Thursday overturned the murder convictions from a 1976 retrial of the case, ordered Mr. Carter, a former boxer, released without bail. He did so over the objections of Passaic County prosecutors, who described Mr. Carter “as a dangerous, violent person” and a threat to the community. Minutes after Mr. Carter left the courthouse, the prosecutors said they would appeal to a higher Federal court to reinstate the convictions and to return Mr. Carter to prison.
The bodies of all but two victims of a coal fire that raged through the Wilberg mine nearly a year ago have been recovered, officials say. Bob Henrie, a spokesman for the Emery Mining Company, said 10 bodies were recovered Thursday, bringing the total to 25 and leaving only two victims unaccounted for since the first bodies were recovered last Saturday.
Michigan is out of the red for the first time in 10 years. State officials made the final payment on a debt that originally totaled $1.7 billion. For a state that only two years ago was facing insolvency and battling soaring unemployment, it was something to celebrate. It was also a milestone in the Middle West’s recovery from a recession that hit the region’s smokestack industries harder than anything since the Great Depression. By rethinking its relationship to major industries and jobs, the Middle West has recovered financially. Helped by a more efficient automobile industry and its record profits in 1983 and 1984, the region has been courting new companies and diversifying as manufacturing jobs have been supplanted by high-technology and service industries.
So deep are New York City’s social problems, and so inadequate the solutions, that it could, by the end of the century, “stand not just as an affront to the ideals of the American republic, but as a refutation of their promise,” Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned yesterday. In a strongly worded speech in which dour descriptions of urban poverty contrasted with sardonic allusions to fantastic wealth, the Senator, a New York Democrat, said New York had become the home of the rich and the poor. “We never thought we would become two cities, and we have,” he said.
Bennington College remains in debt despite its $17,120 tuition, the country’s highest. The college has not been able to shake off indebtedness. But pressures have been relieved by acceptance of cuts in faculty pay, a freeze on hiring, and efforts to increase enrollment.
Negotiators in a food workers’ strike against major supermarket chains in southern California recessed talks early today without nearing a settlement, officials said. A beer-delivery rig was set afire early today as a strike-breaking trucker slept in the cab, waiting to take the cargo to a nearby market warehouse where union workers were picketing, the police said. The trucker was uninjured, but several people have been injured in other incidents since the strike started Tuesday. Pickets in the strike, which affects more than 1,000 grocery stores, clashed with the police and strikebreakers again Thursday, raising the number of arrests to more than 30. Supermarket officials met until 12:30 AM Saturday with negotiators for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing about 12,000 drivers, warehouse workers and office workers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, representing about 10,000 meatcutters. There was no progress in the talks, a union spokesman said.
Dozens of people were still missing today in four Middle Atlantic states where workers began cleaning up extensive flood damage and searched for bodies in mudbanks and crumpled houses. A Federal survey team flew to West Virginia to investigate National Weather Service flood warnings that some victims of the near-record rainfall have said left them unprepared for this week’s floods. The floods left 42 people dead: 20 in West Virginia, 20 in Virginia, 1 in Maryland and 1 in Pennsylvania. Thousands were known to be homeless. Full reports were not expected until Saturday, when Federal and state damage assessment teams whose members were in the field today sit down to compile data.
When the rains came to the Middle Atlantic states a week ago yesterday, meteorologists knew that this would be no light drizzle. They could see by their charts and satellite photographs that tropical winds from the southeast were converging with the remnants of Hurricane Juan to generate a downpour. But weather forecasters said they, like most people, were surprised by the deluge that followed. From Saturday to Monday night, as much as 18 inches of rain fell in parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains, causing creeks and rivers to overflow throughout Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.
Welsh novelist Ken Follett (36) weds English politician Barbara Hubbard (42); his second, her third.
Institutional investors tiptoed into the stock market, moving the Dow Jones to another record.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1404.36 (+4.82)
Born:
Jack Osbourne, British television personality (“The Osbournes”, “Portals to Hell”), in St John’s Wood, London, United Kingdom.
Darwin Barney, MLB second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop (Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays), in Portland, Oregon.
Mark Asper, NFL guard (Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills), in Rexburg, Idaho.
Died:
Masten Gregory, 53, American auto racer (24 Hours of Le Mans 1961, 1965 [Jochen Rindt]).
Nicolas Frantz, 86, Luxembourgish road cyclist (Tour de France, 1927-1928).
History Diaries 