President Reagan told the Russians in a radio address that the United States does not have hostile intentions and that the two sides must never engage in a nuclear conflict. In an address broadcast to the Soviet Union over the Voice of America, he said he hoped his summit meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev would be fruitful and generate future sessions between the two leaders. The 10-minute speech — twice the normal length — was carried over the Voice of America. Officials said it was aimed at reaching a worldwide audience of about 120 million, including 23.6 million in the Soviet Union. The speech was broadcast at 12:06 PM Eastern standard time (8:06 PM, Moscow time). Mr. Reagan’s tone was markedly different from one he has used in discussing the Soviet Government. On Friday, for example, he said he had “no illusions about Soviet intentions and fundamental differences separating us.”
Today, in remarks generously sprinkled with references to the two countries as “we,” he explained his plan for a space-based antimissile defense, highlighted American-Soviet ties and called for expanded contacts, including the opportunity for Americans and Russians to communicate on each other’s television systems. Mr. Reagan referred to himself “as a husband, father and grandfather who shares your deepest hopes — that all our children can live and prosper in a world of peace.” He told of growing up in small-town America with no political ambitions and becoming President, and he said he maintained values that he learned as a boy and that are shared by fellow Americans. “Now, I know that much has been written in the press about America’s hostile intentions toward you,” he said. “I reject these distortions. “Americans are a peace-loving people. We do not threaten your nation and never will. The American people are tolerant, slow to anger, but staunch in defense of their liberties, and, like you, their country.”
A final communique will not be issued by the United States and the Soviet Union after completion of the Geneva summit meeting November 19 and 20, the strongest indication, a ranking Reagan Administration official said, that neither side expects much substantive agreement. The official, Robert C. McFarlane, who is President Reagan’s national security adviser, told reporters that a final communique, which usually summarizes points of agreement, “is unlikely and probably an inappropriate measure of the meeting.” A senior Administration official said that the United States and the Soviet Union had agreed not to issue a communique as a result of preliminary discussions in Moscow earlier this week involving Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Mr. McFarlane.
Miroslav Medved remained aboard as the Russian grain freighter he had twice jumped from pulled away from a Mississippi River dock near New Orleans on her way back to the Soviet Union. The Reagan Administration allowed the ship to leave after officials concluded that the 25-year-old Ukranian seaman wanted to go home. The government based its conclusion on statements the seaman made October 28 and 29 to a psychiatrist who saw him at the request of the State Department. The freighter, the Marshal Konev, steamed down the Mississippi River toward the Gulf of Mexico despite a subpoena served Friday to Soviet officers aboard that ordered Mr. Medved to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Irina McClellan cannot leave Moscow, nor will Soviet authorities allow her husband, Woodford, a history professor at the University of Virginia, to visit her there. They were married in Moscow in 1974 and have not seen each other since his visa expired that year and he returned to the United States. They are among 25 such divided couples, whose status reportedly will be discussed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz in his discussions with Soviet leaders.
After long maintaining silence about AIDS, the Soviet press in recent months has taken to reporting on the disease, though insisting that no cases have occurred in the Soviet Union. The Soviet reports have avoided saying the disease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is prevalent among homosexuals, since male homosexual acts are a crime in the Soviet Union and the subject is rarely mentioned in print. The press has said instead that “in foreign countries AIDS is primarily found among people who lead a dissolute sex life and are inclined to sexual perversions,” as well as among drug addicts who use unsterilized needles.
Three masked gunmen “shooting in all directions” killed seven people and wounded three critically in a supermarket robbery in Aalst, Belgium, before escaping from police, officers and witnesses said. Two children were among the dead, and four others were slightly injured. “The robbery was a massacre,” a witness said after the attack about 15 miles west of Brussels. One of the gunmen dragged a small safe outside to their getaway car, then all three jumped inside and escaped while firing at police. The market had been under surveillance because of shootings at other branches in the chain.
Poland today announced plans to grant amnesty to some of its 368 political prisoners but indicated there would be none for senior Solidarity activists. The government press agency said the measure would not apply to prisoners who were regarded as “socially dangerous” or who had been previously granted amnesty. The amnesty will apply mainly to first-time offenders. The authorities announced their decision hours after Roman Catholic bishops called for the release of political prisoners and wider political liberties. A communique issued after a two-day bishops’ conference also expressed alarm about the high number of criminal offenders in overcrowded prisons.
The French Parliament early today adopted a military budget for next year providing for a 5.4 percent rise in spending and a modernization of France’s nuclear force. The budget of roughly $20 billion includes money for a seventh nuclear-powered submarine equipped with multiple-warhead missiles and a new air-to-ground tactical nuclear missile. The measure, approved after an all-night session, was opposed by all the opposition parties. The rightist parties have accused the Socialist Government of failing to increase military spending rapidly enough.
The recent electoral success in Geneva of a rightist party that opposes any further entry of refugees has set off a wave of national soul-searching over this country’s traditional role as a haven for those seeking asylum. The rise of the party, called Vigilance, comes amid what appears to be tougher handling of some asylum-seekers by the Swiss Government. Vigilance, in drawing attention to a shortage of apartments and a lack of security and social services in Geneva, has blamed an excess of foreigners and so-called false refugees, or those seeking asylum for nonpolitical reasons, as well as political complacency. “It is necessary to halt immigration and block the awarding of any new work permits,” the head of Vigilance, Arnold Schlaepfer of Geneva, said in a recent interview. “And at every renewal of a permit, it will be necessary to check the necessity of issuing it.”
A five-week conference of UNESCO ended harmoniously in Sofia, Bulgaria, but Britain’s threat to withdraw in seven weeks still hangs over the organization. Britain submitted notice last Dec. 31, when the United States withdrew from the 160-nation U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, that it also would withdraw. Like Washington, the British called for less anti-Western rhetoric, more rigorous management and fewer politically controversial UNESCO programs. Britain is expected to make a final decision after the conference results are analyzed.
After three years of investigation, Sicilian magistrates have indicted 475 Mafia suspects in what the police called the largest crackdown on Italy’s underworld, the authorities said today. Indictments handed down by Judge Antonio Caponnetto of the Palermo Tribunal charged the suspects with criminal association, narcotics trafficking and armed robbery. Twenty-four suspects were accused of murdering 90 people in the last five years, including General Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, Italy’s top anti-Mafia fighter, who was shot on September 3, 1982. The police said 207 of those charged were already in prison for other crimes or were awaiting trial, 55 were under house arrest, 101 were fugitives wanted on other warrants or charges, and 112 had no previous charges. The trial is expected to begin in February, the tribunal said.
The Archbishop of Canterbury called on Islamic Jihad, a fundamentalist Shia Muslim organization believed holding six Americans hostage in Beirut, to meet with his personal envoy as soon as possible in an attempt to arrange for the captives’ release. Dr. Robert A.K. Runcie, spiritual leader of the world’s 66 million Anglicans, made the appeal through his secretary and lay envoy, Terry Waite, after receiving a letter apparently signed by four of the six.
The Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, retaliating for a series of guerrilla attacks, shelled four villages and towns east of the port of Sidon, seriously wounding a woman. Lebanese security sources said two other villages were surrounded by Israeli troops on a search mission. State-run television said the shelling was in retaliation for five guerrilla rocket and grenade attacks on South Lebanon Army positions in which five militiamen were killed and seven wounded.
A top adviser to President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt will “strongly oppose” efforts to exclude the Palestine Liberation Organization from Mideast peace negotiations, a Lebanese magazine reported. “We made this clear to the American Administration and we are in touch with a number of other countries to explain the dangers of excluding the PLO or distorting its image” after the Achille Lauro hijacking, Osama Baz told the weekly magazine Al Ousbou al Arabi.
General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq has agreed to a modest dilution of his powers as President, striking a compromise with the Parliament that could pave the way for martial law to be lifted by next year. But politicians and diplomats say that even with the removal of martial law, General Zia and the army would probably retain enormous power. The compromise, approved by the Parliament in October, curbs General Zia’s authority to dissolve the legislature and appoint provincial governors. “This is a unique step in the history of our country,” said Finance Minister Mahbubul Haq, one of the authors of the compromise. “It shifts the discretionary power from the President to Parliament and clears the way for a renewal of political activity.”
As the political opposition struggles to unite behind a single candidate to face President Ferdinand E. Marcos in an early election, the widow of the slain opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. has moved to the forefront of consideration. Mr. Aquino’s widow, Corazon Aquino, never a very active political wife and now a reluctant politician, is seen by many people here as the only person who may be able to unite Mr. Marcos’s squabbling opponents and inspire voters to challenge his political machine. Mrs. Aquino, 52 years old, a calm and quiet-spoken woman, has not said she would be willing to run, but her colleagues in the opposition say they believe she has already made the adjustment in her own mind and may be ready to accept a nomination. A week after Mr. Marcos announced he would ask the National Assembly to call for an election early next year, the fragmented opposition seems to have quickly narrowed its choices of presidential candidates to Mrs. Aquino and former Senator Salvador H. Laurel.
The police said today that the bomb that exploded at Narita International Airport in Tokyo in June was contained inside a stereo component bought at a store in Duncan, a town on Vancouver Island. The purchase order for the stereo component is listed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in search warrants they used during sweeps of Sikh homes, businesses and temples in British Columbia Wednesday. The searches led to the arrest of two Sikhs, one of them a Duncan electrician, who are now being held in a jail on Vancouver Island on charges of illegal possession of explosives.
Colombian Justice Minister Enrique Parego said after a Cabinet meeting that a special commission will be set up to investigate the 27-hour siege at the Palace of Justice in Bogota that left more than 100 people dead, including 12 Supreme Court justices. The inquiry was launched after judges surviving the ordeal said that President Belisario Betancur should have heeded a call by Supreme Court President Alfonso Reyes, later killed, for a cease-fire between government forces and rebels holding scores of hostages.
Leftist rebels attacked the United States Embassy in Lima, Peru today with dynamite and submachine guns but caused no casualties, the police said. They said the dynamite, thrown from a passing car, exploded at the front gate. Embassy guards returned the rebels’ fire, but the assailants escaped. The rebel group, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, in a call to a newspaper, said it was responsible for the attack, which it described as a protest against United States imperialism.
South African soldiers fired tear gas into crowds of defiant blacks on their way to bury a 17-year-old youth killed by gunfire in Soweto, the black township near Johannesburg. Witnesses said thousands of blacks, mostly youngsters, gathered for the funeral and ignored army orders to break up their procession. After the clash, many of the mourners made their way by different routes to the cemetery.
The President and the First Lady greet Prince Charles and Princess Diana of Wales. The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived in Washington and began a three-day visit in the capital with coffee at the White House with President Reagan. The royal couple was welcomed by Mrs. Reagan. The Prince and Princess of Wales arrived here today in a burst of Anglo-American amity and personal celebrity, beaming politely as they began a three-day visit of social, commercial and esthetic tasks. The youthful couple, eye-catching principals in the world’s dwindling theater of royalty, stepped down from their airplane and headed off to see President Reagan for a smile, welcoming handshakes and a private conversation over coffee at the White House. “Hey, Prince!” an American in the airport crowd shouted as happy British subjects curtsied and bowed after the couple came down a red carpet to shake hands with a group of handicapped people. In brilliant sun, the Prince, in a dark suit, stepped out of a gray Rolls-Royce at the White House and extended a handshake to Mr. Reagan, who stood like a happy householder, dressed in a tartan blazer, at the door of the South Portico. Nancy Reagan, in a beige knit dress, welcomed the Princess, whose stylish blonde presence was heightened by a suit in a bright shade known in the capital as “Nancy Reagan red” — an outfit that seemed to outblaze the fall foliage framing the welcoming tableau.
President Reagan risked a congressional override and vetoed for the second time legislation covering the biomedical research activities of the National Institutes of Health. Reagan said the measure was “overloaded with objectionable provisions that seriously undermine and threaten the ability of NIH to manage itself, and is therefore unacceptable.” A group of 77 senators, led by Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), had urged him to sign the bill.
The Reagan Administration next week will again propose legislation to provide Federal money in the form of vouchers for poor children to attend private school, according to Education Department officials. The Administration offered a similar proposal in 1983, but it was strongly opposed by Democrats and Republicans, and the proposal died in Congress. Administration officials said, however, that a recent Supreme Court decision limiting public aid to private schools had improved the chances for enactment of a voucher system. Under a plan to be outlined by Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, the parents of 5 million educationally deprived children eligible for remedial help through the $3.2-billion Chapter I program could get federal vouchers — worth about $600 a year — for private school tuition or for public school services.
Millions of Americans will receive newly designed checks from the Government next month. Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d said Friday that the checks would be printed on lighter, multicolored pastel paper, engraved with the Statue of Liberty, and would be foldable and harder to counterfeit. They will replace the heavy, lime-green, punch-card checks that have been issued for Social Security, veterans benefits, Federal pensions and salaries, tax refunds and other Government payments for 40 years. “We’re changing the check because the punched card technology is obsolete and punched cards are no longer consistent with modern banking practices,” Mr. Baker said. Officials say the switch will initially cost $5 million but will eventually save $6 million a year because the paper is cheaper and requires less space to store than the heavier “card stock” used for the old checks.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, says he would have “no problem” with putting key senators and aides through lie-detector tests to find out who was disclosing national security information to the public. Mr. Leahy, who is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Friday, in the television interview program “Evans and Novak,” on the Cable News Network, that he would accept the idea of taking polygraph, or lie-detector, tests if they were administered broadly and without discrimination.
Expanding county governments are gaining power and influence as the Reagan Administration dismantles many Federal domestic programs. In some areas, once-dormant counties now face urban problems and want autonomy and taxing power to deal with them.
Rubin (Hurricane) Carter’s lawyers said they had gambled on an unorthodox legal strategy to win a Federal court reversal of his 1976 triple-murder conviction. Generally, the lawyers said, appeals of criminal convictions are made by requesting a hearing at which witnesses and possibly new evidence are presented. In Mr. Carter’s case, however, the lawyers filed a motion for “summary judgment” last February and based their appeal solely on legal arguments and the trial record. “This was an unusual way to handle the appeal,” said Leon Friedman, a professor at Hofstra University School of Law, who suggested the strategy and argued the case for the defense in Federal District Court in Newark. “It was a big gamble, because it is usually desirable to present everything to the judge so he gets the full flavor of what the case is about.”
A tentative agreement was reached Friday night on a contract between the General Dynamics Corporation and 5,000 workers who have been on strike in three states for almost eight weeks, the United Automobile Workers said. Union leaders said the agreement contained guarantees of amnesty for workers disciplined in the strike, and urged members to ratify it next week. Marc Stepp, vice president of the auto workers, gave no details of the amnesty agreement. The union represents about 5,000 employees of General Dynamics, which builds the Army’s main battle tanks, the M1 and M1A1. The strike was against five of the company’s plants, in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
About 2,800 Union Carbide Corp. employees have agreed to voluntarily leave their jobs under a $70-million severance program created to prevent layoffs and cut costs, a company spokesman said in Danbury, Connecticut. The company announced in late August that it would try to reduce its white-collar domestic salaried staff by 15%, or 4,000 employees, Tom Failla, a spokesman, said. The company hopes to save $250 million a year beginning in 1986 through the severance program. Union Carbide spent $70 million in incentives to encourage eligible employees to take early retirement, Failla said.
Something unexpected has happened in the community of high-technology industries known, and envied, the world around as “Silicon Valley.” People are starting to ask: Did we stake too much of our future on this? More than 10,000 workers in the region’s electronics industry have lost their jobs this year, raising the local unemployment rate to 6.1 percent from 4.8 percent a year ago. The layoffs result from a slump in sales of high-technology electronics products that began early this year and has accelerated despite hopes it would reverse itself.
An anti-pornography ordinance proposed for Cambridge, Massachusetts, appeared headed for defeat at the polls. With 35 of the 55 precincts counted, the vote was 8,178 against to 5,447 for. The remaining ballots were to be counted later. The measure would allow women who believe they have been hurt by pornography to sue anyone who makes, sells or buys obscene materials. The referendum divided feminists on the issue of censorship.
A former mayor and a town clerk taken hostage at knifepoint in Highland Lake, Alabama, by two escaped prisoners were released unharmed near the Georgia border, and police issued a nine-state alert for the fugitives. Frank Lucas, 46, the ex-mayor, and Harriet Cornelius, 48, were freed 10 miles southeast of Phenix City, police said. “We were threatened all the time with a knife,” said Lucas, adding that the escapees from a work crew were drunk Friday when they forced him and Cornelius out of Town Hall. The hostages were left tied up in the woods but Lucas said he worked his wrists free and found help at a farmhouse.
Michigan’s most senior state senator was charged with possession and delivery of cocaine and marijuana after a search of his Lansing apartment reportedly turned up small amounts of the two substances. State police said the arrest of Senator Basil Brown, 58, culminated a monthlong undercover investigation. A search warrant was obtained with the help of a prostitute who knew Brown, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general said. Brown, a Democrat from Highland Park, was free on bond pending a November 18 preliminary hearing of his case.
A teen-ager was charged today with five counts of murder in the deaths of his parents, two brothers and a sister, the police said. The youth, Thomas V. Odle, 18 years old, of Mount Vernon, Illinois, was held pending arraignment Tuesday, Police Chief Ron Massey said. The youth, who was arrested without resistance at a Mount Vernon motel, was charged in the death of his parents, Robert and Carolyn Odle; his brothers, Sean, 13, and Scott, 10, and his sister Robyn, 14. The authorities said Scott Odle was strangled and the others were stabbed repeatedly. Their bodies were found at the family’s home Friday evening. No motive for the killings has been determined, Chief Massey said.
Floods that took the lives of 45 people and caused millions of dollars in property losses in Virginia and West Virginia were slowly receding yesterday as National Guardsmen sought to clear debris blocking 16 miles of roads. Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr. of West Virginia authorized the superintendent of the state police to deputize “sheriff’s departments, local police, conservation officers and, if necessary, individuals in the street” to help in the state’s relief efforts. President Reagan declared Virginia and Pennsylvania disaster areas, making Federal relief loans available.
The flooding, brought on by four days of heavy rains, was responsible for 22 deaths in West Virginia, 21 in Virginia and 1 each in Pennsylvania and Maryland, officials said. The American Red Cross of Greater New York announced yesterday that it had begun a campaign to raise $1.1 million for disaster relief in the next few months.
Recent rains in the East have eased the threat of a another dry summer in 1986, according to water experts who say that the severity of the drought in the region, with the exception of New York City, had also eased.
Paul Schierhorn’s rock musical “The News” closes at Helen Hayes Theater, NYC, after 4 performances.
Russia’s Garry Kasparov, at 22, becomes the youngest World Chess Champion ever with a 13-11 win over fellow countryman Anatoly Karpov.
Died:
Helen Rose, 81, American costume designer and clothing designer.
Mary MacLaren, 85, American actress (“Black Swan”), of respiratory problems.
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