December 5, 1981

A sharp rise in layoffs in heavy industry last month pushed the nation's unemployment rate up to 8.4 percent, from 8 percent in October. The November level was the highest since the severe recession of 1974-75, when it reached 9 percent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that 9,004,000 people were jobless in November out of a total work force of 107 million. The unemployment rates in New York State and New Jersey were 7.5 percent, significantly below the national rate, but higher than their October levels. New York City, because of its high proportion of white-collar workers, did not show the weakening of employment that was evident nationally. (Page 9.)

Marvin Mandel, former Governor of Maryland, leaving Federal prison near Pensacola, Fla., after serving 19 months of a three-year term for mail fraud and racketeering. He flew to Baltimore, ''delighted'' with his freedom. President Reagan commuted his sentence Thursday.

By a vote of 84 to 5, the Senate today approved a $208 billion military appropriation bill, the largest financing measure ever to pass a chamber of Congress. Howard H. Baker Jr., the Senate majority leader, termed the measure ''historic.'' The Tennessee Republican said the bill ''may indeed set the tone and shape the form of defense in this country for decades to come.'' The bill exceeded President Reagan's own budget request by almost $8 billion and last year's record allocation by $37 billion. This huge increase reflected the widespread view on Capitol Hill that last year Americans voted for higher military outlays, even at the expense of domestic social programs.

A former Green Beret who said he was on a C.I.A. assignment when he shot a Libyan student here last year was convicted today of two misdemeanor charges of assault but acquitted of three charges of attempted murder. The case against the defendant, Eugene Aloys Tafoya, assumed international dimensions when the police and prosecutors theorized he had been paid by Libya to assassinate the student, Faisal Zagallai. Mr. Zagallai, a student at Colorado State University, had been a persistent critic of the Libyan Government. One juror, Gene Webb, 31 years old, said the county court jury believed Mr. Tafoya was working for the Libyans. They dismissed testimony from Mr. Tafoya that he was working for the Central Intelligence Agency at the time he shot Mr. Zagallai, or that he had acted in self-defense.

President Reagan issued an executive order today that broadens the authority of the nation's intelligence agencies to collect information from Americans at home and abroad. It authorizes the Central Intelligence Agency for the first time to conduct covert operations domestically. The 17-page order omits most of the provisions of an earlier draft that were opposed by members of the House Text of order, pages 18-19. House and Senate Intelligence committees and civil liberties groups, including a section that would have permitted the C.I.A. to infiltrate and influence American organizations without a court warrant. The order signed today replaces an executive order signed by President Carter on Jan. 24, 1978, that is the basic framework for all intelligence activities. The new order, like its predecessor, has the force of law.