January 1, 1986

The nation's trade deficit surged to $13.68 billion in November, the Commerce Department reported today. It was the third-biggest monthly imbalance ever recorded between the value of goods the United States imports and the goods it exports to its foreign trading partners. For the first 11 months of 1985 the deficit exceeded the $123.31 billion record posted for all of 1984. Although the November result was not unexpected, analysts said they found very little of comfort in the latest data and warned that protectionist sentiment could revive if the trade gap did not start to narrow by spring.

On New Year's Day in Japan, the postman only rings once. That is more than enough, many people feel. Across the length of the Japanese archipelago this morning, the postman delivered nearly 3.5 billion New Year's cards. He did it at about the same time everywhere, from this electric capital to the smallest snow-caked village -an average of 29 cards for every Japanese, including those too young to read and those too friendless to write.

Governor Cuomo yesterday granted clemency to a Bronx man serving a prison sentence of 25 years to life for the 1968 murder of a deputy sheriff. The action - the first time Mr. Cuomo has granted clemency in a murder conviction- means that the prisoner, 41-year-old Gary McGivern, is eligible for parole. His final release will be up to the State Parole Board. But the board almost always frees prisoners granted clemency, and it is expected to do so for Mr. McGivern by the end of the month.

The State Department issued a report today asserting that the Abu Nidal group, which is suspected of organizing the attacks last week at airports in Vienna and Rome, was ''among the most dangerous of the Middle Eastern terrorist organizations.'' The report stressed what it said were the Palestinian group's links to Libya. Apparently in an effort to encourage European support for international moves against the sponsors of terrorist acts, it emphasized that the group had increasingly concentrated its attacks in Western Europe. Today Libya denied involvement in the Rome and Vienna attacks and asserted that remarks by the United States and Israeli officials reflected plans for ''joint aggression against Libya by the American military machine and Israel.'' [ Page 5. ] In Beirut, a caller purporting to speak for Islamic Holy War threatened further action against Americans and Israelis. The group has said it is holding four Americans hostage in Lebanon. [ Page 5. ] Group Linked to 60 Attacks The State Department report blamed the Abu Nidal group for more than 60 terrorist attacks in the last eight years, half of them in the last two years. The attacks have killed hundreds of people and have increasingly been aimed at innocent bystanders, the report said.

The Farmers Home Administration today began preparing to notify thousands of farmers, who owe the Government nearly $6 billion, that they must bring their loan payments up to date or face foreclosure. In effect, the action ends a 25-month moratorium on farm foreclosures by the agency, which is a division of the Agriculture Department. The action comes when growers face the worst farm economy in half a century, with little prospect of improvement in the near future, according to agricultural experts. Many Foreclosures Predicted The 1985 farm bill, signed last week by President Reagan, will lower the price the Government pays to farmers for their crops. Critics of the new law contend it will cause farmers' income, which has been dropping sharply since 1981, to continue to decline.