February 8, 1986

Year after year, one after the other, the babies of Mary Beth Tinning died, nine of them over the past 14 years. The causes were listed variously as natural or undetermined or sudden infant death syndrome. There were six autopsies, but never any signs of abuse. There were whispers and suspicions. But somehow no one - not the police, the coroner, doctors, social workers or neighbors, not even Mrs. Tinning's husband - detected something evil in the strange pattern of deaths. ''There were so many of us in on it, I guess,'' said Dr. Robert L. Sullivan, Schenectady County's Chief Medical Examiner. ''If anyone is negligent, I suppose I am. I probably should have said, 'There must be more to it than this.' But we all think, and don't do.'' It was not until Wednesday, when the police charged Mrs. Tinning, who is 43 years old, with suffocating her 3-month-old daughter, Tami Lynne, with a pillow last Dec. 20, that investigators said they believed that all nine of her children, including one who was being adopted, may have been murdered by their mother since 1972.

The Jamaican Government secretly played a central role in persuading President Jean-Claude Duvalier to flee Haiti, United States and Jamaican officials said today. The officials said Jamaica had convinced Mr. Duvalier, who called himself President for Life, that he had to leave for the sake of the people of Haiti and the Caribbean. Mr. Duvalier and his family and associates were flown to France from Haiti early this morning aboard a United States Air Force C-141. But the primary impetus for his decision to leave was attributed by senior State Department officials to a member of the Jamaican Government whom the Duvalier family knew. Jamaica Tells the U.S. After the Jamaicans held discussions with the Duvaliers and persuaded them to leave, Jamaica told the United States, and American officials added pressure on Mr. Duvalier to leave, senior State Department officials said.

The voting ended at 3 P.M., and 30 minutes later, just as the ballot boxes were unlocked for the counting, the gunmen arrived at the Bayanan elementary school. They fired rifles into the air in the courtyard and burst into classroom after classroom, shouting and pointing their weapons at voters and poll watchers, seizing ballot boxes to be carried off or to be spilled and restuffed with false ballots. Screaming in fright, the people fell to the floor and ducked under desks. ''Mother of God!'' someone shouted as the thugs darted past, wearing T-shirts with the message, ''Vote Intelligently.'' Inspector Struck and Cut The gunmen moved quickly, kicking the long day's labor of marked ballots aside like chaff and moving into the room of Precinct 135 where they found Pedro San Juan, the poll inspector, defiantly hugging the voting box to his chest.

Corazon C. Aquino claimed victory today in the Presidential election while President Ferdinand E. Marcos said only, ''I probably have won.'' The official Government vote count, after coming to a near halt on the afternoon and night of Election Day Friday, began moving slowly ahead and put Mrs. Aquino in a slight lead in sketchy early returns. A respected poll-watching group that is relied on here to offer an independent assessment put Mrs. Aquino in the lead by a larger margin with more than a quarter of the vote recorded. Aquino Statement In a statement issued by her office, Mrs. Aquino said: ''The trend is clear and irreversible. The people and I have won and we know it. Nothing can take our victory from us.''

A panel of three Federal judges ruled unanimously today that a key provision of a new budget-balancing law was unconstitutional because it violated the principle requiring separation of powers among the branches of Government. The Court ruled that Congress could delegate authority over the budget to the President or people answerable to him but could not shift it to the Comptroller General of the United States or other people removable by Congress itself through legislation. The ruling now goes to the Supreme Court for a final determination of new law's constitutionality. Significance in Many Areas The decision by the Federal District Court here has broad legal, political and economic significance. The statute in question was widely regarded as the most important step taken by Congress in many years to reduce the budget deficit.