November 2, 1992

When the board of the General Motors Corporation meets this morning in New York, directors are expected to entrust John G. (Jack) Smith Jr. with the task of quickly halting the financial bleeding of the auto giant's North American operations. Whether Mr. Smith can succeed at that daunting task may well depend on whether the board sets reasonable goals for the company's reorganization and whether he moves decisively to change the way G.M. operates. Mr. Smith, who has been G.M.'s president since April, is expected to be named chief executive, replacing Robert C. Stempel, who announced last Monday his plans to resign. Mr. Stempel's other title -- chairman -- is likely to be assumed by a director, John G. Smale, who is a retired chairman of Procter & Gamble.

For years the Defense Department has denounced the V-22 Osprey, an aircraft that takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, as impractical and unaffordable. Two of the five prototypes have crashed. But the department continues to finance the plane anyway. And now with the election approaching, both President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton, along with members of Congress, have committed themselves to building this hugely expensive plane -- illustrating how maddeningly difficult it is for the nation to cut its military spending. Though the cold war is over, new weapons like the Osprey, the giant C-17 transport plane or a proposed new aircraft carrier seem to have taken on lives of their own. If these weapons go into full production, they will add tens of billions of dollars in the 1990's to the military budget, now nearly $290 billion a year. Business as Usual It is, in many ways, business as usual despite the changed times, as the maneuvering behind the Osprey seems to make clear.

Raspy-voiced but outwardly ebullient, President Bush ended the weekend as he began it, banging away at Bill Clinton during a last-shot sweep of states he must win if he is to be re-elected. In blustery Michigan, before cameras aboard Air Force One and on the airport tarmac in Connecticut, the President leveled new accusations about Mr. Clinton's position on taxes and his handling of questions about his efforts to avoid military service.

Gov. Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan have been circling each other warily for weeks now. If the Democratic nominee becomes the President-elect, they might start wrestling. Then again, they might not. Many people who make it their business to parse the Fed's every move see inevitable conflict between a Clinton drive to turbocharge the economy and the central bank's mandate to keep inflation in check.

After trading invectives in their final televised debate of the United States Senate race yesterday, Robert Abrams and Alfonse M. D'Amato plunged into the pivotal New York City suburbs in the final hours before an election that may depend less on either candidate's performance than on Gov. Bill Clinton's projected margin of victory in the state. The national and local campaigns have generated hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in New York who could jeopardize the Republican majority in New York's State Senate and threaten other incumbents, Mr. D'Amato included. He has spent more in this campaign than any other candidate for United States Senate in the nation -- in excess of $10 million -- to overcome political handicaps that might have discouraged a less tenacious candidate and which a bolder challenger might have exploited more.

The two weaved through New York City for 26.2 miles, fighting head winds in Staten Island, ignoring Hasidic protesters in Brooklyn and resisting the throngs and the tangos in Manhattan that enticed them to run even faster. Given his chance at long last, Willie Mtolo, a 28-year-old black South African, bided his time, his eyes trained on the runner ahead and his mind calculating a private race. Lisa Ondieki of Australia took a different route along the same, partitioned streets. She went out fast, first, early, to rid herself of unwanted company from Russia.

You figure that the Giants will beat teams like the Los Angeles Raiders and the Los Angeles Rams, and they lose. You figure they will overrun a team like the Seattle Seahawks, and they win but look awful. So how do you figure them to beat a good team like the Washington Redskins? They did it tonight, 24-7, and they did it in style with their best all-round performance of the season. Jeff Hostetler passed for two second-quarter touchdowns against a defense that never appeared certain what was coming next, and he scrambled for key gains. Rodney Hampton kept making big runs, and his 23 carries for 138 yards gave him his second 100-yard game of the season. The offense was imaginative, with pitches, rollouts and new looks. Dave Meggett played more on offense and made big plays. The blocking was solid.

This small famine-stricken town is a scant half hour by air from thousands of tons of food supplies sent to aid Somalia's starving. Yet the death rate here is growing, making Bardera a case study of why, although food is so close at hand, people still die in great numbers. "When we came here in September, 180 people a day were dying," said Bob Allen, the head of the Care relief team in Bardera, noting that the rise in deaths coincided with a rise in new battles between warring factions. "By Oct. 13, when the fighting started, it was down to 45 to 50. Currently, it's 250 to 300 a day, because for 14 days they received no food. Those in a bad condition on Oct. 13 have died. Food aid was maintaining an equilibrium before. Now we are back to square one." Fighting Blocks Aid The reasons are complex. Relief food has started to flow to Somalia to aid victims of the famine, which the Red Cross says is threatening one-third of the nation's people, but the factional fighting that was a primary cause of the disaster has continued. Bardera illustrates with painful clarity how the persistent fighting keeps the workers and United Nations troops in the aid effort from feeding the hungry.

A $9.3 million stretch of new track that was laid along the IRT Flushing line in Queens three years ago will be ripped up and replaced when the New York City Transit Authority begins rebuilding the line's crumbling concrete base this spring, the Transit Authority said yesterday. Replacement of the track, which is relatively young by subway standards, was criticized by Queens officials and advocates for subway riders, who questioned why the Transit Authority had not repaired the base, or viaduct, when it replaced the tracks in the late 1980's.

Early Signs of Iraq's Goals A classified defense document shows that rich information on Saddam Hussein's military suppliers was available in 1989, when the Bush Administration was embarking on its doomed policy of courting Iraq. Page A8. Towns Mourn Slain Sisters A network of tiny Illinois communities shares memories of five women who ministered to the people of Liberia and lost their lives in the West African nation's civil war. Page A8. Angola Forces Pound Rebels Angolan soldiers pounded rebels in the capital with machine-gun and mortar fire. Hoping to avert the return of full civil war, the United Nations arranged a cease-fire. Page A9.

Heinz Reisz was watching television on Aug. 24 when the late-night news showed footage of neo-Nazi youths storming and burning a hostel in the Baltic port city of Rostock, where some 200 Romanian Gypsies seeking political asylum in Germany had been living. He was delighted.

Tomorrow is Election Day. Besides the Presidential candidates, voters in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will elect members of their Congressional delegations. Voters in New York and Connecticut will also select members of their State Legislatures, and there are ballot questions in all three states. There are also municipal elections in many communities. Polls are open from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M. in New York City, Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Erie Counties, and from noon to 9 P.M. elsewhere in New York State.