January 27, 1982

The sentencing of Senator Harrison A. Williams Jr. of New Jersey on his Abscam bribery conviction was postponed for at least two weeks yesterday because of a hernia condition that his doctor said suddenly required emergency surgery. The postponement came just three hours before the 52-year-old Senator was to have been sentenced. Surgery was performed this afternoon, and Mr. Williams was reported to be in satisfactory condition. An attorney for Mr. Williams said the year-old hernia condition had been ''aggravated'' when the Senator slipped and fell on the ice Monday morning outside his home in Bedminster, N.J. The attorney, George J. Koelzer, said in an interview that a surgeon, Dr. Philip D. Wiedel, had Mr. Williams admitted to Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan later Monday ''on an emergency basis.'' Dr. Wiedel performed the 45-minute operation.

From interviews with people who live in this small mountain village and surrounding hamlets, it is clear that a massacre of major proportions occurred here last month. In some 20 mud brick huts here, this reporter saw the charred skulls and bones of dozens of bodies buried under burned-out roofs, beams and shattered tiles. There were more along the trail leading through the hills into the village, and at the edge of a nearby cornfield were the remains of 14 young men, women and children. In separate interviews during a two-week period in the rebelcontrolled northern part of Morazan Province, 13 peasants said that all these, their relatives and friends, had been killed by Government soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion in a sweep in December. 733 Victims Listed The villagers have compiled a list of the names, ages and villages of 733 peasants, mostly children, women and old people, who they say were murdered by the Government soldiers. The Human Rights Commission of El Salvador, which works with the Roman Catholic Church, puts the number at 926.

Citing poor earnings in refining operations, the Exxon Corporation, the Standard Oil Company of California and the Standard Oil Company (Indiana), three of the nation's six largest oil companies, yesterday reported earnings declines for the last quarter of 1981. The declines, compared with the last quarter of 1980, ranged from 4.5 percent at Standard of Indiana to 20.5 percent at Exxon. However, Exxon's figures reflected a large accounting loss because of currency transactions. ''The figures are telling you that the refining business is still under pressure, especially overseas,'' said Constantine Fliakos, an industry analyst at Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. In most refining markets, demand from retailers of petroleum products or industrial users remains too weak for the companies to raise their prices or to operate refineries at volumes high enough for real efficiency.

THE United States Department of Agriculture is expected soon to adopt a regulation that will allow the meat industry to include bits of ground-up bone in processed meats without labeling it as such. If the regulation is adopted, it would be the latest move in a fiveyear-old controversy involving meat processors, who say they are now unfairly restricted in what they can use in their products, and a number of vocal consumers, who contend that the regulation would allow meat companies to mislead shoppers. The Agriculture Department has sometimes sided with the consumers in the dispute and sometimes with the producers. Ground bone is a byproduct - invisible to the naked eye -that results when scraps of meat are removed from beef and hog carcasses by machine. Under the current Agriculture Department regulation, ground-up bone, mixed with scraps of ground-up meat, can replace up to 20 percent of the meat in hot dogs, bologna, liverwurst and a host of other processed meats, including canned chili con carne and spaghetti with meat sauce. However, any product containing ground bone must be clearly labeled, and the exact percentage of bone must be prominently stated.

The British Government announced today that unemployment in January passed three million for the first time. The news touched off a fresh storm of criticism of the economic policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. ''Above three million'' proclaimed the Standard newspaper tonight in big black type. In the House of Commons, Mrs. Thatcher was greeted this afternoon with shouts of ''resign.''