April 16, 1982

U.S. industrial output fell 0.8 percent in March, providing further evidence that the recession was still in progress and affecting all areas except military and aerospace goods and autos, the Federal Reserve reported. Saying the economy was ''dead in the water,'' Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan urged a compromise in budget talks, noting that would provide a signal to the market that would send rates down and spur a revival. (Page A1.) The U.S. will seek common ground rules for East-West trade at the June 4 economic summit meeting in an effort to avoid further conflict with Europeans over a Soviet natural gas pipeline, Administration officials said. They said the U.S. would drop efforts to block exports of construction equipment to build the pipeline. (D1.)

International Egypt has pledged to withdraw ''within a few days'' the troops it stationed in Sinai that Israel says exceeded the limits permitted by the peace treaty, according to Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. In addition, he said, a senior Egyptian Army officer is to arrive in Israel today to discuss ways to halt the infiltration of arms by the Palestine Liberation Organization through Sinai into the Gaza Strip. (Page A1, Column 6.) Egypt carried out the executions of five Moslem fundamentalists convicted in the assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat only hours after a clemency plea was rejected by his successor, Hosni Mubarak. (A1:5.)

The RCA Corporation yesterday reported a 44 percent rise in firstquarter earnings, to $60.5 million, after an extraordinary gain of $29.1 million from the sale of several units. Without that gain, the company would have had a 25.2 percent earnings decline. Mark Hassenberg, vice president and analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corporation, said: ''Over all, considering the environment and everything, it was a quarter that came out as expected; there were some areas of substantial strength.''

Like many of the new generation of chief executives, Richard M. Bressler starred first as a financial specialist and then took the reins as a division head and a corporate planner before reaching the top. That training, in three companies, is now being put to the test. Nearly two years ago, Mr. Bressler moved from a high-level oil industry job to head Burlington Northern Inc., a 29-state railroad that for years had been plagued by an awkward management structure that resulted in lagging profits and a failure to take advantage of the company's natural resources. By introducing new financial goals, filling some key positions with outsiders and focusing more on natural resources, Mr. Bressler has eased some problems and moved Burlington onto a markedly different track. Following a billion-dollar spending program undertaken by his predecessors to cash in on the Western coal-hauling boom, the 51-year-old chairman and chief executive officer dropped 660 miles of idle rural track, along with outmoded depots and maintenance yards.

The stench hit the Staten Island neighborhood in January. Rita Jones and Linda Fishkin remember reeling with nausea. Sharon Edwards says that she could not breathe and that she quickly pulled her children into the house. The noxious smell was coming from an excavation for a sewer line at New York City's nearby Brookfield Landfill, an open garbage dump. Meeting at the school bus stop and talking among themselves, the mothers discovered that since the odor began in January, many of their families had been complaining of the same ailments: skin rashes, headaches, urinary difficulties, breathing problems and stomach pains.