April 27, 1982

On the eve of John W. Hinckley Jr.'s trial in the shooting of President Reagan and three other men, a prosecutor told the judge today that Government psychiatrists do not believe Mr. Hinckley was so mentally ill at the time that he was not responsible for his actions. The statement by Assistant United States Attorney Roger M. Adelman was made to Federal District Judge Barrington D. Parker at one of several hearings today on disputed issues. With some of these issues still unresolved, the trial was set to begin Tuesday amid the most extensive security measures that guards at the Federal Courthouse here could remember. The central issue at the trial will not be whether Mr. Hinckley committed the criminal acts with which he is charged, but whether he should be excused from responsibility for his actions because of mental illness at the time. Under the legal test used by Federal courts here and elsewhere, the jury must find Mr. Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity if it decides that at that time, as a result of mental disease or defect, he ''either lacked substantial capacity to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law, or lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of his conduct.''

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher suggested strongly today that further British military action in the Falkland Islands crisis might be imminent and warned that ''time is getting extremely short'' for further diplomatic initiatives. Mrs. Thatcher told the House of Commons this afternoon that the British recapture of South Georgia, 800 miles east of the Falklands, had been com- Transcript of statement, page A12. pleted at 10 A.M. today without British casualties and with serious injury to only one Argentine defender. She said Britain had not fired the first shots, and she promised that almost 200 Argentine prisoners taken in the operation would be quickly sent home.

The following article is based on reporting by Leslie Maitland and Michael Oreskes and was written by Mr. Oreskes. At least 18 law enforcement agencies are involved in investigating corruption in New York City's multibillion-dollar construction industry, but key prosecutors agree that they are doing less than they would like to do about the problem. Officials of these agencies insist that it is not a lack of interest that has stymied strong action, although they say the issue has provoked little outcry and seems to be low on the list of the public's priorities. Many prosecutors complained that a major reason they could not do as much as they would like to root out corruption in the construction trades was a lack of cooperation from the industry. They suggested that this was in large part because witnesses were afraid of economic or physical retaliation.

THESE were no ordinary storm clouds. Moving in from the west across the Belize-Mexican border, they rapidly covered the entire evening sky. They were a strange yellow-gray, billowing and soaring awesomely like thunderheads, though not organized into a clearly defined storm. Then, at the archeological camp of the Peabody Foundation near Orange Walk, Belize, we learned that, after days of eruption, El Chichon volcano, 300 miles to the west in Mexico, had exploded a few hours earlier. Powdery ash, like very fine snow, began sifting down and soon the entire landscape was covered.

WOOLLEY, Wash. -Small lumber mills that harvest much of Washington's Douglas fir, hemlock and red cedar are now embroiled in a contract dispute that has put the industry and state goverment at odds with local communities. The quarrel took shape earlier this month, when the State Legislature passed a law waiving penalties for 15 mills that defaulted on contracts to clear timber from state-managed forests. The mills, hurt by recession, high interest rates and a depressed housing industry, contended that the contract price for the timber was much too high.