August 11, 1982

Syria announced today, in a policy reversal, that it was now willing to accept all the Palestinian guerrillas from west Beirut that the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization wanted to send here. Sana, the official Syrian press agency, said the decision came in response to an official request from the P.L.O. The Syrian decision followed by hours a report of an offer by Iraq to accept any of the guerrillas not wanted elsewhere. Obstacle Seems to Wane With the Syrian and Iraqi decisions, the problem of where the guerrillas are to go, long a major obstacle to a settlement of the crisis in Beirut, appeared to be on the way to resolution.

The Legal Aid Society has filed suit to block a Federal order that raises rents for the nation's 3.5 million public housing tenants, including 600,000 in New York City. Mayor Koch denounced the order yesterday as ''unconscionable'' and directed the city's Corporation Counsel to investigate how the city might block the order. Federal officials say they put the order in the mail on July 16. New York City officials say they did not receive it until July 29 and had not taken action sooner because of the time required to read and understand the complex regulations. The order was effective Aug. 1, but it is not yet being enforced in New York City.

New York City may have to increase jail sentences to one year and raise fines to more than $1,000 to get many landlords to comply with a law that requires them to inspect their buildings for loose masonry, the chairman of the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings said yesterday. The official, Thomas J. Manton, a Queens Democrat, also said the Buildings Department had to be ''more aggressive'' in its enforcement of the law. He said figures supplied by the department showed that 40 percent of the 8,800 buildings under the law had failed to file the required inspection reports.

An Apple II home computer, with programs, was recently advertised in New York for $1,895. That was a reduction from $2,604. In Hong Kong, however, what looks like the same thing sells for as little as $300. The growing demand for home computers has pitted Apple Computer Inc. against Asia's irreverent counterfeiters, who have begun to turn out computers in the equivalent of a garage.

The Justice Department is in the process of seeking an indictment of Representative Frederick W. Richmond on tax charges, according to law-enforcement officials close to the investigation. The United States Attorney in Brooklyn, Edward R. Korman, who has been conducting a Federal grand jury investigation of the Brooklyn Democrat on a variety of matters since the beginning of the year, recommended to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department that the indictment be sought, the officials said. The Justice Department has approved the recommendation, according to the officials. The law-enforcement officials familiar with the investigation of Mr. Richmond would not discuss for the record the recommendation by Mr. Korman or the approval by the Justice Department. They spoke only on condition that their names not be used.