August 31, 1982

Two Cabinet officers urged President Reagan to apply less severe sanctions against John Brown P.L.C. of Britain than were applied last week against two French companies for violating the Soviet pipeline embargo. The two officials, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige, were said to be seeking to contain mounting trade tension with Europe. (Page A1.) The United States and its European allies are viewed as having reached a political and legal impasse. (D1.) Western central banks will lend Mexico $1.85 billion in an effort to keep the financially troubled, oil-exporting country from going bankrupt. Officials said the coordinated international bailout effort will set an important precedent. Details of the loan were made final over the weekend in Basel, Switzerland. (D5.)

International Yasir Arafat left Beirut aboard a Greek ship, vowing to fight again. As the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization was sailing, more than 2,000 troops of the Syrian army also began leaving the city. The Syrians have occupied Beirut since 1976. (Page A1, Column 6.) Israel is concerned over the leftists who remain in Beirut in possession of the heavy weapons left behind by the departing Palestinians. Officials in Jerusalem said that members of the Moslem leftist group clashed Sunday with Lebanese army units. (A8:3-6.)

Of all the areas affected by the new tax bill, probably none will see more dramatic changes than private pension plans. The bill will curtail the ability of doctors, lawyers and other highly paid individuals to set aside large tax-deductible sums for retirement. It will also require many companies, particularly small ones, to shift benefits from their more highly paid employees to low- and moderate-income employees, an effort by Congress to insure greater private pension coverage for more workers in return for the taxdeductible pension benefits given to higher-income individuals. Some pension consultants predict that owners of small companies may choose to close down their pension plans rather than increase the benefits for employees. Employees who lose their pension coverage would be more dependent on Social Security and on their own savings when they retire. For many employees, however, there will be little, if any, change. Called Remedies for Abuses To some tax experts, the changes in the new tax bill are simply overdue remedies for abuses in the pension area as well as an effort to rein in the deductions allowed high-income individuals for retirement savings.

equipment company in Portland, Ore., often turns to a nearby personal computer for help in studying the American productivity problem. William G. Evans, president of a division of TRW Inc. that makes oil production pumps, and Gary Ginter, partner in a small Chicago concern that buys and sells more than $20 million daily in securities in financial futures markets, prefer late night or early morning sessions for thinking and conversing electronically about similar issues. They are three of 16 senior managers in business, government and higher education who are engaged, along with eight professors, in what they regard as a promising experiment in executive education designed by the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute here, 10 miles north of San Diego. These senior managers say they are finding a way to help overcome the difficulty of obtaining or keeping up with important general or technical information.

It was hours before dawn when the wailing and howling of nearby hyenas brought human sleep to a premature end. As the African sky lightened, the cause for the commotion among these carnivores of undeserved ill repute became obvious. During the night, the hyenas had captured and devoured a wildebeest, a cattle-sized herbivore that is their most frequent meal. By daybreak, all that was left of the unfortunate prey were horns and hoofs. As the sun rose, two jackals and a dozen vultures moved in to pick up scattered scraps of meat as the hyenas wandered off, replete - but some of them, notably the dominant females, more replete than others. Laurence Frank, the graduate student in zoology whose ''study animals'' made the kill, is here because of his interest in the social interactions of the female-dominated spotted hyena clan (other species, the brown and striped hyenas for example, have male-dominated arrangements). Mr. Frank, who is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at the University of California at Berkeley, believes his research will ultimately help to sort out such important human questions as the basic differences between male and female behavior and the effects of hormones on behavior.